Tough Apex judges award no Golds, Grand Prix

"The ACA congratulates 2011 nominees and winners. To all those who submitted entries this year, remember: no-one who enters APEX loses. The process of compiling a case study is an incredible learning curve and does much to enhance and build client and agency relationships. Keep entering," she added.

Derek Watts, MC for the 2011 Apex Awards.

According to adjudication chairperson Andy Rice, who has been involved with these awards for over a decade, "the results show 2011 was probably not quite as strong as some years, but what was particularly encouraging was the breadth of agencies and advertisers entering Apex, as well as the fact that entrants have looked beyond pure 'advertising' campaigns and have included other disciplines as well, such as packaging, sales promotion, etc."

The 2011 APEX winners, per category, are:

Launch category

For brands or services less than 12-months-old with no significant history of advertising

Change category

For new campaigns from previously advertising brands, which resulted in significant short-term effects on sales and/or behaviour (short-term being within a period of no more than 18 months)

Sustain
For campaigns that benefited a business by maintaining or strengthening a brand over a long period, ie 36 months

Special awards

Two Special Awards certificates were awarded to Ogilvy Cape Town and The Topsy Foundation for their Toppling the HIV/Aids Stigma campaign, as well as 4D Euro RSCG and PNET for their Behind the Scenes campaign.

Judging

International keynote speaker Tony Wright, chairperson of Lowe & Partners.

The adjudication panel consisted of Andy Rice (chairperson), Ivan Moroke, Gareth Leck, Andre Chemaly, Charles Matterson, Emmet O'Hanlon, Fahmeeda Cassim-Surtee, Jason Knight, Lou Boxall-Davies, Malusi Thu, Matthew Glogauer, Neil Higgs, Sepanta Bagherpour, Velma Botha and Xolisa Dyeshana.

Judging spanned a period of two months, during which many case studies were scrutinised for the campaigns' measured ROI. A record number of entries were submitted by a record number of entrants, with many first-time entrants making submissions and many previous entrants submitting multiple entries.

High standards

L-R: International keynote speaker Tony Wright (chairperson of Lowe & Partners); Wayne Naidoo, ACA board chairperson; Odette van der Haar, ACA CEO; and Derek Watts, 2011 Apex Awards MC.

In not awarding a Grand Prix, judges refused to compromise but stuck to maintaining high set standards set.

Said Van der Haar, "It is not easy to win an Apex. The standard is very high. This is one awards programme that will not award awards for the sake of awarding trophies. This year's winners have much to be proud of as they successfully proved that the advertising and communications profession has much to contribute to business success.

"Their awards represent the ultimate achievement: a demonstration of both strategic and creative effectiveness and position the winners as true leaders in the field of advertising and communications.

"Key to submitting winning entries is attending the Apex workshops. Even seasoned Apex entrants should attend the workshops. The workshops are free and are being redesigned to assist entrants even more. Dates for the 2012 workshops will be communicated in the coming weeks.

Bursaries

Bursaries to the amount of R20 000 each were awarded to the following students of the AAA School of Advertising:

• Johannesburg

  • Masakhane Chilundu, third year, diploma in marketing communication
    
  • Fortunate Vilakazi, third year, diploma in visual communication
    
  • Nazcheeba Morrsion, final year, diploma in copywriting

• Cape Town

  • Danielle De-Raedt, final year, diploma in copywriting
    
  • Khotso Motaung, second year, BA creative brand communication

  • Chwayita Metele, second year, BA marketing communication

Chris Hitchings, DStv Media Sales CEO, presents Danielle Sneider with a Silver Apex on behalf of The Jupiter Drawing Room in the DStv Media Sales Launch Category for work for Hyundai Sonata.

During 2010, the Apex Bursary Fund was launched and, to date, 10 bursaries to the value of R160 000 have been awarded.

Said Chris Hitchings, CEO of DStv Media Sales (formerly Oracle Airtime Sales), key partners of the awards, "It gives us great pleasure to assist with raising funds for much needed bursaries that will no doubt go a long way in creating opportunities for talented students of the AAA School of Advertising"

2011 Apex sponsors, partners and contributors were M-Net, DStv Media Sales, AngloAmerican, SABMiller, Robertson Winery, Nando's, Lindt and Sprungli, Kraft Foods, DDB South Africa, Lowe Bull, Morris Jones, Joe Public, AVL Productions, Edith Unlimited and Gideon's Flowers and Functions.

Download the APEX Awards Supplement
For more:

• Apex Awards website www.acasa.co.za/apex.aspx
  
• Bizcommunity search: Apex Awards
  
• Apex Awards Twitter Search: ApexAwards
  
• Google News Search: Apex Awards

Updated at 10.06am on 3 June 2011
Updated at 12.31pm on 3 June 2011