Do today’s recruitment ads hit the mark? You decide…. Bookmarks 2019 are open for entries. VISI mag wins global A’Design Award for Best Design Media. C.S.A. Global walks away with a Telly Award. AfricaCom Awards 2018 – Celebrating success and innovation. Africa Dialogues Win Best Corporate Event at Ghana Event Awards 2018. Narrative scoops award for Best Corporate Website in the 2018 SA Publication Forum Awards for Sanlam Reality. black a Finalist at Top International Telecoms Awards.
Do today’s recruitment ads hit the mark? You decide…
Bookmarks 2019 are open for entries
The 2019 IAB SA Bookmark Awards are open for entries. With a focus on digital excellence, tangible business impact, and a simplified entry process, this industry award is poised to represent the best in digital for 2019. All businesses, big or small, will have the opportunity to showcase their work. The online entry platform is live, and available here.
Any work that appeared online during the period 18 November 2017 and 31 October 2018 is eligible, and early bird entries, as well as IAB SA members are eligible for a 10% discount.
Jerry Mpufane, chairman of the M&C Saatchi Abel JHB Group and Jury President of the 2019 Bookmark Awards says, “The Bookmark Awards is the ultimate accolade for excellence in digital. In my second year as the Jury President for The Bookmarks, my goal is to find that true gem of a digital idea, that which has excited the end-user, and ultimately helped turn around the fortunes of a fledging brand. This idea, and hopefully we find a few, must serve as a brilliant and proud industry case study.”
Paula Hulley, the IAB SA’s CEO adds, “ The Bookmark Awards celebrate the body’s key strategic pillar to Build Brands Digitally and the award’s core values of creativity, innovation and excellence. The awards consistently strive to offer a host of practical examples of how marketers, agencies and publishers have executed digital campaigns to deliver sustainable impact on their business.”
A focus on business excellence
There is no doubt that digital interventions have the power to transform business, but our industry currently faces the challenge of creating a clear set of criteria for the measurement of success.
As we look to the future, it is the responsibility of the IAB, its members and the industry to create the benchmarks for business excellence in the digital economy. The Bookmark Awards presents the opportunity to develop measurement data to develop benchmarks for business excellence, and our current awards platform and data is a strong foundation for this to take place. This is why the Bookmarks have the potential to affect industry change.
For the 2019 Bookmark Awards, digital excellence and measurement are strongly interlinked. Thandeka Mali, Representative of Brand Council on the Bookmarks 2019 Committee and Acquisitions Marketing Strategy Lead at Showmax SA says, “The hardest yet most exciting challenge for any marketer is to be a catalyst in turning real business problems into memorable effective creative magic – it is these tiny pixel-like strides that move our industry forward. No matter the size of your brand, the IAB SA Bookmark awards are a fantastic way to motivate digital creative excellence internally in your company.”
To learn more about all entry criteria and Ts&Cs, visit the Bookmarks website.
VISI mag wins global A’Design Award for Best Design Media
Ahead of its much-anticipated 100th issue in early 2019, New Media-owned décor, design and architecture brand VISI has been awarded the A’Design Award for Best Design Media.
Announced by the A’Design Award team in Italy, the Best Design Media Award is a special recognition granted to leading design publications, which are nominated by designers, artists and architects from across the globe.
“This is a highly acclaimed award, which we are extremely proud of,” says Sumien Brink, VISI’s Editor-in-Chief. “What makes it particularly powerful is that the award came as a result of recognition by many of our very talented peers from around the world. We feel truly honoured,” she adds.
Differing from the A’Design Award, where entries are peer reviewed and awarded by a grand jury panel, in the case of the Best Design Media Award, recipients are selected by laureates of the A’Design Award who indicate a list of prominent design publications they follow, wish to be featured in and adore. The Best Design Media status is granted once to each publication to acknowledge their role and support in the creation of a better world, and a heightened appreciation and understanding of good design that leads to the creation of better products and services.
Says New Media’s managing director Aileen Lamb, “VISI is one of our iconic brands and has always been celebrated locally for its distinctive design and high production value. It’s wonderful to have it recognised globally, within such esteemed design circles.”
Despite the downward trend in consumer titles, VISI magazine continues to grow. As per the Q2 2018 ABC figures, VISI’s total circulation increased by 10% quarter-on-quarter and an unprecedented 15% year-on-year.
C.S.A. Global walks away with a Telly Award
360 communications agency, Celebrity Services Africa Global (C.S.A.) has been announced a recipient of a Telly Award, an international accolade honouring the best work created in television and video, across all screens.
