Top of the POPs

The POPAI Awards, sponsored by ZaPOP celebrates excellence in point-of-purchase (POP) advertising and in-store communication activity executed in South Africa in the last year.

Display of the Year in the Temporary category was awarded to Barrows Design and Manufacturing for their work on the Cadbury's Dairy Milk Joyville Project Peacock launch for Mondelez South Africa. Vinallti took top honours in the Display of the Year Permanent category for their iBlue Vault - Automatic Tobacco Manager.

"It is a great accolade to be recognised and rewarded for one's work and it is most gratifying to see the fruition of an idea culminate in being awarded the top prize," comments Franco Polito, sales director at Vinallti. "The real reward will now be how the market responds to our concept!"

"We're so chuffed! This is a great achievement for our industry. It was a great evening with a great result," comments Craig Kidgell, account executive at Barrows. He noted that the general standard of entry was high so Barrows was very pleased to walk away with gold, silver and bronze across Category 2 Product - FMCG - Food and Soft Drinks - Temporary.

"The quality of entries is showing continued improvement as the industry and its practitioners become more recognised, particularly on the client side. It was great to see the diversity as well as the new and up-and-coming players submitting and winning awards," adds Scott Adcock, executive director at POPAI South Africa. "The level of thought leadership in the various categories is yet another sign of our industry growing from strength to strength."

In this third instalment of the awards, POPAI expanded the number of categories to 18, covering everything from fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), services to digital media in retail (DMiR). Entries were open to any designer or producer of point-of-purchase (POP) material placed between 1 August 2012 and 31 July 2013. The entries are judged in a local context by South African captains of industry from brand and retailer sectors on a number of criteria, including marketing objectives and strategies, innovation, construction, use of retail space and communicative value.

For the agencies and manufacturers recognised, the POPAI Awards are not just noteworthy for their industry colleagues but for new and existing clients too. "The awards reaffirm our position for our existing clients and showcase our work for potential new clients too," says Kidgell.

"Like every other industry, it is critical to have measures for success and to celebrate excellence in the industry. The POPAI Awards provide a platform to demonstrate best practices and best in class execution in trade," says Adcock.

The increase and diversity in entries is indicative of how the Awards are fast-becoming the benchmark for the marketing at retail market in SA. Being open to both members and non-members also makes the Awards a chance to laud and applaud the industry as a whole.

"South Africa has a small but hugely innovative marketing populace. The standard of the work we produce is world class and is sometimes only limited by the availability of disposal marketing budget," says Polito.

"We believe peer review is one of the most reliable ways to measure one's performance in any industry. Added to this the ability to have an independent perspective by an accredited body allows our industry to gauge itself not only locally but also globally," comments Riaan Labuschagne, MD ZaPOP.

In fact, the gold winners of the SA awards are invited to enter the Global POPAI Awards. Entries have already opened (close 9 December 2013) and winners will be announced at EuroShop on 17 February 2014. "We're definitely putting forward our displays for the Global Awards," says Kidgell.

"Definitely yes," says Polito, "what better way is there for an SMME to get a chance to show off their product to the world and to compare our concept against all the other winners from around the globe!"

"We have world class brands and agencies delivering world class results. I believe that this gives us every opportunity to compete on a global platform. We are proud - bring it on and bring home the trophies guys!" says Adcock.

For a full list of winners and case studies of each of the winning entries in the 2013 POPAI Awards, please visit www.popai.co.za.

Don't delay, the 2014 POPAI Awards are on their way. You might get some ideas from this year's winners or shift your creativity into overdrive to design your golden ticket to next year's Top of the POPs! For more information on the entry criteria, visit awards.popai.co.za.

About POPAI

POPAI (Point of Purchase Advertising International) is the only global not for profit trade association exclusively dedicated to the retail marketing industry. It has 1 700 members and covers 45 countries worldwide. The POPAI Awards are based on the criteria and format utilised by all POPAI chapters around the world.