2002 ACA Apex Awards

April the 30th's celebration of the 2002 ACA Apex Awards for advertising effectiveness saw Berry Bush BBDO winning the coveted Grand Prix, sponsored by the SABC, for the THIRD time. This time the Cape Town agency won the award for best entry overall, as well as a gold in the category for long term campaigns, for their effective repositioning of Hunter's cider from a small niche brand in the early 1990's to one of South Africa's largest liquor brands by volume. Using extreme sports as creative strategy and supporting it with extreme refreshment, the entry demonstrated how the brand has consistently withstood intense competitive pressure over a period of 8 years without having to resort to excessive media weight and promotional support. As UK-based international chairperson of the Apex judging panel, Hamish Pringle remarked: "The agency's demonstration of return on investment for its client was the most compelling of all. They were right there on the money demonstrating the profitability that they generated throughout this terrific long term campaign".

Previous Grands Prix won by this agency were for Pamper cat food (2000) and Purity (1996).

However the honours did not all go to Berry Bush. An unprecedented three golds were awarded in the category "new campaigns from previously advertised brands" to Berry Bush sister agency Net#work BBDO for Metro FM, TBWA Hunt Lascaris for Twinsaver 1 ply, and The Jupiter Drawing Room for Jet. Renowned for their creative credentials, these agencies demonstrated that creative can be effective.

Net#work provided a convincing demonstration of how advertising turned the tide for Metro FM not only in listenership and advertising revenue, but also in elevating black pride into the fabric of South African society with its "what makes you black?" ad (which won a Loeries Grand Prix for cinema in 2001). The entry was also awarded with an Apex Special Prize for best presented entry.

Utilising a classical textbook laboratory control study, TBWA Hunt Lascaris did groundbreaking work by putting to bed, once and for all, the long time debate within their client company as to whether there is actually any real value to be had through brand advertising. With the smallest budget possible, the agency ran a creative campaign for Twinsaver 1 Ply in a test market town for 6 months and monitored the results against a matching control market town. The results proved beyond any doubt that advertising significantly affected consumer behaviour and perceptions, as borne out, amongst others, by a 206% increase in sales volume against only 49% in the control market. As a result, a national campaign for Twinsaver 1 Ply was rolled out. What a scoop for a good ol' toilet paper!

Taking the bold step of completely changing Jet's target market and focussing on LSM 4 - 6, the Jupiter Drawing Room entry demonstrated how an advertising and brand overhaul turned around this retail brand to show an unprecedented effect on sales and growth since the campaign launch in 1998.

Both Jupiter and TBWA Hunt Lascaris won several other Apex Awards. TBWA Hunt Lascaris won a silver for Nandos, a silver for The Auto Trader and a bronze for Standard Bank, whilst a further silver was awarded to Durban-based TBWA TOO for Kiwi. A Special Prize was awarded to the Auto Trader for the best entry featuring direct response advertising.

Jupiter was awarded with silver for Castle Lite and bronze for Nike. Nike was also awarded with a Special Prize for the entry best demonstrating the integration of advertising with other marketing tools.

Other agencies awarded at the Apex awards were Grey Worldwide which won a silver for Bidorbuy.co.za, Saatchi & Saatchi which won a bronze for Lotto and Ogilvy & Mather Rightford which was awarded a bronze for Huggies Pull-ups, all in the Launch category. Herdbuoys McCann-Erickson was commended for their Melrose entry.

Mark Jakins, Group Marketing Director of the SABC, remarked that the relevance of the Apex awards to marketers cannot be overestimated. "We live in an era of accountability where marketers should pay serious attention in the selection process, like we did, to ad agencies who can produce advertising that works. Moreover, a premium must be placed on effective creativeness that has been developed locally and adds value to what we experience as being 'South African'."

For summaries of all 2002 ACA Apex Award winning entries visit the ACA website at www.acasa.co.za.