SA's D&AD 2017 winners: Native VML

International advertising award season is underway, with the One Show taking place in New York next week and the Cannes Lions next month. South Africa is off to a good start, having brought home 13 Pencils from 732 in total at the 55th annual D&AD Awards, which ranked us in 13th country spot.

All the SA Pencil winners: D&AD 2017

28 Apr 2017

Here, Xenopoulos specifically talks us through this year’s wins for the agency, their previous D&AD ‘pencil box’ record and their strategy to keep those international accolades coming…

Congratulations! Talk us through this year’s wins for the agency.

Native VML was awarded a Wood Pencil for our Twitter Refugees campaign. This campaign, produced last year for our client Passop, has become one of Native’s most awarded campaigns with gold awards at both the Bookmarks and Loeries as well as a silver at the Cannes Lions. We are delighted to add a D&AD Pencil to its list of accolades.

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What was your previous D&AD ‘pencil box’ record?

This is Native VML’s first D&AD Pencil ever! D&AD has never really been on our list of priority shows because we focus primarily on the Loeries, Bookmarks and Cannes (award shows are expensive!) This year, we dipped our toes in the water with a couple of entries and we are super stoked with the results.

Share your strategy to keep those international accolades coming.

CEO and chief creative officer at Native VML, Jason Xenopoulos.

Entering the big international award shows is a bit like buying a lottery ticket.

There are so many thousands and even tens of thousands of great entries that it is incredibly difficult to win through.

That said, our strategy is, and will always be, to do the best and most authentic work possible – work that has a purpose, that inspires us, and that represents what we believe in as individuals and as an agency. Then we work tirelessly to package it in a world-class way.

When you enter a show like Cannes Lions you have to know that in order to win your work has to be the best in the world.

If you aren’t prepared to craft it to the point where it is literally the best in the world, then don’t bother entering.

Sound advice. Here’s hoping for much more of that great South African work to come. Click here for a reminder of all of South Africa’s 2017 D&AD Pencil winners.