New 'Loerie' awards unpacked

Yesterday, the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) and the Creative Circle (CC), which represents creatives in the industry, jointly announced that they had decided to withdraw their endorsement and support of the Loerie Awards, and launch a new award to recognise and reward creativity in South African advertising.

This decision followed lengthy discussions between the two organisations, and among their respective members, who together represent the bulk of the advertising agencies in South Africa. A statement is expected from the MFSA today, 25 November, following on a scheduled board meeting.

The decision also comes after a disastrous Loerie Awards in 2004, plagued by low attendance, controversy and negative reports, following on simmering tension between the MFSA and creative industry since 2003 over the handling of the Loerie Awards and MFSA restructuring and transformation issues.

It seems that with this act, the advertising industry is seeking to actively distance itself from the turmoil in the marketing industry, which is battling with transformation of the organisation and within the industry, as well as bitter behind the scenes politicking and a lack of communication with stakeholders. The ACA proudly unveiled its BEE Scorecard for the advertising industry yesterday as well.

The ACA says it did inform the MFSA of its intentions, however, the well-timed ACA announcement yesterday, the day before a MFSA board meeting and a week after the MFSA convened Loerie "post-mortems" in the industry with various stakeholders, seems to have sent a clear message to ground any further attempts by the MFSA to run the Loeries in the future. As Bizcommunity.com broke the news yesterday: the ad industry will simply not enter Loeries next year or turn up for the event, if it is still in the claws of the MFSA.

Empowerment

Creative Circle chairman Gerry Human, explained that the new award would be dedicated to the encouragement and advancement of the next generation of creative talent in the advertising industry, with a primary focus on previously disadvantaged communities. In this way, it will promote empowerment from the inside out.

The award, which is still nameless, will be managed by a Section 21 company, with stakeholders from all interested parties. This includes the ACA, Creative Circle, the South African Graphik Design Council (think), the Communication and Advertising Forum for Empowerment (Café) and the Commercial Producers' Association (CPA). Ntshingila and Human confirm that the Marketing Federation of Southern Africa (MFSA), which owns and manages the Loerie Awards, will also be invited to participate as a stakeholder.

"We have no desire to cut anyone out of these awards," says Human. "In fact, we would like to make them as inclusive as possible, especially when it comes to including our clients, the marketers. But we also want to ensure that awards that are about rewarding creativity in communication and advertising, give something concrete back to the world from which they're drawn."

As such, says Human, any surplus funds raised by the awards will be used to bring young, talented black South Africans into the advertising industry - to inspire them, train them and guide them; to give them the means to take this industry forward into the next era.

"We are very excited about the efforts afoot to create a bigger and better award for the advertising and communications industry," added ACA chair Nunu Ntshingila. "We believe it will take creative awards to a new level, and in turn help the industry as a whole develop and mature."

Human said time was of the essence, as they had to begin now to ensure a successful creative advertising awards for 2005.

The MFSA is facing a mutiny from its own stakeholders as well, with the ACA receiving approaches from the direct marketing industry too, regarding incorporating the former Assegai Awards, relaunched by the MFSA this year as the Loerie Direct Awards.

Non-profit

The issue of profit was also key, as the feeling in the industry was, that the Loerie Awards were a profit-making enterprise for the MFSA coffers. The ACA and CC believe that any profit from the awards must not benefit stakeholders, but young, talented South Africans that they wanted to inspire and encourage through the awards. "The awards are there to promote creative excellence and we are basing them on the best in the world." Human highlighted the British DNAD and America's One Club Awards, as the most reputable global advertising awards run for non-profit.

The industry would prefer to run the awards under the Loerie brand name, and Human called on the MFSA to allow the industry to continue to use the Loerie name, without insisting that they buy back the brand.

One of the main features of the new thinking behind a new 'Loeries' is that it will be moved from Sun City to a more accessible venue, probably in Johannesburg, and that the exhibition of creative work entered into the annual creative advertising awards, will be showcased in a travelling exhibition to tour South Africa.

The other crucial issue - that of sponsor support - has already been dealt with apparently by the ACA, and Human said major sponsors had already been canvassed and were willing to support a revamped Loeries under the control of a Section 21 company.

The new awards vision

In his presentation to the media and ACA Board yesterday, Human, unpacked the thinking behind a new awards (the "AWARDS"):