Adding to that, the agency also walked away with the overall MOST Award for Media Agencies, a feat it has accomplished four out of five years.
In winning the Awards, Chris Botha, MD of The MediaShop, acknowledged The MediaShop’s 150 people. “From HR to finance, planning and strategy this Awards comes for 150 people at the MediaShop. You are the best team ever and there is no-one else I would ever go to war with.”
DStv won the Television MOST Award and the MOST Award for Media Owners 2016. Chris Hitchings, CEO of DStv Media Sales, was ecstatic at the recognition. “It’s been a while since we won, so this means the world to us.”
Held at Wanderers in Johannesburg, the Awards saw the who’s who of the media industry gather to celebrate their best. Honours went to industry stalwarts Barry Sayer who was recognised as this year’s MOST Media Legend, and Josh Dovey, who was awarded MOST Media Agency Legend.
Receiving his award, Sayer acknowledged the industry. “An Award like this does not come alone. Our team has done a huge job. I also want to pay tribute to my competitors for keeping us on our toes.”
Founded eight years ago by Sandra Gordon, the MOST Awards recognises media owners and agencies for their professionalism and is an annual measure of the service efficacy of providers in the South African media industry.
Every year, media agency employees are invited to rate the performance of the media owner sales teams with whom they have frequent contact, and vice versa. This year, 268 respondents participated in the media owners’ survey – an increase on last year’s 233, while just short of 4,000 votes were cast for the various companies.
The Awards are conducted annually as a market research survey administered by Freshly Ground Insights (FGI). To ensure the Awards are current and relevant, every year the MOST Awards pull together legends and leaders to come to a forum to review the MOST Awards. This year there were a couple of quite fundamental changes were made to the methodology. “The performance criteria to rate and review companies was changed, the questionnaire’s online structure was revamped, and some new categories were introduced,” explains Brad Aigner, MD of FGI.
One such new category is the Bell Award, which recognises an individual who is not immediately part of the agency/owner environment, yet has substantially contributed to the betterment of the industry. The first winner of the Award is Jos Kuper, the founder of Kuper Research and a key figure behind the futurefact research survey.
Media Owner Rising Star Award went to Wanele Mngomezulu of the MSG Afrika Group, where he is group commercial director and MD of MSG Group Sales. Ilse Gräbe was recognised as the MOST Media Agency Rising Star for her role as strategic director at Carat, despite having left the industry to work on the client side for Heineken where she is communications and engagement manager. Gräbe says people are the key to success in the industry. “You have to recognise the importance of people and the relationships you forge. I am only who I am today because of that.”
Lerato Tsotestsi was also awarded a course from Boston Media House worth over R100,000.
This year no MOST Shepherd Award was awarded. The Award, which recognises a person’s exceptional contribution to the industry, has only been awarded twice since its inception in 2013. In Paul Middleton was the first recipient, and last year the Award was given to Gordon Patterson. “In consultation with Paul and the shocking death of our friend and colleague, Gordon, we agreed not to award the trophy this year. The timing is wrong, the memory of Gordon’s death still lingers,” Sandra Gordon, founder of the MOST Awards says.
3. United Stations
2. Primedia Broadcasting
1. Mediamark Radio
3. eNCA
2. e.tv
1. DStv Media Sales
2. Cinevation popcorn
1. Cinemark
3. Provantage
2. JCDecaux
1. Primedia Outdoor
3. Independent Media Group
2. Spark Media
1. Times Media Group
3. Ndalo Media
2. Caxton Magazines
1. Media 24 lifestyle
3. The SpaceStation
2. Google Inc.
1. Mark1
3. Mamela Media
2. Ramsay Media
1. MASSIV Media
MMAP
3. Alliance Media
2. DStv Media Africa
1. JCDecaux
OMG Africa
2. Mediology
1. Aegis Media Central Services
3. PhD Cape Town
2. Vizeum Cape Town
1. Hitch Digital Media
3. OMD Johannesburg
2. Mindshare
1. The MediaShop Johannesburg
3. Aegis Media Central Buying Services
2. Mindshare
1. The MediaShop Johannesburg
3. Media24 Lifestyle
2. Mediamark Radio
1. DStv Media Sales
Click here for a gallery of images from the night.
