One Grand Prix awarded Sunday

This year's awards attracted a number of entries from overseas agencies and they were awarded 15 Loeries - three Golds, eight Silvers and four Bronzes; all in the Television & Cinema Advertising Category. The Golds went to Wieden & Kennedy (two) for client Honda (title 'Grrr') and Euro RSCG London for client Citroen (title 'Carbot').

In the Student Category, a total of four Interactive, two Mixed Media and one Integrated Campaign awards were made. These included two Gold Loeries, two Silvers and three Bronze Loeries. The two Gold Loeries were from the University of Pretoria for client 'Oppikoppi' (title 'Flysouth Music Tour') in the Mixed Media Category and to Steven Tu for client Cell C (title 'Find Your Voice').

International judge for advertising was Steve Henry, Executive Creative Director, HHCL/Red Cell in London.

'The great is still in short supply'

Mike Schalit, who acted as the local chair on the Advertising Panels, in typical fashion, reported on the judging process as follows (unedited): "Just when you thought it was a quick hop to Margate. Try five days of gruelling judging. So more work entered than ever before is supposed to mean more shite than ever before, but hey, maybe not. Like the polished turds masquerading as shiny fresh ideas did steam things up somewhat, but the good news is exactly that. More good. The bad news? The great is still in short supply.

"So what's new I say, we all know the enemy of true brilliance. The bog standard average ok acceptable goodish bits. So yebo, ja, indeed, wat die vok, as much as our very own Seff Effrican voice is defining and redefining itself in our communications, great SA work is beginning to emerge. Respectable standards YES, but we need more irreverent 'disrespectable' ideas and executions. Somehow our work as a body is still too responsible and contrived, ads that no self-respecting punter would bother to read or watch or listen to in his spare time," he monologued.

"TV, much improved from last year. Radio, only a notch better, too often relying on dem old hooks... that damn phone... and dialogue/monologue/funny voice ek se. Print and poster, richer for the depth of the crazy and the fresh. Still our most inventive medium. But how would I know anyway. No debate, no one voice of reason to sway the jury either way. Purely the ballet of the ballot. Nice. And best of all, the jury itself. A wonderful example of the new diverse democratic values sweeping this year's Loeries. A more vibrant, fun, passionate, disrespectful lot you couldn't hope to find anywhere (except for all the South Africans we're hoping to reach out there.) There is only one winner this year: clients who bought the best work."

Local Interactive Category judge Roelof van Wyk added: "The standard is higher than previous years, but still no outstanding singular piece of work that blew the judges away. I generally saw solid work across the board: websites, desktop as well as server based applications, even kiosk work. 'Mobile' is still in its infancy, so we're hoping in future it would grow. Not many CD-Rom entries, but of a higher general standard than the websites. Two-phase, first round-remote, final round on site system proved to work very well, allowing the judges more time and attention to each finalist, on the day of final judging. Most of the interactive work however is still not well integrated into ATL, BTL etc., and has been developed as stand alone entities. An opportunity exists for doing great work here next year though. The student entries were very good, and there were a few outstanding entries creators who will be watched closely as they leave school."

Corporate Video and Interactive Categories, Peter Carr, pointed out: "Our judging went very smoothly. We had a great panel, all of whom really liked the new judging process without debate. The elimination day took a while and there was only one delay spent arguing over a few entries that some felt were entered into the wrong category, quickly resolved. The main judging went very quickly as there was only a small selection of work that went through and which was really worthy of any higher scoring. There were a total of 90 entries spread across the corporate film and events category and although the presentations were lengthy, we got through them pretty fast. We were a little disappointed in the quality of the presentations of the events category. I fear the rationales and the quality of the support documentation of some of the work did not clearly explain the details of event. It took us a while to work out some of them and give them a fair chance of going forward. It's quite hard to judge an event if you weren't there so a lesson to those entering next year. The overall quality of the work wasn't brilliant, bar one or two pieces that clearly stuck out from the rest and will undoubtedly reap some rewards."