“Connect & you can” was developed for the relaunch and repositioning of the MWeb brand. The intention was to attract a slightly younger market, while not alienating MWeb's existing client base.

The online advertisement features a bored-looking man sitting in his nightgown on an armchair, tapping his fingers to a tune he can only hear in his head. Suddenly, a tune becomes audible to the viewer, and a large MWeb logo, located on the opposite side of the page, opens up to reveal a small crowd having a party. The lid of the logo zips across the text in the middle of the page and the man on his arm chair leaps aboard, to be transported across to join the party. By clicking on the space that remains, viewers are taken to an interactive microsite that shows the benefits of being connected to the Internet.

Rich media advertising techniques help strike up a conversation

“It was vitally important that people saw the new logo - it couldn't be small,” says Pete Case, creative director at Gloo Digital Design. “We used rich media advertising techniques to get the two advertising areas - the large logo and the man on the couch - to talk to each other.”

Gloo also worked with Acceleration Media, an online placement company, to secure the unique advertising space to get the advert to work. Clearly, the unusual advertisement had an impact, securing three times the average click-through rate of normal online advertising, representing a return on investment for MWeb, and winning Gloo a Silver Loerie to boot.

“For years, online advertising has had a really bad image because of flashing blocks that say ‘click here', ‘buy more',” says Case. “By working with cutting edge technologies, we're putting out less advertising but creating more impact. Yes, it's more costly, but it's a lot more innovative and eye catching. I think that's why the ad shone at the Loeries - it was great creatively, strong strategically and worked well in terms of ROI for the client.”

Committed to the medium

The SpaceStation, one of South Africa's leading digital media sales businesses, sponsored the Award as an indication of their commitment to the medium of digital advertising. “In South Africa it has often been said that display-based online adverts do not perform as well as they should because the creative isn't as good as it should be,” says Mike Luscombe, CEO of The SpaceStation. “We feel that an award of this nature highlights our commitment to the medium as well as to the agencies that working to develop and implement excellent creative in this space. We're hoping the award will generate publicity for the winning agency and incentivise others to go that much further with their online display based ad campaigns in the future. ”

To this end, The SpaceStation Internet Advertising Award included a prize of R50 000 of online advertising space, as well as a fully-installed “SpaceStation” comprising a Telefunken 42-inch plasma screen TV, a Nintendo Wii and peripherals. Gloo elected to split their prize across their Cape Town and new Johannesburg offices.

In South Africa, only 1.7% of ad spend is spent online, whereas in the UK, online spend has overtaken television spending. “One of the reasons for this is that the online work that's being done in South Africa is simply not effective,” says Case.

He affirms Luscombe's views that this leads back to creativity in the space. “If clients allow their agencies the time to craft great campaigns and if creative agencies came up with great ideas, the impact of online advertising would increase dramatically, and spend would increase as well. The work and the award shows that a little unlocking of budget and creativity from the client side allowed us to do something that in the end benefitted the client.”

Major sponsors

The major sponsors for The 31st Annual Loerie Awards are the SABC, Ads24, Cape Town Tourism, The City of Cape Town, Gearhouse South Africa

Additional Sponsors and Official Suppliers

Brandhouse, Greensky, Sappi, Vodacom Mobile Media, Cape Film Commission, Adobe, Aon South Africa, Mango Airlines, Hetzner, Tempest Car Hire, MetropolitanRepublic, Hello Computer, Zero One One, Wicked Pixels, DJ Badly, Media Host, Orchestra Blue, Sonovision Studios, Gallo Images, Paygate, Ornico Group, Rocketseed, Newsclip, Lifesense Financial Services, Egg Films, Crowne Plaza Johannesburg - The Rosebank, Grand Daddy Hotel, Cape Town Partnership, Audio Militia, H-Factor, Universal Music Group, EMI Music, Ultra Litho, juju, the Core Group, Services Seta, Leg Studios, The SpaceStation, Visionation, Media Film Service, Valpre, First National Bank, Glaceau Water

For more information go to www.theloerieawards.co.za.