Zim advertising competition attracts surprising number of entries

Judy Macdonald, the competition's coordinator, disclosed that they had received an overwhelming number of entries for the 2007 Ngoma Advertising Awards.

“We had over 170 entries. Given the state of the economy, given the state of the advertising industry, I'd say this was overwhelming,” she said.

The advertising industry in Zimbabwe is stagnant due to an economic recession now in its ninth year, with advertising budgets slashed and agencies scaled down, closed down or relocated to South Africa. Those that remain have somehow stuck to their old advertising campaigns, with very few launching new advertising campaign projects. A price blitz by the government in June last year also affected prospects for new campaigns on the market.

New organisation

The Meet the Challenge Conference is running the competition this year and not Zimbabwe's Advertising Publicity Club as we reported on January 11, 2008. The Advertising Publicity Club however, had started the competition, Macdonald said.

She said the judging process was now almost complete, and the awards ceremony has been scheduled for March 28, 2008. Only one judge based in South Africa had not yet assessed entries, but copies of the entries would be sent to South Africa soon for his assessment.

Macdonald said entries for the 2007 competition should have originated from Zimbabwe and created last year by a locally based agencies.

The competition rewards creativity for both print and broadcast advertisements.

A number of other advertising awards have been abandoned because of a poorly performing economy that has hamstrung operations in the advertising industry.

One of these was the Creative Directors' Forum Awards, which dominated the advertising industry during the 1990s.

Details about the competition and the awards ceremony can be obtained from Judy Macdonald on email: Tel: +263 4 870 306/ 883 734