The Media Online’s weekly column delivering news of award wins, entries, competitions and winners in the media industry.
2019 Amasa Award winners celebrated
The 2019 Amasa Awards ceremony’s celebration of excellence in the media industry last Thursday resulted in a tie for Agency of the Year Award between Dentsu Redstar and last year’s winners, Playmakers.
Dentsu Redstar, the global agency set up to manage Heineken’s media business, also walked off with the coveted Roger Garlick Grand Prix Award for their award-winning entry in the Best Use of Mobile category, for Heineken’s “When you drive, never drink” campaign.
A number of new categories were added to this year’s Amasa Awards to accommodate the growth and development of the industry, including a new award that looks beyond our borders and recognises work across the continent: Best Integrated Campaign: Rest of Africa. Mediacom South Africa took the honours here, with a Highly Commended award for Coca Cola’s Coke and a Meal campaign.
Starcom wins GOLD at the 2019 AMASA Awards
Starcom clinched GOLD as the Best Online Campaign for their Mondelez, Cadbury P.S Valentines Day campaign, and took home a Highly Commended award in the Best Integrated FMCG category for their Mondelez, ‘Hall’s – OMFCC’ campaign.
The team is ecstatic to have taken home top honours in two of the most competitive categories at the Awards, demonstrating their strength across digital disciplines.
“They say you get what you work for not what you wish for. Our Starcom team has certainly proven this point over the last year and we are thrilled and humbled by the recognition from the industry,” says a thrilled Kate Carlisle-Kitz, MD for Starcom South Africa.
See the full list of 2019 Amasa Award Winners here.
Jacaranda FM, Martin Bester scoop triple Best of Pretoria Awards
Jacaranda FM held onto all three its crowns at the Best of Pretoria Readers’ Choice Awards 2019 last week. The awards celebrate the best that Pretoria has to offer, with Rekord readers casting their votes for the best people and things in the capital city – from their favourite stores, service providers, markets, brands, restaurants, venues and educational institutions, to their favourite clubs, sporting stars, artists and radio stations.
Jacaranda FM won the awards for Best Local radio station, Best Local radio show (Jacaranda FM Breakfast with Martin Bester) and Best local radio personality (Martin Bester) – each one, for the second year in a row.
“Everything that happens at Jacaranda FM is a team effort, with some of the best talent in SA radio working tirelessly to push the boundaries of this powerful medium,” says Jacaranda FM’s Marketing Manager, Leith Smith.
“These awards provide an excellent benchmark to ensure that we are on the right track with bringing our listeners and advertisers world-class content, breaking news, engaging events, community projects that change SA for the better and a constant flow of more music you love. We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to every person who voted for us and a big word of congratulations to the other winners.”
Listeners can tune in to Jacaranda FM from anywhere in South Africa through the listen live platform, or via the Jacaranda FM app.
See all the Best of Pretoria winners here.
Flow crowned at the Africa Global Funds Service Providers Awards
Independent Johannesburg-based, communications agency Flow Communications has added yet another award to its cabinet: Best Marketing and Communication Consultancy Award by Africa Global Funds, the only international awards for African fund services.
Held at Sandton’s Radisson Blu Hotel last Thursday, Africa Global Funds’ Service Providers Awards provide industry and public recognition of outstanding effort, work and the accomplishments of African fund service providers.
This was the first time Flow had entered the awards. “We were thrilled to be shortlisted, and over the moon that we won,” says Flow CEO, Tara Turkington. “This is recognition on a significant scale. This category – Best Marketing and Communication Consultancy – is the only category of the awards dedicated to the vitally important role that communications play in fund management and delivery.
“It was a very competitive shortlist. We congratulate the other shortlisted agencies for excellent work. It’s fantastic to see the quality of fund communications that’s being delivered in Africa. The stakes are high. The bar has been set. It’s upward from here, for all of us.”
Canal Walk scoops two Footprint Marketing Awards
Canal Walk Shopping Centre (CWSC) has once again been recognised for its sterling retail marketing campaigns, picking up two Footprint Marketing Awards at the South African Council of Shopping Centres (SACSC) Congress: a Bronze for the #CWSquad Brand in the advertising category, and a goldfor the #CWSquad Brand Campaign in the digital category.
The SACSC Footprint Marketing Awards are geared to promoting excellence and innovation in marketing and communications within the retail centre sector. Categories include recognition for campaigns that address development – being expansion or renovation; sales promotion and events, community relations, visual merchandising as well as advertising and digital campaigns.
Canal Walk’s winning campaign is a prime example of focused influencer marketing that draws on hyper-localised influencers with engaged followers. Canal Walk’s #CWSquad consists of Nadia Jaftha, Aqeelah Harron Ally and Paula Lakay; real life friends who encapsulate community, fun and friendship.
