Creative industry competition opens

"We're expecting a larger number of participants, over last years' 3100 entries, as the categories now include a much broader section of the creative industry, namely: web, design, video and photography," says Leonard Rabotapi, PR and marketing manager for Adobe, Sub-Saharan Africa.

Previously entrants were divided into their rank (Creative Professionals, Students and Agencies) and this excluded creatives such as photographers. "Already there are several interesting photographic entries as well as a high calibre of web, video and design entries," he says.

Social Media Integration

Social media will play an even greater role this year as the competition encourages entrants to lobby for votes using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and to use sites such as YouTube and Flickr to host their entries, so voters have easier access to their entries.

Rabotapi says entrants will need to obtain a minimum of 100 votes for their entries to be listed in the Hall of Fame and in doing so will be eligible for both weekly spot prizes and the grand prizes. "Social media sites are a good way to expose their work and get the votes needed," he says. Adobe has also created its own Facebook and Twitter pages for the competition.

The competition is open to all students and creative professionals across Africa and the rest of the world. The general public is encouraged to participate and vote for their favourites in each of the four categories - and stand a chance to win industry-sponsored prizes.

The sponsored prizes of over R300 000 are mainly focused on encouraging growth and skills development within the creative industry, coming from Comztek, Dax Data, Digicape, Enjin Magazine, Flip Video, Friends of Design, Intersoft, Keyline, Labspace, Learning Curve, Loerie Awards, MSD, Nikon, Touchvision, TypeDNA and Workgroup.

For more information, go to www.gocreate.co.za.