Midas Awards 2012 Winners: King James Cape Town wins Grand Midas for Santam Insurance

King James Cape Town earned the coveted Grand Midas Trophy in Investment Advisors for "Back at Ya" for their client Santam Insurance. In 2012, Santam launched an ad featuring Sir Ben Kingsley. Nando's Fast Food Chicken produced a parody of the ad, which immediately became a massive viral hit. Santam responded within days of Nando's parody with their own award-winning spoof, challenging the fast-food chain to deliver a party sized dinner order to the Johannesburg Children's Home with a 1600 Thursday deadline. Exposure for the Santam brand resulted in "Back at Ya" becoming the most viewed South Africa video on YouTube in the two days after going viral. It also topped the most mentions on Twitter on the day of launch, trended after the first hour, and remained there until Nandos delivered on the challenge. Santam's page takeover on News24 - resulted in 940,696 impressions and 11,440 clicks generating a CTR (Click-Through-Rate) of 1.2% - the CTR benchmark in SA is 0.25%.

"I'm on record for often saying that our goal as an agency is to create the best work in the category for our clients. I obviously had our own market in mind, so winning this award is spectacular overkill. We are thrilled. I know our client will also be. Kudos must go to Santam for this. Our response to Nando's was one of those spontaneous bolts of creative lightening that are so easily passed over because they don't fit a media schedule or a broader strategic purpose. This client put a good idea ahead of all other factors and that is rare these days." Alistair King - creative partner, King James Cape Town.

King James Cape Town was honoured with two additional Gold Ingots for Santam Insurance; "Back at Ya" received the Gold Ingot in Television Commercial, and "Sir Sneaky" for Financial Planning. The agency also garnered a Silver Ingot in the Investment Advisors category for "Time Flies" for client Allan Gray Limited.

US agencies take the lead

US agencies took the lead this year by earning 7 Gold Ingots. Publicis New York was honoured with two Gold Ingots, the first in the Credit Card category for "Citi JFK/AA" for Citi Executive AAdvantage card, and the second in Customer Service for "Clear Checks" for Citibank. RG/A New York received three Gold Ingots for Client MasterCard, one Gold Ingot in Place-Based Media for "Check In to the Ballgame," and "Rugby World Cup" earned two Gold Ingots in Sponsorship. The Martin Agency Richmond was awarded a Gold Ingot in the Website category for Morgan Stanley "Follow the Money," and XO Group Inc. New York was recognised with a Gold Ingot in Credit Card "Get What U Want Out of Life" for client Chase Blueprint.

And around the world

Belgium's Mortierbrigad Brussels was awarded three Gold Ingots. The agency received two in Banking, and an additional Gold Ingot in Recruiting for "What if..." for client Deutsche Bank.

The following German agencies were honoured with Gold Ingots: Agenta Werbeagentur GmbH Münster received a Gold Ingot in Sponsorship for "Throw! But Don't Throw Your Smartphone!" for ING-DiBa; Heimat Werbeagentru GmbH Berlin was honoured with a Gold Ingot in Banking for "We Clear The Way" for Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken; and Strichpunkt GmbH Stuttgart took home a Gold Ingot in the Annual Report category for "Together We Win - Annual Report 2011" for client Adidas AG.

Australian creative work was recognised with two Gold Ingots: Bengar Films Prahran was awarded a Gold Ingot in Sponsorship for "NAB Schools First" for client NAB; and Lavender Communications Group Sydney received a Gold Ingot in Online Advertising for "Car Loans" for Westpac.

Brazil's Artplan Rio De Janerio garnered two Gold Ingots, the first in Event Promotion/Marketing, and the second in Point-of-Purchase for "The Social Home Tour' for Carvalho Hosken.

India earned two Gold Ingots in this year's Midas Awards: M&C Saatchi Direct & Digital Communications Mumbai received a Gold Ingot in Direct Mail for "Saptapadi" for Birla Sun Life Insurance; and Radio Mirchi - India was honoured with a Gold Ingot in Annual Report for "Reimagining Radio" for Radio Mirchi.

The following agencies were recognised with Gold Ingots for their outstanding work: Rahofer Werbeagentur Salzburg, Austria earned a Gold Ingot in Annual Report for "The Most Flexible Annual Report Ever" for client Palfinger AG; TBWA\Digital Arts Network Auckland, New Zealand earned a Gold Ingot in Public Service for "ANZ Poppyday" for ANZ Bank; Pristop Ljubljana, Slovenia was awarded a Gold Ingot in Banking for "Rhyme with Zlatko" for client Sveta vladar (The ruler of the world); 41? 29! Istanbul, Turkey garnered a Gold Ingot in Electronic Banking for "DenizBank Facebook Banking" for client DenizBank; and Havas Worldwide London, UK received a Gold Ingot in Sponsorship for "Metamorphosis" for Credit Suisse.

The Midas Grand Jury is comprised of client and agency leaders from the creative and marketing disciplines, as well as internationally recognised experts in financial policy and communications. Midas Jury Panels award Gold and Silver Midas Ingots to the highest scoring entries in each category. The Grand Midas Award is recognised as the "Best of Show" by the Board of Judges and Advisors.

All 2012 Midas Awards winning entries are featured here.

The 2012 Midas award-winners from South Africa: