Two Grand Prix awards at Design/Direct/Print Loeries

In the Student Category, a total of two Direct awards, 12 Print Advertising awards and 17 Design awards were made. These included two Gold Loeries, 12 Silvers and 18 Bronze Loeries. The two Gold Loeries were from the Design Category and went to University of Pretoria for client 'witness' (title 'Pattern) and to Vega for client Homecoming Revolution (title 'Drimac').

View all the Design, Direct and Print Award winners

Judges comments

Commenting on the judging process and awards made, jury chair for the Direct Category Nici Stathacopoulos, said: "The past Assegais and the Loerie Awards of 2004 are dead - long live the new Loerie Awards for Direct Marketing!

"Moving away from the emphasis being primarily on response rates, the entrants to the 2005 Direct Categories needed to ensure their work was worthy of a Loerie - from a creative, execution and innovation perspective, and yet many still gave consideration to including the response rates in their entries.

"Overall, the standard was high: of the 293 entries, there were 176 finalists - a whopping 60.1%! This indicates that the jury felt strongly that most of the work entered was worthy of a mention, and should encourage all marketers to embark on well thought out, creatively excellent campaigns that will engender a response. The resultant 11% awards issued however shows another side to the industry on entering your work - and winning.

"Personally, I am not disappointed that we are only handing out 32 Loeries to the direct category - I believe that it is indicative on how tough our jury were in ensuring that those who received the Awards truly entered work that was of an excellent calibre, highly creative and innovative - applying fresh thinking and using new techniques.

"As always, flat mail and dimensional mail had the most entries, but in turn, were also the least creative. In one instance, one agency had entered the same creative across two different clients! Issuing only three gold's also shows the industry that in order to be considered the best of the best, the work must be cutting edge in all spheres.

'No easy wins...'

"The Direct Category was no longer dominated by only Direct Marketing specialists, a number of traditional agencies entered work into this category - as a jury, we felt some had entered because they thought it would be an easy "win" - well think again - simply putting a web address or a telephone number at the end of an advert or poster does not make it a direct response advert - if anything, it reminds us that there is still not enough strategic consideration given behind creating a direct response campaign, whether it is in the form of a mailer or a TV advert," Stathacopoulos continued.

"Direct TV and Internal Marketing Campaigns were disappointing, but most disappointing were Radio ads, and it will be interesting to see how these fare in the advertising category. Loeries were not issued at all in Direct TV and Internal Marketing, and we believe that the creative concepts and execution really need to be stepped up in the future.

"It was great to see the entries in the alternate and Field Marketing Categories - this is where the line becomes fainter and fainter in communication disciplines - 'indirect direct' (as coined at Cannes 2005) has certainly come of age and enthused the jury with some of the innovative thinking. Entrants need to however be more selective in which category they enter their work, and how they describe their work. (A blank description gives the juror nothing to work with!)

"Direct Campaigns and CRM Strategy Categories surprised me - the breadth of entries from companies who have extended their traditional once off mailers into fully blown campaigns was most pleasing to see, and to this end, we believe that Direct Marketing has become the "darling" of the marketing fraternity. Although few Loeries were actually handed out in this sector, consistency and results do count at the end of the day, and these were lacking in some instances.

"Our jury panel was enthusiastic, excited and yet serious in the job at hand. They analyzed the work in depth, and without consultation, in many instances the scores across the panel were consistent!

"The change in judging from filter judging being managed by different panels, to one smaller panel judging every entry on an in / out and then score basis was effective, and I would certainly recommend this practice continues - my opinion however, the judges not discussing the work at finalist stage - the jury is still out!

Congratulations

Concluded Stathacopoulos: "A massive thank you to all the entrants who submitted their work in what is a complex and difficult communications discipline. Congratulations to the finalists - you should be most proud of your work. Look at the winning entries and see what was perhaps lacking from your campaign that precluded it from winning a Loerie in the end. To the agencies that won Bronze, Silver or Gold, you earned that Loerie - display it with pride, and may it be one of many that graces your offices in the future!

"The Grand Prix allocated to a small rather unknown agency called Kite truly demonstrated the opportunity of being highly creative, different and imaginative. To boot, the response received from the industry is tantamount to the campaign's success. Well done!"

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