South Africa’s digital publishing industry honoured the strategists, creators and platforms at the 13th annual Bookmark Awards held virtually on Thursday evening.
The theme was ’13 years of moving the industry forward’, and the results showed just how far we’ve come with some extraordinary campaigns and work recognised. But Gold awards were in short supply, with only 12 awarded across a number of categories.
“It was a very strong year for the awards, with the judges voting in an almost a like for like conversion from entries to wins,” said IAB CEO, Paula Hulley. “Gold was probably on par to 2021, but seemed to have featured more strongly in the craft and innovation categories. It seems Silver was higher compared to 2020 – and across more categories, and could give indication on how the industry is strengthening across the multiple Bookmarks categories representing the full digital opportunity.”
Promise scored several Golds for its AnBev Castle Lite Cold Trackers campaign: Best use of data, integrated mixed media campaign, craft Gold for excellence in software, coding and technical innovation, Internet of Things, and platform innovation.
Some other Golds went to:
- King James Group for Sanlam’s The Olympian ad in the integrated mixed media campaign category, which also won a Craft Gold in excellence in online video production
- Clockwork for Microsoft in the use of CRM, loyalty programmes and gamification category
- Joe Public United for the South African National Blood Service’s ‘A few minutes is worth a lifetime’ in the channel innovation category; and Gold for The Abused News in teh VR and AR category for People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA)
- Craft Gold to News24 in the excellence in news or feature writing category for Tammy Petersen’s body of work on Exodus: Uncovering a cult in KwaZulu-Natal
- Craft Gold to HelloFCB+ in the excellence in digital media category for its ‘bouquets for bros’ for Netflorist
“Double digit growth in digital media over the past few years demonstrates that digital is important in the overall media ecosystem. Digital is no longer new media … it’s just an important player in the media ecosystem,” said Fahmeeda Cassim-Surtee, CEO of DStv Media Sales. “As consumers consume more content online – this phenomenon will just experience more growth in those spaces. Particularly from a Connected TV perspective, as it affords us a bigger voice in the digital space and we look forward to partnering with brands on this digital first journey.”
Hulley thanked industry and future leaders for “shining a light on the meaningful opportunity that digital creates to move our industry forward. The work and the teams that win at the Bookmark Awards sets the benchmark for digital excellence and we celebrate with all our 2021 finalists and 2021 winners who demonstrate the power of digital to achieve business objectives and beyond”.
Please see the full list of 2021 Bookmark Award Winners here.
