Houtsma (41), this year's international judge, has been in the creative industry for 20 years. "For someone who did not know that you could make a living by creating ideas, it was quite a surprise when I ended up in the advertising industry at 21!"
He started out as junior copywriter and, forty international and national awards later - amongst them four Cannes Lions, he still loves his job. "I have never stopped loving great ads and I have never stopped being amazed at how hard it is to get good ideas produced."
The industry taught him at least one big lesson. "Create the work that you think is good, not what you think juries might like. Once I figured that out, I won more awards than I ever could imagine."
For young creatives, he advises, "Create the work you think juries might like. That way we, the old guys, will remain the best, because you won't surprise us with really fresh work.
He believes awards are important. "Without gold, silver and bronze medals at the Olympics, there would be no reason for anybody to work harder than the rest of the competitors."
On a winning entry, he adds, "I am looking for something memorable. Therefore, it needs to stand out. Not only from the rest of the entries in this year's competition, but also from all the other great ads that are stored in my head."
Specialist judges
Franette Klerck, Pendoring GM, describes this as a unique competition that celebrates Afrikaans while, at the same time, promotes it as a marketing language.
"We look very carefully at expertise and experience when selecting our panel of judges. Apart from the normal panel of judges who will be responsible for judging in all the categories, we also brought in three specialist judges to judge the Truly South African-category, as well as one specialist judge for the student category."
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