NEWS
MetropolitanRepublic Loses Loeries and Apologises
“
We recant the commentary...that would appear to lay blame on the Loeries and their internal processes, and unreservedly apologise for any offense this may have caused.
“
T
he Loeries has received an apology from MetropolitanRepublic. This follows the withdrawal of their MTN Project Uganda entry that was awarded a Grand Prix and a Gold Loerie, which was found not to have met the Loeries entry criteria. The Loeries disqualified all the agency’s other entries, banned members of the agency from judging and applied additional requirements on all the agency’s entries for the next two years. According to the Financial Mail, the penalties were imposed after it was revealed that Metropolitan’s “MTN Everywhere Library” campaign - for which it won a gold Ubuntu Award for socially responsible marketing and a Grand Prix for media innovation - never officially appeared and was never approved by cellular provider MTN. The highly emotive campaign was purportedly meant to improve literacy among schoolchildren in Uganda by allowing them to download books on mobile phones. Reportedly, agency founder Paul Warner and CEO Alison Deeb put out a statement suggesting agency staff not following process were to blame for the incident. In the statement with regard to the Loeries’ responsibility, MetropolitanRepublic’s Group Chief Executive Officer Alison Deeb states, “We
recant the commentary… that would appear to lay blame on the Loeries and their internal processes, and unreservedly apologise for any offense this may have caused.” The agency added that it fully respects the terms and conditions of the Loeries and that it accepts the decision to retract all awards won by the agency in 2013. Deeb concluded by saying, “We deeply regret this error, and we will take the strictest measures to ensure that this issue never repeats itself.” “The board of the Loeries accepts the apology from MetropolitanRepublic for
the unfortunate entry and subsequent comments made,” said Andrew Human, Loeries CEO. “We believe the sanctions applied are appropriate and we’ll continue to require that agencies ensure their information submitted is correct, and that they obtain approval from their brand partners. There will always be an implicit expectation of honesty but we will review our processes, terms and conditions, as well as ensure that appropriate sanctions are in place for entries that are found to be ineligible.” “The aim of the Loeries continues to be to showcase the value that creativity and innovation can add as a business tool. It’s vital that we maintain our high standards, and this is especially so for the Ubuntu category where our aim is to showcase the value that great brands can add to our lives.” Justin Apsey, Vice President for Homecare, Unilever SA, who sponsored the Ubuntu category for the first time this year, added, “As a partner of the Loeries we support their decision to deal decisively with this issue. While an unfortunate situation for all parties involved, we look forward to supporting the Ubuntu award into 2014 and hopefully seeing more strong entries that have had an impact on society, while delivering scale and business results in the marketplace.”
CBS Channels Launched in Africa
C
hello Zone, the channels arm of cable giant Liberty Global’s content division, currently in the midst of a US$1bn takeover, is launching four of its networks in Africa. Joint ventures with CBS Studios International – plus movie channel MGM,
which Chello Zone acquired last year, debuted on MultiChoice’s DStv platform across Africa in November. These will be joined by Chello Zone’s wholly owned children’s channel JimJam. However, all four are set to come under the control of AMC Networks in the first quarter of 2014 following
the announcement that the US cable group is to acquire Chellomedia from Liberty Global. CBS Chello Zone channels reach more than 80 countries, including Russia, the Netherlands and Poland following a rebrand last year, but the deal with MultiChoice puts them in Africa for the first time.
www.f i l mma kera f r i ca .co.za T HE C A L L S HEET
| 11