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#Loeries2018: Alistair King on winning a Grand Prix for '2-Minute Shower Songs'

23 Aug 2018

King James Group took home a Grand Prix for Sanlam's '2-Minute Shower Songs' in the digital and interactive communication category at this year's Loerie Awards, which took place on Friday, 17 August and Saturday, 18 August at the ICC in Durban.

Photo by Roy Esterhuysen / 2018 Loerie Awards / Gallo Images

The campaign itself received a total of nine awards in various metals across categories, amounting to a total of 19 Loerie awards won by the agency this year.

I interviewed co-founder and CCO Alistair King to find out what makes this particular campaign stand out and what the win means to them…

Why are you proud to have won a Grand Prix for Sanlam’s ‘ 2-Minute Shower Songs’ in the digital and interactive communication category?

A Grand Prix is obviously the ultimate recognition that a piece of work can attain from our peers, so I’m mainly just thrilled for the young (and not so young) teams that sucked this out of their heads and shared it with the world in such spectacular fashion.

What does this win mean to you and for the agency?

There is nothing more satisfying than the industry looking at your work and giving you its nod of respect.

The tougher the job was to pull off, the more rewarding the award recognition is. The long nights, the fights, the high-stress situations all dissolve away when your name is called.

Scenes from the #2minuteshowersongs and #weewiser campaigns.

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Why do you think this campaign was deserving of such a win?

Good work, by its nature, grips the viewer's imagination and sells them on an idea they haven’t necessarily thought of. This campaign had it all: celebs, music, and the anxiety of a massive threat that was starting to engulf the existence of all of us living in Cape Town. Emotions were high and we used those emotions positively.

Tell us a bit about the thinking behind the idea?

Capetonians were getting a bit tired of the hostile way in which we were being told to not exceed our shower limit. So, we decided to make a positive contribution by reframing how those two minutes should feel. The team decided to essentially create a musical two-minute egg timer by recreating songs our audience were already very familiar with. Hearing those songs played in a way that they had never heard them was just what our audience needed.

Which Loeries win(s) did you personally feel to be most deserving, and why?

King James does work that wins awards, not work to win awards. There’s a difference. Every piece of work we do is to help solve a client’s need, so when a piece of work is awarded something after the fact, it’s always deeply satisfying. It always makes the job feel more worthwhile, regardless of how hard it was to create, or what circumstances made it challenging to see through.

Comment on the current creative landscape in South Africa and how this compares globally?

Our industry is in a state of flux right now, particularly overseas. There’s a lot of jostling for corporate position which I frankly would rather stay out of. Here in South Africa we still love the idea, perhaps naively, that there are many marketers who still value a great creative idea above all else, and as long as we stick to that belief our work will continue to be interesting and worth engaging with.

What’s next?
Everything is next. Advertising is like a perpetual rolling wave of endless creative opportunity.