TBWA Shows the power of humour at the effects at the Effies and Loeries

Johannesburg, 05 November 2025 – South Africans have a talent for laughing through the chaos. It's part coping mechanism, part national art form – and when brands manage to bottle that irreverence, the results can be magic.

For TBWA\Hunt Lascaris, two tongue-in-cheek campaigns for City Lodge Hotels and Savanna turned humour into hardware at both this year's Effie Awards and Loeries Creative Week.

At the Effies, which recognise effectiveness in marketing and advertising, City Lodge's Save Our Stay “SOS” campaign notched the Grand Effie, a Gold and two Silvers. Earlier this month at Africa and the Middle East's top creative awards, the Loeries, the same campaign picked up a Gold Loerie for Comedic Impact. Savanna's trademark wit also delivered wins for Heineken Beverages, proving that humour, when grounded in sharp human insight, continues to drive both creativity and commercial success.

The Save Our Stay campaign takes aim at the unpredictable world of short-term rentals. It dramatises short-term stays gone wrong and offers a tongue-in-cheek solution: hit the SOS (Save Our Stay) button to geolocate your nearest City Lodge Hotel and get up to 30% off. It's a campaign about comfort in a chaotic world, celebrating City Lodge's promise of a perfectly predictable stay.

As Executive Creative Director Steph van Niekerk explains, the work was born from her own “memorable” experience. “I was in Copenhagen for work and booked what looked like charming accommodation with a private garden. But when I arrived, I discovered I was sharing the garden with a strip club.”

TBWA Chief Creative Officer Carl Willoughby says that's exactly why the campaign landed so well, because it drew on the universal “too-good-to-be-true” experience we've all had. “This is what made Save Our Stay resonate. It's relatable, funny, and grounded in a very human truth.”

City Lodge has trusted TBWA for more than three decades, and humour has always been part of its DNA. But behind the laughter is a serious point about value. “Awards aren't just about applause. They're one of the few levers we can pull to prove worth in an industry that trades in the intangible. Creativity, when it's recognised through awards, isn't just art, it's a strategic business asset.”

The resurgence of humour isn't confined to South Africa. At this year's Cannes, humour was widely discussed by industry professionals, who noted its resurgence in advertising, its use in navigating a complex world, and the rise of a new “unhinged” or authentic comedic style – after years of purpose-driven seriousness.

Global analysis shows that humorous campaigns are regaining their place as effective tools for building engagement, distinctiveness and brand memory. Studies referenced at Cannes found that 72% of people would choose a brand that uses humour over a competitor that does not, and 91% prefer brands that make them laugh. Reports from Kantar and Little Black Book confirmed that humour increases recall when it's tied closely to the brand itself.

Among the UK and US winners, 75% at Cannes Lions 2024 used humor, a significant increase from 52% in 2023. Purpose-driven ads, in contrast, continued their decline, with one analysis finding they made up only 13% of winners in 2024.

South Africans instinctively use humour as a coping mechanism, and brands that tap into that are rewarded with connection and loyalty. Van Niekerk says that in an age of economic pressure, algorithmic feeds and AI-generated sameness, the ability to make people laugh is a powerful differentiator. “We're not just competing with other brands; we're competing with TikTok feeds, memes, and the entire internet. If you don't entertain, you're invisible. Humour cuts through; it's our superpower.”

As the awards have recognised, funny work is not lightweight work, it's work that sticks. The agency's wins with both City Lodge and Savanna demonstrate that when humour is intelligent, brand-aligned and human, it can deliver what every marketer wants: attention, memorability and impact.

In a world where purpose often overshadows play, TBWA's success makes the point that funny isn't frivolous, it's effective.