Digital campaign lands Prestige Award at Pendorings

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Ogilvy Johannesburg walked away with the highest accolade in Afrikaans language advertising, the Pendoring Prestige Award, for its digital driven campaign MK is… for Afrikaans music channel MK. The campaign also won four golds (TV/cinema under R500k), Digital mixed media, Integrated Campaign and Internet/mobile/interactive communication) and a silver (in Live events, activations and direct marketing).

A total of 21 gold and 22 silver Pendoring trophies were awarded on Friday evening. Joe Public took five gold and three silver Pendorings while Ogilvy Johannesburg took four gold and three silver, and the Prestige Award.

Draftfcb Johannesburg took three gold and one silver Pendoring, House of Brave one gold and two silver, TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg and Etiket two gold each, Black River FC and Net#work BBDO one gold and one silver each, and The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town) and ninety9cents (Cape Town) two silver trophies each. MetropolitanRepublic and Dojo115 each took silver. The overall student winner was Natasha Prinsloo from the University of the Northwest.

This year saw over 500 entries – a jump of 40% on 2011. Entries from ad schools increased from 62 to 94 this year while entries from agencies jumped from 283 to 384.

Ogilvy Johannesburg had twelve finalists going into the Awards evening, followed by Joe Public with ten, Draftfcb Johannesburg with eight, House of Brave with seven and The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg and Cape Town) with five. TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg and Black River F.C. had four each, and Net#work BBDO and Dojo115 three each.

Etiket, human.kind advertising, MetropolitanRepublic, ninety9cents and The Suits Communications each had two finalists, while BesterBurke, DDB South Africa, Gloo, EURO RSCG, Marchand, 60 layers of cake, Studio Zoo and Trigger had one finalist each.

Draftfcb Cape Town, winner of the Prestige Award last year, delivered no finalists this year.

2012 Pendoring winners

TV/cinema (with a production budget over R500 000)

Gold
Title: Snor
Agency:   Draftfcb Jhb
Advertiser: Lexus

Silver
Title: Vermis
Agency:    MetropolitanRepublic
Advertiser: FNB

TV/cinema (with a production budget under R500 000)

Silver
Title: Deon
Agency: Ogilvy Johannesburg
Advertiser: Pendoring 2011

Non-broadcast video & film

Gold
Title: MK is…
Agency: Ogilvy Jhb
Advertiser: MK

Radio

Gold
Title: Indian/Skotse Klokkespel (campaign)
Agency:    Draftfcb Jhb
Advertiser: Vodacom

Silver
Title: Donsie
Agency:    DDB South Africa
Advertiser: McDonalds South Africa

Silver
Title: Gerda se Geheim/Manie en Katrien (campaign)
Agency:    Draftfcb Jhb
Advertiser: Toyota Care

Newspapers

Silver
Title: Blougroen/Groen/Rooi (campaign)
Agency:    ninety9cents
Advertiser: Checkers

Magazines

Gold
Title: Boetie en sussie/Bose tweeling/Die nuwe kêrel/
Ma se oogappel/Skoonma
Agency:    TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Jhb
Advertiser: Tiger Brands

Silver
Title: Coco/Evita/Mumtaz (campaign)
Agency: Joe Public
Advertiser: Lip Ice

Posters

Gold
Title: Die Geliefde President/Die Hervormer/Professor
Houtwerk/Springbok Perderuiter (campaign)
Agency:    House of Brave
Advertiser: Blink Stefanus (beer)

Gold
Title: Neef/Niggie/Oom (campaign)
Agency:    Joe Public
Advertiser: Lip Ice

Out-of-home
NO AWARD

Internet/mobile/interactive communication

Gold
Title: Die LAPA Hoofkarakter-soektog
Agency:    Etiket
Advertiser: LAPA Uitgewers

Gold
Title: MK is…
Agency:    Ogilvy Jhb
Advertiser: MK

Silver
Title: Wie’s Bang
Agency:    Dojo115
Advertiser: Van Coke Kartel

Digital mixed media campaign

Gold
Title: Die LAPA Hoofkarakter-soektog
Agency:    Etiket
Advertiser: LAPA

Gold
Title: MK is…
Agency:    Ogilvy Jhb
Advertiser: MK

Integrated campaign

Gold
Title: MK is…
Agency:    Ogilvy Jhb
Advertiser: MK

General – Original Afrikaans
NO AWARD

General – Retail

Silver
Title: Blougroen/Groen/Rooi (campaign)
Agency:    ninety9cents
Advertiser: Checkers

