Riverbed scoops 12 major Prism Awards

Monalisa Sibongile Zwambila

Africa’s most sought-after awards show in the public relations and communications industry was hosted on Friday via online streaming for the first time in its 23-year history. Riverbed’s performance earned it recognition as the first 100% black female-owned agency to lead the Prism scoreboard.

“Our vision of becoming South Africa’s leading creative agency is built on moments like this,” says CEO and founder of Riverbed, Monalisa Sibongile Zwambila. “It is humbling and rewarding to be recognised for our great work, and our success at the Prisms is testimony to the dedication that has gone into creating a unique proposition for our clients, founded on our integrated capability to deliver on whole-idea solutions.”

Riverbed worked with aware.org.za in launching a national awareness campaign to tackle the problem of Underage Drinking by developing an integrated campaign that included a television commercial, radio, digital and PR. The campaign exceeded all its performance metrics, putting underage drinking on the national agenda for the first time.

“We’re especially excited to have won South African Campaign of the Year, which was the result of a massive collaborative effort from the Riverbed team across various disciplines, harnessing the unique strengths of digital, creative and PR around a central insight,” says executive creative director at Riverbed, Bridget Johnson. “The success of the campaign is also a result of the bravery of our client Ingrid Louw, chief executive at aware.org.za, who made bold choices that enabled the creation of thoughtful social impact work.”

Riverbed also won several awards for its work on Nedbank’s Money Secrets campaign, which explores South African’s emotional relationship with money and helps them make a positive change when making financial decisions.

“While winning South African Campaign of the Year is a huge achievement for Riverbed, winning 12 awards across different categories makes it even more special,” Zwambila says. “This milestone represents the culmination of years of hard work in building a purpose-led agency. More importantly, this is a win for transformation, with Riverbed as a black female-owned agency being the biggest winner on the day. The number of awards received by black agencies this year has increased significantly, showing the value of diversity and the great work coming from black agencies.”

In conclusion, Zwambila adds: “These awards set in motion the realisation of our ambition to become a leader in our sector and, more importantly, positions us favourably against the best in the industry.”

Riverbed won the following awards at the 2020 Prisms:

SA Campaign of the Year Overall winner for aware.org.za Underage Drinking
Digital Media Relations Gold for aware.org.za Underage Drinking
Digital Media Relations Silver for Nedbank Money Secrets
Financial Services Silver for Nedbank Money Secrets
Influencer Management Bronze for aware.org.za Underage Drinking
Influencer Management Silver for Nedbank Money Secrets
Integration of Traditional and New Media Silver for aware.org.za Underage Drinking
Launch of a New Product, Service for category Silver for aware.org.za Underage Drinking
Media Relations Bronze for Nedbank Money Secrets
NGO Campaign Gold for aware.org.za Underage Drinking
Reputation and Brand Management Silver for Nedbank Money Secrets
Social Media as the Primary Communication Tool Bronze for aware.org.za Underage Drinking