On Thursday night, the 2017 IAB Bookmarks Awards Show was held in Jozi, and excitement was so pulpable that you could almost lick some off of Tseliso Rangaka’s head.
We are proud to say that we were recognised as Best Digital Agency of the year, and one of our major long-standing clients, KFC, was named Brand of the Year. In total, the agency network won 25, including two golds, at the 9th edition of the country’s premier digital marketing event.
The 21st Design Indaba festival kicked off last week where there was a widespread use of natural elements as a source of inspiration, tackling issues of misrepresentation & examples of how beautiful data can be. Below are a few of the highlights from the 3 day conference.
TAPPUTI AND THE SEA by Kaja Solgaard Dahl
Dyed natural sea sponges hold the handmade solid perfume made of only natural oils sourced from the African continent and around the Cape. Simple & beautiful design.
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Great Things To People is a Santiago, Chile based design firm involved in varying projects that focus on architecture, art and design. One of which blew us away – the invention allowed them to produce delicate, individually unique ceramic pieces.The Chilean firm and Eastern Cape-born ceramic artist Andile Dyalvane teamed up to collaborate on a never never-before-seen installation also featured below.
Tech entrepreneur Marko Ahtisaari is the CEO and co-founder of The Sync Project, which investigates the therapeutic effects of music on the body and mind. Music that can literally put you to sleep.
Chris Sheldrick is the founder of what3words, an addressing app that assigns a sequence of three simple words to any location in the world. Simply brilliant. Now everyone is the world has an address – from the peak of Kilimanjaro, rural landscapes in KwaZulu-Natal to the dance floor at ERA.
Ever since they began collaborating in 2007, the artists and filmmakers Lernert & Sander have been known for their high-conceptual art films, eye-catching installations and keen fashion aesthetic. These two were a solid highlight from the conference. Hilarious, kind and brilliant.
Kate Moross, London based unicorn in the illustration world. She and her team have brought multiple projects to life – from Disclosure to Lorde, One Direction, Katy Perry & The MTV Video Music Awards. Pretty much portfolio that any designer DREAMS to have.
Check out one of Studio Moross’ latest pieces:
7. Georgia Lupi & Kaki King
Giorgia Lupi interrogated the humanity behind big data. By removing the computer and forcing herself to imagine data in a different way. She is able to reveal patterns and nuanced aspects of the human experience that data would otherwise drown.
She collaborated with the INCREDIBLE Kaki King’s magical guitar playing to bring her data to life – an example below:
8. Wage Islands by Ekene Ijeoma
An interactive installation about wage and housing inequality in NYC. It’s a 3d topographic map of monthly housing costs submerged in water to show where New Yorkers can afford to live based on hourly wages.
There were SO many incredible moments – Check out the Ogilvy Instagram handles to see more. Thank you to the Joburg & Cape Town teams who co-curated this article!
Vicki Hey has been appointed deputy managing director of Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town.
37-year-old Hey has been responsible for our iconic relationship with Volkswagen SA for the past 3 years and has been on the board since June 2013.
O&M CT MD Luca Gallarelli says Hey is the perfect fit for her new job; “Vicki successfully manages the most complicated and demanding tasks while always remaining one of the most cheerful and admired people in the entire agency. She is helping us write a new chapter in our story and I’m delighted to stand alongside her in doing so”.
Executive Creative Director Tseliso Rangaka hails her all-round credentials; “Vicki’s an amazing brand custodian in that she understands the value of creative ambition in driving our clients’ business forward. She’s also a lot of fun to work with. I’m really proud of her.”
A marketing graduate from Cape Technikon (now CPUT), Hey was at Joe Public, Lowe Bull and King James before joining O&M CT. In addition to Volkswagen, she has worked on many prime clients during her career including Bell’s Whisky, Allan Gray, Parmalat and several SAB brands.
Campaigns overseen by Hey have received multiple accolades including a rare Gold in Effective Creativity at the recent 2016 Loeries for Volkswagen Uber up!
She says she’s thrilled by the new role; “managing agencies is becoming a more complex task almost by the day and that’s a challenge I’m really looking forward to tackling alongside Luca and Tseliso”.
I come up for air/ the jury is pissed/ there’s a favourite
We’re nearly halfway through this year’s Cannes Lions festival and it’s time to come up for air. A lot has happened since the last time, most of which I have sworn to never, ever talk about.
What I can tell you though is that the city and weather are trying to outdo each other in the fairness stakes and it’s beautiful to watch. I kind of expected this, having been here once before. What’s quite a surprise has been the sheer number of Stan Smith’s, spectacles and beards the festival has managed to attract this year. Close to fifteen thousand people sporting one or other combination of the three. So far very few have been able to look back at a packed Palais des Festivals auditorium and raise a lion above their heads.
The various jury panels are mostly to blame for this. You see, while the rest of us soak up equal measures of inspiration and Rose wine, they are working really hard in sterile looking rooms and sometimes have to debate ideas until the wee hours. That makes them pretty pissed off most of the time. So nothing but the very, very best according to these guys makes it past the shortlist stage.
To make matters worse, every jury and presiding chairman set the tone for their category and decides beforehand what type of work they will be looking to award. Being “tough on charity this year” for the Direct panel. Or “awarding work that really engages consumers over work that only breaks the Internet” for the PR jury really influenced their votes in these categories. Which I imagine sucks for some but is part of the high stakes game.
Looking at the pattern of work that has been awarded so far, I would say simplicity of idea plus immaculate execution is the active ingredient this year. Craft really does get rewarded here, more so than at any other award shows. Some of the Print and Publishing work looks like it has been worked on for months and months.
I really like the Getty Images and Forbes work, very simple, well executed.
Getty Images – DalaiForbes – Poverty
South Africa dominated the Radio category yet again and storytelling was the real winner. It was great to see Ogilvy Johannesburg haul them in one after the other. A Cannes Grand Prix is quite something up close. Even little children where crying in its direction when we had it next to our dinner table afterwards.
A favourite with everyone has been Swedish Tourist Association’s “The Swedish Number” which has been attracting a lot of awards including the Grand Prix for Direct.
I quite enjoyed the funny cleverness in Heineken New Zealand’s “Brewtroleum”.
Panasonic’s “Life is Electric” work also caught my eye.
Finally Microsoft’s “Survival Billboard” made me feel good to see an actual billboard win in the outdoor category for a change.
That’s all I have time for now. As we go into the last lap of this highly charged, fiercely competitive marathon, I wish everyone still in their lane the best of luck.
Ogilvy Cape Town, together with longstanding client Volkswagen SA, has created a commercial that tells a truly South African story in an authentic way.
The five day long shoot captures the story of two unconnected families continuously crossing paths in their road trip from Johannesburg to Buffelsbaai, and finding their mutual connection along the way.
The commercial went live today. Check it out here:
And now they’re all paying the price:
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