The 2017 Pendoring winners were announced in front of a packed and appreciative audience at the glittering annual awards evening at Vodacom World in Midrand on Friday, 27 October 2017. The event was a truly South African celebration of creativity, rewarding work with local insights that showcase the richness and versatility of our mother tongues.
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Advertising agency, The Odd Number walked away with Pendoring’s sought-after Umpetha Award for the best advertisement in an indigenous language excluding Afrikaans, for the second year running.
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Unlike last year though, this year it was the sole Umpetha winner. The Odd Number’s winning campaign in Zulu, titled, “Hell’s Kitchen,” was created for BBC Lifestyle.
The big surprise of the evening was the judges’ decision to award a one-off prize for an outstanding Afrikaans Public Service advertisement. 7Films and Y&R South Africa took the laurels for their TV-advertisement, “Everybody Knows,” for the Western Cape Government.
The judges sang the praises of the off-beat, humorous approach in this campaign against drunk driving in South Africa.
To the contrary, as this year’s Afrikaans entries fell short of the judges’ expectations, there was no Prestige Award winner. Both the Umpetha and Prestige Awards comprise an overseas study trip worth R100,000 each. Gold winners each received R6,000 and a gold Pendoring trophy, while silver winners walked away with R2,500 each and a silver Pendoring trophy. Gold craft winners received R3,000 each as well as a gold Pendoring trophy.
As in the professional categories, the student categories produced only one overall winner, also in a non-Afrikaans language. Taurai Valerie Mtake of the Greenside Design Center College of Design impressed the judges with her Ndebele entry, titled “Reviving the Bantu Symbol Writing into contemporary visual culture.”
This was also the only student entry that took gold.
As the overall student winner, Mtake received R16,000: R10,000 as overall winner and R6,000, as well as a gold Pendoring trophy. Silver student winners received R2,500 each and a silver Pendoring trophy. All the gold and silver category winners will also receive Pendoring certificates, which will be delivered to their agencies in due course.
Broadcast ads impressed
As has happened so often in the past, the quality of the entries in the category, ‘Radio station advertisements’, including radio craft, endlessly impressed the judges, with the result that no fewer than five gold and three silver trophies were awarded. Entries in the ‘TV’ category, including TV craft, also sparkled, according to the judges. Apart from two gold Pendorings, five silver trophies were awarded in this category.
Overall, the craft entries were razor sharp - aside from three gold craft awards (two in the radio and one in the TV category), 11 craft certificates were awarded.
The category ‘Original Afrikaans’ produced a single silver award.
Total trophy tally
Altogether, 11 gold and 24 silver trophies were awarded on the evening: 10 golds to professional agencies and 1 gold Pendoring in the student category, with 19 silvers to professional agencies and 5 silver to students.
Of the 10 gold Pendorings that were awarded to agencies, The Odd Number walked away with 4, followed by J Walter Thompson (JWT) and 7Films/Y&R South Africa with two each. Joe Public and Abnormal Group were also awarded a gold Pendoring each.
In terms of silver Pendorings, Joe Public and Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg each took home four, followed by Abnormal Group, Black Khaki and FCB 1886 with two each and FCB Cape Town, Just Design, Fort, Newton’s Third, Lucan, 7Films and The Make Beautiful Agency with a single silver each.
Apart from the single gold trophy in the student category that went to Greenside Design Center College of Design, silver was also awarded to: Northwest University (2), Stellenbosch Academy of Design (2) and Red & Yellow School of Logic and Magic Cape Town (1). With the exception of the design categories, the judges unanimously agreed that the other student categories did not produce its usual sterling crop.
All the 2017 Pendoring winners
Television/Cinema Commercials (with a production budget exceeding R1 million)