The Pitcher Festival of Creativity 2022 ended on May 21, with the release of the Pitcher Awards Show video by the festival. The video announced top winners at the awards including Gold, Good, Grand Prix and Agency of the Year.
This was followed by the release of all winners from Shortlist to Grand Prix at the Pitcher Festival website. With the latest announcement, Pitcher Festival has also recognized the winners of the Entertainment Agency of the Year, Digital Agency of the Year and Media Agency of the Year.
According to Nnamdi Ndu, CEO of CHINI Africa and Chairman of the Festival “there’s a lot to celebrate this year, the return of business after the pandemic, the obvious increase in quality of entries and the new passion to excel that we sense across the continent. While we’ve all had a great time this year, we hope to return to in-person gathering in 2023, so that we can truly connect again with our friends and colleagues from across Africa and beyond in a way that makes our joy complete. Congratulations to all the winners and we trust that even these high standards will be surpassed by next year”.
In the Channel category, 7 Gold awards were given to the following entries: King of Boys II by dentsuMcgarrybowen Lagos, Nigeria for Netflix in Integrated Campaigns; ReSight by Circus Advertising, Moka, Mauritius for Helios Eyewear Limited in PR & Reputation Management; Budweiser Game of Kings by Isobar Lagos, Nigeria in Use of Influencers & Brand Ambassadors; Hypo Toilet Rescue by MediaReach OMD, Lagos, Nigeria in Use of Influencers & Brand Ambassadors; Wezesha – Absa Kenya by Dentsu Kenya Limited, Nairobi in Use of Insights and Strategy; Bonga for Good, by Dentsu Kenya, Nairobi for Safaricom Plc in Use of Insights and Strategy; and lastly, Draw the Line Against Malaria by Dentsu Kenya, Nairobi for Malaria No More in Use of Media.
The Channel category also gave 2 Grand Prix awards, which the jury president, Joel Rao, Chief Executive Officer, Digital & Customer Experience, Dentsu Aegis, Kenya, described as representative of the growth in the quality of African advertising since last year. He also said it was the first time in his career that he could see marketing campaigns truly shifting the positions of government on issues. The 2 Grand Prix awards in the Channel Category both went to Dentsu Kenya, Nairobi for Draw the Line Against Malaria in Integrated Campaigns for Malaria No More and the Breathing Billboard for Safaricom in Use of Media.
The Digital jury gave 3 Gold awards to Draw the Line Against Malaria by Dentsu Kenya, Nairobi for Malaria No More in the Digital, Mobile & Social Craft subcategory. The second Gold in Film Craft went to Doppel Munich by Ginger Pictures, Gauteng, South Africa for Castel Group. The 3rd Gold was for the H-Town Gambit by Dentsu Kenya, Nairobi for Netflix. The only Grand Prix in Craft was given to One Language by X3M Ideas, Lagos, Nigeria for Globacom Nigeria. The Craft jury president, Vincent Montoccho, Managing Director CIRCUS! Mauritius & CCO Publicis Groupe Africa; praised this work for its high-quality production values.
The Digital jury gave 2 gold awards to Bonga for Good by Dentsu Kenya, Nairobi for Safaricom Plc in Novel & Devices; and the Neverending Tourists by King James, Cape Town, South Africa for Wesgro in Social Media Campaigns. In the Entertainment, Noah’s Ark Communications, Lagos won a gold award for Data is Life – Rain Maker for Airtel Nigeria in Entertainment Film as well as a Grand Prix for World Toilet Day – Clean Up for Hypo Homecare Limited.
The Good jury recognized 2 entries with the Pitcher for Good awards, which is an equivalent of gold in other categories as follows: Hypo Toilet Rescue Campaign by mediaReach OMD, Lagos, Nigeria and Draw the Line Against Malaria by Dentsu Kenya, Nairobi for Malaria No More. Also, the jury gave the very first Grand Prix for Good to Bonga for Good by Dentsu Kenya, Nairobi for Safaricom Plc.
The Heritage jury presented one gold award to Circus Advertising, Moka, Mauritius for “From Ashes to Ink” for Le Caudan Waterfront in Design subcategory. The full list of winners from shortlist to Grand Prix have been published at the Pitcher Festival website, www.picherfestival.com.
The special award of Agency of the Year went to Dentsu Kenya In Nairobi for having the highest aggregate points across all categories of the awards. Additionally, in line with 2022 entry guidelines for Pitcher Awards, the organizers have announced the following special awards.
Digital Agency of the Year. This award goes to the agency that has the highest aggregate points in Digital category and the Digital, Mobile and Social Craft subcategory. This award goes to Dentsu Kenya. The Entertainment Company of the year is the company with the highest aggregate score within the Entertainment category. This year’s award goes to Noah’s Ark Communications, Lagos. Finally, the Media Agency of the year is derived by summing up all the points earned by each entrant within the Channel category. The agency with the highest aggregate score gets the Media Agency of the Year Award. The 2022 award also belongs to Dentsu Kenya, Nairobi.
