Record breaking number of Pendoring finalists

First a bumper crop of entries, followed by a record number of finalists – no fewer than 92 compared to last year’s 74. This is the proud achievement of the Pendoring Advertising Awards on the eve of its very first awards evening in Cape Town.

Judging was done by a panel of 12 experts in their respective fields, under the chairmanship of overseas judge Antoine Houtsma, executive creative director of Joe Public, Amsterdam, at Media Park, Auckland Park, earlier this month.

Among the 23 professional agencies, which notched up 74 finalists, Ogilvy Johannesburg leads the pack with 12 finalists. Hot on its heels is Joe Public with 10 finalists, followed by Draftfcb Johannesburg with eight (8) and House of Brave with seven (7).

The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg and Cape Town) boasts five (5) finalists, TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg and Black River F.C. have four (4) each, and Net#work BBDO and Dojo115 three (3) each.

The agencies Etiket, human.kind advertising, MetropolitanRepublic, ninety9cents and The Suits Communications each have two (2) finalists, while BesterBurke, and Trigger have one (1) finalist each.

In the student categories seven (7) advertising schools/campuses and tertiary institutions were responsible for 18 finalists. Northwest University, Vega the Brand Communications School (Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria) and The Open Window are neck and neck with four (4) finalists each, followed by The Red and Yellow School of Advertising and the University of Johannesburg with three (3) finalists each.

“We are absolutely delighted with the significant increase in entries, the big number of agencies and advertising schools/tertiary institutions that entered and the bumper crop of finalists,” enthuses Pendoring GM Franette Klerck.

“This can be attributed to a strategy implemented in 2010 when Pendoring became a non-profit organisation, the gradual addition of entry categories, active and targeted marketing among advertisers and creatives, and topical campaigns that effectively conveyed the Pendoring message.”

According to Klerck, the quality of entries this year was noticeably high, which augurs well for the future.  As a result, judges had to think hard and long before they eventually decided on the finalists in the different categories.

Going forward, the Truly South African categories are very promising, Klerck reckons. This year Pendoring not only registered the brand name Truly South African/Eg Suid-Afrikaans, but also added a category for integrated campaigns. On top of this, the overall winner in the Truly South African category will, for the first time this year, also receive a cash prize of R20 000, while the overall winner in the other categories will receive an overseas study trip to the value of R50 000. The overall student winner will walk away with a bursary of R10 000.

• The glittering Pendoring awards event takes place in the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) on Friday, 21 September. Only a few tickets are still available from  [email protected]