Silver
Title: Spekkie
Agency: House of Brave
Advertiser: Blink Stefanus (beer)

General – Craft

Silver
Title: Die Geliefde President/Die Hervormer/Professor
Houtwerk/Springbok Perderuiter (campaign – art direction)
Agency:    House of Brave
Advertiser: Blink Stefanus (beer)

Silver
Title: Huweliksherdenking/Kersfees/Verjaarsdag (campaign – copy writing)
Agency: Joe Public
Advertiser: Lip Ice

Communication design
NO AWARD

Live events, activations, direct marketing

Silver
Title: Boobs en balle
Agency:    Ogilvy Jhb
Advertiser: kykNET

Silver
Title: MK is…a pop-up bar
Agency:    Ogilvy Jhb
Advertiser: MK

Truly South African

Truly South African – TV

Gold
Title: Balance/iPhone/Whiskey (campaign)
Agency:    Net#work BBDO
Advertiser: Ndalo Media

Gold
Title: The Last Dictator Standing
Agency:    Black River FC
Advertiser: Nando’s South Africa

Silver
Title: Diversity
Agency:    Black River FC
Advertiser: Nando’s South Africa

Silver
Title: Omo Slap
Agency:    The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town
Advertiser: Unilever

Truly South African – Radio

Gold
Title: Banana/Gobachev/Makalmaan/PeteMaThousand    (campaign)
Agency:    TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Jhb
Advertiser: Steers

Gold
Title: Beggar Broadcast
Agency:    Joe Public
Advertiser: One School at a Time

Silver
Title: Parking Assistant
Agency:    The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town
Advertiser: Hyundai

Truly South African – General

Gold
Title: SABC News Deaf Awareness
Agency:    Draftfcb JHB
Advertiser: SABC

Gold
Title: Twitter Army
Agency:    Joe Public
Advertiser: JHHESA

Silver
Title: Ballet Box
Agency:    Joe Public
Advertiser: The South African Ballet Theatre

Silver
Title: Censorship
Agency:    Net#work BBDO
Advertiser: Webber Wentzel

Truly South African – Integrated campaign

Gold
Title: Run Jozi
Agency:    Joe Public, Trigger
Advertiser: Nike

STUDENTS

Students – Traditional Media

Silver
Title: Agter vensters
Advertising school/
Tertiary institution: Northwest University
Product/Service: South African Mental Health Association

Silver
Title: Jannie-verjaar-glase/Familieportrette/Voorkamer (campaign)
Advertising school/
Tertiary institution: Red and Yellow School of Advertising
Product/Service: Visi Magazine

Students – Digital media
NO AWARD

Students – Craft

Gold
Title: Afro Jozi (design)
Advertising school/
Tertiary institution: The Open Window School of Visual Communicaton
Product/Service: Whiteboy Shebeen

Gold
Title: Blink Stefanus Zef Motorbykomstighede (design)
Advertising school/
Tertiary institution: Northwest University
Product/Service: Blink Stefanus

Students – Integrated Campaign

Gold
Title: Selfliefde
Advertising school/
Tertiary institution: Northwest University
Product/Service: Vrede Foundation

Students – Truly South African

Silver
Title: Bum-kissergum/Politissues/Chucky Larm Dolls
Advertising school/
Tertiary institution: Vega The Brand Communication School Cape Town
Product/Service: Big Blue

Silver
Title: Dr Siza Skhova
Advertising school/
Tertiary institution: Vega The Brand Communication School
Product/Service: Owl Rescue 911

PRESTIGE AWARD:
MK is…by Ogilvy Jhb for MK
Category: Digital mixed media campaign

UMPHETHA AWARD:
Run Jozi by Joe Public & Trigger for Nike
Category: Truly South African – Integrated campaign

OVERALL STUDENT WINNER:
Blink Stefanus Zef Motorbykomstighede
Advertising school/Tertiaty institution: Northwest University
(Category: Craft – for design)

– News you’ll make time for. Sign up for our free newsletter!

Magazine covers (showing some skin) we love

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media blogger MediaSlut.

