VMLY&R South Africa Scoops 14 IAB Bookmarks

The IAB Bookmarks is considered the benchmark for tech, digital and leading-edge innovation in digital marketing in South Africa. VMLY&R South Africa CCO, Ryan McManus, said, ’We are very proud to have come away with 14 Bookmarks wins, including a gold. It’s awesome to see our work winning across broad categories and especially work that used creativity to make a real difference to our client’s businesses. Huge congrats to our clients and all at VMLY&R for yet another amazing result.’ 

VMLY&R’s strategic focus is to use creativity, technology and culture to create connected brands that drive value for its clients and touch lives around the world. All the winning work used data and insights to reimagine the customer experience to bring the brands closer to their consumers, consumers closer to their communities, and communities closer to the wider world. 

The gold win for Hollard InstaStory Books tackled South Africa’s critical literacy crisis, especially in the foundation phases of early childhood reading and writing, by using social media for social good by turning the popular Instagram InstaStory feature that only lasts 24hrs, into a mechanism for crowdsourcing children’s books – that would have a lasting impact in the lives of South African children. 

The campaign asked a few key influencers to create their own InstaStory books and use their Instagram stories to help spread the word. It was then opened to the public to create their own InstaStory Books, which were converted to easily printable PDFs housed in a digital library of stories accessible to everyone, anywhere in the country.

‘Even in these strange times, our team keeps pulling together and delivering and it is incredibly inspiring,’ concluded McManus.

VMLY&R South Africa was awarded Bookmarks for Hollard, Edgars and Nando’s.