The Loeries 2021 ended in a high note following a memorable 4-day gathering of leading brand communicators from across Africa and the Middle East last week (October 20-23).
The highlight of the week was the Loeries Awards Evening which saw Grand Prix, Gold and Special Award winners take to the stage to celebrate winning the most coveted creative award across the two continents; Africa and the Middle East.
Joe Public United proved to be a big winner and took home the Agency of the Year ( for the 4th year running) and Regional Agency of the Year Award (2nd year in a raw), while also helping Chicken Licken win Brand of the Year.
Another highlight was day one on Wednesday (October 20), with of Nedbank’s’ Khensani Nobanda taking home the highly sought-after Marketing Leadership & Innovation Award, while Darling Films’ Melina McDonald and Lorraine Smit were inducted into the Loeries Hall of Fame to join a select group of creative legends who have also been inductees.
A major milestone was the renaming of the Loeries Radio Grand Prix to the Loeries Molefi Thulo Grand Prix, in honour of the renowned creative Molefi Thulo who unfortunately succumbed to COVID-19 earlier this year.
Loeries CEO, Preetesh Sewraj, reflected on the success of the 2021 Loeries Creative Week, stating that this was always going to be a difficult event to organise, when considering the challenges, adding: “but I knew we had to try to deliver an event within a safe environment. I am really happy to see that we were able to give our industry an experience that genuinely celebrated true creative excellence from across Africa and the Middle East.”
While the Loeries Awards Evening was the pinnacle event of the week, other highly sought-after events included:
- The Loeries Cinematic Experience: A two-day cinema announcement of the winners held in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.
- Loeries Creative Hour Live masterclasses: Three days of masterclasses held at the Red & Yellow Creative School of Business with a strong focus on sharing creative ideas that challenged the thinking of attendees. The speaker line-up included dentsu Africa CEO, Dawn Rowlands; Isobar Kenya Executive Creative Director, Maxwell Ngari; futures strategist John Sanei; design expert, Brian Mtongana as well as celebrity chef and entrepreneur, Siba Mtongana.
- Mayor’s Brunch: An invitation only event for the Executive Mayor of the City of Cape Town, Mr. Dan Plato, with attendance from Loeries partners and the Loeries board.
- Loeries Secret Sunrise: A post-Loeries Awards evening event to help attendees relax and get ready to return to their workplace in the week ahead.
A highlight of the week was the Loeries Youth Committee’s visit to six key schools, across the City of Cape Town, with the goal of exposing scholars in previously disadvantaged communities to careers in the brand communication industry. The key objective was to stimulate diversity and inclusion in the industry.
