Comments by the Creative Circle chairperson, Chris Gotz - Ogilvy
"Overall, the body of work the judges presided over was world class, with a few notable exceptions. I think we still have a way to go in digital, in TV and in the direct and promotional mediums. Our radio, print and outdoor is lovely. I thought the panel's Ad of the Year decisions were, in just about all of the categories, bang on."
"There was much good print work on show, including work that had already collected Cannes Lions. In third place was a smart campaign from Y&R for the Joburg Zoo. Second was some beautifully shot and finished ads for Sampro "Rediscover Dairy" from Fox P2 - good, fresh, surprising thinking too. First, probably a very popular Ad of the Year (well I love it anyway), was the Enterprise campaign from Hunts Joburg. Lovely ideas that captured complete stories in a single page, something we all know is hard to do. Lovely art direction too. A well-deserved and conclusive winner in a quality field of work."
The panel remarked on the diverse range of work that is now cropping up in this category. We came across everything from 96 sheeters with a twist to large, powerful outdoor spectaculars. There may be a case, as Cannes did, for awarding two Ad of the Year trophies in this category - one for 'conventional' flat media outdoor and another for the kitchen sink ambient extravaganzas.
"We had a tie for third place. In this case, two pieces that clearly demonstrate the divergence of the work we are coming across in the category. The first was from Y&R, a classic, simple, "wish I'd done that" piece for client Land Rover. Then the refreshing (if you can use that word when talking about Doom and roaches) "Roachville" ambient campaign for Doom, once again from Hunts Joburg. In second place was Hunts again for its "Wall of shoes" for Doom. This is one to watch in the big international shows I think. The Outdoor Ad of the Year was the wonderful "Add Hope/Subtract hunger" campaign for KFC from Ogilvy Joburg. About time this truly great work got the attention it deserves, nice to see a winner with real substance, scale and impact."
"Another category where we are seeing a great variety of work turn up and so it should. Experiential is essentially our Direct/Promo/Activation work all grouped together. I must admit I think we could be stronger here. Our 'guerrilla' style ideas and insights are so well-suited to really slam-dunking in this territory, and we're not really seeing that yet. That having been said we had some quality work make it over the line (I have now used up my one allowable sporting analogy).
"There was a tie for third. Jonny Walker's "Single Bottle Store" by King James showing us how to do a classy, 'sticky' activation with a digital spin. Alongside it was Fox Top TV's "Walking Dead" cinema activation, extra points for innovative use of zombies by Ireland Davenport. In second place, was the delightful "Ballet box" for the SA Ballet Theatre from Joe Public, which achieved the impossible by doing something quite beautiful, magical and touching in a Johannesburg shopping mall. The winner was the McDonald's "Inflatable Lounge" from DDB, yet another smart piece from the Kid's Birthday Parties campaign. It just seems to just run and run. It was another popular winner, especially with small, demonic children."
"We remain a radio super power. It is hard to believe we used to beat up on ourselves about the quality of our radio a few years back. There was lots of very good stuff here, combining humour, smart use of sound and the inevitable plethora (extra points for using the word plethora) of monologues.
"Even in third place, we had lovely work. I salute you, copywriter at Hunt Lascaris who wrote the Steers Ice Cream spots. A great insight, great execution, and even in the translations from the vernacular, they had me laughing (silently, of course, because it's "totally not cool" to laugh during Ad of the Year judging).
"Tied for third with Steers was the Nampak campaign: "3 ply tissue for 3 ply issues," also from Hunts (damn them), wonderfully simple idea for 3-ply loo paper, of all things and not a poo joke in sight.
In second place, were the hugely entertaining Flight Centre spots, once again from Hunts, the perfect storm of insight, idea and flawless execution. Listen to them if you want to know what that sounds like.
"Finally, the big one in this category, the Ad of the Year for radio. Once again, Jenny and Brent from Network #BBDO hit it out of the park with the Mercedes Benz Alert Assist Campaign. Evocatively written, great ideas at the heart of the spots, near-perfect execution, Grand Prix winner already at Cannes, most winning radio campaign in the world this year - you get the point. A wonderful beginning to their tenure as Exec CD's at Network, well done. The monologue, it appears, is far from dead."
"Television as a whole was of a high standard, but it was not stratospherically good. South Africa will not win the Grand Prix for TV this year and that is the standard we have to meet. There was no grand collision of idea, craft, scale and executional perfection that the very best spots have in truckloads, although I would argue some of the winners came very close.
