Painting Margate red
It was more a case of follow the red carpet than the yellow brick road, although some of the agency characters making an appearance round about town could have stepped out of the world of the Wizard of Oz. From flashers on balconies to shirtless wonders braving the wind chill factor on an otherwise beautiful sunny day, Margate rocked to the sound of music pumping from the beachfront and the industry ‘rockstars' that descended on the seaside dorp.
Thanks to Vodacom's sponsorship this year, the 3G signal in the town was boosted, making it easier for daily media such as Bizcommunity.com to provide immediate and constant coverage of the awards on the website and blog: http://blog.bizcommunity.com.
The team was 15 strong this year and included media partners Zoopy.com – South Africa's own YouTube social media site – and Mobilety, which sponsored our foray into mobile blogging by SMS this year.
What with photographs, vlogs (video interviews), blogs – including one from industry insider ‘The Unhappy Slapper', articles, fashion commentary, all the awards from the Saturday and Sunday night – and on the ground brand activations for Bizcommunity.com, we had the annual Loerie Awards festival covered.
Bizcommunity's charity cartoon initiative with Brainstorm, DTPete, was also launched with the dreadlocked cartoon character propping up lampposts in the town.