All the winners: Assegai Awards sharpens its spear

The big winners were Liquorice / Publicis Africa, Gloo@Ogilvy, Demographica, Gorilla, King James and TBWA/Hunt Lascaris Durban.

Liquorice / Publicis Africa not only took home seven awards, but also the award for the campaign that received the highest overall rating, the prestigious Nkosi Award. "We are surprised, but delighted at being awarded this honour. However if it were not for brave clients we would not be in this position," says Emily Shaw, Digital Strategist, Liquorice. She points out that Awards such as these make clients even braver. "It is a positive cycle - with each award you win, clients get braver. It's a wonderful place to be."

Gloo@Ogilvy won Agency of the Year as well as nine gold, six silver, four bronze and three leader awards. Receiving the Award the team says it had been through the throes of a merger. "It's been a terrific ride."

Demographica took five gold, one silver and three bronze awards. It was also one of only four agencies that received the newly launched Black Spear award. This Award recognised campaigns that were awarded 94% and up from the judges. The other recipients are Liquorice / Publicis Africa, King James and TBWA/Hunt Lascaris Durban.

Warren Moss, CEO and founder of Demographic was suitably proud. "It's the brilliance of the team and the willingness of clients who allow us to do the work that have allowed us to achieve this success."

It was also a good night for TBWA Hunt Lascaris Durban and King James with six awards each as well as Gorilla with 10.

Standard Bank Business Banking was awarded Brand of the Year. Elizabeth Lee Ming winning Direct Marketer of the Year and Darryl Joubert, Intimate Data, was recognised for his lifetime achievement.

Direct marketing is a vibrant and innovative industry says David Dickens, head of DMASA. "Direct marketing stretches far beyond coupons and mail shots. In fact the challenges with the post office has pushed the creativity of the industry out of the box."

The result is campaigns we have seen tonight he says. Testimony to this is the 260 plus entries we received this year - a record number!"

This year there were also more judges than previous years. Dickens puts the number of judges at just over 60. "We wanted more eyes on the work and more depth in the review and checking of entries. Apart from local judges we also had some international judges," he adds.

One of the judges, Winnifred Knight says the work was outstanding. "For a small market such as the South African one, the results were phenomenal. I would say that if we get our timing right and enter into the equivalent of the Assegai Awards in the United States, the Echo Awards, we would walk away with many awards." Knight is an Advisory Board Members of the Direct Marketing Association India (DMAi) and in 2013, she was inducted into the DMAi Hall of Fame. She also judges the Echo Awards in the US.

Johanna McDowell, Founder and Chief Executive of IAS, also judged the Awards and agrees with Knight. "Not only was I impressed by the judging process that was very sound and comprehensive, but the work was of a very high standard. There were only good entries with lots of innovation coming through."

The Awards event took place at Room Five in Rivonia in Gauteng.

All the winners