The One Show, the premiere international advertising award show, sets the industry standard for creative advertising (in print, television, radio, outdoor, innovative marketing, integrated branding and branded content), and provides a showcase of the world’s best work, while encouraging creatives to take calculated risks and explore new ideas. Each year, work is judged by an international jury of award-winning art directors, copywriters and creative directors. The coveted One Show Pencils are regarded among the highest achievements in the advertising world, and the MK team are extremely excited to have one sitting proudly on their mantelpiece.

If you missed what all the fuss is about with the MK Is …. campaign, here it is in a nutshell.

MK and 1984 (Ogilvy Johannesburg’s content division) ditched the traditional logo/pay-off line/brand message, and opted for a more unorthodox approach to the MK Is… campaign. They created three characters who defined the channel. The unbranded campaign followed the lives of these three characters online through Facebook, Twitter and a blog that was updated daily with anecdotes, pics and video footage that took a gritty and honest look at South African youth and popular culture. The idea was based on the observation that much like its audience, MK is many different things, but that ultimately it simply is. So instead of defining the channel with a tag line and ad campaign, Ogilvy turned this traditional approach on its head, choosing instead to let the audience draw its own conclusions about what, and who, MK is. The three character journeys each had a lifespan of 20 days and got up to a lot in that time. Daily episodes on the MK channel were synchronised with daily Facebook posts, blog entries and Tweets that filled in the rest of the story. MK Is… was filmed in just 10 days, with footage that was unrefined, honest and more often than not, pretty controversial.

This just goes to show, MK is not your average youth alternative music channel. MK is not afraid to push boundaries and go well beyond the ‘comfort zone’. MK is game to take calculated risks. Simply, MK is …