Joining the Loeries Hall of Fame was Pepe Marais, in recognition of his impactful career and contributions to the creative industry, while Bernice Samuels – the winner of the 2020 AdFocus Lifetime Achievement Award – won the Marketing Leader and Innovation Award for her unparalleled vision and execution in the field of marketing.

In total, 262 agencies from 18 countries across Africa and the Middle East were represented at this year’s Loeries Awards.  A total of 16% of entries were from outside SA; they raked in a significant share of the major awards.

Grand Prix awards went to Coca-Cola and FCB Africa for “Touch DA Sky”, An-Nahar newspaper and Impact BBDO for “The Elections Edition”, Tecom Group and Serviceplan Middle East for “Not Procrastination”, Roto, the ministry of health and Ogilvy Africa for “Lesso Lessons”, the UAE government media office and Publicis Groupe-Saatchi & Saatchi MEA for “Empty Plates”, An-Nahar newspaper and Impact BBDO for the “Elections Edition”, and Etisalat and Impact BBDO for the “Wider Web.

Gold winners in the Film Awards were Burger King and M&C Saatchi Abu Dhabi (CMS) for “As Good as the Original”, Chicken Licken and Joe Public United for “Feel The Fire”, and Volkswagen SA and Ogilvy South Africa for “Let’s Go”.

Gold Film Craft winners were Chicken Licken and Romance  for “Feel The Fire” in Direction; Mami Wata and Giant Films for “Luck is Alive” inCinematography, Volkswagen SA and Bioscope Films for “Let’s Go” in Production Design, Volkswagen SA and Ogilvy for “Game On” in Animation, and Burger King and M&C Saatchi Abu Dhabi (CMS) for “As Good as the Original” in Performance.

Gold winners of the Loeries Student Awards in partnership with Accenture Song were IIE-Vega and Megan Hills for “Pikkld”, University of Pretoria and Olivia Fong for “Engulfed in Flames”, The Animation School and William Mey for “The Invisible” and Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography and Jia Watts for “The Ugly”.

For more than four decades the Loeries have been awarding creative excellence in the advertising and brand communication industry. It is the only award across Africa and the Middle East that informs the global Warc Creative 100, a showcase for the best creative work in the world. Successor to the prestigious Gunn Report, Warc collates the most important advertising awards from around the world to produce a global list that ranks the most creative companies and campaigns.   

The big take-out: Only 16% of Loeries entries were from outside SA but they raked in an outsize share of the big awards.