INTERNATIONAL

ICON, October 2012

It’s such a simple concept, and one of those where I ask “why hasn’t anyone done it before” (apologies if someone has, and I missed it). The final effect and ‘texture’ this gives the cover is one of the most striking I’ve seen.

FUKT, Issue 11

Shock value still works, especially if it’s realistic art that makes your brain work overtime.

Time Out (New York), 13 September 2012

I love some skin on a cover, but this New York issue of Time Out, where skin takes up 98% of the cover, takes the cake. As a case study, I always wonder if straight men feel uncomfortable buying a cover like this and being seen walking around with it…

LOCAL

Sports Illustrated South Africa, October 2012

Rugby is in our blood, and I’m sure that Rugby-fans from all walks of life will devour this special October 2012 issue of Sports Illustrated South Africa; “150 Years of South African Rugby”.  I love a good concept cover, and Sports Illustrated South Africa has tried a few, but one just always hopes that it’s not too smart (or different) for the regular reader, as I’ve seen in some cases.

Business Day Sport Monthly, October 2012

Visually a very strong cover when also reading the cover line “Dark side of a legend”…

– The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlut knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa. Magazines in particular. His mission is to show when South African magazines might fail, but most importantly, succeed. If you’re looking for a library about South African magazines and news, your one-stop pitstop is MediaSlut. #MagazinesForTheWin

– Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslut
Sign up for our free newsletter!

Daily Maverick, iMaverick turns the corner

by Herman Manson (@marklives)  Fast emerging as South Africa’s most influential website (and one of the most influential magazines in the country online or off) the Daily Maverick has turned a financial corner, alongside its sister tablet publication iMaverick, according to Styli Charalambous, Publisher of the Daily Maverick and iMaverick.

It’s an important milestone for the business in a market where few publishers have committed real budget to unique, journalism driven content production. Eschewing physical infrastructure where possible and maintaining a flat management structure has helped the site achieve sustainability.

Charalambous says the site is fast approaching the 200 000 unique user mark a month, with spikes in its traffic every time a major story breaks, as with the Spear painting controversy or the recent massacre of miners by police at Marikana. “When people want a good break-down of events they come to us,” says Charalambous of the traffic spikes.

Marikana especially has brought the strengths of Daily Maverick to the fore. Although it does not have a formal investigative team, as many of its print rivals has, its investment in both experienced reporters and young new talent paid off when it helped unearth the true extent of the killings at Marikana and disturbing evidence of possible police brutality and heavy handedness.

Charalambous says the publication had committed five members of its 20 strong newsroom to covering the story and describes it as a coming of age both for online journalism and for the Daily Maverick, which experienced massive international and local media exposure as it published more evidence of what had happened ahead of its media rivals.

In terms of iMaverick, which launched as a daily tablet newspaper and has since been scaled back to a more manageable (for both readers and the production team) weekly magazine, subscriptions have climbed to 7,800, and advertisers are showing a keen interest.

Charalambous says the really exciting part of the tablet business is that the iMaverick team no longer view it as a tablet business. It’s become a smart phone business instead thanks to the quick uptake of Android operated models – which opens up the possible the base of people potentially able to access it from several hundred thousand to several million. Charalambous himself reads iMaverick on his smart-phone which he says has a big enough screen to make the option viable. It’s impacted on the dynamics of the business model the iMaverick team is pursuing.

iMaverick reaches a high LSM at a fraction of the price it costs to go into print glossies – a monthly package on iMaverick comes in at around R45 000 (for which advertisers receive four ads in each of the next four issues). At the Financial Mail (with a paid circulation of 20,961) you will look at R50,990.00 for a single full colour full page ad. A DPS at FM costs R101,980.00.

The daily website meanwhile has achieved success in luring brand advertising online. It’s a sector long ignored by local publishers most of whom work on CPM models, and advertisers, who has been pushing money into search and their own websites. Charalambous says that the Daily Maverick is making a compelling case for brand advertising online through a unique model that limits ads to one per page. Click through rates for site ads stands at 0.75% – well above the SA benchmark rate of 0.22%. The average display time of a 300×600 advert on DM is 3 min 30 secs.

Charalambous promises a new project “that will disrupt the South African media industry” launching from the stable in November. No more details are currently available. With the two Maverick products on relatively stable ground the business will be undergoing a slight restructuring and reallocation of resources to accommodate its next addition.

