Vodacom Pendoring's 'Player 23'

Enzo Scarcella, Managing Executive: Marketing at Vodacom: “Pendoring not only celebrates Afrikaans advertising, it celebrates South Africa’s people.”

So says Enzo Scarcella, Managing Executive: Marketing at Vodacom.

“Pendoring not only celebrates Afrikaans advertising, it celebrates South Africa's people. It celebrates their language and culture - especially their creativity, passion, sense of humour and heartbeat. Vodacom sees its participation in Pendoring as an investment in the conservation of all these qualities,” stresses Scarcella.

He believes other vernacular languages could best use Pendoring as a model to keep them alive and thriving in the commercial and cultural space. “There is no doubt that if you want to achieve a strong emotive connection at the subconscious level, you should use a person's native tongue. Also, metaphors that exist in the native tongue often can't be translated into another language, so translations are more often than not completely ineffective,” he argues.

As a traditional South African brand, the typically South African style and humour of Vodacom advertising has always had broad appeal, catering for all languages and cultural groups, says Scarcella. This is verified by Vodacom's strong showing, year after year, in the Millward Brown Impact Best Liked Ad survey. Likewise, South African advertising with a strong Afrikaans DNA tends to have universal appeal across language and cultural boundaries.

“Currently, when you look at the icons in our rugby advertising, Robbie Wessels not only has big appeal in the Afrikaans market, his antics are also enjoyed by other language and culture groups. While the lyrics are often predominantly English, we'd use Afrikaans when it's more expressive and effective. Also in Leeuloop and even some Bankole/DePina Yebo Gogo ads, the texture is distinctly Afrikaans, yet it resonates strongly with all South Africans.

He believes Pendoring has, over the past 15 years, played an important role in encouraging companies to advertise in Afrikaans. On the other hand, it also encouraged advertising creatives to use Afrikaans as a vehicle to persuade consumers to buy in the language of their heart.

“Awards like Pendoring are most important to keep that creative spirit alive - long may it continue!” enthuses Scarcella.

Pieter Bruwer, chairman of the Pendoring working committee, says the aim is to take Pendoring to a new level in the 15th year of its existence. “Thanks to the support of companies like Vodacom, which, like Pendoring, clearly hold creative and excellent South African advertising dear, we are once again able to contribute, acknowledge and promote advertising excellence in Afrikaans.”