Awards Wrap: Lobengula positions Effie Awards SA for greater industry impact, Digital Media Africa awards calls for video entries

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

Lobengula powers Effie Awards South Africa to greater industry impact

The 2024 Effie Awards South Africa campaign set out with a critical challenge: to reignite industry participation, elevate awareness, and position the Effies as the premier recognition of marketing effectiveness.

Tasked with delivering a campaign that would drive meaningful results, Lobengula Advertising developed a pro bono creative strategy that not only met but exceeded expectations—surpassing the 15% growth target, with 78 entries received.

With entry numbers stagnant in previous years, the task for 2024 was clear: how do you make an award known for its rigorous standards the one that marketers and agencies aspire to win?

Lobengula Advertising approached this by applying a structured strategic framework to the campaign:

Objective: Drive a 15% increase in entries and elevate the Effies as the premier marketing effectiveness award.
Challenge: The Effies’ prestige makes them highly desirable, but also daunting—many marketers and agencies shy away from entering due to the perceived difficulty of winning.
Insight: When something feels unattainable, people often desire it even more. The harder the challenge, the greater the perceived value of achieving it.
Strategic Idea: Position the Effies as the ultimate validation of marketing impact, where winners don’t just receive an award—they prove their work delivers real business results.

Lobengula brought this thinking to life through the big idea: Some Things You Can’t Fake. The campaign played to the unique credibility of the Effies—where winning isn’t about perception but proven effectiveness. Unlike other awards, where creativity is subjective, Effie winners have the results to back it up.

The 2024 campaign successfully lifted participation, heightened engagement, and reinforced the Effies’ credibility as the industry’s definitive effectiveness award:

Surpassed the 15% growth target, with 78 entries received.
Increased engagement from agencies and marketers, reaffirming the awards’ prestige.
Broadened participation in the judging process, strengthening industry involvement.

“Lobengula’s campaign was instrumental in elevating the Effie Awards South Africa,” says Gillian Rightford, Executive Director of the ACA. “Their insight-driven approach helped drive higher entry numbers, increased engagement from key industry players, and reinforced the Effies’ role as the benchmark for marketing effectiveness. Their ability to interpret the brief and execute it with precision was invaluable.”

Following the success of the 2024 campaign, Lobengula Advertising will once again lead the creative execution for Effie South Africa in 2025.

Take home the Digital Media Awards with your Best Video Project

Video has become the king of digital content. African publishers can earn recognition at the Digital Media Awards Africa by submitting a project in the Best Use of Video category.

Organisers WAN-Ifra are interested in video projects that tell compelling stories and enhance audience experience, engagement and brand awareness. Judges will evaluate creativity, technical quality, storytelling, and content distribution strategy. The submission doesn’t need to be a standalone video but can be part of a larger initiative.

In previous editions, WAN-IFRA has awarded video initiatives that fulfilled an educational purpose on important issues like climate change or also worked as an alternative to capture younger audiences on topics often overlooked by traditional media. This year, your project can be part of this prestigious group!

If your entry has also driven greater engagement, helped combat misinformation, attracted new subscribers and/or generated higher revenue, it may qualify for additional categories giving you even more chances to win.

Deadline for entries is 28 February. Enter here.

Gerety 2025 Middle East & Africa jury announced

The Gerety Awards will hold in person jury sessions in 15 locations around the world and brings together agency and brand leaders to reward the most creative work from a powerful perspective.

Entries submitted must be broadcast, published or released in a commercial environment with client approval between 1 January 2024 and the closing date.

The judging criteria is the originality of the creative ideas and the quality of their executions.

The MEA executive jury includes:

Houda Tohme, CEO HAVAS Media Middle East, UAE
Noor Wafa, Associate Creative Director VML Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Joumana Micaelian, Managing Partner and Head of Communication PIMO, Lebanon
Bianca Geater, Design Director Dentsu Creative, UAE
Koo Govender, CEO Publicis Groupe Africa, South Africa
Linda Kachingwe-Sisya, Executive Head of Marketing and Communications Africa and International-RMB and FNB, South Africa
Dina Jreissati, Senior Marketing & Communications Advisor, UAE
Nour Deeb, Creative Director FP7 McCann, UAE
Sara Eid, Regional Creative Director ServicePlan, Saudi Arabia
Sally Tambourgi, Executive Creative Director VML Dubai, UAE
Yasmina Boustani, Creative Director Edelman, UAE
Aakriti Goel, Head of Strategy & Insights Leo Burnett MEA (Middle East & Africa), UAE
Nnenna Onyewuchi, Co-Founder/Executive Director YBR Lagos, Nigeria
Kirsty O’Connor, Regional Director –Innovation & Creative Hub Lead BURSON, UAE
Jeanine Gomes, Group Creative Head MullenLowe South Africa

Enter this year’s Gerety at www.geretyawards.com

SAP Africa Partner Awards highlight excellence, innovation in growing partner ecosystem

SAP has recognised the top-performing companies in its partner ecosystem at this year’s annual SAP Africa Partner Awards.

The awards recognise outstanding achievements, excellence and growth within the partner organisations that support the delivery of digital transformation solutions to Africa’s public and private sector.

The winners at this year’s SAP Africa Partner Awards are:

Vodacom, winner of the Rising Star category, which recognises the number and value of cloud books for a new partner onboarded in the past year;
Deloitte and Dimension Data, joint winners of the Innovation Award;
Tano Digital Solutions, which claimed the Top Cloud Performance category, recognising the value of cloud bookings and the number of cloud deals secured;
Deloitte, winner of the Go Lives category, which recognises the number of customer go-lives;
Epi-Use Africa, winner of the Top Capacity Growth category for the percentage increase in certified cloud consultants and the amount of training conducted within their business; and
ITGest, which won the NNN category recognising the number of net-new sales and the value of net-new deals.

Exabeam wins Best Threat Detection, Investigation and Response Solution at the 2025 CYSEC Qatar Awards

Exabeam, a global cybersecurity leader that delivers AI-driven security operations, has won the award for Best Threat Detection, Investigation and Response at the 13th edition of the CYSEC Qatar Awards.

The self-hosted LogRhythm SIEM platform and cloud-native New-Scale Security Operations Platform have been recognized for their ability to provide security operations center (SOC) teams with the insights to identify anomalies, swiftly respond to emerging threats, and meet regulatory compliance standards.

Mobile Journalism Awards deadline looms

There are great prizes, including gear from Blackmagic Design, cash and travel to Italy sponsored by the United Nations IFAD. Winners will have their work screened at the NABshow in Las Vegas and the International Journalism Festival in Perugia in April.

#MojoAwards categories: