Not everyone likes the disappearance of the Creative Circle league table. Months after the decision was taken to rank agencies according to awards rather than on points, there were behind-the-scenes attempts to reverse the move.
Even today, some agencies admit they would like the league table to return. Naturally, most of these would be near the top.
SA's traditional creative "hot-shops" continue to feature prominently at local and international advertising festivals - but it's good to see the spread of top awards over the past year.
JWT Cape Town (Velocity researchers) and Lowe Bull Johannesburg (Meet Wally's Heart) collected Yellow Pencils at the D&AD awards in London; JWT Cape Town (Jabula braids) was also SA's top dog at the One Show; and Grey SA was the stand-out at the Clios (Shark Attack) and One Club Show (Nampak).
TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris showed a glimpse of what it hopes will be a glorious new future with a grand prix and five golds at Cannes, all for its extraordinary campaign on behalf of The Zimbabwean newspaper.
Locally, Draftfcb Johannesburg and Cape Town swept all before them at the Pendorings awards for Afrikaans advertising. The Jupiter Drawing Room collected a Black Eagle - an award so rare that some thought it extinct - at the Eagles print advertising awards, for its CNA work. DDB and Net#work BBDO Cape Town won gold at the same event. And Zoom picked up a grand prix at the Apex awards for effective advertising, for its Pep Generations campaign merging retail and TV soapie.
And behind it all, some agencies just keep on winning. Despite limited success in international shows, Ogilvy Johannesburg continues to mop up locally. Besides the Loeries (results on the previous pages), it topped the ad of the month charts for the first eight months of 2009 and won a gold Eagle and two gold Apexes.
Net#work BBDO Johannesburg doesn't care where the awards are: grands prix at Cannes and Loeries for its Virgin Atlantic radio campaign, as well as Clios gold.