See full list of winners here.
Cell C wins top customer service award for second consecutive year
Cell C received the Overall Telecommunications Industry Award at the 2019/2020 Ask Afrika Orange Index Awards for customer service for the second consecutive year.
Now in its 18th year, the Ask Afrika Orange Index ranked 193 companies across 31 industries, benchmarking customer satisfaction, emotional satisfaction and loyalty drivers based on robust nationally representative sample sizes.
Cell C’s Chief Executive Officer, Douglas Craigie Stevenson says, “We have focused on service to build brand loyalty amongst our 16 million customers over the past 12-18 months, including launching new company values in 2018 with customer centricity at the heart of what we do. This award is testament to the commitment of Cell C’s employees, and I thank them for remaining focused on servicing our customers.”
Cell C has received various other industry accolades for customer service over the past year, including: BrandsEye for fastest customer response and most positive sentiment among consumers using social media; and The South African Telecommunications Sentiment Index that acknowledged Cell C as the most positively discussed service provider on social media, exceeding the industry average by 8,3%.
amandla.mobi announced as a Tech for Global Good 2019 Laureate
South Africa’s amandla.mobi will be among the laureates from around the globe honoured at the third annual Tech for Global Good celebration in the US on 2 November, 2019.
Tech for Global Good is a US based year-round program designed to create a and celebrate the next generation of innovators ready to tackle the toughest challenges facing the planet.
The stories of these laureates are the bedrock of the program. Each is featured in a prominent exhibit, as well as in educational materials and workshops used in classrooms and at The Tech Interactive, a science and technology centre in downtown San Jose.
In 2019-20, The Tech for Global Good honours four laureates who, through the use of technology, enable women and others often excluded from full participation in the world around them to fully engage in civic life.
“We need to constantly be thinking about ways to harness technology creatively to build the world we want, rather than leaving it solely to those whose only interests are profits, exploitation and worse,” explains amandla.mobi executive director, Koketso Moeti.
“As we know, technology is not neutral and is all too often used to reinforce existing inequalities, so for us at amandla.mobi it’s important to constantly be thinking about how it can also be used to help us fight back and help to build more just a world,” concludes Moeti.
The exhibit, a dramatic imagining of how the best uses of technology can change our world for the better, will be launched at the centre of The Tech Interactive in a celebration showcasing the work being done by the laureates.
Find more info here.
Ndlovu Youth Choir and Tumi Morake headline BBQ Awards 2020
The Ndlovu Youth Choir is wowing the world after becoming the first African group to reach the finals of America’s Got Talent. They’ve been nominated for the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, and signed up by music mogul, Simon Cowell.
They’ve also been announced as the headline act the prestigious 18th Black Business Quarterly (BBQ) Awards gala evening on 13 March 2020, hosted by the inimitable Tumi Morake, aka South Africa’s First Lady of Comedy. The first woman to host Comedy Central on African soil with her edgy brand of comedy, Morake has also been making her mark on the globe, having won numerous awards including the You Favourite Comedian Award and Mboko Women in The Arts Award for Excellence in Comedy.
With President Cyril Ramaphosa set to deliver the plenary address, the BBQs, a popular fixture on the South African business events calendar, promises to be yet another star-studded affair. hosted by Cape Media at Emperors Palace, the illustrious event is attended by 1000 of South Africa’s most elite and influential black business people, entrepreneurs, and industrialists. Awards consist of 15 categories open to individuals, black-owned and empowered companies in South Africa.
Find more information, and book your table here.
Call for entries: Apply to speak at Cannes Lions
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has been bringing the creative communications industry together every year since 1954 at its one-of-a-kind event in Cannes to learn, network and celebrate. For speakers, it’s the ultimate career and profile builder – and you, too, could have an opportunity to make your mark on the industry.
Cannes Lions is on the lookout for experts, innovators and important new voices from across the creative marketing space to set the stage alight in 2020. Submissions are now open, themes have been announced and you’ll find everything you need to know about how to craft a perfect proposal in the Call for Content guide.
Organisers are asking for unique and original thinking, brilliant ideas, and pioneering research. As a speaker, you need to show our community how to unlock creative potential. You also need to challenge and captivate an audience.
The opportunity to speak on stage at the Festival is open to anyone and everyone who has a solution to offer our community. Cannes Lions is a totally level playing field; there is no payment for platforming content – they’re simply looking for great ideas from extraordinary people.
Deadline for submissions of your talk idea is Friday, 10 January 2020.
The festival runs from 22-26 June 2020.
Find more info and submission guidelines here.
