The Awards Wrap: SA film wins top awards, hunt is on for SA Online Retailer of the Year, all the AMASA Awards winners

SA film wins top awards at LA and San Diego Film Festivals. Search is on for SA’s Online Retailer of The Year. Woolworths and New Media’s TASTE bags gold at Folio Awards in New York. AdColony wins Gold at The AMASA Awards. Retroviral and JCDecaux Outwit, Outplay, Outlast in AMASA Awards. Tiso Blackstar wins 2018 AMASA Award for Best Contribution by a Media Owner. The MediaShop wins Golds at AMASA Awards. Ogilvy shines at AMASA Awards. All the winners from the AMASA Awards.

SA film wins top awards at LA and San Diego Film Festivals

The South African feature documentary STROOP – journey into the rhino horn war has won the coveted Best Documentary Award at the prestigious San Diego International Film Festival. Hollywood’s Mudbound producer Kyle Tekiela presented the award to filmmakers Bonné de Bod and Susan Scott saying, “Documentaries tell stories that bring big issues to light and the jury felt this was one of the biggest of them all, that poignantly conveys the struggle the world’s rhinos are having to remain alive for the next decade.”

The weekend was a winning one for the filmmakers as they also scooped an additional two awards – from the LA-based Glendale International Film Festival where they picked up the Best Female Filmmakers Award (a huge accomplishment given that over 130-films across fiction and documentary were in competition, which meant that STROOP was given the nod across all genres). And – also in LA – from the city’s premiere film festival, LA Femme, which supports women producers from around the world, De Bod and Scott were awarded the Special Documentary of Focus Award.

The previous weekend, the film received another nod in the form of Best Documentary award at the San Pedro International Film Festival, also held in Los Angeles, and last month, STROOP was handed the 2018 Green Tenacity Award by the judges of the San Francisco Green Film Festival.

In recognition of the impact the South African film is having in California, the California Legislature as well as the State Senator have sent the filmmakers certificates of recognition from the State of California for outstanding achievements in the cinematic arts, thanking the South Africans for their work in revealing the rhino crisis to the world and contributing to the arts and the Californian community.

In addition to the slew of awards the film has won, STROOP has been invited to screen at no less than 15 official film festivals, and this number is growing daily as it receives worldwide attention and acclamation.

STROOP – Journey into the Rhino Horn War tells the shocking and touching story of the ongoing poaching of rhino and the trade in its coveted horn. In an exclusive first, de Bod and Scott filmed special ranger units inside the Kruger National Park and at the home of the white rhino, the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park.  The pair also travelled undercover to the dangerous back rooms of wildlife traffickers and dealers in China and Vietnam and the result is a powerful, hard-hitting and incredibly moving documentary that will challenge and shock viewers.

STROOP – Journey into the Rhino Horn War will premiere in South Africa later this year.

Search is on for SA’s Online Retailer of The Year

World Wide Worx has launched a new awards programme, called the Online Retailer of the Year, to honour online stores in South Africa that grow trust among digital shoppers. The awards are part of a broader project to boost online shopping by World Wide Worx in partnership with Visa, Platinum Seed, the Ecommerce Forum of Africa and Heavy Chef.

“Online retail in South Africa has consistently grown above 20% since the turn of the century but only passed 1% of overall retail in 2016. Research shows that trust is a big factor in ecommerce growth, which is why we want to recognise online retailers who help to grow the entire sector by ensuring the kind of ecommerce standards that engender trust with online shoppers,” says WWW’s Arthur Goldstuck.

“But once online retail passes two percent it crosses an essential psychological barrier and this often leads to a tipping point in emerging economies. That’s when we see online retail snowballing. It gathers real momentum and everyone in the sector benefits,” Goldstuck explains.

To be eligible for entry to the Online Retailer of the Year, owners of digital stores are urged to participate in an essential survey of local online shopping being run by Goldstuck’s World Wide Worx, together with Visa and digital growth agency Platinum Seed. To participate in the research, local online retailers can go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/OnlineRetailSA

All online retailers who participate will be entered into the award. However, participation in the survey is not a precondition for entry to the awards. However, only online retailers who operate from within South Africa’s borders are eligible for this local award.

Goldstuck, who is judging the awards, will present the following awards:

• Online Retailer of The Year
• 1st runner-up – Online Retailer of the Year
• 2nd runner-up – Online Retailer of the Year
• Best New SA Online Retailer of the Year

Judging criteria for the awards include trust, innovation, customer service, digital excellence, customer engagement, product excellence, and the online reputation of the digital store.

Woolworths and New Media’s TASTE bags gold at Folio Awards in New York

Woolworths’ TASTE magazine, published by New Media, has won a prestigious GOLD Folio: Eddie & Ozzie Award for Overall Editorial Excellence in Custom/Content Marketing.

