Ireland/Davenport has had two Loeries awards withdrawn after it was discovered the ads had not been flighted, and thus failed to meet entry criteria. The award-winning ads were a gold for New Voice Non-English Radio – Absa Funeral Plan, ‘Abashwe’ and a bronze for New Voice Non-English Radio – Fox International Channel’s, ‘The Simpsons Crime Report’.
The ‘new voice’ category is designed to give voice to non-English radio ads. The category used to allow material that hadn’t yet been flighted, but the rules were changed for the 2014 Loeries Awards, bringing it in line with other categories. The rules stipulate that “all work must be commercially published, launched or aired to a substantial audience for the first time between 1 June 2013 and 13 June 2014”.
Loeries CEO, Andrew Human, described the error as an “honest mistake”. He said Ireland Davenport “did not make themselves aware of the change to the rules” and that “while the responsibility rests with the entrant to ensure that all entry criteria are met, the Loeries accepts that this was an honest mistake”.
Human told The Media Online that any queries received on entries are “dealt with on a case-by-case basis. This case is not related to entries last year”. Last year, ad agency Metropolitan Republic was stripped of all its awards after it was found that an ad that won a Grand Prix – for a Ugandan education campaign with MTN – had never been executed. Metropolitan Republic co-founder, Paul Warner, was on the jury that gave the award to the agency. Human said all agencies were told of the change in the rules regarding the New Voices category via the Creative Circle, the Advertising Communications Association (ACA) and via the Loeries own communications.
“The Loeries online entry forms make the changes known to all entrants. This year, for the fist time, the head of each agency was required to sign a form stating that all their entries complied with our terms and conditions, specifically that all entries had flighted,” he says. He said the mistake was not spotted during the judging process as the onus is on entrants to ensure their entries meet requirements.
“The Loeries does not check the flighting date of each of 2,500 entries,” Human says. “The responsibility clearly rests with someone who signs a form, stating that all their entries have flighted,” says Human. “We will work to ensure that our rules are kept simple, and we will continue to reinforce these rules with all entrants going forward.” He said the Loeries would enforce a “zero tolerance” policy.
