Pendoring Awards back in Johannesburg

Big awards

Pendoring general manager, Franette Klerck, says, "All campaigns from 16 July 2013 to 21 July 2014 are eligible to be entered. Judging will take place 21, 22, and 23 August. It is anticipated that, as in previous years, the Awards will garner much interest, especially for the two main awards - the Prestige and Umpetha Awards."

Umpetha means champion or the best in Zulu and only the best overall entry in the Truly South African categories can win this award. The 2013 Umpetha Award went to Black River FC for its Nando's campaign.

The Prestige Prize winner will receive an overseas study trip worth R50,000, amongst others, while the winner of the Umpetha Award will again take home a cash prize of R20,000. Gold and silver winners also receive a cash prize and the top student receives a study bursary worth R10,000.

Bruce Sturgeon, CEO Caxton Community Papers and one of the sponsors, says achieving excellence in our industry is in all the participants' best interests. "Therefore not only do we invest a significant sum of money in our in-house excellence awards each year, we support similar industry events too."

Expanding the focus

The company supports the awards, as Afrikaans is the dominant language of communication in many of its local newspapers and the home language of a significant number of its readers. "It therefore makes business sense for us to support it, as it has established itself as the pre-eminent vehicle to promote and reward Afrikaans advertising," says Sturgeon.

"Although excellence in Afrikaans advertising remains its primary mission, in recent years categories have been introduced which expand this focus to include any indigenous language and Truly South African advertising, which we feel are also worthy of support."

Klerck concludes, "The awards are indicative of a dynamic advertising industry that recognises the value of advertising in one's mother tongue, be it Afrikaans, Zulu, isiXhosa or another local language, and will continue to promote greater awareness of this."

For more information, go to www.pendoring.co.za.