Grand Prix at the end of rainbow for The MediaShop

Chris Botha, Group MD of the MediaShop says he is super excited about the award. "It was a great concept that demonstrated collaboration between media owners, media agency, creative agency and a very brave client."

The judges described the campaign as "breath-taking" on a "great scale". The Coke Rainbow celebrated 20 years of Democracy by creating "real" rainbows above billboards using technology that used a "mist" of water that captured the sun. The campaign has won a number of awards locally and internationally this year, from Cannes, where it picked up a Gold and two Silver Lions, to winning a Grand Prix at the Loerie Awards held recently in Cape Town for the creative agency FCB Johannesburg.

The AMASA Awards evening was also a celebration of 40 years of the Roger Garlick Awards and signalled a new beginning for the Awards as this year boasted new categories, a new judging process, and increase in judges and a new entry mechanism.

Wayne Bishop MD PhD, and the AMASA committee member responsible for the Awards and the Awards evening says these changes were introduced to bring the Awards in line with international standards and processes.

"The Roger Garlick Awards have always been about innovation, but the Awards needed a facelift to bring them in line with other international awards. Media today is about integrated campaigns and new media channels. The new categories reflect this."

There are 20 categories. The entry process includes strict guidelines on how to structure the entry and entries have to include results. "Awards have become shopping malls for clients who are looking for next agency they want to employ. At Cannes a quarter of the audience are clients today, up from five per cent in previous years. Clients want to want to know who is doing successful work and if innovation is working and therefore results must be part of the entry," he says.

The innovations have been well received with the Awards evening sold out and the entries this year increasing from 106 - up from 38 last year while the number of judges increased from seven to 20.

"The process has been so successful that we received a call from the international chairperson of the Festival of Media, which wants to host a Festival of Media Awards in and for Africa next year and we will act as a feeder system for them," says Bishop.

Current AMASA chairperson, Wayne Bischoff, MD, Habari Media says the new positioning of the Awards has elevated them to a new level and sent a strong message of how AMASA is repositioning itself going forward. The Association will continue to transform and education while attracting young people into the industry.

AMASA Award winners 2014:

Best Branded Content Campaign

Highly commended: Centrum Guardian Project - One Lady and a Tribe
Gold: The 15% more Show - eBucks Rewards from FNB - MediaMark/FNB

Best Use of Mobile

Highly commended: Puma Pixel Pong - Gloo
Gold: Are You 2 Enough? - Gloo & Vizeum

Best Use of Technology

Highly commended: BMW 7 Series Launch - Gloo
Gold: ATM Switch - FNB - Gloo

Best Integrated Campaign: Retail

Gold: Whopper Your Selfie - King James Group

Best Social Media Campaign

Gold: Magnum Pink & Black Twitter auction - Liquorice/Hardy Boys/Marcus Brewster/Ultimate Media)

Best Experiential/Event

Highly commended: Zoo Biscuits - M&C Saatchi Connect
Gold: Coke Rainbow - The MediaShop
Gold: #Canonphotomobs - PHD

Best Contribution by a Media Owner

Gold: The 15% More Show - eBucks Rewards from FNB - MediaMark

Best Integrated Campaign: Financial

Gold: Access Banking - Standard Bank - OMD

Best Integrated Campaign: Cause Related

Highly commended: SANBS Mastering the Masthead - PHD

Best Sponsorship

Highly commended: #Ownyourday - Wimpy - The MediaShop

Ignition Award for Tertiary Institutions

Gold: Matla a Bana - Duct Tape - Mbali Cindi from University of Johannesburg

Roger Garlick Grand Prix

Roger Garlick Winner - Coke Rainbow - The MediaShop