Grand Prix awards

Whereas the premier awards went to well-establishing agencies the night before, the Grand Prix birds went to smaller agencies on Sunday. Again the subject matter were vastly different - one focusing on education and the other on a grudge purchase.

In the case of MTN's "The Everywhere Library", MetropolitanRepublic used an interesting mix of traditional newspaper advertising and cell phone technology to create virtual libraries for school children. This garnered the agency the gold in the Media Innovation category and ultimately the Grand Prix.

FoxP2, on the other hand, had the unenviable task of creating an interesting radio campaign around the rather grim topic of life insurance for client Frank.net. This they did it with their "Death doesn't have to try to hard" campaign.

Justin Gomes, Executive Creative Director at FoxP2 said: "We are incredibly proud of the campaign. We had to cut through the clutter on radio with an innovative and creative approach, which included a call to action with two SMS numbers."

He pointed out that radio is a very affordable medium for clients with competitive budgets as opposed to the international-sized budgets attributed to TV advertising.

Effective Creativity award

The Loeries introduced a new award this year, which is designed to measure the real value media campaigns, adds to clients' bottom line. Any Loerie winning entries from the past two years may enter, and the first-time recipient was Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town's "Be the Coach" campaign for SAB Carling Black Label that won the Grand Prix in 2012.

Africa and the Middle East

Including categories for the rest of Africa and the Middle East brings a new dimension to the Loerie Awards with two of the three golds on the night going to Advantage Y&R, for their Land Rover Defender print campaign in Namibia, and the Outdoor and Collateral Media award to their Dubai office for their Harvey Nichols Sale campaign.

Ogilvy Africa won the third for their Media Innovation Campaign award for Radar Security's "On-the-job interview" campaign in Kenya. The agency created a campaign in which security guards were invited to find fake bank notes hidden under cars in Nairobi. The funny money served as an invitation for a job interview with the security company. The campaign was expanded when notes were also hidden under the vehicles of media people and journalists aimed at generating social debate on the issue of security.

"Africa offers unique challenges," said Allan Edgar, Regional Creative Director: Ogilvy Africa. "People are so starved of great brands that they are lapped up immediately, so really there isn't much work for advertising agencies. But this is changing with more and more infrastructure coming in to support more brands."

"The art of writing is not dead, African people love to read and they have a lot of time to do so, usually on the taxis and buses during their journeys to and from work. I feel this is an opportunity for ad agencies to create beautifully crafted copy."

ADreach Integrated Campaign award

Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town won R100,000 of advertising space for Volkswagen's "Street Quest" campaign.

Hall of Fame

"Putting on the Ritz" and looking very dapper in tails, but sans the top hat, Founder and Chairman of The Jupiter Drawing, Graham Warsop accepted his nomination into the Loeries Hall of Fame at last night's ceremony.

He joins past recipients Mike Schalit - Chief Creative Officer: BBDO South Africa, John Hunt - Worldwide Creative Director: TBWA\ Worldwide, Robyn Putter (1950 - 2010), former WPP Creative Head and Nkwenkwe Nkomo, Group Chairman: Draftfcb. "It's a tremendous honour to be in the company of the immortals of the industry," he said.

TV, Cinema and Video award

What was probably the most waited-for category of the evening yielded an unusual winner in the form of a video clip entitled "Fatty Boom Boom" by Die Antwoord and produced by Egg Films. The other recipient was FoxP2 for Ster-Kinekor's "Intersection".

PR Communication Campaign

Living on the edge and incurring the wrath the first citizen's watchdogs best describes the cheeky approach taken by Metropolitan Republic in their "The campaign that never lighted " for The Fish & Chip Company, which won them the gold.

With a R500,000 budget, the agency was banking on the fact that the national broadcaster would pull any ad that lampooned the state president. Their gamble played off and the predicted move produced a flurry of activity in the media and the digital sphere, which produced R20m worth of PR in 10 days. Not a bad return on investment.

The gold, silver and bronze birds are already up on the reception area shelves, the party gear has been packed away and the Loeries are over... Until next year.