#AfricaMonth: "It's time to celebrate cultural nuances in creativity" - Andrew Human
#ICMYI: This year’s Loeries Creative Week will include award nights on the Friday and Saturday, as opposed to the Saturday and Sunday nights as we’ve become accustomed to in the past. There have also been changes made to the way to Loeries official rankings are structured, and entry deadline has been extended by a further week.
Here, Human explains how the change to the rankings’ structure in this, the Loeries’ 40th year, will result in more comprehensive reporting on local markets – just what we need to celebrate true creativity in Africa…
The Loeries Official Rankings is the only index for the advertising and brand communications industry that looks across the whole region and provides a measure of who’s doing what.
Talk us through the importance of celebrating creativity in Africa, and original African ideas at that – not trying to fit a Western idea onto these markets.
I think people across the globe all want similar things – to love and be loved, to be happy, and to be successful are some universal desires. However, the way in which we communicate things – our feelings and emotions – differs across societies.It’s important that we recognise the cultural nuances and differences throughout our region. “Africa” is unfortunately often seen as one culture but the differences are massive: Nigeria and Kenya are about as similar as England and France.
Elaborate on what the Loeries has done for creativity in the region so far.
This is important as a driver of improved creative quality and as countries begin to participate this benchmark allows them to measure themselves against the rest of the region and is an incentive to do better work.
From 2018, the Loeries is including finalists in the rankings, specifically as a way to drill deeper into the performance across smaller and emerging countries. With this, we will be able to report more comprehensively on local markets, such as West Africa, East Africa, North Africa and Southern Africa.
How does creativity differ across the continent to the work we tend to see in SA?
Great creative ideas transcend borders – a great idea is recognised no matter where it comes from.
However, some markets are more advanced than others, and I think most creative work is done on premium and luxury goods – because these are brands that build an emotive relationship with the consumer rather than focus on the bare facts or price point.
So, South Africa, with the most developed economy in Africa, tends to have a broader premium market than other African countries, and with this comes more emotive – and creative – advertising. But we can see similar great work emerging from other markets, like Guinness in Nigeria and Safaricom in Kenya, to name just a couple of leading brands.
Leigh Andrews 10 Jun 2016 As Garrick Hamm, one of our past jury presidents said – the only place he’s not creative, is at his desk.Lastly, what can SA agencies and marketers do to up their creativity, specifically in terms of local/homegrown brand messaging – when they feel stuck in a rut?
When you feel stuck in a rut, the best thing to do is to get away from your desk and find inspiration.
with... Andrew Human
Time to get creative, wherever you are – there’s still time to submit your best creative work as the Loeries 2018 deadline has been extended again to 7 June. Visit our Loeries Creative Week special section to keep your finger on that creative pulse if you can’t wait for Loeries Creative Week Durban, taking place again from 16 to 19 August 2018.
About Leigh Andrews
Leigh Andrews AKA the #MilkshakeQueen, is former Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com, with a passion for issues of diversity, inclusion and equality, and of course, gourmet food and drinks! She can be reached on Twitter at @Leigh_Andrews.