"In third place, we had the super low budget films for the Loeries campaign from Jupiter Joburg. They certainly had the panel chuckling (silently, of course). In a tie for second was the Standard Bank anthem "Sh--boom" from Hunts Joburg, which will lodge in your head for hours afterwards if you're not careful. Then there was the totally Cannes worthy film/cinema combo from Fox P2 for Ster-Kinekor , "Intersection", which is every bit as impressive as it needs to be to truly underline the power of the big screen. We will be seeing more of that one, I think.
"Our TV winner has been a big crowd favourite for some time, both with ad folk and the galleries. It is difficult to take Xenophobia, which is such a sensitive issue here, and completely lampoon it, at the same time celebrating our wonderful diversity (and, of course, the diversity of their menu items) but somehow the clever and talented folk at Black River FC managed. Nando's "Diversity" is pitch perfect. It's funny, satirical, a bit cutting, decent product link (a bit reachy but that is ok, it is Nando's) and even some lekker special effects thrown in.
"Apologies for the lengthy treatise, but it is Ad of the Year, so we need to give the work due credit and consideration."
Chris Gotz, Ogilvy (Chairperson)
Adam Livesey, TBWA Hunt Lascaris
Ahmed Tilly, BlackRiver FC
Fran Luckin, Ogilvy Jhb
Festus Masekwameng, Mojomr
Graham Lang, Y&R
Grant Sitole, Draftfcb
Gina King, Ireland-Davenport
Jenny Glover, Net#Work BBDO
Jonathan Deeb, Havas
Justin Gomes, FoxP2
Karin Barry McCormack, KingJames
Matthew Brink, TBWA Hunt Lascaris
Mick Shepard, M&C Saatchi
Nathan Reddy, Grid Design
Pepe Marais, Joe Public
Rob McLennan, KingJames11
Tom Cullinan, The Jupiter Drawing Room
Vanessa Pearson, House of Brave
Wesley Phelan, MetropolitanRepublic
Xolisa Dyeshana, Joe Public
Pete Case, Gloo (Chairperson
Conn Bertish, Quirk
Fred Roed, Worldwide Creative
Johann Schwello, 140 BBDO
Marco Russolillo, Trigger/Isobar
Mark Tomlinson, Hello Computer
Mark Barnwell, Draftfcb
Nicholas Wittenberg, Ogilvy
Ryan McManus, Native
1. Agency: TBWA Hunt Lascaris
Client: Tiger Brands Enterprise
Product: Mother's Favourites
Title: Evil Twin/Fighting Kids/Mommy's Boy/Daughter's Date/Mother-in-law
CD: Mike Groenewald
AD: Shelley Smoler
CW: Raphael Basckin
Prod.Co. N/A
Photog: Clive Stewart
Illust: N/A
2. Sampro/Rediscover Dairy "Logger/Sweat Shop/Wahler" - FoxP2
3. JHB Zoo "Andean Condor/Polar Bear/Silver Back Gorilla" - Y&R
1. Agency: Ogilvy Jhb
Client: KFC
Product: Add Hope KFC CSI Initiative
Title: Add Hope, subtract hunger
CD: Mike Martin
AD: Alexa Craner/Jordan Tryon
CW: Irene Styger/Lauren McInnes
Prod.Co. Non Stop Models
Photog: Huw Morris
Illust: Zana Ackermann/Magdel Smith
2. Tiger Brands/Doom "Wall of Shoes" - TBWA Hunt Lascaris
3. Tiger Brands/Doom "Roachville "The Bedroom/The Lounge/The Carpet" - TBWA Hunt Lascaris
3. Landrover/Defender "Buffalo/Bush Baby/Lion" - Y&R
1. Agency: BlackRiver FC
Client: Nandos SA
Product: Nandos SA
Title: Diversity
CD: Ahmed Tilly/Vanessa Gibson
AD: Sindiso Nyoni
CW: Oarabile Mahole
Prod Co: Bouffant Films
Director: Dean Blumberg
Editor: Tessa Ford
Audio Eng: Louis Enslin
Audio Des: Louis Enslin
Voice Art: Various
2. Ster-Kinekor "Intersection" - Fox P2
2. Standard Bank "Sh....boom" - TBWA Hunt Lascaris
3. The Loerie Awards "Farting/Cheetah/The Elephant Whisperer" - The Jupiter Drawing Room Jhb
1. Agency: Net#Work BBDO
Client: Mercedes-Benz
Product: Alert Assist
Title: Cabo/Reunion/Boss
Exec. CD: Rob Mclennan
CW: Jenny Glover/Brent Singer
Prod Co: First Left
Audio Eng: David Law
Audio Des: N/A
Voice Art: Various
2. Flight Centre/Student Flights "Game Ranger/Zulu Warrior/Shark Whisperer" - TBWA Hunt Lascaris
3. Nampack/Allergy/Ignacio/Debt Collector/Daddy's Girl" - TBWA Hunt Lascaris
3. Farmhouse Brands/Steers Ice Cream "Banana/Peter Thousand/Makaalman" - TBWA Hunt Lascaris
1. Agency: DDB SA
Client: McDonalds
Product: Kids Birthday Parties
Title: Inflatable Lounge