Industry news you’ll make time for. Sign up for our free newsletter!

The Gate Keeper: Chapter 16 (In which tactics are developed)

by Andrew Miller TBW Smith Jones Wallace Broadbent and Ndimande is an agency in crisis. Their ‘basket of boutique services’ strategy has bombed. Only a massive new project can keep the doors open – all eyes are now on the corporate tent at Mangaung. Far in the background, an emergency replacement executive PA with decades of experience makes important decisions. Interns rise, board members take unexpected steps and things begin to change…

The intern fakes some hip hop and rural development numbers, and the board members are generally impressed…

Chapter 16

In which tactics are developed

Hip Hop and Oral Tradition as Drivers of Social Entrepreneurship – a micro financing proposal for South Africa’s rural areas. 

The idea: bring the African oral tradition together with Hip Hop in our rural areas through a series of innovative events that draw on modern and past cultures.

The pay-off: Use the excitement and cross generational interaction to introduce the idea of micro financing to those who need it most: the gogo’s and the DJ’s.

The execution: Use EFT’s cell phone technology to create tangible connections with role players and stakeholders. Once connections have been made the channel can be used for basic product sales, general communication and outbound up selling.

The benefit: This is a modular event concept that can be rolled out in a repeatable fashion across target areas.

Tim Broadbent was surprised. He said as much to Isaac Ndimande. “It’s got a chance, Isaac. I would never have believed it, but there is a chance. They could go for it.”

Isaac Ndimande sipped his coffee and nodded. To his own surprise he found his mind straying to the young lady who had put the thing together. She was, undeniably, attractive. It had been a good while since he had had any such stirrings. Tim’s voice droned on, then stopped. A question hung in the air, waiting patiently.

“Uh, sorry to change tack like this,” Isaac ducked neatly, “but I must say that I also have positive feelings. I do worry about us getting lost in the crowd though. Is there a way we could seal this before Mangaung? I think we should explore what the options are.” He sipped once more on his filter coffee and imagined what it would be like to slowly undress a girl in her early twenties.

“Sure. I’ll get on it. Not sure we’d be able to get an audience with government – that is, after all, what the corporate tent at Mangaung is for – but we can try.”

Isaac nodded abstractedly.

“You ever feel twinges Isaac?” Tim rambled on, “I mean, sometimes I wonder. These guys are essentially just loan sharks. We’re sending the loan sharks out into the rurals. Sometimes I wonder if we’ll look back and question what we’ve done.”

Isaac nodded again, missing the question completely. “Exactly,” he said. “Exactly right.” With that he stood up, thanked Tim for the session, and headed back to his office. Tim Broadbent sat thinking, still surprisingly engaged by the morality of it all. He shook his head a few times and re-focused. Age, he tut tutted, did funny things sometimes.

“The real question,” Tau announced grandly to his audience of seven in the corporate section, “is how many of these gogo’s and DJs we can push through the till? We mustn’t get distracted by how good all of this sounds. The fat men will want numbers. Projections. Sales. Vatiswa?” He rounded on his new young colleague theatrically. “What’s your take? How do we project the numbers?”

The team waited for her response, sub text thick in the air. Would the young one even know what projections were?

Vatiswa calmly asked for a pen and faked it, drawing a series of sums down the page until she was sure none of her colleagues could follow her any more. “So…” she drew a fat number in capitals at the bottom of the piece of scrap paper, “On average, using a projected rate of subscriber returns across all  areas, we can expect 23 new loans per event. How does that sound?”

Vati pulled her dress lower. She had abandoned skirts since making her way in the strat world and into Phil’s bed. What with the comments flying in all directions it seemed safer to just go tent style for a while. Still, her hips felt exposed as she waited outside His office. She pulled the dress down again, at which Mama E smiled. “Nervous?” she asked.

“Uh, no. I don’t think so. Well, not about work anyway.”

“Ah,” Mama E nodded knowingly.  “Well, the rest is the stuff of life. It’s never going to go away, and then it does. Just keep a poker face and both hands on the laptop. You’ll be fine.”

Part 1 -16. Part 17: September 26.
Author: Andrew Miller Illustrator: Lebohang Goge

Martin Sorrell shoots down independent agencies

by Herman Manson (@marklives) WPP Chief Executive Martin Sorrell caused something of an outcry in Australia recently when he told a trade publication there that it will become “increasingly hard for independent agencies to survive or thrive.”

