Led by John Dixon, jury president, and CEO of Draftfcb, the panel included:

• Laura Jordan Bambach, the award-winning creative director of Dare (UK), the President of the D&AD, co-founder and director of SheSays and founder of the Cannt festival.
  
• Sophia Stuart, writer, photographer and award winning digital strategist/creative director.
  
• John Davenport, founder and executive creative director Ireland Davenport.
  
• Melissa Attree, digital marketer and strategist and winner of the 2011 Bookmark award for Social Media Marketer of the Year.

General comments

Starting off with some general comments, Bambach said it was time there was a shift in people's mindset, that social media is not only made up of Twitter and Facebook.

Bambach said there was a lot of work that was nice, but not super special. She also commented on the fact that work here is done with a different toolkit as to what is used in the UK.

Stuart was of the opinion that the work in South Africa compares favourably to the rest of the world. "You have a vibrant set of cultures here and your work needs to start reflecting this and your country. It would be nice to see this come through in the work, instead of just repeating the ideas you see in the rest of the world. You have your own identity."

She also commented on the culture in South Africa of being about to talk back. "This is a big trend. You must involve your audience. It is no longer good enough to just publish out. We are heralding in the future of active participation by your audience."

Davenport said that it was notable that South Africa had never fared well internationally when it came to digital work and awards. He did note that we do need to keep in mind that our agencies do not always have the same budget or our country the same broadband as found in other countries in the world.

Digital thinking

Bambach's reply to this was that the biggest issue is where digital sits in the food chain in the marketing sector. "Digital thinking should be at the top of the list. It is not about budget, but about a different framework on how clients work. The real innovation must come from clients and agencies working together."

Attree's comment on the entries this year was that there was "some nice integrated work". "But it needs to be more about working together and less about social. "I am so tired of Facebook campaigns. So a campaign got lots of likes, but at the end of the day what does that mean? There is still too much confusion on what digital is and where social media fits in." She agreed with Bambach that we need to think of social media in broader terms than just Twitter and Facebook.

Talking about the entries themselves, Dixon said that everything on the shortlist is good work. "The importance of a good entry cannot be emphasized enough. One entry was so bad in terms of typos and unclear metrics, that despite the judges liking the campaign it could not be shortlisted. This is the importance of your entry. For round two a 30 or 60 second video, for example, works very well. Entries also cannot try to pull the wool over the judges' eyes - we see the bull**** immediately. In the entries the benefits of the campaign need to be very clear. Each category has very clear criteria and results are a huge part of it. Creative also plays a role and judges look at creative excellence. Each individual category is scored separately and then added together for a total score."

For more:

• Bizcommunity Special Section: The Bookmarks
  
• Bizcommunity search: Bookmarks
  
• Bookmarks: http://www.thebookmarks.co.za/
  
• Facebook: The Bookmarks page
  
• Twitter: @TheBookmarks
  
• Twitter Search: Bookmarks2013
  
• Google News Search: The Bookmarks 2013