C.S.A. won a Telly in the Campaign Branding category for the “Destinations Distilled” online campaign that the agency created & produced for Diageo and One&Only Resorts in 2016.
In the campaign created by C.S.A., top mixologists from Diageo’s World Class competition travelled to One&Only resorts and created signature cocktails, capturing the essence of the destinations in the process.
“Destinations Distilled” was produced by Davin Phillips, scripted by Marc Le Chat and shot by Geoff McNeill with destinations including Cape Town, the Bahamas and Mexico.
To watch the campaign, click here and here.
AfricaCom Awards 2018 – Celebrating success and innovation
The annual AfricaCom Awards will once again celebrate success and innovation this year, by recognising the achievements of the best companies, solutions, products and personalities improving connectivity and driving Africa through the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Supported by Founding Awards Sponsor, PCCW Global, the awards will be held on 14 November at The Lookout in Granger Bay, Cape Town. With ‘Mardi Gras’ as the theme for this year’s celebrations (it is also AfricaCom’s 21st birthday), the event promises to be an unforgettable night of music, entertainment and celebration. PPCW Global confirmed their involvement saying: “PPCW Global is delighted to sponsor the AfricaCom Awards which recognise the sterling works performed by companies and personalities that are developing solutions and products to improve connectivity that will drive Africa into the fourth industrial revolution. Good luck to all who enter.“
In line with all the new focus areas for AfricaCom 2018 – Artificial Intelligence (AI) and enterprise digital transformation among them – the organisers have created some exciting new categories to celebrate the best and brightest innovators across tech and telecoms in Africa. This year the AfricaCom Awards cover nine categories:
- Best Network Improvement
- Delivering Excellence in Customer Experience
- Fintech Innovation Award
- Most Innovative use of AI Technology (new for 2018)
- Most Innovative Service
- Changing Lives Award
- Best Sustainable Power Solution (new for 2018)
- IoT Product or Service of the Year
- Best Innovation in Digital Entertainment
Would be winners can enter the awards here. Entries close on 5 October, so for your chance to be recognised – enter today!
AfricaCom Enterprise CXO of the Year Awards
Also new in 2018, is the AfricaCom Enterprise CXO of the Year Award, which recognises the outstanding achievements of CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, CDOs and others in driving innovation within the African enterprise space.
Voted for by the public and presented at the AfricaCom Awards 2018, the AfricaCom Enterprise CXO of the Year accolade is awarded to an African-based enterprise leader who is at the forefront of navigating their company through Industry 4.0 by prioritising innovation, embracing disruptive tech and elevating the continent’s digital economy.
Nominate your choice for Enterprise CXO of the Year here.
The AfricaCom CXO of the Year Award, back for 2018, recognises the outstanding achievements of CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, CDOs and others in driving development across telecommunications and technology in ‘Digital Africa’. It is open to CXO’s from licensed network operators, broadcasters and enterprise/SMEs within Africa and is free to enter.
Nominate your choice for CXO of the Year here.
Nominations for both the Enterprise CXO of the Year Award and CXO of the Year Award close on Friday, 21 September at 12 am CAT.
Orange Social Venture Prize
The AfricaCom Awards will also see the Orange Social Venture Prize awarded to a winning innovative project based on ICT which improves the living conditions of people in Africa and the Middle East in fields such as education, healthcare, farming, mobile payments or sustainable development.
Enter your project for the Orange Social Venture Prize here. Winners chosen by the jury will be announced on 13 September.
Africa Dialogues wins Best Corporate Event at Ghana Event Awards 2018
Africa Dialogues won the Best Corporate Event at the Ghana Event Awards 2018 by Event Guide. The awards ceremony by Event Guide was organized annually to celebrate and honor indigenous Ghanaian events and organizers who go the extra mile for excellence in their respective fields. Africa Dialogues emerged winner out of the 12 nominees including CIMG Awards, Ghana Banking Awards, Women CEOs Summit, and MTN Heroes of Change.
Speaking on behalf of the Africa Dialogues was Emmanuel Leslie Addae co-founder of People Initiative Foundation, in his words, ‘The journey started with the first license in 2013 to organize TEDxLabone with only 100 audience. This first event sparked the interest of the team to focus on curating programs and initiatives that promote cultural diversity while nurturing and mentoring the vision, talents and ideas of young people who are positively changing Africa. Our first event was at the Kama Conference Center in April 2014 with speakers like Kojo Oppong Nkrumah now the Minister of Information , Hannah Tettey former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Papa Arkhurst, Uche Ofodile now CEO of MTN Liberia, Patricia Oboi-Naa of Vodafone Ghana and others.”