“Clients are looking for efficiencies rather than effectiveness so in tough economic conditions in slow growth markets it is very difficult and smaller sized agencies are finding it more difficult,” Sorrell told Adnews. There is a natural consolidation of share among the bigger agencies in tough economic conditions.”

It’s a particularly ironic statement coming as it does in the wake of the WPP group cutting its revenue forecast for 2012. According to the Wall Street Journal WPP expects “annual like-for-like revenue, which strips out exchange-rate movements and acquisitions, to increase close to 3.5% this year, down from more than 4% previously.” WPP owns global networks such as Grey, Y&R and Ogilvy. In South Africa it also holds a stake in The Jupiter Drawing Room.

Independent agencies were quick to dismiss Sorrell’s views. “I’m not surprised he said those things,” one executive told Adnews. “It supports his business model, he is touting bigger is better. But people select an agency for more reasons than procurement.”

Locally the stars of independent agencies such as King James, FoxP2, Machine, Quirk, Joe Public (its founders bought back their shares from FCB in 2009) and others have been rising steadily. Joe Public recently doubled its revenue over a nine month period and grew its number of staff by 60%. At King James annual revenue broke through the R110 million mark in 2011. Machine, which launched in May, employs 80 and has around R45 million in revenue. They have all ascribed their success to being owner-managed and people focussed.

James Barty, Chief Executive at King James, maybe said it best when he told MarkLives earlier this year that he believes centralised control of global marketing will no longer be the natural model of choice as global companies search out local solutions. Barty argued that independent agencies can be attractive to big clients and retain their maverick personalities while affiliated agencies can get it wrong as easily as anyone else. “A network doesn’t protect you from producing mediocre work,” said Barty.

– News you’ll make time for. Sign up for our free newsletter!

Weekly Top 10: Fastest rising search terms from South Africans on Google

With the help of Google Insights for Research we are publishing the top 10 searched for phrases (minus the sexy stuff of course) by South Africans on Google over the previous seven days.

We really did see this one coming. The fastest rising web search term on Google by South Africans last week was for the magazine which published the topless pics of the Duchess of Cambridge (or Kate as you will). Kate Middleton was the second fastest web search term. The interview with Julius Malema on CNN meant both ‘CNN’ and ‘Malema’ emerged as fast rising search terms. South Africans celebrated the contribution made against Apartheid by Steve Biko on the anniversary of his death on 12 September 1977 in police custody.

(For past data click here)

Fast Rising searches

1. closer magazine france Breakout
2. kate middleton +2,300%
3. iphone 5 +500%
4. steve biko +250%
5. cnn +100%
6. apple +80%
7. malema +80%
8. orlando pirates +80%
9. kickoff +60%
10. groupon +50%

Top 25 search terms

1. facebook
2. youtube
3. google
4. login facebook
5. gumtree
6. gmail
7. yahoo
8. news
9. mail
10. weather
11. jobs
12. games
13. fnb
14. absa
15. game
16. up
17. music
18. standard bank
19. iphone 5
20. news24
21. unisa
22. maps
23. samsung
24. www.facebook.com
25. cars

* The Insights for Search map is intended for general analysis of volume patterns.
* When you see Breakout listed instead of an actual percentage, it means that the search term has experienced a change in growth greater than 5000%.

Industry news you will make time for. Subscribe here. It’s free!

Simfy Africa & the day the music arrived

by Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) A decade after iTunes demolished the traditional music industry the arrival of Simfy Africa finally gives South Africans a legal equivalent.

The music industry, for all its culture of revolution, has always resisted change, and almost always to its enormous cost. When a program called Napster arrived at the end of the 1990s to allow online sharing of digital music files between individuals, the industry took to the courts to shut it down.

The music industry succeeded, giving it the confidence to resist any attempt to embrace the concept of digital, or to find new ways to add value to a disenchanted public. It insisted on sticking to a business model that was decades old: selling an album of about 10 songs to give fans access to the one song they wanted to hear.

Then came iTunes, an online music service integrated with Apple’s iPod, a digital alternative to the Sony Walkman. Apple’s charismatic CEO Steve Jobs was able to convince most major American music labels to allow digital tracks to be sold on iTunes, and also played on computers.

Overnight, the album died.

