And the winner is…

Posted on 27. Aug, 2010 by Graham in Headlines and Opinions

The expanded Sunday Times Top Brands Awards, held at the spectacular Scarlet Ribbon venue on August 26, turned out to be a truly iconic event this year. The theme for the awards in the proudly South African year of 2010 was fittingly ‘what a year, what a country, what a brand’. And tying into the theme what an occasion the awards turned out to be! Sunday Times again commissioned TNS Research Surveys to conduct the Top Brands survey, which captured how the spirit of this landmark year saw iconic brands and brand builders that made SA feel proud come out tops. TNS spoke to 3 500 consumers in South Africa, in both metro and non-metro areas of the country. In a separate survey, they interviewed 400 business leaders with regard to categories pertinent to business needs and services.

Leading business and marketing personalities together with memorable South African celebrities such as radio personality Jeremy Mansfield, Edith Venter and Olympian swimmer Roland Schoeman discovered the brands and personalities that shaped the phenomenal year of 2010. Entertainment was provided by one of SA’s most prolific Afrikaans rappers, Jack Parow, there were video interruptions from ZA News’ Jacob Zuma, Bheki Cele, Julius Malema and Helen Zille and a tongue-in-cheek photographic exhibition by Justin Dingwall of South African brands, using front covers and headline posters of the Sunday Times.

Two significant new grand prix awards that have added further prominence to the well-established event, saw very influential brand builders recognised for the first time for their contribution to this incredible year. MTN Chief Marketing Officer, Serame Taukobong, who was responsible for the hugely popular and catchy Ayoba campaign, was unsurprisingly honoured as the first Sunday Times Top Brands Marketing Personality of the Year.

In second place was Zayd Abrahams, head of marketing for sparkling beverages at The Coca-Cola Company. Tied in third place was Pieter Klerk, senior manager: planning and advertising of Toyota South Africa and Enzo Scarcella, Vodacom’s managing executive: marketing. These winners were chosen based on receiving the most nominations from the marketing and advertising industry.

The other new category that acknowledged iconic brand builders this year was the Robyn Putter Top Brand Agency of the Year. Sunday Times decided to dedicate and name the award after legendary creative advertising leader, Putter, who sadly passed away this year. The former Ogilvy South Africa CEO and Ogilvy Worldwide Board Director, built Ogilvy into the biggest agency in South Africa and one of the most creative agencies in the Ogilvy network. He won over 230 international creative awards in his career. This momentous award went to Ogilvy Johannesburg that received the most points for its clients that won first, second and third place for the Top Brand survey. This adds yet another accolade to the agency that has dominated industry awards this year and focuses on liberating brands with top clients such as KFC, Cadbury and Unilever. DraftFCB came in second place for points scored with TBWA Hunt Lascaris in third place.

The other grand prix awards announced on the night were for the overall favourite brand, the brand that has done the most to uplift the community and the brand that has done the most to promote ‘green’ or ‘environmentally friendly’. This year, the grand prix of all grand prixs goes to Coca-Cola, a re-award from last year. Second place goes to Koo, which has moved up the ranks from third place, while KFC comes in strongly in third place.

The spontaneous response from people in metropolitan South Africa saw Coca-Cola step up to first place for the brand that has done the most to upift the community, moving Pick ‘n Pay down two places to third position with Vodacom in second position (up from third last year). For the brand that has promoted being environmentally friendly the most, the top three finishers from last year took to the podium again. Pick ‘n Pay won, followed by Woolworths in second place and Nedbank in third.

The trend of South African consumers and the marketing industry recognising brands and builders that made us feel proudly South African, in the year that the country hosted one of the biggest sporting events in the world, also came through in the other categories. This was shown strongly in the new essential foods, tinned food, household cleaning and laundry care categories with well-known South African brand names coming out tops.

Other results from the business-to-consumer survey saw that respondents were more susceptible to the ‘recession regression’ but strong brands remained strong and sometimes even stronger, where people tended to turn and return to brands they know and love in tough times. The business-to-business survey results remained stable in comparison with last year’s results, with this sector showing ‘recession resilience’.

For all the results please see tables below.

[CLICK HERE TO VIEW PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT]

More social shots can be seen at www.face-box.co.za.

SUNDAY TIMES TOP BRANDS 2010 WINNERS’ LIST

*New category this year.

Tags: Features