Everyone knows their favourite ad – but people seldom think about what new ways there are to promote a brand. That’s the idea behind the Loeries Media Innovation category – to award innovative use of any media platform or even to come up with something that’s never been done before.
Product Media supplier Barron will spearhead a creative competition to find the best design for this year’s official Loeries T-shirt and delegate bags.
‘Product Media is an incredibly powerful marketing tool that offers strong and personalised brand experiences to people and with that an enhanced return on investment for marketing spend,’ said Barron commercial director Michael Salomon. ‘We believe great brands have the ability to tell great stories using Product Media due to its multiple touch points. We exist to uplift brands by giving them unique and even possibly unlikely canvasses on which to tell their stories. This partnership is a perfect fit for our business.’
The Loeries launched its ‘Tell Better Stories’ campaign in February with the aim to inspire brands and creatives to create communications that break out from the clutter. ‘It’s too easy to follow the stereotype. A new narrative that is locally relevant and culturally nuanced opens up a whole new world for innovation. This is all encapsulated in the Loeries’ vision to tell real stories, inclusive stories, locally and culturally relevant stories – but better stories,’ said Loeries CEO Andrew Human.
A good example of media innovation is the Nando’s ‘#rightmyname’ campaign, which won a Gold Loerie in 2018. Every day, South Africans with non-English names are told by spellcheck that their African names are a mistake. Nando’s took spellcheck’s red line, something that usually appears only on computer screens, and transplanted it to the Sunday Times newspaper.
When people picked up the newspaper their initial thought was that the Sunday Times editorial team had made a serious mistake. Just as they were about to voice their frustration they were met with a full-page ad that explained the #rightmyname campaign to correct this. The traditional newspaper was used to highlight a human problem that people usually only experienced in a digital environment – a unique way to use print and which drew massive attention.
More information on the Media Innovation category can be found on the Loeries website and the entry deadline has now been extended to 31 May 2019.
The details of the Barron and Loeries creative competition will be announced soon. ‘We’d love to see creative ideas that push the envelope of what’s possible,’ said Salomon. ‘But I’m sure that we’re up to the task.’
