Pendoring 2015 a whopper

Gifts for marketers and creative heads and executive creative heads

In addition to its loyalty to Afrikaans, Pendoring strives to promote the other indigenous languages of South Africa through the category, Truly South African. After all, it is a known fact that you have a better chance connecting emotionally with consumers when you speak to them in their mother tongue.

What better motivation is there to come up with something so marvellously creative than an overseas study trip worth R100,000 for the Prestige prize winner? Never in the history of the South African ad industry has any creative been rewarded with such a big prize for brilliance. Besides, Pendoring is the only competition in the South African ad industry that offers creatives financial rewards for outstanding work.

But it is not just the best Afrikaans ad that will be rewarded. The winner of the Umpetha award for the best advertisement in one of the vernacular languages will take home R20,000 in cash.

Marketers, take note, it is not only the creatives that are rewarded, the client of the Prestige winner receives free advertising from our media sponsors, and the gold winner in the radio category will receive free commercial airtime from OFM.

The other good news that would make the creatives very happy, is that the entry fees have not increased at all and there are a few new categories to compete in.

The Pendoring 2015 poster

click to enlarge

Due to the creatives in the ad industry general love-hate relationship with their jobs, this year's Pendoring campaign focuses on this reality and challenges them to do their best in spite of all the negative factors like the short deadlines, small budgets and uninteresting briefs, according to Tiaan Ras, director of the ad agency, Etiket, who created the campaign.

"But you always have a choice when you are given a challenge," says Ras.

"That's why we came up with the concept Vat So! You can either have a positive or negative response to the challenge, depending on your attitude. You can choose to give the brief a Vat So! punch on the nose and create something brilliant or you can choose to loaf around and do the bare minimum."

This year's campaign is the first year that digital and interactive media will be the point of departure of the campaign. It is a mixed media campaign that includes the following elements: a website with interactive games, social media, direct marketing (gifts for marketers and creative heads and executive creative heads, e-mail marketing, posters and print ads and radio ads.

"We know it is not always easy to stay positive, that's why we included a few extra elements to try and motivate the creative souls," says Marion Low, content manager at Etiket.

Because creatives are also inherently competitive, Etiket decided to add a game to the campaign, the Vat So! quiz so that the creatives can showcase their creativity. There will be 30 questions that you have to answer as quickly as possible. The quicker you get more answers correct, the higher will your score be. When you lose a life, you have to start all over again. The game will be active on the Pendoring website from 1 August 2015.

"The main element of the campaign is the graphics of Vat So!" says Karen Steenkamp, creative head at Etiket. "Since we are communicating with creatives who have seen most things in life, it was important that the graphics are unique and striking. It is important to realise that the middle finger is not meant for any person but only for negative attitudes of the creative themselves."

This year the campaign includes various new categories. It is important to note that in the Truly South African category the focus is only on the vernacular languages (excluding English).

Besides the Prestige and Umpetha awards there are other prizes up for grabs:

• Each gold winner receives a golden Pendoring trophy and R6,000 cash.
  
• Each silver winner receives a silver Pendoring and R2,500 cash.
  
• The top student receives R10,000 and an internship at Etiket for 2016.

Don't let this chance of a lifetime slip through your fingers. Enter your best Afrikaans work, and you might be the next Prestige prize winner to go and learn from the best of the best in the international ad industry. The R20,000 cash for the best vernacular advertisement is also something to strife for. Entries close 31 July 2015, so don't be late.

For more information on the awards and all the new categories visit www.pendoring.co.za.

Our sponsors are:

Platinum: ATKV, Huisgenoot, Media24, kykNET

Gold: Toyota

Silver: Die Burger, Rapport

Bronze: Ads24, OFM, Sanlam, Jacaranda FM, Caxton Community Newspapers

Our partners are: Kulula.com; Maroela Media; Leopards's Leap Wines; Bizcommunity.com; Newsclip; MarkLives.com; DEKAT