Awards Wrap: Odd Number wins Independent Agency of the Year and other Loeries news, Women of the Future winners revealed, Good Hope FM announces Warrior Woman Awards finalists

The Media Online’s weekly column delivering news of award wins, entries, competitions, dates to note and winners in the media.

The Odd Number named Independent Agency of the Year at the Loeries 2024

In a night filled with creative recognition, The Odd Number established in 2015, stood out proudly securing the title of Independent Agency of the Year at the illustrious Loeries Awards 2024, held at the historic Cape Town City Hall last Friday night.

This significant accolade not only highlights The Odd Number’s exceptional contributions to the advertising landscape, but also underscores its unwavering commitment to innovation and excellence in the industry.

“Receiving this award is not just a milestone for our agency; it’s a celebration of every creative soul that has poured their heart and skill into our work. It’s a reminder that exceptional creativity is a collective effort that thrives in an environment of collaboration and inspiration. I’m incredibly proud to work alongside the best team in the business,” ssaid Sibusiso Sitole, chief creative officer of The Odd Number.

‘Our journey has been defined by a steadfast commitment to quality and a passion for elevating the industry standard. This recognition motivates us to continue pushing boundaries and explore new creative horizons, ensuring that our storytelling remains impactful and relevant in a rapidly evolving marketplace.”

Loeries Creative week is the biggest event in the calendar for the advertising and marketing industry in Africa and the Middle East. With most of the industry descending upon Cape Town from 7-11 October, it provides the perfect context for nurturing and inspiring the next generation of young women in the creative industry.

Nedbank and Open Chair host Friends in High Places

Open Chair, in partnership with Nedbank, hosted Friends in High Places – a speed dating event for young women in advertising and marketing. This is speed dating with a difference – it took place on The Cape Wheel where 65 mentees had face time with 31 mentors from across the industry.

The pods on the wheel served as an ideal safe space for women to share knowledge and receive guidance on how to navigate their careers, while taking in a breathtaking view.

Loeries is all about recognising, rewarding, inspiring and fostering creative excellence. This aligns very well with the mission of Open Chair, a non-profit organisation, dedicated to two key objectives:

1. To uplift and inspire the women of industry.
2. To help make the industry safer for all our people.

Open Chair was founded by Suhana Gordhan, independent creative leader and former chairperson of the Loeries, as part of a vision to help create more consciousness and connection between women in the industry. Gordhan’s partners at Open Chair are all industry stalwarts, including Nkgabiseng Motau, CCO & Founder of Think Creative Africa, Roanna Williams, CCO of Boundless, Fran Luckin, CCO of VML and Melina McDonald & Lorraine Smit, Co-Founders of Darling Films.

The women at Open Chair believe that one of the challenges we face as an industry, is empty chairs. There are far too few women occupying those chairs and far too many leaving them. This community was formed for the purpose of creating access to industry leaders. “

Open Chair has also developed a Code under the hashtag, #OnMyWatch, to advocate for better behaviour across the industry.

“We are truly grateful to our partners at Nedbank for supporting this event, and for recognising the importance of investing in mentorship, as a pathway to ensure that those empty chairs in leadership are filled by the brilliant, bright, young women coming up in this industry,” says Melina McDonald.

The plan is to continue to host more speed dating events throughout the year in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

You can adopt Open Chair’s Code, here: https://mailchi.mp/1d52ab85979d/xla1he1pbs

Leading through innovation: Bridget Harpur, recipient of The Loeries Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award

In 2007 The Loeries introduced the Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award. The award is to an individual in recognition of their marketing achievements over an extended period of time. Each year, a shortlist is compiled – based on the success of individuals and their brands over previous years at the Loeries.

This year’s winner is Bridget Harpur, head of marketing at VWSA. She recognises the heft of the achievement, but is also cognisant of the fact that it comes with a responsibility. She says, “Being recognised like this is such an honour but also feels like a weighty responsibility to do more to uplift the industry in any way that I can.”

Innovation is firmly entrenched as a cornerstone of the brand communication industry, but it’s also a subject that invites lip service. So, what does good innovation look like? “Innovation is a mindset. We owe it to the consumers whose space we invade to make it interesting, make it engaging and add value to their lives.”

Celebrating Young Creative Excellence with Joey Gordon, Loeries Young Creative Award Winner 2024

In a ceremony expertly hosted by SA comedy king Loyiso Madinga that celebrated the best African and Middle Eastern talent in the categories design, digital, out of home, print communication, B2B, social impact campaign and student a key highlight of the night was the awarding of the Young Creative Award to Joey Gordon.

Gordon, who plies her phenomenal trade with The Promise Group, having previously been on the books at Joe Public, said she “Feels very grateful and blessed,” adding that the magnitude of the achievement hasn’t “ Sunk in yet.”

“Joe public has really great brands that they work on, brands that give you really great opportunities. Being able to work on that really ups anyone’s porti. The calibre of work that you can do with those brands is very high.”

The Loeries plays a really vital role in the creative ecosystem. “This is the creative industry’s festive season, we always joke that the rest of the world have their festive season in December, but for us this is it. Even students at university, everyone knows about the Loeries as the top awards show and having your name next to that – that’s really big.”

Her most meaningful piece of work this year? “The Cure the Craving integrated campaign for Chicken Licken.” How is she going to celebrate her win? “I’m really chilled, but I think I’ll have a couple of tequilas and a glass of champaign.

