Respecting language, and communicating with people in their own language, shouldn’t a prospect that frightens marketers, but rather a way of increasing return on investment and plumping up the bottom line and engendering enormous loyalty in readers.
“Pendoring is an important showcase to the world. With truly South African words, expressions, phrases and ideas, we communicate to a very loyal market that show their appreciation for talking to them in their own language by opening their wallets,” says Tim du Plessis, executive editor of Afrikaans newspapers at Media24.
The Pendoring awards were held on Friday night, before the big Loerie Awards events that saw Cape Town awash not just in rain from a late winter storm, but in ad industry people from around the country.
First place went to Riaan Van Wyk, creative group head at Draft FCB Cape Town, for the most creative T-shirt design based on the ‘Fotoverhaal’ or Afrikaans graphic novel that formed the first part of this innovative competition. Second place went to Francois Botes, a graphic designer at Y&R (Young and Rubicam) Johannesburg and third place went to Bernelle Visser, packaging designer at Shoprite Checkers head office Cape Town.
Van Wyk walked away with a brand new MacBook Pro. “I was inspired to enter because of the ‘gatskop’ prizes, I will have endless hours enjoying the brand new awesomeness of the MacBook. I found out about the competition through direct, social and email marketing and my T-Shirt design was inspired by the mysterious ways of Martiena (the lead character of the ‘Fotoverhaal’),” he said.
“Afrikaans is a very expressive language with a very expressive and fun loving target audience. This allows you to have some serious fun while creating the appropriate communication. As the saying goes – ‘Afrikaners is plesierig’. This fits in with my ultimate career ambition which is to ‘create ads that doesn’t suck’ and have fun doing it.”
Draftfcb South Africa put in a sharp performance at the 2013 Pendoring s, full stop, winning a total of seven awards, including the Prestige Award. Taking it and clients to the stage were Draftfcb Johannesburg’s campaign for Toyota ‘Taai Oumas, Taai Tieners, Taai Meisies’, which won the Prestige Award as well as a Radio Gold.
Another radio campaign by Draftfcb Johannesburg for Toyota Automark was awarded a Radio Gold in the Truly South African category while Draftfcb Cape Town’s Fire Blanket Calendar for Engen was awarded Gold in the Truly South African general category.
Draftfcb Cape Town’s work for Pendoring 2012 won that agency three Silvers. In the category Television/cinema with a production budget less than R500 000 it was ‘Afrikaans Kom Kaap Toe’ while in the Posters, it was ‘Vat Oor: Sydney, Vat Oor: Londen, Vat Oor: Tokio’. ‘Vat Oor: Sydney, Vat Oor: Londen, Vat Oor: Tokio’ also won in the Craft category for illustration.
Linda Gibson, CEO of Ads24, congratulated the winners, saying their work is contributing to improving the standard of vernacular advertising in South Africa. In our experience readers value vernacular advertising and place trust in it in a way that they “would not necessarily feel about an English campaign, as it is not in their mother -tongue.
“This buy-in would outweigh the initial investment of creating a vernacular campaign. Vernacular advertising pays tribute to South Africa’s rich cultural heritage. Media24 Afrikaans titles like Beeld, Rapport, Die Burger, Volksblad and Son, have a loyal readership base and readers are much more likely to be persuaded by newspaper advertising that is in their own language.”
Draftfcb Chief Creative Officer, Brett Morris, said since the inception of Pendoring in 1995, Draftfcb has consistently performed excellently, more often than not leading the pack in terms of Gold and Silver Pendoring trophies, as well as the Prestige Award.
“Our performance this evening proves yet again our team’s uncanny ability to communicate with South African consumers in their mother tongues in a manner that touches their hearts and souls. Respect to all.”
Ads24 were once again Gold sponsors for the Pendoring Awards which celebrate vernacular advertising in South Africa. In their attempt to further extend the reach and encourage inclusion of vernaculars other than Afrikaans, the Pendoring Awards will be introducing a new category in 2014, the Government Advertising Vernacular Award, of which Ads24 will be the proud sponsors.
South Africa has eleven official languages but marketers tend to take the safe road and cater for majority understanding, creating all campaigns in English. Mondli Nhlapo, research account manager at Yellowood suggests that perhaps they should instead be valuing the vernacular, creating campaigns in mother-tongue and cashing in on the ensuing return-on-investement (ROI).
“Good vernacular communication taps into cultural insight, nuance and context. It can help brands show that they understand and resonate with their consumers. It can build long-lasting and profitable relationships of trust with their market. Using vernacular languages in communication has the potential to add huge value to a brand. It can help global brands successfully localise and help local brands become more relevant to their target market. It highlights a high-level of engagement, respect and understanding of the targeted consumer. The emotional benefit that vernacular advertising brings to customers will have a positive impact on the overall brand equity,” said Nhlapo in his blog.
Vimla Franks, head of marketing and business strategy at Ads24, agrees. “In our experience readers value vernacular advertising and place trust in it in a way that they would not necessarily feel about an English campaign, as it is not in their mother-tongue.
“We would like to encourage a wider range of vernacular advertising and would welcome more Zulu campaigns for Ilanga, which would speak directly to the hearts of their readers, instilling a sense of pride and ownership. This buy-in would outweigh the initial investment of creating a vernacular campaign. Vernacular advertising pays tribute to South Africa’s rich cultural heritage,” Frank says.
Pendoring general manager, Franette Klerck, says the partnership with Ads24 helps secure the continued existence mother tongue advertising, as well as the development of innovative and creative advertising that truly resonates with the target market. “This, in turn, not only leads to a healthy and dynamic advertising industry, but provides a significant investment in the future of Afrikaans and other indigenous languages.”
Christo Brits, Business Manager of the Afrikaans Daily Titles at Ads24 said, “Ads24 has been a sponsor of the Pendoring Advertising Awards since 2007 and regard this as a valuable sponsorship in their role as patrons to creativity in vernacular offerings. The rich cultural heritage that makes South Africa unique is something that must be celebrated, thus incentivising creative people to develop sophisticated and cutting edge vernacular campaigns helps extend and energise a South African culture that we can all be proud of.’
