CYBERTORIAL*
The Cannes Lions is one of the biggest and most glamorous annual international advertising festivals in the world. In 2016, Boston Media House was incredibly proud to have a student representative at the awards.
Approximately 15,000 delegates from around 100 countries went to France to attend the 2016 festival, making it a truly global meeting place for branded communications professionals to connect, share and discover. It was the 63rd festival (it was founded back in 1954).
Part of the festival is the judging and presentation of The Lions creative awards and this saw some 40,000 submissions in 23 categories. South Africa fared well – not only were nine South Africans selected to serve as judges, but South Africa walked away with one Media Lion, had 33 of the 91 winning entries in the radio category, got one Lion in design and one Campaign Lion in the outdoor advertising category (visit www.canneslions.com for more information on the winners).
“It’s wonderful to see that South Africans are up there with the best of the best in creativity and branded communications,” comments Kerry Damons, head of marketing at Boston Media House. “We congratulate them and celebrate their success with pride!”
She points out that besides celebrating excellence, the Cannes Lions festival also serves to showcase trends and shape future creative work. The IT industry is often cited as the industry where change is the norm, but the creative industry is probably on par where speed of change and inexhaustible imagination is concerned.
“We who study, teach and work in advertising, PR and related fields like branding and marketing, love to follow the happenings at the festival,” says Damons. “We like to take note of all the exciting developments and listen to the stories of movers and shakers who come up with the most imaginative concepts, designs and campaigns on earth.”
Another reason to keep an eye on creativity festivals such as the Cannes Lions is that, as an educational institution, Boston works hard at aligning its training with what’s happening in the marketplace.
“We need to know what the creative sector regards as excellent work so that we guide our students into producing similar work,” she explains. “We want our students to be able to secure good jobs once they complete their training with us.”
Boston City Campus & Business College offers various courses in the creative field, such as the Higher Certificate in Advertising Integrated Communication Practice. It’s a higher education certificate on NQF level 5 that can be completed via distance learning within one year full-time or two years part-time study, absolutely ideal for people already working in the industry. There are also short learning programmes for those interested in becoming media consultants, brand ambassadors, and PR assistants.
Boston Media House offers a diploma in media practices, which is a three-year qualification on NQF level 6. Students can choose to specialise in one of the creative fields such as advertising, animation, graphic design, radio, public relations, and video, as well as related fields of marketing and journalism. Student numbers are limited as creative training is intense and includes hands-on training on specialised equipment.
Damons points out that Boston has a formidable reputation, “You will find BostonMedia House graduates in many of the top companies”. Due to the intense and specialised industry training the college’s past students have become successful advertising executives, animation specialists, graphic designers, video producers, and radio professionals, among others.
You can get more information on Boston courses on www.boston.co.za – fact sheets are available on this website, giving details on course entry requirements, length and course content. Contact info@
