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Creativity Week introduces Pitcher awards

By Margaret Mwantok
12 December 2017   |   2:03 am
The Managing Director of Chini Productions and representatives of the annual global creativity award, Cannes Festival, in Nigeria, Mr. Nnamdi Ndu, has expressed concern about the country’s creative industry, saying that it recorded some growth over the years, but was not strong enough to make the required impact on the global stage. “When we started…

The Managing Director of Chini Productions, Ndu who spoke to journalists in Lagos, also stated that the company would introduce Pitcher Awards at its Creativity Week slated for March 2018.

The Managing Director of Chini Productions and representatives of the annual global creativity award, Cannes Festival, in Nigeria, Mr. Nnamdi Ndu, has expressed concern about the country’s creative industry, saying that it recorded some growth over the years, but was not strong enough to make the required impact on the global stage.

“When we started Creativity Week about 10 years ago, no Nigerian agency had even won an award on the global stage despite doing advertising for over 70 years. That was why we adopted the Brazilian approach of training these young guys; taking them to Cannes and got them fire up.

“Now we are gradually having some agencies, such as the Noah’s Ark, refusing to accept the status quo. And we are beginning to experience some change, though this is rather slow,” he stated.

He described the Pitcher Award as a long awaited category, as it would go a long way in complementing all the other programmes of the Creativity Week such as the Young Lions Competitions, Future Creative Leaders Academy, the Miami Ad School Scholarship Competition and the Creativity Week Expo and Seminars.

Ndu stated that the Pitcher Awards, which will hold on March 24, 2018, was aimed at celebrating and honouring works from West and Central Africa, as well as the people behind them.

He added that as a way of giving international visibility to the people, agencies and brands behind the winning works, “We have concluded arrangements with Lurzer’s Archive to publish a compilation of winning works in a volume that will be distributed globally. At Cannes, we will present a special Pitcher Awards publication, featuring a compilation of all the winning works to the over 16,000 delegates from around the globe attending the creative festival.”

He said a three-member jury would decide the Pitcher Awards. Traditional ads like film, print posters and radio will make up the first category, while the other two would be Media and Digital. Some categories of the awards include Agency of the Year, Advertiser of the Year, Young Pitcher Award and Best Original Work in French, among others.

To encourage clients to be open to creative work, Ndu said, “We will be offering two free, complete passes to the winner of the Advertiser of the Year, as invite for two of their staff to attend Cannes Lions 2018.”

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