With the opening of the entries comes the launch of the revamped website, designed by Aqua Online, and new brand identity, developed by Grid Worldwide Branding. Loeries CEO, Andrew Human says, "This fresh new look distinctly communicates the brand growth and more clearly represents the core message that 'Creativity Adds'."

The idea behind 'Creativity Adds' is that creativity and innovation have the ability to breathe life into an idea; to connect, to educate, to empower, to enhance, to inspire and even to transcend. Human continues, "The role of the Loeries is to show the value of creativity to our brands and our economy. The awards are a vehicle to promote the region and our country, with all that it offers - to showcase not only our industry, but our brands and the quality of our services."

New developments

New developments for this year include new categories, digital upload system and Turkish work may be entered.

New categories:

• Effective Creativity Award - This category has been introduced to recognise the link between innovation and business success. To be eligible to enter this new category, a campaign must have won a Loerie in the past two years. That means winners from 2012 and 2011 are eligible, including Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Grand Prix.
  
• New Voice Award Crafts - New categories specifically for non-English radio communication have been introduced for Writing and Performance Crafts. Non-English radio entries that have flighted may be entered in the New Voice Award category or the main Radio category, but not in both (as was allowed in previous years).
  
• A new Digital Craft category has been added for Best use of Technology.

The Loeries' new digital upload system, created in partnership with Sonovision Studios, will allow entrants to upload all media - images, videos and audio files - directly to the individual entries via the online entry system, simplifying the overall process.

The eligibility period for entries is 1 June 2012 to 31 May 2013. Companies must produce work from Africa and the Middle East, including island states off the African coast (e.g. Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles, etc). From this year, entries from Turkey are also eligible. Work that has been produced for international clients is eligible - so a company in Kenya producing work for a German market may enter its work. International crafts may be entered, as long as the person nominated for the award is from the eligible region.