What's up with Digital Loeries this year

It's not often you see Capetonians out on a rainy and blustery evening*, but some of the digitally inclined made it to the 2010 Loeries Digital Awards get-together for the inside scoop at The Grand Daddy Hotel last week. Here's a report back from Terry Levin and me.

So what's new this year?

1. Entry and flighting deadline is 31 May 2010 but... there is a Soccer Allowance! What this means is that anything 2010 FIFA World Cup/soccer-related [does not have to be official ] may be entered by the extended entry deadline (31 May), with an allowance for late flighting of that entry up until 15 June.
2. Any online ad or campaign that you enter into the Loeries Internet Advertising category allows you to apply to The SpaceStation and receive up to R15 000 worth of media to flight these campaigns across its network of sites. For more details please click here.
3. With iBurst and Hetzner onboard as sponsors, we can expect a digital experience of note during Loeries weekend, 2-3 October. Think a bigger and better mobisite, continuous updates via SMS and maybe, just maybe, FREE wifi on Long Street. The Grid might also get tied up in this net; thoughts are perhaps its new location-based game Legends of Echo should venture into this space.
4. There will be a few more judges this year in the Digital category, which will see this specialist panel increase to include a broader range of experts from across South Africa. One hopes it might be possible that we might see not only award-winners taking these spots, but experts in the social realms (considering the Viral category is pitched far more dominantly this year) invited to step up to the plate, too.
5. All entries will be judged by six criteria: innovation, quality, relevance to the brand, target audience and chosen medium - and a client, independent from the agency. Questioned yet again was the age-old subject of data and results specifically for Digital. Well, the short answer is: while it's not mandatory, feel free to include, you never know...

Loeries CEO Andrew Human said that "digital is part of the mix" and with this in mind, the organisers have made it possible to submit digitally focused entries into any category - ie not just Digital.

So if you think that a website, microsite, banner etc that you conceptualised, designed and produced for a client is beautifully illustrated, you can put yourselves up against the best of the best in Design instead. Just take heed of who is judging and, of course, that small issue of bandwidth - uncapped or not does not mean fast!

Obviously what hasn't changed is that the presentation of digital work is not that easy. Just sending a link or CD is unlikely to make an impression for even the slickest of concepts. Although the volume of Digital entries is far less than the International award shows, and thus much easier for judges to digest, anticipating how digital work will best be received may in itself require a creative solution!

What is exciting is that the Loerie "fringe" activities, which started spontaneously last year, such as art exhibitions, book launches, graffiti art and so on, will this year be encouraged via the provision of a "pedestrianised" Long Street as a blank canvas for the industry, for the whole of Saturday 2 October. According to Human, there is a fantastic opportunity for any Industry players to come to the party with their ideas and which will ideally help further positive recognition for the ZA advertising industry as a whole.

Good luck!

*Tuesday 4 May was the first real night of winter in Cape Town.