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Assegai Awards 2010 Winners

Direct Marketing Grows in Tough Economies

The pinnacle of excellence in Direct Marketing is celebrated at the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa’s annual Assegai Awards presented by the South African Post Office. The 2010 rendition was heralded by a glitzy awards ceremony on Wednesday 10 Nov 2010 at Skyraiders, Rand Airport. This prestigious event gives recognition to the cream of the Direct Marketing industry and celebrates creative and strategic execution of award winning campaigns of the highest calibre in South Africa.

“Despite a tough economic climate and reserved consumer confidence, the 2010 Assegai Awards have once again bucked the trend and increased entry numbers by 17% on 2009, a year which also saw a massive increase of 42% up on entry numbers in 2008. The significant and consistent growth shows that direct marketing uptake is increasing rapidly as businesses come under increasing pressure to measure the ROI on campaigns, but also seek closer relationships with and insights into their customer base. Consumers are growing increasingly sophisticated in their requirements for marketing information, as well as the channels through which they want to be communicated with.

“This was reflected in the fact that the largest number of entries was received in the integrated media category with campaigns combining at least three or more traditional and digital communications channels. Direct marketing is supremely positioned to leverage all the new social media channels, traditional and mobile media to reach consumers at various levels and touch points,” says Brian Mdluli, CEO of the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa (DMASA).

The Assegai Awards was once again supported by a host of sponsors that snapped up the opportunity to align with global and local best practice. For the fourth year in a row, the South African Post Office (SAPO) pledged its support as headline sponsor and Standard Bank maintained its sponsorship of the Young DM category.

Other category sponsors include:

• MTN
• Computer Facilities
• Absa
• Services Seta
• Nedbank
• Action Ambro’s

“We have seen a number of new contenders enter the DM space and in this regard the DMASA will be focusing heavily on creating knowledge forums, specialised training and education programmes and master classes with experts in their field to ensure that we raise the benchmark and equip these new players to embrace the art and science of direct and create a vibrant and strong industry in line with global best practice and consumer protection. It’s encouraging to see new players challenging the status quo and who are growing the direct marketing base in this country,” added Brian.

“The awards attracted entries from various agencies, corporates, SMEs, students and individuals A panel of 30 industry experts invested their time and expertise to work through the 239 entries in order to whittle them down to the most deserving campaigns that showed excellence in both creativity, strategy and most importantly, return on investment. It proved to be quite a challenge with so many contenders which goes to show that the Assegai Awards is reaching its target of setting the benchmark in the industry, which in turn constantly increases the quality of work delivered to clients,” concludes Brian.