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Top Loeries winner calls for transformation

Durban – The advertising industry needs to transform faster to avert a union being formed and forcing the issue, Loeries chairperson Neo Mashigo told his colleagues at advertising industry’s awards ceremony in Durban at the weekend.

Mashigo, the executive creative director at agency Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg, said the industry could be “proactive with transformation issues” and avert a union being formed.

As one of the country's leading creative directors, Mashigo recently resigned from the agency and will depart at the end of August to become an entrepreneur, according to Media Update.

Suhana Gordhan, a Loeries judge and FCB Johannesburg creative director, told Fin24 earlier in the week that the industry was still male dominated and needed to transform.

“Transformation in this industry is slow and it needs to happen in a bigger way for women of colour and for people of colour in the industry,” she said.

READ: Advertising still too pale and male, says Loeries judge

Loeries awards top creatives

Two grand prix Loeries awards were handed out, as well as 35 gold Loeries, 68 silver Loeries and 18 craft gold Loeries awards.

Mashigo’s agency was the only one from South Africa to win a grand prix Loeries award on Saturday, the highest acclaim in the advertising industry, for its KFC SoundBite initiative in the applications, games and interactive tools category. It also won three bronze and one craft gold Loeries awards.

READ: KFC music concept wins top Loeries prize

On Sunday, the other grand prix went to United Arab Emirates agency IMPACT BBDO Dubai for its Loto Libanais Black Cats On Holiday advert in the branded content video category. It also won a bronze, gold and two silver Loeries for the campaign.

A series of spoof videos convinced lotto players in Lebanon that their bad omen – the black cat – had been shipped off to New Zealand, a country that sees them as good luck. The result was a surge in lotto players, who were shocked when they discovered the cats were still crossing their paths.

A similar style of branded content that engaged well with consumers was Sanlam and agency King James Group’s One Rand Man campaign, which some felt also deserved the top prize. It did however win four silver Loeries and two gold Loeries for the campaign.

The One Rand Man was a concept where an architect in Cape Town had his salary paid out in R1 coins to see visually why he was living in debt. His journey was documented in weekly videos that were accompanied by advice videos from experts. It effectively got South Africans talking about savings and debt during Savings Month in 2014.

WATCH: Bad luck black cat bring agency good luck

Tweets from Fin24 at the Loeries Awards:

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