According to him over the past 5 years, events organized by People Initiatives Foundation includes TEDxLabone, TEDxAccra, TEDxAccraWomen, Africa Initiatives Summit, and over 60 social impact events in Ghana and beyond has attracted millions views and likes online, live streams events in over 150 countries, and its last conference was actually the sixth top trending hashtag on Twitter worldwide.”
After 5 years of organizing TEDx events in Ghana, Emmanuel Leslie Addae and his longtime standing partner Daniel Amoako-Antwi, the Executive Directors of People Initiative Foundation decided to move a step ahead by creating AFRICA DIALOGUES, the africa we want which is seen as ‘Africa’s TED Talks version’.
Talks are centered towards helping our continent attain the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and AGENDA 2063, Africa Dialogues endeavors to move beyond raising awareness about the challenges facing Africa by highlighting innovative thinking and promoting those who are working to effect real change in Africa.
The first Africa Dialogues event was on April 2017, which took place at the conference Center with over 500 audience. Some of the speakers include, Sarkodie, Constance Elizabeth Swaniker, Emmanuel Awumee, Mami Serwa Amankohene, Sarah Begum, Aisha Addo and others. Seven (7) months after introducing the Africa Dialogues ‘The Africa We Want, People Initiative Foundation partnered with UNICEF West & Central Africa(UNICEF WCARO) to organized AFRICA DIALOGUES WORLD CHILDREN’S DAY 2017 to commemorate WORLD CHILDREN’S DAY which happened on November 20, 2017. The event had speakers from eight (8) African countries including Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso, Sénégal, Côte D’ivoire, Gambia, Guinea and Nigeria. These young people were invited to speak on the Africa Dialogues platform and share about the Africa They Want. Each speaker had maximum 10 minutes to give a powerful talk which ends with ‘This is the Africa I Want’. Here are the videos: www.UNICEF.org/wca/africa-we-want.
Narrative scoops award for Best Corporate Website in the 2018 SA Publication Forum Awards
Content marketing specialist Narrative has again scooped up the Best Corporate Website in the 2018 SA Publication Forum Awards for the Sanlam Reality website. This is the second year the website has received this prestigious accolade. “The key to the site’s success is the rich content experience it offers members,” says Narrative content director, Robyn Daly.
“Content is the glue that connects members to their loyalty programme and is key to driving the engagement objectives of the programme as well as the greater imperative of Sanlam, which is to enable clients to become Wealthsmiths.”
The competition, now in its 17th year of running, aims to reward excellence in internal and external corporate communication media and the Best Corporate Website award is hotly contested by the big brands. The new Sanlam Reality website came to life in February 2015, and straight away won the Best Corporate Website award. Far from resting on their laurels, the Narrative content team and Nurun web development team have continued to work together to create a website that merges content and functionality, and provides Sanlam Reality members with a seamless user experience.
“We continuously review the site and how members are using it and then make refinements based on these insights. Recently we upweighted the infographic content to around 80% and this has further improved navigation and the website’s ability to serve bite-sized information to members quickly and efficiently,” adds Daly. These improvements were indeed noticed by the judges who complimented Narrative on the use of infographics, the strong articles and the many useful tools and calculators.
black a Finalist at Top International Telecoms Awards
South Africa’s newest entertainment platform, black, was named as a finalist in the prestigious Video on Demand Innovation category at the 12th Annual Telecoms Awards in Dubai.
The Telecoms World Awards brings together leading industry players each year. This was black’s first international nomination. Locally the platform was named Stuff Magazine’s Entertainment App of the Year in South Africa in 2017.
black was nominated as a finalist alongside other entertainment offerings from the Middle East, Asia and Africa, together with BluTV, iflix, STARZ Play and Zee Entertainment with Orange TV in Egypt taking top honours.
Included in its unique value proposition is the ability to choose how long you want to subscribe to the platform for. Unlike traditional media models where customers have to choose from a standard monthly package, black bucks this trend by allowing consumers to choose what they want to watch, at what price and for how long.
Chief executive of black, Surie Ramasary, says this is an indication that South African companies can be international trail blazers and we are very proud of this achievement.
“We are very honoured to have our work recognised at the highest levels within the Telecommunications & Digital Media sector. black has a unique value proposition that the world has not seen before. It is disruptive and the world is taking notice”.
The Awards Wrap is published every Tuesday in our newsletter. Please send all awards news to michael@wagthedog.co.za.