Sarie launches Kwê-Voël Awards

Established by SARIE to encourage and promote an improvement in Afrikaans advertising, the Kwê-Voel Award is a national competition that will reward the ad agency in South Africa that creates inspiring Afrikaans print ads (in Sarie only). Targeted at the media and creative departments, an overall winner for the best creative Afrikaans magazine execution to appear in Sarie over a 9 month period will win a trip to Cannes 2004.

"The objectives of the Kwê-Voël Awards is twofold. We want to promote the dynamism of Afrikaans and get agencies to embrace the language and talk to the Afrikaans reader in their mother tongue. We need to break away from the current English concept and subsequent Afrikaans translation that exists," says Samantha Sneddon, Publisher, Media24 Women's Division. "At the same time the Awards will raise the consciousness of ad agencies when it comes to the buying power of Afrikaans speakers."

National reader research recently conducted (Strategic Diagnostics, November - December 2002) revealed that the Sarie reader identifies with the advertising placed in the magazine and many plan to buy the advertised products. The power of communicating an advertising message in Afrikaans to this consumer is enourmously powerful.

Kwê-Voël Award logistics

Every Afrikaans ad that appears in the August 2003 - April 2004 issues of Sarie magazine will be judged by Sarie editor, Michelle van Breda, Media24 managing director Salie de Swardt and Jenny Groenewald, former executive creative director of Tequila, Jhb. A monthly winner will be selected and profiled in Sarie. The final judging of all 9 finalists will take place after April 2004 with the overall team of copywriter, art director and media planner winning a trip to Cannes in 2004.

Sarie's agency TBWA Hunt Lascaris has created various support elements to the competition. A bellyband attached to the June issue of Sarie will serve as a teaser at the 2003 Loeries and posters will be placed in all agencies. Additional communication will be in the form of electronic media - e-mails and website support. The monthly winners will be profiled in Sarie and the ad industry at large will be notified of finalists via electronic communication.