The Most Awards recognise and rank the service efficacy of South African-based media owner sales teams and their media agency partners to ultimately motivate them to improve the efficacy of their businesses through service performance.
Sandra Gordon, CEO of Iconic Group and founder of the Most Awards opened the ceremony by giving a brief introduction to what the Most Awards are really all about and what they indicate regarding the industry this year. "The Most Awards doesn’t set the trends, but certainly the stability, independence and veracity of the research can give very clear indications of where sales teams and media agency frontline staff are performing or not performing. It reflects this year an industry in flux. There are massive differences in the rankings this year, both in agencies and owners. However, there’s no doubt that media-agency and -owner teams continue to exceed expectations ... they build up their game, stand up and stand up for the rest of the sheep – that’s what this is all about, people who stand up and make a difference for the companies and themselves."
The Most Legend and Rising Star Awards are presented to individuals in recognition of their commitment to the media industry. Nominations for these awards are submitted by respondents to the survey and the winner is selected by a panel of previous winners using specially selected criteria. These awards cannot be won more than once.
The Most Lamb Awards, for companies that do not receive the minimum number of 30 votes, but who excel in terms of great service delivery and knowledge, went to Spark Media Digital and Vizeum Cape Town.
The Most Africa Awards are presented to South African based media owner and media agency teams. The Media Owner Africa Award went to Alliance Media and The Media Agency Africa Award was won by Omnicom Media Group (OMG) Africa.
The Full-Service Media Agency Award was picked up by PHD and the Traditional Specialist Media Agency Award went to Alphabet Soup.
In the radio category, Mediamark Radio once again took top honours while Cinemark won the cinema category for the second time and e.tv was top of the television category. Massiv Media won the out-of-home (OOH) category and Google Inc was ranked number one in the digital category.
Ads24 took the honours in the newspaper category and Ndalo Media won the magazines category.
There is growth in the number of media sales consultancies and the winner is MMAP.
The Bell Award acknowledges an individual with a stellar track record of contribution to the sector. The nominees extend outside of the media owner and agency work environment, acknowledged as independent thought leaders with flair and integrity. The award went to Jonathan Shapiro, famously known as Zapiro, who has had a long and distinguished career in the Jester’s space. Few will recognise his face as he prefers to use his creativity and intelligence to further the independence of the fourth estate. He is a winner of numerous awards locally and globally for his bravery and skill at using his ever-sharp pen as a weapon to parody, lampoon and ridicule people in power.
The Shepherd Award acknowledges an individual who selflessly contributes time, knowledge and expertise to improving the media industry. This special award went to Gordon Muller who is respected by the marketing and media industry for his knowledge and passion. He has contributed to numerous industry bodies as well as to the development of media teaching in the country.
Brad Aigner MD of research house Freshly Ground Insights (FGI), commented positively on the 2017 Most Awards survey, “We were very pleased that almost 600 people voted this year, which is our biggest sample size in the nine years that we have been conducting the survey. It is reassuringly indicative of its relevance and importance to our industry.”
Gordon adds that “over the years the number of research participants has increased. The event attracts over 600 top people and our sponsors go out of their way to ensure a true celebration of excellence in many engaging and memorable ways. The Most Awards is by the media for the media; recognised as the top media event in the country.”
| Media Owner of the Year | Massiv Media |
| 2nd | Ads24 |
| 3rd | Cinemark |
| Media Agency of the Year | PHD |
| 2nd | Alphabet Soup |
| 3rd | The MediaShop (JHB) |
| Media Agency Legend | Bryan Gibson |
| Media Owner Legends | Noel Coburn and Terry Moolman |
| Media Owner Rising Star | Darren McKinnon |
| Media Agency Rising Star | Kelvin Storie |
| Bell Award | Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) |
| Shepherd Award | Gordon Muller |
| Media Agency Lamb | Vizeum (Cape Town) |
| 2nd | Hitch Digital Media |
| 3rd | Posterscope |
| Media Owner Lamb | Spark Media (digital) |
| 2nd | Condé Nast Magazines |
| Media Owner Africa | Alliance Media |
| 2nd | JCDecaux (Africa) |
| Media Agency Africa | Omnicom Media Group Africa |
| Full Service Media Agency | PHD |
| 2nd | The MediaShop (JHB) |
| 3rd | Vizeum (JHB) |
| Traditional Specialist Media Agency | Alphabet Soup |
| 2nd | Mediology |
| Media Owner Category Awards | |
| Media Owner Radio | Mediamark Radio |
| 2nd | The Media Connection |
| 3rd | Primedia Broadcasting |
| Media Owner Cinema | Cinemark |
| 2nd | Cinevation Popcorn |
| Media Owner Television | e.tv |
| 2nd | DStv Media Sales |
| 3rd | The Home Channel, BDTV and Ignite |
| Media Owner Out of Home | Massiv Media |
| 2nd | Relativ Media |
| 3rd | Primedia Outdoor |
| Media Owner Newspaper | Ads24 |
| 2nd | Times Media Group |
| 3rd | Independent Media Group |
| Media Owner Magazines | Ndalo Media |
| 2nd | Media24 Lifestyle |
| 3rd | Caxton Magazines |
| Media Owner Digital | Google Inc |
| 2nd | The SpaceStation |
| 3rd | Mediamark Digital |
| Media Sales Consultancy | MMAP |
| 2nd | Mark1 Media |
| 3rd | Red Cherry Media |
To enquire about ordering full Most research reports email Sandra Gordon at sgordon@stonesoup.co.za on call her on 082 450 8113. For more information, visit Wag the Dog Publishers' website or The Media Online.
