The Media Online’s weekly column delivering news of award wins, entries, competitions, dates to note and winners in the media industry.
Nat Nakasa Award for Courageous Journalism
Nominations for the 2021 Nat Nakasa Award for courageous journalism are now open. Members of the public can nominate a media practitioner – journalist, editor, manager or publisher who has:
- Shown integrity and reported fearlessly
- Displayed a commitment to serve the people of South Africa
- Tenaciously striven to maintain a publication or other medium despite significant obstacles
- Resisted any censorship
- Shown courage in making information available to the SA public
To ensure that courage is highlighted within the community media sector, a specific award will be dedicated to a community media journalist, editor, manager or owner.
The winners will be selected by a panel of judges on the strength of nominations submitted by the public. The winners will be celebrated at a ceremony to be held in August.
The deadline for submission of nominations is midnight Wednesday 30 June 2021. Please send your written nominations and clear evidence-based motivations with reference to the criteria above to admin@sanef.org.za.
Winners in the 2021 PRISM Awards revealed
Africa’s most sought-after awards in the public relations and communications industry, the PRISM Awards, have been announced.
In a virtual format hosted by TV presenter, Thabiso Makhubela, and judged by industry peers, digital strategy development agency, Retroviral, walked away with this year’s most coveted award, the South African Campaign of the Year award for their #MyKreepyTeacher campaign for Kreepy Krauly. #MyKreepyTeacher is an excellent parody of the Netflix documentary, My Octopus Teacher, produced by South African Craig Foster.
Other industry favourites went to DNA Brand Architects for Best Large PR Agency, Magna Carta for the International Campaign, Best PR Professional went to Razor PR’s Dustin Chick and Student Campaign of the Year to University of Johannesburg (UJ).
The industry was also introduced to this year’s PRISM Young Voices (PYV) – PR Land’s under 30 talent set to take the industry by storm. DNA Brand Architects All Star, Sicelo Vilakazi, was announced as the PYV of the Year for the 2019 cohort as voted for by his peers.
“We appreciate the steadfast support from our consultancies that enter work into the awards process, and after such a challenging year with COVID-19, this year’s awards are in honour of the work, and the people behind each campaign, and of course our outstanding judges, who spend hours ensuring that the best campaigns get the recognition they deserve,” said Palesa Madumo, convenor of the PRISM Awards 2021.
The full list of winners is here.
Cannes Lions releases a few shortlists ahead of awards
The first shortlists for the Cannes Lions Awards are now available. And the good news is a few South African agencies have made it through to the next round.
In the Glass: The Lion for Change category, TBWA Hunt Lascaris (Johannesburg) is shortlisted for its Blame No More campaign about rape victim blaming in Hype Magazine. FoxP2 have also made the shortlist with its 16 Days of Flight for First for Women insurance.
The Cannes Lions Awards are now just over two weeks away, and the first shortlists are now live for the following Lions: Glass: The Lion for Change, in partnership with Facebook; Innovation Lions, and the Titanium Lions, in partnership with Microsoft.
In the next round of judging, the above shortlisted entrants will have to present to the LIONS Jurors live for a full interrogation of the work.
The Cannes Lions schedule is here.
Perfect 10 for the Retroviral group at PRISA #PrismAwards2021
Retroviral made it a perfect 10 at this weekend’s PRISA Prism Awards, scooping the coveted Campaign of the Year Award for the branded content breakout hit of lockdown – #MyKreepyTeacher – leading its sweep.
“We produced some of the most innovative and imaginative creative during lockdown for our clients, based on the necessity to operate in a brave new world. We pride ourselves on our creative solution-making and it’s a euphoric moment receiving multiple awards for our multiple ideas at our best PRIMS showing ever,” said Mike Sharman, CCO of Retroviral.
#MyKreepyTeacher, a collaboration between the agency and production company Panther Punch, also starred and was directed by the award-winning Glen Biderman-Pam. The campaign claimed an additional two Gold’s in the category PR on a shoestring, and Consumer PR for an existing product or service categories.