CD: Grant Jacobsen
AD: Marcus Moshapalo
CW: Conan Green
Prod.Co. Zeppelin Inflatables
Photog: N/A
Illust: N/A
2. SA Ballet Theatre "Ballet Box" - Joe Public
3. Fox/Top TV "The Walking Dead Season 2" - Ireland Davenport
3. Brandhouse/Johnnie Walker Platinum "One Bottle Store" - KingJames
"A very strong set of entries for the judges to look through this year. The standard is certainly improving and the type of work being created by agencies is getting increasingly varied, across the breadth of the digital marketing space. From fully integrated campaigns, to digitally enabled activations, to niche microsites, complex rich media advertising and cellphone marketing.
"This makes the job of choosing a winner increasingly hard, as the criteria for success is difficult to compare across this range of projects and campaigns. However, amongst all the entries, Ogilvy Cape Town's work on Volkswagen stood out in many ways and clearly claimed the coveted winners position of Ad of the Year for Digital 2012. A simple idea that celebrated the brand by involving the public and asking them to tag Volkswagens they found in the public space. First online via a neat integration into Google Street view and then as a final stage to the competition, with contestants driving real cars around the streets of Cape Town. Some great film and photographic content was created and successfully integrated into a multitude of digital touch points, reinforcing the message of how popular the brand is in South Africa. Well done to the Ogilvy CT team and to the client who is buying into these increasingly ambitious projects.
"In second place was a firm favourite from judging earlier in the year; Kellogg's 'story time' by Trigger Isobar. A simple USSD enabled idea that brings Kellogg's cereal packaging to life, with the help of audio files played through the cellphone. It is great to see such simple and relevant ideas executed so well. The communication reached a very wide audience because of the use of USSD (allowing access to the most basic phones) and used a range of local languages to remain relevant to the breakfast cereal audience.
"In third place, Tweet for sweets, by Hello Computer and Draft FCB. An engaging and fun activation where consumers in the street were rewarded for interacting with the bespoke shop front installation via Twitter, with a fantastical and uplifting show (check it out on YouTube as words cannot fully describe the actual installation) and a treat (a sweet). The detail of craft and unusual approach, bringing smiles to everyone who came into contact with it and helping position the Toyota brand and its Etios vehicle. The installation ingeniously formed part of a larger integrated campaign by Draft.
"Well done to all the winners. A great spread of work that our industry should be proud to mark as the best in show this year, in our growing digital category. With the bar moving up and up at such a rate, it will be interesting to see what lies ahead. Certainly, the blurred edges of the traditional advertising space and the digital world will keep blurring and most definitely, this is an interesting space to watch out for and to be part of."
1. Agency: Ogilvy CT
Client: Volkswagen SA
Product: Passenger
Title: Street Quest
Media Ag. Mediacom
Category: Social Media/Interactive Games
Executive Creative Director: Chris Gotz
Creative Director: Nicholas Wittenberg
Associate Creative Director: Tommy Le Roux
Producer: Kurt Paulse
Designer: Fred Cilliers
Copywriter: Tim Human
Motion Designer: Andrew Pullen
Head Developer: Umar Jakoet
Developers: Michael Theron, Melinda Wantenaar, Will Roos
Business Director: Gregg Tebutt, Adrian Varkel
Account Management: Ryan Laubscher, Gemma Thompson
Event Coordination (Ogilvy Action): FD Majiet
Video Production: R.E.C
Web Link: http://creativeawards.co.za/VW/socialmediacampaigns/Street-Quest/
2. Kellogg's/Rice Krispies "Story Time" - Trigger/Isobar
3. Toyota/Etios "Tweet for Sweets"- Hello Computer/Draftfcb Jhb