TASTE also received three honourable mentions including one for its March 2018 issue in the Best Full Issue category. The title also received honourable mentions in the categories of Overall Design Excellence and Social Media/Community.

“Being strategic partners with Woolworths gives us a fantastic opportunity to produce exceptional, relevant and beautiful content. For 20 years the awards have celebrated editorial and digital excellence in brand publishing and we are incredibly proud of the TASTE team and delighted that New Media’s brands and clients continue to be acknowledged on this international stage, alongside the top brands in the world,” says New Media’s managing director, Aileen Lamb.

Says Woolworths’ head of foods marketing, Elizka Ferreira: “Woolworths TASTE magazine is an important part of the Woolworths customer journey and brand experience. The New Media team does an outstanding job in ensuring the magazine and its digital community offer extraordinary value to our readers and that the platforms are truly reflective of the Woolworths brand. I am thrilled that this publishing excellence has been acknowledged through these prestigious awards.”

New Media has won 12 Eddie & Ozzie awards and honourable mentions for editorial and design online and in print since 2010.

AMASA Awards news

AdColony wins Gold at The AMASA Awards

AdColony South Africa, one of Nfinity Media’s investments and co-entrant Dentsu Redstar, have won the Gold Award at the prestigious AMASA Awards in the category Best Use of Technology for its Heineken UEFA Champions League campaign.

AdColony and Dentsu Redstar collaborated with Heineken to create a high reach, innovative, impactful and engaging mobile experience for Heineken’s UCL campaign. The brand was the first to sign up with AdColony in the region and utilise its trademark Aurora technology – offering interactive video engagement.

“The client sought mass reach, engagement and innovation with measured results,” says AdColony South Africa’s Michelle Randall. “The campaign was created with two separate videos. Through the innovative Aurora offering consumers could literally flip between the two brand centric videos. AdColony also incorporated Haptic Technology so that when consumers switched between videos, their phones vibrated. This allowed Heineken to deliver an impactful full sensory experience in high definition quality.”

The video was watched to completion 902 965 times with 58% of those being unique users.

The Aurora interactive experience generated an engagement rate of 88.28%, and 8 620 users who completed the video, also engaged with the end card for an average of 4.2 seconds, resulting in 603 minutes of earned media.

Over and above this, Heineken, sold 67 329 H/L (Hectolitres) of beer, a year on year value growth of 424% and year on year volume growth of 610%. Heineken also saw a 2% increase in brand awareness and became the number one purchased alcohol for the full campaign period.

“We are so thrilled to have won Gold for this campaign and extend massive thanks to Cuan Bergan from Dentsu Redstar and Ilse Gräbe from Heineken for driving this campaign and of course the incredible team at AdColony who exceed expectations every day,” she says.

Retroviral and JCDecaux Outwit, Outplay, Outlast in AMASA Awards

Retroviral and JCDecaux were the ultimate victors in the Integrated Campaign for Media at this year’s AMASA Awards, scooping Gold for their efforts in promoting the latest, most successful version of M-Net’s Survivor South Africa: Philippines.

The Award was presented at a glittering, gala dinner held at The Hilton in Sandton, Johannesburg.

AMASA (the Advertising and Media Association of South Africa) hosts its annual awards to celebrate high quality “all-rounder’ media campaigns that are based on sound insights underpinned by great ideas that are carried through with a perfectly executed strategy to achieve measurable results. The awards have become the benchmark in celebrating media excellence and innovation across 23 categories.

Entries are received from media practitioners across the country to show off their best work implemented between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2018.

Says Lelanie Butler, head of sales: digital and innovation for JCDecaux, South Africa: “We are honoured to have received this award. It serves to confirm that we are well on track in our goal to create exciting, memorable campaigns that shatter preconceived boundaries of what OOH is capable of.”

“M-Net tasked us with creating talkability for the casting of the new Survivor South Africa,” says Mike Sharman co-founder of Retroviral.

“We created a Wild Card Entry challenge for eight South Africans to live on a billboard for three days, competing in immunity challenges and Tribal Council eliminations,” he adds.

When two contestants remained, those voted out returned as the jury to cast their vote for the person they would be sending into the actual show.

Tiso Blackstar wins 2018 AMASA Award for Best Contribution by a Media Owner

Tiso Blackstar has been awarded for the ‘Best Contribution by a Media Owner’ at the 5^th annual AMASA Awards that were held on 10 October in Sandton. The Awards, presented by the Advertising and Media Association of South Africa, aim to reward the innovative use of media, as well as cross-platform creativity.

Nando’s partnered exclusively with Tiso Blackstar’s title the Sunday Times – SA’s best-selling weekend newspaper – to promote the #rightmyname campaign which aimed to correct the exclusion felt by millions of South Africans when their names were reflected as errors by spellcheck. The Sunday Times played a key role in taking the Nando’s #rightmyname campaign to more than 2 million readers across the country, to ignite online participation in the initiative.