Winners of the Santam Women of the Future Awards

The 10^th annual Santam Women of the Future Awards, in association with FAIRLADY and TRUELOVE, took place on Friday.

The awards recognised four exceptional women who have demonstrated innovation, leadership and commitment to social change in their respective fields. F

Santam’s many years of supporting women in business in South Africa have given the company valuable insight into the potential pitfalls of the entrepreneurial journey. “The Women of the Future Awards have capacitated women-owned businesses with skills that build their enterprises,” said Santam COO, Gugu Mtetwa.

“There’s a sense of optimism in our country that is exemplified by this year’s winners of the Santam Women of the Future Awards,” said FAIRLADY editor-in-chief Suzy Brokensha.

“Celebrating 10 years of the Women of the Future Awards gives us all the hope we need, as they showcase women who are actively investing in the economic and social welfare of our societies,” said Mbali Soga, TRUELOVE editor-in-chief.

• Santam Woman of the Future: Lilian Kistan of Tekwecomm: Lilian made the bold decision to buy struggling telecommunications company Tekwecomm – and turned it into a success. The company provides a variety of specialised services and products. Her vision has fuelled the company’s growth and transformed it into a leading business known for customer satisfaction and responsiveness. Winning the award is the ultimate achievement for Lilian. ‘It’s a recognition of our ability to challenge ourselves and be change agents in our field,’ she says.
• Santam Social Entrepreneur: Candice Potgieter of The Unlimited Child: Non-profit The Unlimited Child addresses early childhood development (ECD) interventions, and is the largest ECD organisation in South Africa and the fastest-growing in Africa. It aids more than 2 million children and 5 000 micro-enterprises across South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Yemen.
• Santam Rising Star: Zanele Njapha of The UnLearners: The former teacher turned CEO started The UnLearners, which is dedicated to guiding organisations in building a culture of learning, unlearning and relearning, making the often daunting process of change simpler, less scary and even enjoyable.
• Santam Readers’ Choice Award: Glynn Mashonga of Globescope: The founder and Chief Executive of Globescope is revolutionising the security industry with her bold vision, relentless drive, commitment to making communities safer and her ability to navigate the male-dominated security sector.

Hook, Line & Sinker wins international award for Creative PR & Communications Experts of the Year

The eighth annual Corporate Vision Small Business Awards has crowned integrated PR and Marketing agency, Hook, Line & Sinker(HLS) as ‘Creative PR & Communications Experts of 2024’.

The UK-based Business Awards celebrate the innovation and resilience of small businesses and entrepreneurial excellence worldwide.

HLS won the 2024 award for its exceptional customer growth and service, growth, creativity, and innovation. Established in 2019, just six months before Covid-19, the agency has grown from strength-to-strength in popularity and revenue, doubling staff and clients.

In 2023, the company scooped silver for South Africa’s Best Small PR Consultancy of the Year at the PRISM awards. It also won the Best Technology category and was the only agency awarded for the Healthcare category of 2023 (silver).

In addition, HLS founder, Adam Hunter was shortlisted as a finalist in Business Partners Limited’s Entrepreneur of the Year® Awards 2023, which received more than 250 entries from across the country.

Volkswagen Group Africa honoured with environmental award for 11th time

For an impressive 11th time, Volkswagen Group Africa has been honoured with the SJM Flex Environmental award at the 30th annual Exporters Eastern Cape awards held on Friday 11 October.

The SJM Flex Environmental award, which is given to an ISO 14001-accredited exporter who pursues excellence in environmental management, went to VWGA for the 11th time. This is also the fifth consecutive year that VWGA has been honoured with this accolade.

Additionally, the company received a merit award in the Best Exporter: OEM category.

Through an array of initiatives focusing on water, waste management, energy, carbon emissions, and volatile organic compounds, the company has succeeded in reducing their environmental impact by 57,7% since 2010.

Agency achieves significant success with an artificial intelligence-driven production process called Forge by Brave

Advertising holding company, Brave Group South Africa, announced that its AI-powered marketing process had caused the company to win five awards in the 2024 New Generation Awards.

The accolades were for work done for Nedbank by Brave Group using Forge by Brave, an innovative AI-driven marketing process that reshapes how campaigns are created, developed and delivered.

Brave Group and FORGE by Brave won awards for work done on campaigns for Nedbank:

Now in their twelfth year, the New Generation Awards has garnered an enviable reputation for being the largest performance-related, independent digital media awards in South Africa.

Standard Bank makes it a hat-trick of international recognition.

Standard Bank has once again won international recognition, this time from Forbes Magazine for being one of the World’s Best Employers.

Standard Bank has been ranked 18^th in the world, amongst the top 850 large multinational organisations.  The Bank emerged as the highest ranked company from Africa and ranked second in the Banking and Financial Services sector globally.   

“Our people are at the heart of what we do. This recognition is a profound demonstration of the value our 50 000 employees place in our organisation.  It’s phenomenal to be recognised as one of the World’s Best Employers for the second year in a row.  In fact, we’ve greatly improved our standing given that we were ranked 130th in 2023,” said Sim Tshabalala (left), Standard Bank Group Chief Executive.

The World’s Best Employers are chosen each year by Forbes in partnership with Statista, based on independent surveys completed by employees in over 50 countries. 

Good Hope FM announces Warrior Woman Awards finalists