The Wanderers reverberated to the sound of hundreds of media and marketing professionals celebrating the industry and its people on Thursday night.
Not since 2019 has the venerable venue, 135 years old in 2023, played host to the MOST Awards.
Presenter of The Flash Drive on Cape Town’s KFM, Carl Wastie, was host for the evening, his brand of humour and wit keeping the audience engaged and moving things swiftly along … with references to exciting happenings “upstairs” post-awards ceremony.
Nalesa Media certainly announced their presence to the industry with a media lounge, complete with roulette and blackjack tables, two DJs, a chill lounge and a party space.
The formal part of the evening – if one could even call it that considering the level of noise and excitement in the expanded auditorium – opened with news that the Advertising Media Association of Southern Africa was revived and ready once more to play its role within the media sector.
That role, said AMASA chairperson Parmeshan ‘Cheese’ Moodliar, is to educate, upskill, train and network media professionals. The audience was challenged to scan a QR code, register with the revitalised industry body, and help build its database. The popular AMASA Forum will be back in October.
Tribute to Sandra Gordon
And in another departure from MOST tradition, founder of the MOST Awards, Sandra Gordon, was honoured with a special award recognising her over 40 year dedication to South Africa’s media sector. A member of the MOST advisory board, Gordon said she was thrilled Arena, having bought the MOST Awards and The Media titles, had raised the bar on the awards, and said, “Wait until you see next year…”.
In true Gordon style, she couldn’t resist a dig at Wastie, saying she was pleased she had more hair than the host, who was “short and hairless”. Respect, said Wastie. Not many managed to roast him on his own stage.
Seriously, Gordon added, the commercial arms of the media – the media agencies and the media owners sales teams – played an enormous role in media freedom by financing good journalism and the public’s right to information. “Salute,” she said.
As always, news of individual award winners, the people voted for by their peers in the industry, raised the roof.
The MediaShop Cape Town’s Bonita Bachmann is the 2023 Media Agency Legend with MSG Afrika’s Given Mkhari the Media Owner Legend.
Media Owner Rising Star is Michelle Randall Sharnock from Digital Turbine, and Media Agency Rising Star went to Mindshare South Africa’s Adrian Naidoo.
Media Monitoring Africa and Media Inflation Watch’s Mike Leahy won the Bell Award with the hugely popular Celia Collins, VP of Publicis Media, the winner of the Shepherd award.
A new award was introduced this year, the MOST Admired Media and Marketing Professional, and it was won by Heineken’s Avtaar Mohanlall.
Read all about them in The Media magazine’s special MOST Awards issue.
Back to the awards
Media Agency of the Year went to Carat Johannesburg. “They push the boundaries and are not afraid to try new things. The Carat team are knowledgeable and down to earth. They manage expectations well and are transparent with their feedback from clients,” said one respondent in the MOST survey.
And Media Owner of the Year to Digital Turbine (now known has ‘heed’). A respondent said, “They are excellent thought-leaders in the industry, going beyond the selling of media space to offer agencies and clients the latest knowledge and innovation and push the boundaries of what it is that media owners deliver.”
Starting the media owner awards was the radio category, won by Mediamark, which went on to score awards for the Multimedia category as well as Trade Marketing Services. The team also came a healthy second in the Digital category. “What a fantastic evening at the MOST Awards,” they wrote on LinkedIn. “Together we do great things.”
e.tv took top honours in the Television category (unfortunately without a representative to receive the award), with stablemate eNCA coming second and DStv Media Sales in third position.
Ster-Kinekor and Cinevation Popcorn continue battling it out in the Cinema category, with Ster Kinekor pipping their rivals to the post.
Hotly contested
The hotly contested out of home category saw Relativ media take the title, with Epic Outdoor second and last year’s winner, Primedia Outdoor in third.
Digital Turbine (now known as heed and previously known as Ad:Colony) took top slot in the Digital category with Mediamark in second and Adspace24 in third.
Spark Media was top of the log in the Newspapers category with Adspace24 and Arena in second and third place respectively. The seriously and sadly depleted Magazine category had just one qualifier, and thus winner, in Media24 Lifestyle Magazines.
The hotly contested Multimedia category has three major players in the top three. Mediamark took the honours, followed by Primedia Broadcasting and DStv Media Sales. Digital Turbine, Mediamark Digital and Adspace24 were placed first, second and third in the Sales Consultants category.
Tractor Outdoor was the winner of the Lamb award for media owners, with Future Tech and Primedia Malls in second and third place respectively.
Now to the agencies
The perennially highly-rated Alphabet Soup topped the log of the Specialist Media Agency category with last year’s winner, FAME Media in second place and relative newbies Kintaro in third. Carat Johannesburg won the Full-Service category. And PHD Johannesburg came second with PHD Cape Town in third.
The MediaShop Cape Town was the winner of the Lamb award for media agencies, with Carat Cape Town second and Initiative Media in third place.
Last word to Ebony+Ivory’s Paul Middleton, who presented the Bell Award to winner Mike Leahy. He had some sage advice for the whole media industry about longevity in the media business. “Keep your mind, ears and eyes open. And your mouth shut.”
