Jupiter street pole creatives off to Cannes

The Jupiter Drawing Room's art director Dana Cohen and copy writer James Cloete have been selected by members of the Creative Circle as the recipients of the 2008 annual Street Pole Ads Cannes Award, for their creative submitted on behalf of SAA. The competition attracted a record number of 243 entries as South Africa's top creatives vied for the coveted first prize – a trip for two people to attend the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June this year.

Presented annually by the ADreach Group, the award recognises creative excellence and appropriate application of creative to Street Pole Ads as a unique outdoor medium.

Jupiter street pole creatives off to Cannes

The winning SAA campaign was developed specifically for Street Pole Ads, targeting business travellers commuting along arterial routes which link more affluent suburban areas with business centres.

“The nature of the medium dictates that, due to the limited size of the hoarding and the speed at which it has to communicate, the marketing message needs to be kept very simple – yet also offer enough conceptual interest to break the clutter and be memorable,” explain Cohen and Cloete.

“To that end we developed a campaign that utilises the medium in a way that is both visually arresting in comparison to surrounding advertising and conceptually relevant to the product offering, with copy reduced to be as clear and concise in its delivery of the client's message as possible.”

The single-minded message that SAA offers ‘Fully Reclinable Flat-bed Seats' is placed on three consecutive boards that twist from vertical to diagonal and to horizontal in a clever and simple demonstration of the product offering.

Placed second

Placed second for their ABSA Small Business Loans campaign were Saki Piliso (art director) and Jeff Tyser (copy writer), also of The Jupiter Drawing Room. The Adidas campaign submitted by TBWA's creative team (art director: Wihan Meerholz, copy writer: Dan Parmenter, creative director: Adam Weber and Hennie Stander) received a special mention for creative concept, although the campaign is not executable on Street Pole Ads as implementation calls for placement of posters at heights of 6m.

The other finalists making up the top ten campaigns in the 2008 Street Pole Ads Cannes Award, in no particular order, are:

Agency: Ogilvy JHB
Creative team: Alexa Craner (AD) and David Fraser (CW)
Creative director: Fran Luckin
Client: Heat magazine
Agency: The Jupiter Drawing Room
Creative team: Jac Sun, Archie Malinga (AD) and Vuyani Plata (CW)
Client: CNA
Agency: The Jupiter Drawing Room
Creative team: Julie Thorogood and Aviv Weil (CW)
Client: World Food Programme
Agency: Saatchi
Creative Team Liam Wielopolski
Client: Olay
Agency: TBWA
Creative Team: Kursten Meyer (AD) and Verona Singh (CW)
Client: All Gold
Agency: King James
Creative team: Martin Sing, Greig Watt (AD) and Greig Watt, Martin Sing (CW)
Client: Arrive Alive
Agency: Grey SA
Creative team: Gareth Pretorius, Yvonne Hall (AD) and Terry Mckenna, Dave Jensions (CW)
Creative director: Mike Branwell
Client: Joburg Zoo

Dubbed ‘the only Award worth winning', the 2008 Street Pole Ads Cannes Award sees SAA receiving a Street Pole Ads advertising campaign to the value of R 100 000 and creative director Tom Cullinan takes home a 42 inch LCD Plasma TV.

Top three campaigns

The top three campaigns have been entered into the outdoor advertising category at Cannes and all the finalists will be featured in the April issue of Advantage magazine.