This year, for the first time in its 31 year history, The Loeries came to Cape Town and for the first time in its history Quirk eMarketing went too. Moving from Sun City in 2005 to Margate and now to Cape Town, there’s been much talk about the Loeries hosted in Margate being better, funkier, smaller, drier, warmer and more of a jol. Whatever! The QuirkStars know that Cape Town rocks and we went to welcome the Loeries to town with 2500 other creative souls on Saturday night.
The Loeries was set up by SABC in 1978 to promote and recognise creative excellence in television advertising in Africa and the Middle East. Categories now include radio and print advertising, design, architecture, direct marketing, non-broadcast video, live events, and digital media. Named after a small green bird, this is one of South Africa's most prestigious awards, it’s notoriously difficult to win anything at and I took the creative team to suss out the competition before we submit some killer work next year.
The venue was the aging, slightly crumbly Good Hope Centre (another thing for those whinging Joburgers to moan about), but in my opinion she looked mighty fine, bedecked with red carpets (to smooth the feathers of those gigantic egos that we all know as Creative Directors), umbrellas were clutched in the clammy hands of art students as they buzzed and ran to the buses that dropped off the previously afore mentioned egos from their boutique accommodations in Long Street. Yes, it was raining. Yes, my hairdo was stuck to my head, but we were in for a great start to the evening, because in my eagerness I'd suggested that the team got there early. So early in fact the bar wasn't even open. While we looked like spare parts for the best part of 15 minutes we were papped by photographers and squinted at by the students. Once the doors were open, the boys surged forward in a display that could only rival shoppers on the first day of the Harrods sale, to be greeted by a bevy of lovelies with free beer. A-ha, not all bad then.
Beautiful and dashing QuirkStars at the Loeries.
Inside, the Good Hope Centre was draped and fitted with Loerie paraphernalia to get everyone in the mood for some industry lovin'. Heineken sponsored the bar area which included a 360 degree wall canvas of the cityscape and mountain at night. The VIP area was certainly out of bounds to the intrepid QuirkStars who attempted to gain illegal entry, but whilst we waited and mused over what one had to do to get into the Very Important area, we treated ourselves to more beer (this time paid for) while we listened to a live band.
A large turn out (and a blurry guy in the foreground).
The auditorium was fitted with lighting rigs and a huge stage with 3 massive video walls. Impressive? Most definitely. Goldfish opened the evening with 'Cruising Through' and the MC for the night was John Vlismas at one point he was seen to be waving an eye wateringly large dildo, but hey, for those with a sensitive disposition, this is advertising right? Saturday was the second night of a two night ceremony, Friday was dedicated to print and Saturday to electronic media. The digital awards kicked off the evening, though notably the poor relation to the TV and radio commercial (21 digital awards to the ad man's 69 and still only two digital Grand Prix to date) and like any decent Oscar night, one agency swept the board. Gloo Digital collected 9 awards including 3 Golds. One for their very nice campaign for Cell C 'Create Me'. There were also some very nice silver birdies for Hello Computer (our new BFFs or should I say 'Best Flasher Friends') for Hello World 'Hi There' website and Play UK Monster Trucks game. It’s clear that to be a big digital winner, you need to think integrated. Go offline if possible and include all the digital communication channels, you'll also need a heavy dose of Flash. Whilst not all the winning sites were full fat Flash, each had significant and functional Flash elements.
So I sat there, as the radio category dragged on, and pondered what the comparison of budget is for a digital Gold Loerie and a Gold Loerie for a TVC. I heard from a 'reputable' source that one production house won't get out of bed for less than R1 million. Ha! What Quirk and the other digital agencies could do with that, eh? I think we all know where the big bucks are allocated, but as all good eMarketers know… that ROI isn't entirely measurable. Sigh. So on we pressed with the rest of the categories. Bum fatigue inevitably set in and the ad men's hooting, flag waving, drum stick banging and ra-ra-ing ended with another tune from Goldfish.
So now the race is on for next year, one thing is clear we need to think big, think bold and think gold because that winged lovely is going to look great on our mantelpiece in 2010.
Shiny Awards.
Check out the full list of winners.
Also check out:
Muti
