According to Brett Morris, incoming Creative Circle chair and chief creative officer of Draftfcb South Africa, the recession experienced in 2009 did reduce volumes of advertising for the year. "On the positive side, those clients that did tackle the recession head on were rewarded with some really breakthrough work, and there's evidence of that in the winning work" he said.
The awards evening included Alistair King of King James paying tribute to Putter, formerly Ogilvy South Africa CEO and Ogilvy Worldwide creative director, who passed away on 1 March 2010 after a brave battle with cancer [view and add your tributes to Bizcommunity.com's special tribute to Robyn Putter]. Various ads by Putter were then screened, as well as a video on him talking about best practice and not letting best get in the way of better.
Putter's personal achievements include more than 230 international creative awards, being inducted into the Creative Circle Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Financial Mail gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.
"During his tenure, Robyn grew a generation of advertising leaders in South Africa that have had a significant impact in agencies around the world. It was only fitting that the Creative Circle honoured a man responsible for so many great campaigns at an award show where we recognise and reward great work," Morris commented.
With last year's Cannes Lions Grands Prix winners once again surfacing at the top, the winners in each category are:
Client: Associated Magazines
Product: Marie Claire
Title : Burka
Agency : Net#work BBDO Cape Town
Creative director: Mike Schalit/Ivan Johnson
Art director: Alex Beckett
Creative writer: Kyle Cockeran
Photo: Clive Srewart
Client: Sunday Times
Product: The Times
Title: www.thetimes.co.za - Hyperlink
Agency: Ogilvy Cape Town
Creative director: Chris Gotz
Art director: Prabashan G Panther/Sanjiv Mistry
Creative writer: Prabashan G Panther/Sanjiv Mistry
Photo: Barry White
Client : Makita
Product: Drills
Title: 20 562 Holes/20 081
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Johannesburg
Creative director: Ben Du Plessis
Art director: Jade Manning/JP de Villiers
Creative writer: Ben du Plessis/Musa Sithole/Russel Grant
Photo: Simon Scholtz/Harold Webster
Experiential
Client: The Zimbabwean Newspaper
Product: The Zimbabwean Newspaper
Title: The Trillion Dollar Flyer
Agency: TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg
Creative director: Damon Stapleton/Nicholas Hulley
Art director: Nadja Lossgott/Shelley Smoler
Creative writer: Nicholas Hulley/Raphael Baskin
Photo: Chloe Coetzee/Dez Ellis/Michael Meyersfield
Production company: E-Graphics
Client: BP
Title: Divas vs Taxi Drivers/Cafe Owners vs Mamas/Car Guards vs Boyties
Agency: Ogilvy JHB
Creative director: Fran Luckin/Jonathan Beggs
Art director: Ian Broekhuizen
Creative writer: Catherine Conradie
Production company: Bouffant
Director: Erik van Wyk
Editor: Ricky Boyd
Audio engineer: Dave Harris/Jo Darling
Audio designer: Ricky Boyd
Voice artist: Loyiso Zondo/Jono Beggs
Client: Virgin Atlantic
Product: Upper Class
Title: Dog/Ferret/Dancer
Agency: Net#work BBDO Johannesburg
Executive creative director: Rob McLennan
Creative writer: Brad Reilly/Brent Singer
Production company: First Left
The awards were voted by a panel of 14 judges consisting of the executive committee of Creative Circle, who are elected by their peers according to a creative ranking list. The awards' finalists were chosen from among the winners of Creative Circle's Ad of the Month awards, which are made in each category throughout the calendar year. A total of 12 months' work was judged, ie January - December 2009.
Brett Morris, Draftfcb (chair)
Ahmed Tilly, BlackRiver FC
Alistair King, King James
Conn Bertish, JWT
Damon Stapleton, TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris
Fran Luckin, Ogilvy
Gareth Lessing, DDB SA
James Daniels, Eurorsg
Justin Gomes, FoxP2
Mike Barnwell, Grey Advertising
Nathan Reddy, Grid
Pepe Marais, Joe Public
Rob McLennan, Net#work BBDO
Rui Alves, Lowe Bull
Judging took place at The Venue prior to the awards ceremony in the evening. The awards were presented to the winning agencies by Morris. The selection and judging process described as fully democratic and audited, and it is is regularly reviewed and fine-tuned. Judging criteria include originality, relevance and overall quality of execution.
| Category | 2009 Ad of the Year chair comments |
|---|---|
| Newspaper | Again a very strong use of the medium for The Times Online, placing blue underlined hyperlinks into real editorial content. Wish I'd thought of that. And so did the rest of the panel it seems, as it emerged as the outright winner. |
| Magazine | The judges were initially split between two contenders but Marie Claire won through. A really powerful tactical idea with strong relevance to the magazine's content made for a very compelling ad. |
| Outdoor | A very smart and beautifully executed idea for Makita drills, using the product to create the ad. Thousands of precision-drilled holes made up a dot-matrix image of the drill itself. So the product creates the media, which is an image of the product. Phew, that's hard to beat. |
| TV/cinema | Another very strong category and it was really difficult to pick one winner from among them, but there was obviously something special about the BP campaign as it rose to the top among tough competition. Three strong ads, could each stand on their own as a contender, with lots of gems of humour throughout. |
| Radio | A very strong category with lots of depth but the winner was still a clear favourite. It's hard to ignore a campaign with such a strong idea, so brilliantly executed. The fact that it shone through in such a strong category is testimony to the quality of the idea. |
| Experiential | The Zimbabwean Trillion Dollar flyer was the clear winner here. A hugely impactful idea bringing the issue up close and personal and in fact using the issue to create the media. Very clever. And a flyer winning Ad of the Year? That's an achievement in itself. |
As the representative body, the Creative Circle aims to promote creative excellence that is relevant and meaningful to the industry, to inspire and stimulate growth of creative talent by supporting development and empowerment, to develop and improve the standard of the South African advertising industry's creative product, and to enhance its reputation as one of the country's world-class industries. It is an official organisation elected by and representing the broader SAcreative community.
"That's why Ad of the Year is so important," explained Morris, "not only is it a huge accomplishment to win one - since there is only one award in each category - it also serves as a record of the best work our country has to offer. I certainly felt inspired seeing all the work that we judged and as long as we are rewarding the kind of work that inspires, we're ensuring our growth and progress as an industry."
This year's event was sponsored by: Vodacom (main sponsor); The Loerie Awards (official sponsor); Redline (event management and PR exposure); Sonovision (production facilities); Orchestra Blue (production facilities); Creative Counsel (promotional team); Amarula (alcohol); and Sifikile (t-shirts).
The Loeries also announced its 2010 Call for Entries and Danny K spoke about the SHOUT SA campaign (/www.shoutsa.com), which has been made possible with the help of Net#work BBDO, Egg and Humanoid, among others.
The revamped www.creativecircle.co.za was also revealed.
Updated 26 March 2010 at 4.27pm
Jeremy Lang, Business Partners Limited 13 hours
