South Africa’s D&AD results are in, here’s the work.
South Africa picked up a handful of shortlist recognitions at this year’s D&AD Awards, with a Wood Pencil awarded to Accenture Song for Allan Gray’s ‘A Seat at The Table’. Love this work, go team! And while it wasn’t the country’s biggest year at D&AD, getting shortlisted here still means the work stood out among some of the best creative entries in the world.
D&AD Awards remain one of the industry’s toughest benchmarks for creative excellence across design, advertising, craft, and production. Here’s a quick look at the different D&AD Pencil levels:
Shortlist: Work that demonstrates merit, worthy of recognition and in the top echelon of entries. It’s awarded in all categories in the first instance.
Wood Pencil: The best of the year in advertising, design, craft, culture and impact.
Graphite Pencil: For stand-out work that rises above the rest, worthy of consideration for a Yellow Pencil.
Yellow Pencil: The iconic D&AD Yellow Pencil, awarded only to outstanding work that achieves true creative excellence.
White Pencil: For exceptional projects that use the power of creativity to drive behavioural, environmental, societal or policy change.
Black Pencil: The ultimate creative accolade, reserved for ground-breaking work. Only a handful of these are awarded each year, if any.
If you or your company worked on any of these projects and your credits aren’t listed, it’s probably because you’re not an IDIDTHAT member… which feels like a bit of a miss, considering you’re clearly doing some of the best work out there. Don’t pull a Van Gogh and wait to get famous later. Get seen now, by the people who matter. Take a look at our membership options or drop us a line [email protected] to get signed up and we’ll make sure your work gets the spotlight it deserves.
D&AD AWARD WINNERS
AWARDED
Shortlist: Impact
Shortlist: Sports Entertainment
IDIDTHAT Directory
Quickly find the right people to work with by searching through our curated Directory. We make the process of sourcing South African companies to work with easy, simple and downright sexy. Basically, if you’re not listed on IDIDTHAT.co, you simply don’t exist, like Bruce Willis in that movie with the kid that sees dead people, except nobody will see you…#Shame
IDIDTHAT Featured Stories
Find out who we’re talking about. Read the latest advertising, production, and creative news. We write it so it’s not kak. Let us know if you’d like us to feature your big stories.
Koketso Masisi SAID THAT
Koketso Masisi has strong views on what makes an idea worth fighting for, as she should, she’s ECD of Retroviral after all. We talk craft, choosing directors, the marketers who make the work better and the South African ad she wishes she’d made. She also gives us the work she’s proudest of, who deserves a shoutout right now, and what’s exciting her about our industry.
Girls in Film South Africa and Blackboard create space for the next generation of filmmakers
Girls in Film South Africa and Blackboard are continuing their commitment to creating greater access to the creative industries through a masterclass programme that brought young creatives into conversation with working filmmakers and industry practitioner
HELLO_COLAB wins Brutal Fruit TV campaign for Africa, new work
HELLO_COLAB has landed Brutal Fruit’s new Africa-wide ‘Pink Table’ campaign, producing a TV commercial, more than 300 images, 24 dedicated social videos, traditional billboards, a 3D billboard and multiple edits for just about every screen you can think of.
IDIDTHAT Monthly Craft Awards
Find out who’s doing the best work in South Africa. Every month we team up with industry leaders to award South Africa’s best in Production Craft. Huge thanks to our recent guest judges who’ve taken the time to judge IDIDTHAT Craft Awards. Look how sexy they are in these black and white pictures we put up – FYI we used the ‘Inkwell’ filter.
Craft Award Results: October 2025
This month’s IDIDTHAT.co Craft Awards saw creative firecrackers Saf Sindhi, Founder & CCO at Bananas South Africa and Slim, Director at Darling Films, on judging duty. A standing ovation for directors Hayden Brown from 7 Films and Katlego Baaitse from Spitfire Films, both came in swinging and walked off with the month’s highest honours.
Craft Award Results: September 2025
This month’s IDIDTHAT.co Craft Awards were judged by two of our industry's royalty, Danni Pinch, ECD at Accenture Song and independent Director, Thina Zibi. Congrats to the top dogs this month, Bruno Bossi from Carbon Films and Zee Ntuli from Darling Films, drinks on you at the Loeries!
Craft Award Results: August 2025
This month’s IDIDTHAT.co Craft Awards were judged by two powerhouses who would walk through fire and still come out the other side with a cold beer in their hands, Thandeka Gilbert, Creative Director at McCann Joburg and Cindy Lee, (OSCAR-nominated) Director at The Star Film Company. Congratulations to Hayden Brown from 7 Films, Chloe Coetsee from Darling Films, and editor Warwick Allan from Mushroom Media. May the power of the craft be forever in your favour.
