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The North West University took charge of the Student categories, winning the Overall Student Award in the category Student Digital Interactive Communication, for their Volk & Vaderland’s interaction installation.

#Pendoring2018: All the winners!

1 Nov 2018

Driving creativity

Together Pepe Marais and Xolisa Dyeshana, group chief creative officer and chief creative officer of Joe Public respectively, are driving creativity, specifically in the vernaculars. “We are more and more realising that it is lazy to use English as a blanket for everything and as we have become more conscious of it, we are originating more and more in vernacular. This includes changing our team so that we are much more diverse - we are probably 55% transformed and we are still pushing and looking for talent all the time,” says Marais.

One of the things that we really want to do as Joe Public is to lead the industry when it comes to doing indigenous work, says Dyeshana. “We want to lead when it comes to being transformed and having indigenous languages throughout our corridors and throughout our work. This year we set ourselves that goal to see if we could do it and we are so glad tonight that it did not happen on one client, and it did not happen on two or three - it happened across a plethora of our clients and that is extremely satisfying for us.”

Dyeshana adds that it is their vision as an agency to create not only award-winning work, but to create work that is truly loved by South Africans. “We want to do work that truly resonates and speaks to the people of this country and when we can do that, and do it well, and be recognised for it by our peers, it means the world to us. We are so honoured and so grateful to our clients and our people who have made all this possible and for the Pendoring Awards for recognising it.

Marais says their success tonight is indication of their focus on creativity. “Three years ago, we made a conscious decision to start driving creativity because that is the value we should bring to clients. So, this is a three-year journey that has culminated this year in the two main awards shows for us.”

Big winners on the night

The Awards saw a total of 47 statues handed out, with 25 of those gold. Apart from the two Grand Prix Awards, of the gold awards 10 are golds, four are campaign craft gold, four campaign gold and five craft gold.

Joe Public United took home two golds, one campaign craft gold, one campaign gold, and three craft golds. Joe Public won one campaign craft gold and one campaign gold. Joe Public Shift won one gold, two campaign craft golds, and one craft gold. Joe Public United and Joe Public Shift were the only agencies to take home a campaign silver and Joe Public took home a silver.

King James was the only other agency to take home a gold and The Odd Number the only agency to take home a campaign gold. 99c Communication, Freckle, Brand et al and FCB Durban took home a silver each.

The student category was also dominated by North West University which won four golds and a craft gold. Vega and The Greenside Design Centre took home a gold and the University of Johannesburg took home a campaign gold.

Keeping Afrikaans alive

Overall Student Award winner, Cherie Cordier, says the campaign that won her the award is special because it is in Afrikaans. “It is important to keep Afrikaans alive and for a community to understand what is going on around them.”

She adds that the campaign is based on what she saw in the Afrikaans community. “I based it on what I had seen happening around me, but people are not realising it.”

Of the silvers handed out on the night, 10 went the way of the schools. North West University once again headed up the leaderboard with a tally of four silvers, followed by the Red & Yellow Creative School of Business with three silvers, and the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography with two silvers and AA School of advertising one.

The Awards also handed out and 20 silvers and 60 certificates.