Retroviral took home the Silver award in Campaign of the Year for its anti-GBV campaign for 1st for Women: My Body (Stand Up). a collaboration with 10th Street, Tiger Fight, Webfluential and I Heart PR. My Body (Stand Up), also secured a Silver and Bronze for Media Relations and Financial Services, respectively.
For Gumtree South Africa, a Silver Award for #PreLovedLove songs in the Înfluencer Management category. Retroviral partnered with two of the country’s most successful lockdown content creators – Donovan Goliath and Davina Gordon – to create a series of music videos, celebrating various genres, in an influencer marketing campaign dedicated to letting go of your unused goods and listing them on Gumtree.
Retroviral’s sports sister agency – Retroactive – rounded out the wins for the group with two Special Mentions for its MatchKit.co athlete platform business borne out of the impact of Covid-19 on sports professionals.
Pippa Misplon, managing director of Retroviral said: “The level of creativity and excellence at this year’s awards was incredible so we are thrilled for our clients and teams to have been recognised for creative excellence by our peers.”
Eclipse Communications adds another award-winning feather to its cap
Eclipse Communications won a total of four awards at the 2021 PRISM Awards, held on Friday, 4 June 2021, including two gold awards and two silver awards.
Eclipse Communications managing partner and Africa Lead, Cheryl Reddy, said the agency was delighted with these awards as it is a testament to the great work produced by the collective team.
“Our philosophy, ‘Guiding your Growth’, underpins every aspect of what we do, and is applied to the clients we work with as well as the people we employ and retain. For us, our focus remains to create and implement measurable, impactful work in the communications sector and when we happen to win awards for this, it is a bonus,” said Reddy.
Among the awards won for Eclipse Communications:
- Gold Award: Netflix Blood & Water in the Arts and Entertainment category with Clockwork. In the same category, Eclipse Communications received a Special Mention for its impactful work on the Season 1 launch of Netflix Queen Sono.
- Gold Award: Netflix Blood & Water in the Social Media as a primary method of communication category with Clockwork.
- Silver Award: Netflix Blood & Water in the Consumer PR for an Existing Product, Service or category with Clockwork
- Silver Award: Netflix Blood & Water in the Best use of an Event to Build/Change Reputation category with Clockwork
This year, Eclipse Communications sponsored the Best Up-and-Coming PR Professional category, as well as the PRISM Young Voices Initiative, as part of the agency’s commitment to acknowledging, nurturing and growing South Africa’s emerging talent.
The Loeries deadline extended to 15 June: Here’s how to enter with no physical material
INMA recognises 58 initiatives with top prizes in Global Media Awards
The International News Media Association (INMA) has unveiled winners in its 2021 Global Media Awards competition, with a German regional publisher taking the top prize and an Austrian regional publisher nabbing the most first-place trophies.
In a ceremony broadcast via INMA.org, YouTube, and Facebook Live, INMA revealed 58 first-place winners across 20 categories aimed at surfacing innovation and best practices in news brands, optimising the use of media platforms, subscriptions, business development, and data and insights.
The Global Media Awards competition announcement was supported by the Google News Initiative. Winning the coveted Best In Show was Mittelbayerische Zeitung and its collaborative ‘Drive’ initiative of regional German publishers sharing data, resources, and insights to support their digital subscription strategy.
Judges selected from finalists the best in six world regions. Announced were:
- Best in Africa: Nation Media Group for Nation Leadership Forum
- Best in Asia/Pacific: Stuff for Ta Matou Pono, Our Truth
- Best in Europe: Mittelbayerische Zeitung for Drive
- Best in Latin America: El Colombiano for Dame tres minutos y te explico
- Best in North America: The Globe and Mail for Fully dynamic, personalised, real-time paywall
- Best in South Asia: The Hindustan Times for Hindustan Times Code-a-Thon: India’s Largest Coding Olympiad
“Not surprisingly, the outstanding entries in this year’s competition leaned heavily into COVID responses along with shifting priorities during a tumultuous year: product, data, and subscriptions,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA. “Another underlying theme was about communicating the values held by news brands amid the misinformation explosion and the rise of algorithms, data, and machine learning in the everyday running of a media company.”
