The Pendoring Awards are a celebration of South Africa’s creative content in all its indigenous languages. This year the awards are focusing on “Mzansiglots”. Nkgabiseng Motau is the co-founder and chief creative officer of Think Creative Africa. They are responsible for the campaign. Motau spoke to The Daily Vox about the Pendoring Awards.
What are the Pendoring Awards?
Pendoring embraces country and industry to promote, unify and celebrate the richness of South Africa’s creative content in all its indigenous languages. Originally created in 1995 to promote and stimulate the use of Afrikaans in advertising, Pendoring has gone through a number of changes to celebrate all our indigenous languages.
Why are the Pendoring Awards important?
Pendoring plays a role in encouraging the use of indigenous languages at all levels of society, and therefore in moving South Africa away from monolingualism and towards multilingualism. Pendoring is also the only advertising competition in the country. with substantial cash prizes. Not only for the overall winners, but also for gold and silver winners in each category. This can be a tremendous boost to a young career.
The Prestigious-Umpetha Award is a highlight not just for the prestige it gives, but also for the R100 000 study prize it affords its winner. Hollard is the new headline sponsor. Their chief marketing officer, Heidi Brauer, said: “As we start to look towards 2022 and the beginning of the Decade of Indigenous Languages, we do so with a sense of what could be, and a genuine optimism that South Africans will come to appreciate the richness of all 11 of our official languages, and the power of those languages to help us see the world with new eyes.”
What is a MzansiGlot?
A person who speaks South African and who can express themselves in multiple languages; who can speak and mix at least two SA languages in speech and writing.
Read more: UWC to develop the first dictionary of Kaaps
How is Think Creative Africa involved in the Pendoring Awards 2021?
We are the creative agency that came up with the campaign concept, and were lucky enough to collaborate with Lady Skollie on the illustrations. It’s a female-led campaign in a country where more than 91% of South Africans have an indigenous mother tongue, but where mono-culture strips us of our dignity and rich cultural resources in favour of internationalisation.
So, the MzansiGlot campaign is a bold call for our mother tongues and for multilingualism to be applied at all levels of society, from early childhood development to the corporate environment. This is underpinned by the global UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages that kicks off in 2022.
What categories are there?
There are 9 categories. They are design, print communication, live communication, digital and interactive communication, radio and audio, integrated campaign, film, outdoor and out-of-home and student awards.
Our categories and rules have been relooked and slightly adjusted to make room for the broader marketing and communications community. Corporate publications or annual reports, ATM interfaces, short films, music videos and the like can now happily be entered into the Pendoring Awards. This is as long as 70% of the work is in one of South Africa’s ten indigenous languages.
What is the prize money involved?
The gold winners of all work in all the categories, with the exception of students, are considered for this award. The winner of the Prestigious Umpetha Award receives an overseas study tour to the value of R100 000 (valid only in 2021), or an equivalent to this and the Pendoring Prestigious Umpetha Award and trophy.
Student awards: One overall student winner is selected from the gold winners. This winner receives R10 000. Each gold winner receives R6000, a gold Pendoring trophy and a certificate.
Craft awards: Craft entries are only eligible for a Craft Gold or a Craft Certificate. Each gold winner will receive a Gold Craft Certificate. Each silver winner receives R2500, a silver Pendoring trophy and a certificate.
Gold and Silver winners: Each gold winner receives R6000, a gold Pendoring trophy and a certificate. Each silver winner receives R2500, a silver Pendoring trophy and a certificate.
How can I enter?
You can enter for the awards by submitting your entry to Pendoring before the deadline of September 7 2021.
Who can enter?
Advertising agencies, marketers, students and indigenous literature book writers/publishers.
For more information visit Pendoring’s website. You can also follow the Pendoring Awards on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
