Call for POPAI 2015 entries goes out

The awards, running for the fifth year in South Africa, now offers 20 categories and are open to any designer or producer of POP material - agencies, brand owners, services companies and retailers - produced and placed between 1 August 2014 and 30 July 2015. They are open to both POPAI members and non-members.

The winners of the Display of the Year Award - for the best temporary and best permanent entries across all categories will be presented, along with the category winners at a gala event in November.

"The objective of the awards is to encourage best practice in the industry whilst giving due recognition to original, ground-breaking and effective point-of-sale," said Scott Adcock, Executive Director of POPAI SA.

International benchmark

The POPAI SA Awards put local chapter winners at the forefront of retail marketing in South Africa and provide the cream of the crop the opportunity to compete at global level.

Two of the 2014 South African Gold winners, Kansai Plascon and POD Communications, went on to win Golds at the 2015 POPAI Global Awards held in Las Vegas in March. POPAI Awards are run in 36 countries worldwide. "To win an award in your local country is deserved recognition of excellence, but to go up against the best-of-the-best from around the world and finish on top of the pile is an outstanding achievement!" comments Phil Day, Director of POPAI UK & Ireland.

Judging criteria

The first round of judging will be done online with judges reviewing photographs, videos and case studies against the following criteria:

• Marketing objectives and strategies
  
• Innovation
  
• Quality of case history
  
• Design
  
• Construction
  
• Creativity
  
• Use of retail space
  
• Branding
  
• Communicative value
  
• Ability to drive sales or meet objectives set out by client in brief
  
• Any other factors the judges determine make the display stand out against others in the same category

The judges will then meet for a day to review and discuss each category and decide on final winners in each category. Judges of the POPAI SA Awards comprise of industry leaders from brands and retailers. The organisers make every effort to ensure that the judges do not know which companies have designed, manufactured or submitted entries.

For more information, go to awards.popai.co.za/