Adtrack™ is Millward Brown's effective advertising research system that tracks the liking and noting performance of all television commercials flighted annually. These scores are collated into a comprehensive report highlighting the top performers, that is, the country's best ads according to the most important critics, the consumers.
To celebrate 25 years of tracking TV ads in South Africa in this manner, Millward Brown managing director Charles Foster, recognised the best liked ad of the past 25 years and that of the past decade. Both awards went to Draftfcb South Africa.
Arguably one of the most prestigious awards to date in the local industry, the Best Consumer Liked Advert for the Past 25 Years went to Sasol and Draftfcb Johannesburg for Sasol Super 100 “Glug Glug”, created in 1991.
The second accolade, the Best Consumer Liked Advert of the Past Decade was awarded to Distell and Draftfcb Cape Town for Klipdrift “Met Eish”, created in 2005 by its current executive creative director and advertising legend1, Francois de Villiers. The brand has been managed by the Cape Town agency for over 40 years.
A delighted John Dixon, group CEO of Draftfcb South Africa, accepted the awards with Bronwyn Watt of Sasol and Dave Richter of Distell, and said that the day had to rank as the proudest of his career.
“As an agency, we have always strived to produce advertising that resonates with real South Africans, the very people who buy our clients' products and services. We know that liking not only has a high correlation with media efficiency, it positively contributes to consumers' predisposition about the brand or product being advertised.
“It is a tribute to our creative teams and executive creative directors over the years that they have been able to consistently achieve high liking scores for our clients' brands. As an agency that is fortunate to hold some of the longest client relationships in the industry, we can now substantiate a quarter century of producing ads for these clients that really are ‘best liked',” he said.
Foster praised Draftfcb South Africa's creative approach to advertising, “Simply put, people watch likable ads with more attention than average or poorly liked ads, and Draftfcb is among the most skilled agencies at creating ads that achieve high liking scores, according to the South African public.”
He added that in the increasingly fragmented media landscape, Adtrack's ability to measure the effect and efficiency of different media activity is increasingly important.
“Media planners can buy audience but cannot buy attention; likeability of an ad has a significant influence on the ability of adverts to be noticed. Adtrack™ provides clients with comprehensive feedback on their TV and other media's advertising responses, enabling them to elicit the greatest possible return from their media budget.
“During its 25-year history, Adtrack™ has evaluated more than 50 000 TV ads, as well as numerous print, radio and outdoor campaigns, and almost 1 million interviews have been conducted across a broad spectrum of South African consumers. This represents one of the largest databases on advertising responses in the world, and hearty congratulations go to Draftfcb South Africa for rising to its top.”
At the same awards ceremony, Foster announced the Best Consumer Liked Advert of 2009. This was an international TV ad for Heineken called “Walk-in Closet” and was created by TBWA\NEBKO.
Interestingly, Draftfcb South Africa also performed exceptionally well in this year's list, producing the country's 2nd most liked ad, as well as its 5th and 10th. These were Toyota Corolla ‘Buddy' and Toyota Hilux ‘Buddy - Sheep' (2nd and 10th), and Panado ‘Childproof'. Toyota has been with the agency since 1961.
The group's Chief Creative Officer Brett Morris commented: “‘Wow, today will definitely be one that goes down in our agency's history. To have landed both the best liked ad of the past 25 years and that of the past decade is a phenomenal achievement; thank you for the acknowledgement Millward Brown.
“But what really makes me want to sing from the rooftops is the fact we accounted for 3 of the 10 most liked ads in 2009, including the top locally produced ad. I am especially happy that we did it for Toyota, a client that has trusted us for nearly 50 years.
“We believe that consumer liking is one of the most important measures of creative success and the fact that Draftfcb has featured so well with the most top-placed ads of the last 25 years is testimony to our creative philosophy. Talk about inspiration, and talk about a challenge. I want us to be up here again in another 10 years, and our team can do it, are doing it, today, for our existing clients,” he said.
Foster also drew the audience's attention to Coca-Cola, which achieved the top spot on three occasions on the annual Most Liked lists over the past 25 years, and to Vodacom (a client of Draftfcb South Africa since it was founded nearly 15 years ago), Audi, Sasol and Sanlam which each topped the list twice.
The chronological list of all the annual winners over 25 years is:
Year | Client and advert | Agency |
1984 | South African Airways - “Birds” | Draftfcb South Africa |
1985 | Cremora - “Mrs. Cremora” | Network BBDO |
1986 | Sun City - “We Will Rock You” | Grey SA |
1987 | Sanlam - “Race” | Lowe Bull (Cape Town) |
1988 | Volkswagen - “Logo” | Ogilvy (Cape Town) |
1989 | ISM - “Elephants” | Ogilvy (Johannesburg) |
1990 | Chicken Licken - “Taxi Two” | Wilsenach Communications |
1991 | Sasol Super 100 - “Glug Glug” | Draftfcb South Africa |
1992 | Old Mutual - “Mrs. Ratlhogo” | Ogilvy (CT) |
1993 | Coca Cola - “I Like to Dance” | McCann Erickson |
1994 | Coca Cola - “Always” | McCann Erickson |
1995 | Sanlam - “Baby Boss / Foreman” | Lowe Bull |
1996 | Yogisip - “Praise Singer” | Joe Public |
1997 | Sta-Soft - “Five Reasons” | Y&R |
1998 | Vodacom - Emergency Services - “Naartjie / Rugby” | Draftfcb South Africa |
1999 | Sasol Super 100 - “Baby / Pram” | Draftfcb South Africa |
2000 | Fiat Pallio - “Cyclist” | Bernstein Loxton Golding & Klein |
2001 | Bacardi Breezer - “Tom Cat” | Tinfish |
2002 | Audi - “Snail / Frog / Turtle” | Ogilvy (Johannesburg) |
2003 | Postbank - “Lebola” | The Agency |
2004 | City Lodge - “Man in Underwear” | TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris |
2005 | Klipdrift - “Friendly Frikkie - Met Eish” | Draftfcb South Africa |
2006 | Vodacom - “Mo's Girlfriend” | Draftfcb South Africa |
2007 | Coca Cola - “Brrrrr” | Ogilvy (Johannesburg) |
2008 | Audi - “A4 Strings” | DDB Barcelona\Ogilvy Johannesburg |
2009 | Heineken - “Walk-in Closet” | TBWA\NEBOKO (Netherlands) |
A ranked list of the best adverts of 2009 is:
Position | Client and advert | Agency |
1 | Heineken - Walk in Closet | TBWA\NEBKO (Netherlands) |
2 | Toyota Corolla - ‘Buddy' | Draftfcb South Africa |
3 | LG Borderless TV - Pelican | Y&R USA |
4 | Panado - Child Proof | Draftfcb South Africa |
5 | VW Golf - Cheetah | Ogilvy (Cape Town) |
6 | KFC Streetwise Two - Skop | Ogilvy (Johannesburg) |
7 | Windhoek Light - Water Feature | The Jupiter Drawing Room |
8 | Miway - Senior Citizens | In-house production/Network BBDO Cape Town concept |
9 | Flora Margarine - Seed Man | Lowe Bull |
10 | Toyota Hilux - ‘Buddy' - Sheep | Draftfcb South Africa |