June 29, 2009

[Editorial column] Our Cup, Cannes runneth over

By Simone Puterman in Cannes, Editor's column, advertising | 0 comments

Just to prove that we can do as well in the world’s advertising arena as we can in hosting sports events, our agencies have done us more than proud at Cannes this year. TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg’s Trillion Dollar Campaign for The Zimbabwean brought home an Outdoor Grand Prix and heads the SA winners’ list with nine Lions (including five Gold), and Net#work BBDO Johannesburg also brought home glory with a Radio Grand Prix (South Africa’s first ever) and two Bronze Lions. Rounding off the Joburg agency domination was Ogilvy Johannesburg four Lions (three Silver and one Bronze). In all, our contenders brought home two Grands Prix, five Gold, four Silver and eight Bronze.

The Confederations Cup is also done and dusted and, despite the naysayers and doubters, it has largely been a success. True, there were some problems, but that is what the Confed Cup is also about… being a dry run for 2010 so that problem areas can be identified and sorted out before hordes of soccer fans descend on us. That is the priority now - to sort them out (not the fans, the problems) and that means a good hard look at what went wrong or could have been done better - such as the marketing of the Confed Cup (and 2010 FIFA World Cup) in the first place, and the park and ride system, which also had some troubles. Perhaps the powers-that-be might also like to take a look at the issue of ticket prices, while they are about it?

In this week’s Ornico Ad Showcase, we feature TV ads for Vodacom, Wild Island, Love Life, Momentum and KFC, and radio ads for Motorola, Consol, Symmetry, Visa and Outsurance. We invite you to view/listen, rate and comment upon these ads.