Loeries Announces Marketing Leadership And Innovation Award Winner And Other Category Winners

The 43rd annual Loerie Awards day one winners have been announced at Loeries Creative Week, which commenced in The City of Cape Town on Wednesday 20th October and takes place until 23 October. Khensani Nobanda has also been announced as the 15th annual Loeries Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award recipient.

Hundreds of creative minds from across Africa and the Middle East are converging to enjoy a programme of Loeries Creative Hour Live masterclasses and the Loeries Cinematic Experience. The events on day one kicked off three days of recognising and rewarding the creative excellence found within the region.

The Loeries Creative Hour Live masterclass featured denstu Africa CEO, Dawn Rowlands and Isobar Kenya Executive Creative Director, Maxwell Ngari with a focus on innovation in the media environment.

Attendees then headed to the Loeries Cinematic Experience at Cavendish in Cape Town, Sandton in Johannesburg and Gateway in Durban to see the winners on the big screen. The cinema awards experience included a digitally mastered show for the theatre environment, DJ’s, brand activations and an opportunity to meet other members of the industry face-to-face for the first time in months. All this was done following the highest Covid-19 safety protocols.

Marketing Leadership and Innovation award

Introduced in 2007, the award recognises individual excellence in brand communication over an extended period. The Loeries Committee selected Nobanda from a shortlist of high-flying marketers who demonstrated individual and brand success, both in the market and at the Loeries over the past few years.

Nobanda, who is Nedbank Group Executive: Group Marketing and Corporate Affairs, became Nedbank’s Executive Head of Group Marketing in September 2017 and was promoted to her current role (and the Nedbank Group Exco) in May 2018. Her career of more than twenty years in brand communication saw her starting out as an assistant brand manager at Unilever, where she eventually rose to head up the Skin Category in Africa, the Middle East and Turkey. Then followed leadership and executive roles in Diageo, South African Breweries and Vodacom, before joining Nedbank.

She attributes part of her success, in the last few years, to mentorship from past and current bosses who have moulded her into an impactful marketing leader, to her marketing team at Nedbank as well as her current agency, Joe Public. She also reflected on the value of Nedbank’s foresight of not seeing marketing as an ‘indecent proposal’.

‘Nobanda is a brave marketer who deeply understands the impact of creative excellence,’ said Loeries CEO, Preetesh Sewraj. ‘She is a deserving recipient of the 15th Loeries Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award and her record of creative leadership will undoubtedly inspire another generation of brave marketers.’

Nobanda believes that marketers have a superpower – the ability to understand consumer behaviours. ‘We know how to influence those behaviours. Accountants can tell you the numbers, but ultimately a large part of the growth of the bank is down to how the marketing team tells the story of our brand and its offerings and how this impacts consumers’ choices.’

This year, the Loeries also announced its first-ever dual Hall of Fame inductees, Lorraine Smit and Melina McDonald, Darling Films’ two executive producers. Introduced in 2008, the Hall of Fame recognises brand communicators who make outstanding contributions to the growth and well-being of the industry.

The list of winners, which is being updated throughout the Loeries Creative Week, is below:

Day 2

View the full list of winners here.

LOERIES
www.loeries.com