Top 10 ads of the year revealed

10 Dec 2015

Marklives.com has released its annual Ad of the Year countdown for 2015, with Santam's One of a Kind campaign by ad agency King James Group announced as 2015's best South African ad.

"South Africa has many cultural 'quirks' that we, who live here, consider normal. Visitors enjoy finding out about them as it gives them a sense of 'insider's knowledge,' of having been exposed to - and become part of - something special," says MarkLives' advertising columnist Oresti Patricios.

"The Santam TV commercial celebrates this specialness, holding up a mirror to South Africans of some of those things we find normal every day, but are totally weird and inexplicable to a foreigner."

MarkLives' Ad of the Year list is compiled by Patricios in collaboration with MarkLives.com editor and publisher Herman Manson, editor-at-large Simone Puterman and consulting editor Mandy de Waal.

Top 10 ads for 2015

2. Tears of the Hipster by FoxP2 for Garagista
3. More Than You Expect by Ninety9cents for Checkers
4. #CelebrateDefender by Y&R South Africa for Land Rover
5. #thedress by Ireland/Davenport for Salvation Army's Carehaven
6. Reins by Joe Public for Nedbank Business Banking
7. Tuluver by Utopia for BirdLife South Africa
8. #TIA/This Is Africa by Ogilvy & Mather South Africa for DStv
9. Night Tour Shadows by Y&R South Africa for Johannesburg Zoo

"What's been exciting about the past 12 months is that we're beginning to see a very distinct 'own culture' in advertising, proving that at last SA advertising has embraced being truly South African," says Patricios. "In the 20-something years of our democracy, frontrunners have pushed the envelope, but this year it appears the industry has matured and that there's a distinct commercial culture that's as homegrown as a Johnnie Walker, kasi chicken dust, ChesaNyama, Nando's or Madam Speaker."

All top 10 ads may be viewed here.