At the 31st Annual Loerie Awards on Friday, 25 September, Nkwenkwe Nkomo, Group Chairman at Draftfcb, was recognised with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his ongoing commitment and outstanding contribution to the brand communications industry over the course of a career spanning 26 years.

“Nkwenkwe’s contribution to the industry has been characterised by an ability to see the bigger picture,” says Andrew Human, CEO of The Loerie Awards. “He built his own career against the odds in very turbulent times in South Africa’s history, but continued to find ways to serve the broader industry and his country while doing so. He displays the insight, loyalty and vision of a true leader.”

Nkomo has spent all of his 26 years in the brand communications industry at Draftfcb. In an industry characterised by job hopping, he sums up his dedication to one company simply: “It’s because I believe that when you finally reach a place where you are given the opportunity to do a job you love, to grow and expand your influence, and are treated with respect, you stay regardless of the other, possibly more enticing, financial offers.”

In 1983, Draftfcb, then Lindsay Smithers, appointed Nkomo as a trainee copywriter. This was at a time when he was struggling to find work after his release from Robben Island, and in the face of strong discouragement by the security police of the Apartheid government. This was so unusual that the pass officials refused to believe a black man could be working as a copywriter in Johannesburg, so his official job was listed as 'labourer'.

Nkomo recalls that at the time, the industry was English-centric, and Afrikaans and black copywriters were really only translators. However, at Lindsay Smithers (now Draftfcb), regardless of skin colour or mother tongue, if any copywriter’s idea was the best, it was the one that was presented to the client.

Over the years, Nkomo has scaled the ranks at what is now Draftfcb to become Group Chairman. His core functions centre on corporate transformation, new business development, key client contacts and industry matters. His first love, however, remains the creative product and he remains a watchful influencer in this area at Draftfcb. He has been instrumental in driving a company that was already ahead of its time in terms of transformation to a point where it is now at a Level 4 Empowerdex Rating, and aims to achieve AAA status as a broad-based black empowerment company by mid 2011. No other agency has matched this achievement – the highest possible under the current Charter.

Nkomo’s focus hasn’t been limited to his own place of work, and he was instrumental in the setting up of the Charter to ensure transformation across the industry. In 1989, he was part of a group – the Communication Advertising Forum for Empowerment (Café) - that drove the industry’s transformation agenda rather than waiting to be told how to transform.

After the marketing and communication GCIS Secretariat developed the preamble to the Transformation Charter, the industry formally adopted it in 2000, and in 2005, Nkomo worked with Peter Vundla on the task team responsible for driving the adoption of the Charter across the industry. In 2008, he was appointed as Chairman of the Marketing, Advertising and Communication (MAC) to ensure the Charter was made ready for gazetting.

He says that today, the challenge is to ensure that the transformation process is real – that the numbers in the industry must also reflect the influence that those numbers wield.

In 1997, he became the first black chairman of the Association of Advertising Agencies (AAA) – now the Association for Communications and Advertising (ACA). He performed this function for 10 years.

In 2007, Nkomo was appointed Chairperson of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), after having served on the ASA board since 2001. He also sits on the ASA final appeals board. In this role, he will, from time to time, be called upon to adjudicate matters where race is an issue, but believes that South Africa compares favourably to other countries when it comes to matters of race. “I’m not saying that race is not an issue,” he says. “It still is and will be for many years to come. But, advertising particularly, can play an important role in helping to ease race tensions and break down the stereotypes.”

In recent years, he has received widespread recognition for the role he has played in the brand communications industry, being awarded the 2000 Adfocus Achiever of the Year; the 2004 AdReview Lifetime Achiever Award and the 2005 Adfocus Lifetime Achiever Award.

He is also the deputy chairperson of the 2010 National Communication Partnership.
Outside of his industry-based activities, Nkomo is also a real Boy Scout, being Chief Scout of South Africa from 1996 to 2005 and a member of the World Scout Committee. He is a lover of music, a keen jazz fan, husband to Thoko, father to Sizwile and Rhulani, and self-proclaimed Mad Hatter. And in 25 years, he has attended 25 Loerie Awards ceremonies.

Major Sponsors
The major sponsors for the 31st Annual Loerie Awards are the SABC; Ads24; Cape Town Tourism; The City of Cape Town; and Gearhouse South Africa.

Additional Sponsors and Official Suppliers
Brandhouse; Greensky; Sappi; Vodacom Mobile Media; Cape Film Commission; Adobe; Aon South Africa; Mango Airlines; Hetzner; Tempest Car Hire; MetropolitanRepublic; Hello Computer; Zero One One; Wicked Pixels; DJ Badly; Media Host; Orchestra Blue; Sonovision Studios; Gallo Images; Paygate; Ornico Group; Rocketseed; Newsclip; Lifesense Financial Services; Egg Films; Crowne Plaza Johannesburg – The Rosebank; Grand Daddy Hotel; Cape Town Partnership; Audio Militia; H-Factor; Universal Music Group; EMI Music; Ultra Litho; juju; the Core Group; Services Seta; Leg Studios; The SpaceStation; Visionation; Media Film Service; Valpre; First National Bank; and Glaceau Water.

Travelling Exhibition Venues and dates
North West University, Potchefstroom 11 September - 4 October
Stellenbosch Academy 10 - 22 October

Important Loerie dates to diarise:
Loerie Awards Festival Weekend Cape Town: 24 - 27 September
Awards ceremonies: Friday, 25 September and Saturday, 26 September
Migrate Magazine 10 October/November

For more information go to www.theloerieawards.co.za.