South Africa's D&AD recovery

Is this an indication that creative standards of South African advertising have bounced back from a two-year slump? It's too early to say, especially as our showing at the One Show was down on last year, but hope springs eternal.

If you take 2011 as equal to 100, the index for the past five years has been as follows: 2011 - 100; 2012 - 160; 2013 - 70; 2014 - 30; 2015 - 89. Last year was the South African ad industry's lowest score at D&AD since 1999, while 2012 was its best year ever.

The D&AD is widely accepted globally as the hardest competition to win, but this is at least partially because of its uniquely British orientation, which makes it less valid as a global competition.

An image from the D&AD 2015 Awards Ceremony

A storming performance at the D&AD awards took Ogilvy Johannesburg to the top of the Creative Leaderboard as the month of May closed its doors. Previous leader M&C Saatchi Abel did well, but was swamped by Ogilvy's 320 AdReview points.

M&C has successfully implemented the art of squeezing every last drop of recognition out of a single idea, and its "Street Store" campaign (first exposed to the light of day last year) picked up another four D&AD Wood Pencils (equivalent to a Bronze) in different categories (advertising & marketing, brand experience, direct integrated campaigns and director response/ambience).

Other wins for this campaign were Ad of the Year silver; Ad of the Month silver; a Gold and Bronze at Cannes; and at the Loeries it won a full house of Gold, Silver, Bronze and Craft Certificate.

Though some advertisers still regard awards as a meaningless self-indulgence, marketers' acceptance of their value is growing. Creativity (which is measured by awards) is seen as a vital contributor to the effectiveness of advertising.

See the updated Creative Leaderboard in the "Ranking Tables" section on Tony Koenderman's AdReview.

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