Conceived by Nikki Cockcroft during her tenure with the Interactive Advertising Bureau South Africa (IAB SA, formerly DMMA), the awards have been instrumental in entrenching digital as a recognised medium and have brought numerous agencies, publishers and individuals into the spotlight. Last year the awards broke records again with over 600 entries across 45 categories. Cockcroft stepped down as head of Bookmarks in March 2014.
The DMMA rebranded as the IAB earlier this year and became part of a global network of IABs extending to 42 countries. This has created an opportunity to evolve the awards into something larger and more in line with global IAB events, such as the IAB Mixx events held in many countries.
The IAB SA will run a Mixx event in February 2015, culminating in a re-imagined awards and celebration topping off the conference. "Situating the awards early in the new year gives us time to realise this ambitious new vision and allow the awards to own a part of calendar that isn't already busy with other industry events," said IAB SA chair, Jarred Cinman.
"The IAB and the digital industry as a whole express our gratitude to Nikki for all the work, energy and passion she dedicated to these awards in the first six years. Despite an increasingly hectic career and starting a family, she managed to deliver a better show each year with a team almost entirely made up of volunteers, despite many other similar award programmes employing numerous fulltime staff to create the same level of quality. I can only say thank you and wish her the best."
The awards, a key part of the local advertising, publishing and digital industry calendar, are into their seventh year. Full details of the event will be released as they are finalised including location, speakers, categories and judges.
