The Loeries

The Loeries®, a non-profit company, is Africa and the Middle East’s premiere initiative that recognises, rewards, inspires and fosters creative excellence in the brand communication industry. As the highest accolade for creativity and innovation across our region, the Loeries® promotes and supports creativity by helping marketers, agencies and consumers appreciate the value of ideas and fresh thinking.

History

The Loerie Awards first took place in 1978 in Johannesburg. Television was introduced to South Africa relatively late in 1976,^[1] and the delay was due to the political belief at the time that television was "undesirable". Once television had finally been introduced, the first television commercials commenced in 1978, and consequently, the Loerie Awards were introduced in the same year to promote the new medium of television advertising.

Since 1978, new categories were regularly added and today the awards include not only traditional advertising, but recognise virtually every touch-point between a brand and the consumer - including architecture, design, digital media, live events, sponsorship, as well as integrated campaigns.^[2] In 2004, the Loeries were almost "consigned to the scrap heap." Until then, the awards were managed by the Marketing Federation of South Africa, but they were rescued by the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) South Africa and the Creative Circle South Africa^[3] who formed a new non-profit company to run the awards.

After the inaugural awards in Johannesburg in 1978, the awards were held for many years at Sun City until 2004. In 2005 the Loeries moved to Margate, KwaZulu-Natal,^[4] then to Cape Town in 2009, and in 2015 the awards moved to new host city, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.^[5][6]

Dr Andrew Human has been the Chief Executive Officer since 2005^[7] and Suhana Gordhan is the current Chairperson.

Creative Week

It has been estimated that Loeries® Creative Week™ Durban is worth ZAR100 million (approximately US$10 million).^[8]

Culminating in the biggest creative gathering in Africa Middle East, Loeries® Creative Week™ Durban brings together the best innovative minds from our industry for a festival of networking, inspiring minds and recognising great work. Our region's creative economy is world-class and has great potential to grow and to offer employment both to our talented youth. The growth occurring throughout Africa and the Middle East is very exciting, and a major focus of the Loeries® is to increase the standard of brand communication in the region.

Loeries® Creative Week™ Durban is a week long festival that begins with the judging of all the creative work. Over 160 judges from across the region as well as international jury presidents assess the work. Finalists are announced every day and judging is concluded with the recently introduced "DStv Seminar of Creativity." This week long creative festival culminates in two awards ceremonies on the Saturday and Sunday evenings where all the winning work is awarded.

References