Since 2010, the Loeries Official Rankings have offered a comprehensive overview of the annual performance across the brand communications industry throughout Africa and the Middle East. The rankings list the top brands and agencies, as well as specialist focus areas and individual performance in key areas.
The Loeries Official Rankings is a useful and independent measure of who’s doing what and who’s doing it the best in the industry, across Africa and the Middle East. The Loeries have made some changes to a few of last year’s categories.
The Music and Sound Composition was divided into three categories (for the individual rankings); Sound Designer, Music Composer and Music Supervisor. The rest were category name changes. For the company rankings; Communication Design changed to Design and Digital Interactive Communication changed to Digital, and for the individual rankings, Film Director changed to Director.
The Process
While there can be many ways of analysing any competition, the Loeries have provided a thorough and fair process to accurately report on the results of the awards. The exact methodology that is used for the ranking is described here, and publication of the chosen procedures in advance of our entry deadline and judging ensures no bias in favour of any particular outcome. To see how the rankings are calculated, click here.
2019 sees Joe Public United being ranked the number one agency in the Overall Ranking by Agency – Africa and the Middle East – for the second year in a row. Xolisa Dyeshana, chief creative officer, was elated because he recognises the Loeries as the premier awards in the Africa Middle East region and as one of the top awards in the world.
‘To be recognised at this level is a huge honour for Joe Public,’ said Dyeshana. ‘We are proud to be creating work that not only resonates within the regions but is of particularly high quality for our clients. We strive every day to improve our product and add continued value to our clients’ businesses. So to receive this accolade is a testament to the opportunity given to us by the brands we work on and the hard work of the people in our company.’
TBWA\ retained its place as top-ranked Overall Regional Agency Group, while TBWA\Istanbul shot up two places, coming first in the Ranking by Agency – Region Excluding South Africa category. Chief creative officer Ilkay Gurpinar explained, ‘Coming from Turkey and being awarded by a totally different collective of respectable jury members with the highest award in this category shows us once again that the language of creativity is universal. It is like we are speaking to each other through creativity, which is very exciting and fun.’ She further commented on the incredible authenticity and creative DNA that is prevalent across the region.
Pete Khoury, chief creative officer at TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg, said being ranked Regional Agency Group for the second year in a row is ‘an amazing feat and acknowledgement of our collective capabilities across our region: creating iconic, compelling and relevant work for our clients across the region and on multiple platforms that leverage every media channel.’
Cem Topcuoglu, regional CEO of TBWA, added, ‘It’s great to see our regional network building on its strong foundations. Next year, we’re going for the hat trick.’
The top-ranked brand for 2019 was Chicken Licken (up from number 2 in 2018). Newcomers City Lodge Hotel Group and Philips as well as the Nelson Mandela Foundation took second and third place respectively. Chantal Sombonos-Van Tonder, MD of Chicken Licken, says she is proud to continue her father’s legacy in ‘taking this company to the heights it deserves.’
In the Small Agency category (1-24 employees), Regency Global took first place, while Duke moved up one slot from last year to take second place, and Sunshine Collective took the third spot. ‘We are super-excited to receive this recognition,’ said Shani Kay, Regency Global chief creative, ‘and equally so to see our approach to authentic brand building and profit-with-purpose storytelling starting to make some industry waves. We believe in helping conscious brands to build long-lasting and sincere stakeholder relationships, and 2019 has helped us prove the concept of just that. Moreover, it has reaffirmed our conviction in the power of real human narratives to positively impact society, so particularly necessary and relevant in South Africa today.’
For the first time, in addition to brand communication, Loeries Design entries included areas of design such as retail furniture and product design, fabric, wallpaper, lighting, architecture and interior design, and even the design of signage programmes.
This recently extended Design category paid off for furniture designers David Krynauw and Jasmyn Pretorius, who were jointly ranked number two in the individual rankings – Designer category.
Turkish communication designer Önder Sakıp Dündar was ranked the top designer. ‘The bonds between design and advertising are getting stronger day by day,’ he reflected. ‘It’s because agencies and brands have realised the importance of design – giving them a face, boosting visibility, driving conversations and reinforcing messaging.’
Ranking information and methodology was last updated on 26 November 2019. Click here to see the full ratings list.