Reardon Sanderson, GM: Group Sales & Marketing at Tiso Blackstar, says: “The collaboration between the Sunday Times and Nando’s is a great example of how a leading newspaper platform allowed marketers to achieve the reach they needed, through print innovation and creativity. It also worked because the Sunday Times maintains a loyal audience of engaged readers, who were motivated to amplify the initiative online and via social media – igniting the cross-platform leap Nando’s were looking for.”

The #rightmyname campaign generated in excess of 53 million online campaign impressions, and resulted in more than 70,000 unique names being added to the #rightmyname database, which was subsequently available for download in online dictionaries.

“We’d like to thank Nando’s, the creative team at M&C Saatchi Abel, and The Media Shop for recognising the power of print by collaborating with the Sunday Times to deliver a truly memorable and relevant campaign. This AMASA Award is one we can all be very proud of,” concludes Sanderson.

The MediaShop wins Golds at AMASA Awards  

The MediaShop has done it again! At this year’s prestigious AMASA Awards, the agency walked away with three Gold Awards for clients Nando’s and Cell C. These accolades are hot on the heels of The MediaShop being crowned the inaugural Media Agency of the Decade, Full Service Media Agency of the Year and Overall Media Agency of the Year at the recent MOST Awards.

The agency won Golds in the Best Integrated: Retail category for Nando’s #RightMyName and in the Best Online and Best Tactical Use of Media categories for Cell C’s Skip to the Best Bits campaign.

The MediaShop was also awarded a Gold Loerie for the Nando’s #rightmyname campaign in the Media Innovation category.

“We could not be prouder of the teams involved,” says an elated Kgaugelo Maphai, Managing Director of The MediaShop Johannesburg. “This is really proving to be an incredible 30th birthday year for us and we’re grateful that we continue to produce award-winning work for our clients!

We took a decision earlier in the year to put a greater focus on media creativity, and we are excited to see the results in such a short period of time,” he says.

“We are working on bigger things for 2019 and hope to make some announcements in the new year and build on what we have achieved this year.”

Ogilvy shines at AMASA Awards

Two Ogilvy campaigns – Huggies ‘The World’s First Baby Marathon’ and Carling Black Label #NoExcuse – have added 4 Gold AMASA Awards to their extensive list of laurels.

Ogilvy SA CCO Pete Case says he’s delighted to see these two highly innovative pieces of work get further recognition: “We believe that our role as an agency is not only to create compelling stories and experiences that connect with consumers, but also to unlock the power of modern media to gain maximum consumer attention. Both of these campaigns do exactly that, using digital media to create impressive earned attention and consumer impact for the brands involved.”

Huggies Baby Marathon – which won a 2018 Grand Prix Loerie for Ogilvy Johannesburg earlier in the year – is an online data driven campaign using specially-created technology to track how far four different South African babies crawled in their Huggies nappies over a seven day period. Recording their efforts in an emotive and highly engaging way, through the world’s first ‘Baby Marathon’. With its targeted online media approach, the campaign recorded a direct lift in Huggies sales of 28.9% and an ROI of 29 to 1.

Carling Black Labels ‘Soccer Song For Change’ won a Cannes Grand Prix this year for Ogilvy Cape Town and is part of the brand’s wider #NoExcuse campaign against gender violence. The activation involved a female choir singing a football anthem at the Soweto derby with the lyrics hijacked half way through, to tell the story of women potentially being abused by their partners when they come home under the influence of alcohol from a game which their team has lost. The new words bought high levels of emotion and impact to the capacity crowd at the FNB Soccer Stadium and the choir’s performance was televised live, with commentators primed to explain the meaning behind this unique intervention to their millions of viewers. The activation created a larger audience than the 2010 world cup opening game and went on to amass an earned media value of over 31.8 million Rands for the brand.

Best Branded Content Campaign:

GOLD – Ogilvy SA, Huggies The World’s First Baby Marathon

Best Integrated: FMCG:

GOLD – Ogilvy SA, Carling Black Label – #NoExcuse

Best Experiential / Event:

GOLD – Ogilvy SA, Carling Black Label – #NoExcuse

Best Online:

GOLD – Ogilvy SA, Huggies The World’s First Baby Marathon

All the winners from the AMASA Awards

Sports management consultancy Playmakers was the big winner at this year’s AMASA Awards, being named the inaugural Agency of the Year and overall Roger Garlick Award winner. 

“We extend massive congratulations to the team at Playmakers who impressed the judges with their #CokeScoreChallenge. The campaign offered unparalleled excellence in media strategy, media planning and the creative and innovative use of their chosen media platforms,” says AMASA Chairperson Wayne Bishop. “As the agency with the most number of Highly Commended, Golds and overall Grand Prix, Playmakers were also crowned Agency of the Year.”

Here are all the winners from the Awards: