Draftfcb Joburg cleans up at Pendoring

More than 40 agencies, advertising schools, freelance copywriters/creatives and smaller creative companies submitted over 300 entries in the 15th Pendoring Advertising Awards for excellence in Afrikaans and Truly South African advertising. The evening emphasised the theme of "Moenie Die Taal Afskeep Nie" (Don't Neglect the Language), and judges agreed that Afrikaans is not something that can be ignored in the advertising world.

Player 23

The Vodacom Player 23 campaign (Jan, Jan & Elton) won a plethora of five Gold Pendorings and one Prestige award. The agency took two Gold awards in the category Above-the-line, Television/cinema with Jan and Jan & Elton, one Gold Pendoring in the category Advertising: Mixed Media Campaign (above-the-line) for Jan & Elton and two Gold Pendorings in the Truly South African Television awards for Jan and Jan & Elton. Jan also received the Prestige Award.

Many an attendee stated that the awards might as well be called the Vodacom or Draftfcb Awards since one campaign tends to win all the awards every year. It is also interesting that both the Vodacom Jan and Jan & Elton commercials were predominantly in English, with perhaps 10% Afrikaans content. According to John Woodford, publisher of Advantage magazine at Primedia, it indicates a lack of work originated in Afrikaans for Afrikaans audiences.

The Pendoring Awards added the "Truly South African" category for both advertising and student campaigns last year. According to Klasie Wessels, chairman of Sreetschool, the Truly South African category is an opportunity to allow Pendoring to grow in more than just Afrikaans. "Pendoring can become the awards ceremony that represents everything South African," he said.

Other Gold Pendorings found their way to the Joburg Draftfcb offices in Sandton for Toyota's Afrienglish in the Radio/Jingle category, as well as the Nando's Name radio commercial that won two Gold Pendorings in both the Original Afrikaans and Above-the-line Radio Advertising categories.

Humorous creativity

Riaan van Heerden, specialist judge in the radio category, was astounded by the humorous creativity. "A radio advertisement must be like a good joke. You can repeat it often and it remains bloody funny. I was mad about the edginess of some of the ads. We sometimes have to tread on toes to be heard."

Van Heerden also insisted that people need to be more in touch with the Afrikaans market.

Commented Denise Meadon, group head: marketing at Clover, "Afrikaans is rich in creativity and moves hearts - the Vodacom and many other radio advertisements prove this."

Draftfcb Cape Town won three Gold Pendorings: in the category Above-the-line advertising tit won a Pendoring for the Dawid en Goliat, (Die Burger), newspaper ad and another for Matiesous, (Die Burger), in the Outdoor category. Die Burger Coffee Wraps also took a Gold Pendoring in the Experiential Marketing Category for Direct Marketing and Promotions.

Entries were scarce in the poster and outdoor as well as the digital and mobile categories, a trend in previous years as well. It is interesting that cutting-edge media is neglected in a country with 98% mobile penetration.

Do creatives still just care about accolades for creative work done in above-the-line media, or is it clients that do not consider Afrikaans important enough to warrant independent niched ads? Perhaps agencies do not consider it important to enter for the Pendorings in these categories or maybe their budgets are affected by the economic downturn. According to the Sunday Times, "Advertising revenue for magazines dropped 21% in the first half of this year, and the number of pages sold dropped 28%." (Sunday, 20 September).

Marlene Bramley

High standard

Iaan Bekker, creative head at Brandwealth, commented that the quality of entries in the print category were of a high standard. He said, "Here we found a high index of powerful new idioms. The Kalahari.net and Tuffy campaigns indicated to me that succinct communication is successfully represented through surrealism and metaphoric intrigue. Even though it may enjoy mass-market appeal it does indicate the direction in which good advertising in print media is moving - no copy, 'obvious' visual idioms and metaphors; logo as contextual hint."

Another category that deserves mention was the ingenious work in the Communication design category. Judge and illustrator Minky Stapleton said, "The ingenious communication design of the MK magazine stood out. It can captivate you for hours on end - this campaign takes Afrikaans to a completely new level."

The President, a small Cape Town agency headed by Peet Pienaar, received a Gold Pendoring to add to its list of awards won for this campaign, which include a Silver Design Clio earlier this year. Then there's the Merit Award in the category Publication Design at the 2009 One Show Design Award in New York. Last year it won a Gold Pendoring for Best Communication Design.

"Streets ahead"

Klasie Wessels, chairman of Streetschool, also praised the students' work, particularly in the digital and online categories, where they were "streets ahead of the offerings in the agency categories."

In the Student category, the North West University (Potchefstroom) took home one Gold Pendoring in the digital media category for Riemtelegram (Distrik) and two Silvers, one for Bevonk (North West University) and one for Out of the horses mouth (ATKV).

Vega took the Pendoring in the Truly South African category with Family dedicated to care (Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital) and the Red & Yellow School of Advertising won a Gold for its Doen wat jy wil met jou bokke (National Lottery) above-the-line ad.

The AAA School of Advertising won two Silver awards for Kraanvoel, Perdeby, Ystervark (Pendoring Awards) and Nou het Ouma meer tyd (Melktert, Malvapoeding, Kaaskoek, choco)

Saatchi and Saatchi Cape Town won one of two Gold Pendorings for Sport Ikone (Sportsillustrated) in the above-the-line magazine category and one in the digital media category for last year's Pendoring website.

Silver Pendorings went to NINETY9CENTS Communications, TBWA\Tequila Johannesburg, Black River FC and The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg).

Compared to six Gold sponsors in 2008, Pendoring this year boasts no fewer than nine Gold sponsors which generously pledged their support to the Pendoring advertising awards, established 15 years ago to promote and reward excellent Afrikaans advertising.

Download the full 2009 Pendoring Awards results. For more, go to www.pendoring.co.za.

Additional reporting by Ilva Pieterse, Bizcommunity.com blogger and BizLounge contributor