28 November 2008
	THE LOERIES Rewarding excellence By David Furlonger

While SA's Loeries advertising festival strives to be bigger and better each year - occasionally adding new categories and trying to improve advertising standards - one group is consistently conspicuous by its absence. Advertising agencies from other African countries - either independent or subsidiaries of SA-based groups - have yet to make an impact at the Loeries. It's not for lack of desire on the part of organisers, says Loeries MD Andrew Human. The increasing Loeries success of Middle East-based subsidiaries shows there is no bias against "outsiders". "We are open to entries from Africa. The problem is that there is very little agency work going on that can compete at the level seen at the Loeries. So we get very few entries from sub-Saharan Africa," he says. As explained earlier in AdFocus, advertising in the rest of Africa is often very different from SA. There is generally less emphasis on TV and more on radio and outdoor. Digital and below-the-line don't provide the same consumer volumes. Compared with SA's, advertising budgets are tiny. Human says that the entire budget for all Namibia's advertisers is less than that of Vodacom alone. "There, R70 000 for one ad is a lot," he says. Local photographers, copywriters and producers are rare. It has been suggested that African agencies should have a Loeries category of their own. Human doesn't like the idea. "We've had long discussions around this, and the feeling is that it would be like having a handicapped category," he says. "We need to encourage African agencies to get up to the same level as here, not tell judges to lower standards." Even without Africa, the Loeries brand shows no signs of losing impetus. The explosion in digital and other new forms of advertising and communications will continue to challenge organisers to ensure categories remain relevant. If there is one issue giving Human and others cause for concern it is the SA economy. As consumer spending continues to slow, many agencies are reporting a reduction in advertising budgets and media-buying. Campaigns are being scaled down, even stalled. "The advertising industry drives the economy and its money, and the industry is dependent on the economy. The two go hand-in-foot. The Loeries and the advertising industry are a gauge of the health of the whole country," says Human.