[One Show 2016] SA's finger-crossed finalists

Last year, South African One Show finalists made sure our creativity featured on the global score card, resulting in 10 pencil wins.

We caught up with a selection of this year’s finalists to find out what being shortlisted for a One Show pencil means to them as well as where South Africa’s work outshines the rest, and the specific challenges it faces when compared to other nations.

Rangaka, Hinch, Deeb and Cohen.

Today’s panel includes: Tseliso Rangaka, ECD at Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town (Ogilvy JHB’s work on the Lucozade radio campaign’s ‘Night Before the Project’ and ‘Team building’ is bringing home consumer radio pencils, is their work with Gloo@Ogilvy on KFC ‘Soundbite’ in the responsive environments: consumer immersive retail category, along with Ogilvy CT’s VW ‘Moments’ film in the consumer: Television, budget under $100K single category, and VW’s ‘The car that takes you places’ in consumer: magazine full page or spread campaign in the print & outdoor work category); Paul Hinch, creative partner at GRID (their work is up for three awards in the design category: Past’s ‘All from one’ in the non-profit: collateral design category, Past’s ‘Past’ in the non-profit brand identity new or rebrand: single or series category and Anti-Establishment’s ‘Noise’ in the Craft: Typography single or series category); Jonathan Deeb, ECD of FCB Africa’s JHB office (their work is nominated for ‘non-profit: public awareness single’ in the radio category for Lonely Road Foundation’s ‘No escape’, produced with Sonovision); and Y&R’s head of art, Gareth Cohen (their work on Jaguar Land Rover’s Non-Genuine Animals has been ‘pencilled’ in the film: consumer TV 20 second & under campaign category, as well as for their work with Creative Y&R Nairobi on X News ‘Stories from the Congo’ in the print & outdoor category for CSR publications)...

1. SA has another strong showing at this year’s One Show awards. How did you find out your agency had been shortlisted in so many categories?

Rangaka: We found out as the One Show 2016 site went live and category shortlists were announced. We also received formal correspondence from the organisers.

Hinch: We went through a very thorough selection process and entered only our best work this year. We received notification on our success a few weeks ago, before the results were made public.

Deeb: Unlike the Cannes Lions Festival, where finalists are announced via a published booklet a day or two prior to the actual award ceremony, and you are notified of your win via a little envelope being slipped under your hotel door so as to ensure your seating in proximity to the stage for that night – One Show has embraced a somewhat less theatrical approach… a more digital one too…. We were notified of our FCB shortlist via an email about a month before the final announcements.

Cohen: While the winners of One Show Pencils and Merit Awards will only be announced during Creative week in May, shortlisted agencies were notified via email after judging, so our creative coordinator shared the good news with us in March.

2. What’s your view on the current calibre of advertising globally? Are we seeing more ‘advertising for good’ that resonates with consumers or is brand promotional work simply becoming better quality?

Rangaka: Getting fresh, brave work produced is very difficult these days. Clients demand more accountability from agencies and are generally less inclined to take unmitigated risk on untested ideas. In my view, this has helped keep standards high, because now we have to make our work also deliver results, which makes for better work. But I don’t think we should be able to make that distinction. Brands should exist to make their chosen consumers’ lives better and their advertising should be of good enough quality to resonate with those consumers. It should be both, not one or the other.

Hinch: The general standard of advertising entered into these awards is of a very strong calibre. This, of course, isn’t necessarily an entirely true reflection on the calibre of all the work that ends up in the market place. But what it shows is that when agencies are giving the opportunity to flex their creativity, they produce great work that resonates with consumers. In addition to this, there does seem to be a new focus on brands needing to add value and meaning to their consumers’ lives and connect with them on a more emotive and emotional level.

Deeb: I’m increasingly excited and privileged to be part of this amazing industry. It is not just the calibre of marketing communication and advertising that is ever-improving both locally and globally, but the significance that the communication can play in society, culture and behavioural change that make it a more meaningful contribution to the world. Yes, at its core the majority of communication is required to effect a positive change to the bottom line of our clients, but brands that are achieving this whilst also connecting with the world in a way that makes some form of meaningful contribution to people’s lives are the ones who will truly succeed. We are seeing the definition of “Goodvertising” extending beyond the corporate social investment territory and into a space where whilst selling a sanitary pad, we can shift people’s views on the powerful contribution of women in society and our perception of them. “Goodvertising” done good gives brands the opportunity to enrich both themselves and the world the brands live in too.

