by Herman Manson (@marklives) We list the creative work you made time to read about here on MarkLives during 2016.
1. #AdoftheYear: South Africa’s best ads 2015
#AdoftheYear: South Africa’s best ads 2015 [part 2]
2015 — what a brilliant year for innovative advertising! In this final column for 2105, Oresti Patricios looked at the top three South African ads for 2015 [also see Part 1 counting down from no. 10 to no. 4], and chose that one piece that should be recognised as the best of the best.
#AdoftheYear: South Africa’s best ads 2015 [part 1]
Brand owners and advertising people of the great southern bit of Africa, roll up, roll up — it’s that time of the year again! After choosing his favourite advert each week for close on 50 weeks, Oresti Patricios now got to chose the crème de la crème, the pick of the bunch: the Ad of the Year! Here, then, was the countdown of 2015’s top seven Ads of the Year
2. Ad of the Week: Absa, rewriting the future
by Oresti Patricios. This TV commercial from T+W, called “The Girl Who Rewrote Her Future”, is an inspiring story from Absa, the red bank that keeps creating remarkable visual content to position its brand.
3. All the #Loeries2016 winners
Loeries Creative Week Durban 2016 drew to a close on Sunday night, 21 August 2016, at the Durban International Convention Centre. A total of 316 awards were handed out over the two nights, selected from 3112 entries from 22 countries across the Africa Middle East region. There were eight Grand Prix winners.
4. “Get Off Your Ass” TVC launched by Virgin Active
Virgin Active South Africa released its latest television commercial Friday night, 8 January 2016, on national television. The TVC conveyed a simple message to South Africans to get up and get active in 2016 in a series of scenes and a playful song with lyrics (including “Get Off Your Ass Today”) that highlight a tendency to let procrastination and lethargy ruin well-intentioned resolutions to get fit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccPWQkMnPm0
5. Originality and integrity in a new advertising reality
by Herman Manson. Two ad agencies, in two countries divided by distance, circumstance and the mighty Atlantic Ocean, are briefed by two different local financial services brands. Both create strikingly similar TV campaigns — both shot in Cape Town — that meet on the internet (and at Cannes Lions, as the case might be). The ad that breaks second is quickly, gleefully, brushed with the cry of “Plagiarism!” by more than one rival agency, not to mention an anonymous antagonist trolling the originating agency.
Also read Motive: The shared creative ether
by Alistair King. It’s been a very long time since I’ve thought of any idea as something that can be utterly original. Ideas come from a shared consciousness and a shared pool of inspiration, sometimes from shared strategic territories. In an industry where so many brands in so many categories share the same brand ideals, it’s not surprising that we all fish around the same messages.
Whenever I have an idea that creatively excites me, I panic. I panic that we won’t make that idea happen. I panic that we may lose that idea to someone else whom is also thinking about it. The more excited I am about the idea, the more sick to my stomach I feel when it is not bought. In the digital era, ideas now have expiry dates — it’s just a matter for time before someone else thinks it, uses it and claims it first in one of the many advertising showcase websites.
6. Ad of the Week: How do you like them apples?
by Oresti Patricios. Savanna, the cider company with its tongue firmly in its cheek, created another winner, with agency FCB Cape Town and Greg Gray of Velocity Films.
7. Ad of the Week: Christmas gets real — pa-rum-pum-pum-pum!
by Oresti Patricios. King James II, together with its new client Pick n Pay and director Chloe Coetsee of Darling, took us on a tongue-in-cheek journey through the pitfalls of the Christmas season — South African style. In doing so, much mirth was created and the retailer’s customers offered real visibility.
8. Ad of the Week: What do you mean, ‘free’?
by Oresti Patricios. Absa launched a bank account aimed at ‘Generation Z’, and the TV ad by The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg) and Leigh Ogilvie of Velocity Films to promote this was spot on — downright funky, smart and oh-so relevant for the targeted demographic.
9. Ad of the Week: Walking on sunshine
by Oresti Patricios. Vodacom, Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg and Ian Gabriel of Giant Films teamed up with renowned dames of the South African entertainment industry — Usha Khan, Gaenor Becker, Abigail Kubeka and Elize Cawood — to deliver a fun road-trip story that is part Thelma and Louise and part Driving Miss Daisy.
10. Ad of the Week: It’s a matter of size
by Oresti Patricios. King James II and director Chloe Coetsee of Darling got all steamy in an ad stuffed with great comedy and innuendo for Status’s new Big Ball roll-on.
Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com. He was the founding editor of media.toolbox (1998–2006) and Mobile.Works, and the co-founder of Brand magazine. He has served on the editorial boards of The Journal for Convergence, as well as of Fast Company South Africa. Winner of the 2011 Vodacom Social Media Journalist of the Year award, he was also a finalist twice in the Highway Africa Award for the Innovative Use of New Media in Africa (2003 and 2004). Over his 20-year-plus career, Herman has contributed to numerous journals and websites in South Africa and abroad, including the Mail & Guardian, .net, Intelligence, AdVantage, Men’s Health, Computer World and African Communications. He has consulted on web architecture to several financial institutions.
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