The Media Online’s weekly column delivering news of award wins, entries, competitions, dates to note and winners in the media industry.
Pendoring e tjhunwa ke Hollard – extends deadline to 7 September
It has been a tumultuous time in this country and there have simply not been enough hours in the day to get through it all.
Thus we will be extending the deadline for entries to 7 September – keep them rolling in!
We especially urge you to look at the categories and rules that have been slightly adjusted to make room for the broader marketing and communications community. Corporate publications or annual reports, ATM interfaces, short films, music videos and the like can now happily be entered into the Pendoring Awards – as long as 70% of the work is in one of South Africa’s ten indigenous languages.
Pendoring GM Eben Keun explains: “We have removed words such as ‘commercial’ in reference to some film categories and expanded how we think about the definition of a ‘brand’ to include individual people with a public presence. For example, a musician, so an indigenous language music video can be entered; a content creator can enter into the Digital Crafts – Writing category, etc.”
A reminder that the Pendoring Awards are unique in that it is the only advertising competition in South Africa with substantial cash prizes, not only for the overall winners, but also for gold and silver winners in each category. See www.pendoring.co.za for entry details.
Pendoring, the platform that embraces country and industry to promote, unify and celebrate the richness of South Africa’s creative content in all its indigenous languages. Endorsed by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation). #SpeakSouthAfrican
Nat Nakasa Awards: Celebrating 23 years of courageous and brave journalism
Winners of the 23rd Nat Nakasa Journalism Awards, sponsored by SANLAM, were announced at a gala dinner at The Trevor Huddleston Memorial Centre in Sophiatown on Saturday (14 August). The flagship event of the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) awards journalists who have shown courage and tenacity in the face of enormous challenges and displayed a commitment to serving the people of SA with integrity, resisted censorship, and striven for truth and accuracy in their reporting.
The winner of the Nat Nakasa Award for 2021 is Styli Charalambous, the CEO and co-founder of Daily Maverick. Since its inception the publication has become one of the leading online and a printed publication in SA, in part because of the commitment and passion of the former chartered accountant. Styli says he is now “fully reformed and passionate about the media business”.
This year, the Nat Nakasa Award Community Media was made to Nathan Geffen and Raymond Joseph for their work in the community news agency GroundUp. Since 2018, this small community news agency has persisted with a series of investigations into the NLC that have uncovered corruption, maladministration, and nepotism. The news agency’s work in general — and its reporting on the lotteries scandal in particular— provides a sterling example of good community journalism in action. Editor Geffen started GroundUp ten years ago, as a donor-funded community news agency focusing on social justice issues.
The coveted Stephen Wrottesley Award went to Mahlatse Mahlase, chairperson of SANEF 2016 – 2020 and current secretary-general. The award was presented “for her passion, professionalism and commitment to SANEF and her dedication to media freedom and ethics.”
In addition, SANEF recognised five community radio stations this year who have shown determination and bravery in serving their communities: Alex FM; Westside FM 98.9 MHz; Mams Radio; Intokozo FM and Kasie FM 97.1. The prizes were awarded from the SANEF Media Relief Fund.
Peter Sullivan, convenor of the panel since 2006, offered the following: “There are many instances of courage in journalism, both under apartheid and the current democracy. Journalists yearn to laud their own, to show we do a tough job, sometimes under severe threat, often unappreciated and even scorned. This award shows our audience and the country and our fellows that their courage does not go unseen.”
MTV unveils VMA nominations
MTV unveiled the nominations for the 2021 VMAs, featuring artists whose cultural impact and work over the past year has transformed the music industry and created global conversation. Justin Bieber (7) leads this year’s list of nominees, followed closely by Megan Thee Stallion (6) with Billie Eilish, BTS, Doja Cat, Drake, Giveon, Lil Nas X and first-time nominee Olivia Rodrigo earning (5) nods apiece.
The 2021 VMAs return to New York City airing LIVE from Barclays Center on Monday, 13 September with the preshow starting at 00:00CAT and the main show airing at 2:00CAT on MTV Africa (DStv channel 130) & MTV Base (Dstv Channel 322). The awards spectacle will air in primetime on Monday 13 September at 17:30CAT (Preshow) and 19:00CAT (Main Show) on MTV Africa (DStv channel 130).
Fans can vote for their favoUrites across 14 gender-neutral categories, including Video of the Year, Artist of the Year, Best Collaboration and more by visiting vma.mtv.com. The VMAs are set to be one of the first fan-filled awards shows in NYC since the city’s reopening.
Judges announced for very first Effie Awards South Africa
The Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) and Effie Awards South Africa are pleased to announce that the jury for the 2021 Effie Awards South Africa has been confirmed.
Members of the jury for the first Effie Awards to be held on African soil are extremely experienced in the marketing, communications and advertising sector, consisting of industry leaders and trail blazers drawn from a variety of disciplines including strategy, digital, creative, research, media and marketing. Highly regarded across the broader industry, the judges will be tasked with Awarding Ideas that Work®.
“The judging panel for the first Effie Awards South Africa is truly diverse and representative of the entire sector, consisting of top-level, experienced professionals on both client and agency side. As a whole, they represent a variety of advertising and marketing disciplines, key to an effective and equitable process,” said Mathe Okaba, CEO of the ACA. “The level of experience, coupled with the varied panels adjudicating cases across the first two rounds and Grand Effie, ensures that winning cases would have been subjected to extensive rigour throughout the adjudication process. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the panel for agreeing to participate and we look forward to announcing the first Effie Awards South Africa winners in October.”
The Effie South Africa Jury adjudicates entries during the first round of judging that took place from the 13-17th August 2021 The second round of judging will run from the 3–7 September 2021.
A Grand Effie judging session will take place from the 5–7 October 2021, where a possible winner may be selected from the top tier of gold-winning cases. Judged by a third jury panel made up of C-Suite representatives, the Grand Effie will be awarded to the entry adjudicated the most effective winning case.
The list of judges is here.
Deadline for 2021Galliova Awards entries is fast approaching
Despite the constantly changing local media landscape, the South African Poultry Association (SAPA) remains committed to supporting local media and hosting the annual Galliova Awards to honour excellence in South African food and health journalism. As such, the 2021 awards are on track, with entries closing in three weeks’ time.
This year the event will again be adjusted to suit the changing media industry and Covid-19 safety protocols. A virtual event will be held on 15 October 2021, for all entrants, where this year’s winners will be announced. It is hoped that in 2022, food and health journalists will be able to come together again and enjoy the full Galliova Awards experience.
Further changes to the entry criteria and prize allocation were made in 2021 by the SAPA board and Galliova judges. Full details of the amendments can be found on the SAPA website.
As a long-time supporter of the South African media industry, SAPA is aware of the ongoing challenges facing this sector following the closure of several magazines in 2020 and the relaunching of certain tiles in 2021. By way of demonstrating its commitment to the industry in these challenging times, SAPA has allocated more than R136 000 in cash prizes for the 2021 Galliova Award winners.
The new award category piloted in 2020 for invited digital food influencers who host a popular digital food platform via a blog, Facebook or Instagram page, or all three, will be continued this year, and will now include cash prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
Due to declining entries for the up-and-coming writer award, this category has not been included in 2021. It will, however, be reconsidered in future.
