The Loeries (The Loerie Awards Company NPC) is a non-profit company administering awards for the brand communications industry, in Africa and the Middle East.
History
The Loerie Awards first took place in 1978 in
Johannesburg.
Television was introduced to South Africa relatively late in 1976, 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. In 2004, the Loeries were almost "consigned to the scrap heap." Until then, the awards were managed by the
Marketing Federation of South Africa
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to empha ...
, but they were rescued by the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) South Africa and the Creative Circle South Africa 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
Margate is a coastal resort town in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province, about 20 kilometres southwest of Port Shepstone. The river which flows into the sea at Margate is called "Nkhongweni" ''(place of entreaty)'' as the original inhabitants of the area ...
, then to
Cape Town in 2009, and in 2015 the awards will be hosted for the first time in
Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
Preetesh Sewraj has been the Chief Executive Officer since 2005 and Sibusiso Sitole is the current Chairperson.
Creative Week
It has been estimated that Loeries Creative Week is worth
ZAR
Zar may refer to:
Places
* Zar, Armenia
* Zar, Azerbaijan
* Žár, Czech Republic
* Zar, Iran, in Markazi Province
* Zeraq, or Zar, Hamadan Province, Iran
* Żar, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland
* Żar (mountain), in Poland
* Žar Mountain, a m ...
100 million (approximately US$10 million).
Creative Week is a week long festival that begins with the judging of all the work. Over 160 judges from across the region as well as international jury chairmen assess the work. Finalists are announced every day and judging is concluded with a recently introduced "Seminar of Creativity." The winning work is announced on the Saturday and Sunday evenings at the end of the week.
References
{{reflist
South African awards
Advertising awards