Individual tracks at a dollar a time made so much more sense to consumers.  But it also meant that the music industry imploded – from a $33-billion business in the 1990s to $16.2bn in 2011. In the USA in 2011, digital sales overtook physical for the first time, taking 50,3% of the market. Ironically, along with that landmark, album sales grew for the first time since 2004, as new artists like Adele gave the mass market a more compelling reason to buy a full set of songs.

In all this time, the South African music industry tried to fend off the digital revolution, or at least hide from it. They were helped along by iTunes, which paid little attention to this market. As part of its deal with the music industry devil, Apple still maintained the entertainment industry’s fiction of geographically-defined rights to music. So, despite how illogical it is in the boundary-free era of the Internet, a South African may not – officially – buy music from an American or European online store.

But on 27 August South Africa’s digital isolation ended. A German alternative to iTunes called Simfy struck a deal with eXactmobile in South Africa to bring its service to this country. It is branded Simfy Africa, underlining the intention of expanding northward.

Simfy was originally modeled on the online radio station Spotify, which offers unlimited access to a vast catalogue of songs at no cost. It’s all paid for by advertising, which may work in markets with deep Internet penetration, but is a non-starter in South Africa.

The South African adaptation is an all-you-can-eat model, for R60 a month. That, coincidentally, comes in at the same level as the BlackBerry Internet Service’s unlimited access option (excluding streaming media like video and music. It is also, according to eXactmobile founder and Simfy Africa CEO Davin Mole, a price point that gave the major music labels in South Africa a sense of comfort.

It’s not the first unlimited music offering on South Africa. Nokia pioneered the concept, but only for purchasers of specific phone models bundled with Nokia Music Unlimited, like the hugely popular Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. That service turned the Nokia Music Store into the biggest digital music outlet in South Africa, but made little dent in the overall music industry.

Both services offer millions of songs, but Simfy Africa takes the concept a few steps further, opening it to all computer and most smartphone users. Indeed, as Mole puts it, “This is a smartphone play”. Through an app on BlackBerry, iPhone and Android phones, the music can be downloaded or played directly off the data stream. Ironically, Nokia is not part of this mix, as its Symbian operating system is not supported by Simfy.

For the rest, as long as the monthly subscription is active, customers can build up unlimited music libraries on their own phones or computers, within the Simfy app. The music can’t be played on other devices without using the app – another element that persuaded major labels to tolerate the service.

The four major music labels represented in South Africa, EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner Music, are all represented. The independent music aggregator The Orchard, which was started 15 years ago to give independent music producers access to mainstream outlets and pioneered legal digital downloads, is part of the line-up. Two other aggregators, finetunes and Merlin, are also in there, and more are expected to join, giving unsigned artists a variety of options to access Simfy Africa customers.

Users can build playlists, make them public, and share their music tastes with other users.

The beauty of the unlimited option is that it opens music fans to the concept of discovering new music. When you don’t have to pay $1 or R10 a time just to find out if you like a track, music truly arrives in your life.

* Arthur Goldstuck heads up World Wide Worx (www.worldwideworx.com) and is editor-in-chief of Gadget. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee. Reprinted from Gadget.

Magazine covers we love (lotsa ink and DJ Fresh)

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media blogger MediaSlut.

INTERNATIONAL

Vida Simples, October 2012

There’s just something about a clean and simple cover, with striking colours, that always draws my attention. Vida Simples does it beautifully and follows the same recipe with all their covers.

TRIP

I like the quirkiness and sexual humour of this Brazilian title. For this cover, they had two options; one where the ‘i’ is replaced by a big ruler (above), and the other where the ‘i’ is replaced by a very small letter ‘i’. I’ve got no idea what the rest of the coverlines say but I can guess what the cover story is about.

Sport (UK), 7 September 2012

I haven’t seen this UK based magazine called Sport yet, but the intricate, well executed design on the cover, all with the use of typography, is a great image designed/drawn by Sarah King. I tried to read everything that was written in that image!

