Passionate discussions, lively and robust debates, as well as questions around possible new awards were the order of the day at three recent MOST Awards focus groups.
Hosted by GroupM and Omnicom Media Group in Johannesburg, and Media24 in Cape Town, these well attended sessions aimed to evaluate the state of the awards, whether any improvements could be made, and to get the ball rolling on nominations for the individual awards (Rising Star, Legend, Shepherd, Bell).
Here are some of the key takeaways from the sessions:
- There is resistance to introducing new awards due to the current length of the survey and event itself.
- The Rising Star award will include ‘shape shifter’ as one of the criteria.
- The Media Online is considering the re-introduction of 40 Under 40 – a search for 40 people in media under the age of 40 – as in the past this unearthed a vast pool of talented individuals who may well be nominated for Rising Stars in future.
- On the awards night we will add ‘reasons why’ agencies and owners have won to add context.
- We will continue to push for votes from in-house media employees within client companies (up by 7% in 2018).
Voting for the MOST Awards will open on 6 May, continuing until 5 July, and the awards evening will take place on 10 September.
Here are some photos from the Johannesburg focus groups.
Follow Michael Bratt on Twitter @MichaelBratt8