Cohen: The global advertising community is increasingly leveraging the power of creativity to tackle and solve some of the world’s problems, but I feel brands today need to work harder to gain consumer trust. They also need to do so in a truly authentic way by creating real platforms that can inspire change. Dove is still a classic example where a brand have actively rallied to join the movement to empower women and instil self-confidence – especially when they are at their lowest, during their teenage years. According to one of my colleagues, the quality of brand promotional work is definitely on the increase, and he believes that this is very much due to brands requiring better integration from their strategic lead agencies. Collaboration is no longer negotiable, and the most creative and robust solutions are paramount to success today.

3. While SA did well in One Show categories like radio, design and film, none of our work was selected in categories like social media, mobile UX and interactive. Your view on this – the reasons our work isn’t featured there, as well as specific SA challenges in these categories.

Rangaka: Most of our agencies are built off of a traditional advertising base and it will take some time before thinking in “new media” becomes second nature. Our clients are also keen but quite reticent to play here. South Africa does produce amazing campaigns in this space, but not enough to make us a global contender… yet.

Hinch: South Africa has a great history of creating award-winning work, but we are in an emerging market. Due to this we are still coming to terms with how to approach a fragmented end user that doesn’t necessarily have a computer, smartphone or feature phone. I would guess that the categories like social media, mobile UX and interactive are still developing and defining their role and relevance with our unique market place.

Deeb: South Africa continues to hold its own as a powerhouse in terms of engaging, effective, conceptual and meticulously crafted marketing. However, when it comes to digital we are not yet in the awards game. In my view there are a few reasons for this: The international shows award in the digital, dev and social media categories based on the following criteria: brilliant strategy, a strong creative idea and excellence in execution in both creative and in dev. Whilst South Africa does produce some work that holds its own in terms of strategy and big idea, when it comes to the execution, they lack the scale and numbers that international work that we are competing against have in abundance. Internationally digital and social budgets rival and often exceed those of the more traditional ATL budgets, we are simply not there yet.

In addition, by virtue of how the majority of the digital agencies started in South Africa, separate to the traditional advertising agencies, their entire structure and model is far more executional in approach. Working off the production house time-based model, where deliverables are very output-based in measure, the model itself limits the potential for great creative executions. We are seeing this dramatically shift in the industry as digital competencies become incorporated within what was the traditional agency model, or as digital agencies expand their competency to a wider range of offerings. In this process we have seen ATL agencies start to recognise far more value in the power of digital and digital agencies realising that beyond the novelty of the tech, the power of having a big idea and the execution to back it.

In the past, ideas that won in digital categories often leveraged the use of novel or new technology as the point of standout differentiation – these days, technology is only an executional means to deliver powerful communication with a strong idea at its core. This makes the playing field more level across the categories, but more difficult to win.

Cohen: I think great work is being executed locally, and it’s undeniable when considering some of the locally winning work over the last few years – but we still have a long way to go in exposing international jurors to these mobile and digital campaigns. Some of our problems are quite unique to our country, and access to technology is vastly different than most developed markets. When judged by foreign jurors, the sentiments can be lost in contextual translation. Having said this, I believe this will change rapidly as integration business models will lead to more integrated brand campaigns in due course.

4. Any predictions on which local agencies will be coming home with the top pencils this year?

Rangaka: It’s safe to assume the trend will carry on for Ogilvy Johannesburg and TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris for their Lucozade and Flight Centre radio campaigns respectively. Open Co might make an appearance for their Apartheid Museum work. And of course its fingers crossed for Ogilvy Cape Town with our shortlisted Volkswagen Touareg film and Up! print campaign!

Hinch: We’ll have to wait and see!

Deeb: I have to say my money is on the magnificent writing and production craft of Ogilvy JHB’s Lucozade radio spots. But there are a few strong pieces out of South Africa this year – so yes, we will just have to wait and see.

Cohen: There is definitely some strong local contenders in the running, and we will be cheering on our local flag-flyers from TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, Ogilvy and FCB Africa. Good luck to all!

The excitement’s certainly there, and we’re only days away from finding out if those predictions come true. If you can’t wait until then, click through to our One Show awards special section and watch for live coverage of the One Show Creative Week from our roving reporter, Ann Nurock. One Show Creative Week runs from 9 to 13 May 2016.