LOCAL

i Magazine (City Press), 16 September 2012

I never knew that 5fm’s DJ Fresh has so many tattoos! DJ Fresh and tattoo artist Ethel Laka shows i Magazine readers (free this Sunday with City Press) all the ink on their skin. I was sent the spreads of the story, and all the tattoos on DJ Fresh’s legs and upper body are really something special, and a great inside look for i Magazine readers. The cover is also really striking and I’ve got a suspicion that DJ Fresh-fans will be discussing this on social media come Sunday …

– The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlut knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa. Magazines in particular. His mission is to show when South African magazines might fail, but most importantly, succeed. If you’re looking for a library about South African magazines and news, your one-stop pitstop is MediaSlut. #MagazinesForTheWin

– Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslut
Sign up for our free newsletter!

Letter from NY: Loeries or Lousy’s?

by Matthew Bull (@StixBull) Original thought. That’s really what the Loeries should be all about.  And yet, ironically, once again the same old arguments are being pulled out the archives about the integrity and purpose of the Loerie Awards.  I mean, some of them almost make me feel young again.matthew_bull

In my opinion, the only question that should be asked, raised and repeated is:  Does the Loerie Awards inspire originality in advertising?

To a lesser and greater degree over the years, it has done exactly that.

There are many reasons for the proliferation of South African creative talent in the advertising business worldwide.  Good looks and charm aside, most of us were, and still are, bought up in a highly competitive, unforgiving, unreasonable, but fun environment.  That was, and is, the South African advertising industry.  And that collective spirit is fueled by an event at which the fruits of our labour are celebrated in the hope of inspiring even better work to be celebrated next year.

What I have always loved about the Loeries is its single-mindedness.  This, any marketing genius will tell you, is the most effective and hardest thing to create in advertising.

It is the critical event in the broader South African advertising industry.  It is all-inclusive (except, it seems, for the odd journalist), and I placed huge importance on getting as many people of Lowe Bull to the event as we could muster so we could spend time celebrating or being motivated (another word for losing) together.  It builds a sense of community and purpose, both within companies and within the industry.   It helps keeps you up to date and alive in a rapidly transforming global industry.

The debate, such as it is, should not be about the relevance of the Loeries, or even what they stand for.  To me, that’s clear.  The debate should be about helping make it better than it was last year.  Every year.

Because that’s what creativity is all about – originality.

Some ideas?

Zig when Cannes zags.  Make it about quality, not quantity.  There are too many categories and too many opportunities to win awards.  Ditch bronze, no-one values it.  Ditch craft gold etc and just make it craft.  Be Apple, not Samsung.

Have only one speaker per year.  But make it someone iconic that comes from a commercial creative industry.  Get any one of the following to talk about creativity for commercial success:  Jack Dorsey (twitter, Four Square), Sir Jonathan Ive, Danny Kaye (famous NY restauranteer), Blake Mycoskie –(Toms shoes), Marc Kent (Boekenhoutskloof wine maker), Jodie Picoult, Andy McNab (author that also just sold Mobcast to Tesco).  Or what about James Dyson – my hero.  Or Sir Alex Ferguson.  All the above are possible, not probable.  Like all great things.

And keep it tighter – literally.  It is suppose to build a community, not suburbs – which is what spreading it across Cape Town is doing.  It should be a gathering, not a convention.

Ban alchohol and sex.

Only joking.  We’d hate people to think they were at a Republican convention.

Finally, I’m somewhat matured now and only dance when George Michael plays, but some of the greatest nights of my life so far were had at the Loeries (which is why I’ll always love Sun City).  I’m sure many people feel the same way.

How many other events have the power to do that?

Awards & Rewards: The Loerie debate

So What Have The Loeries Done For You Lately? by Justin Gomes
Charl Thom on the role of industry awards
Why “it’s only advertising” doesn’t cut it by Herman Manson
MarkLives refused media accreditation to The Loerie Award shows (again)
The Value Of Creativity by Charl Thom
The Creative Circle needs to manage relevance, says Chris Gotz
Ad award success no longer sole arbiter of agency and industry respect by Herman Manson
The waning influence of ad award shows by Herman Manson
Finding Cape Town’s Design Voice by Herman Manson

Matthew Bull (@StixBull) is a partner at The Bull-White House in New York. Before that, he served as chief creative officer/chairman of Lowe & Partners/Lowe Bull and chief creative officer at Lowe Worldwide. Matthew contributes the regular “Letter from New York” column to MarkLives.

— MarkLives’ no-bull round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every three work days. Sign up here!

Online CPD Courses Psychology Online CPD Courses Marketing analytics software Marketing analytics software for small business Business management software Business accounting software Gearbox repair company Makeup artist