In 1998, the Direct Marketing Association tasked Michelle Perrow, a DMA Board Member, to create a high-profile event that would serve as an acknowledgement and networking forum for players in the direct marketing field. Michelle Perrow assumed the Chair of Awards on the Board and was responsible for originating and bringing the envisioned event to market. An Assegai Committee was duly set-up with the first order of business being naming the Award. Three name options were put to the vote among DMA members with the name ‘Assegai’ coming out tops with 70% of the vote. Appropriately, this South African name speaks of aiming and finding a target – of “spearing a specific niche”. The awards architecture was the responsibility of the DMA and Assegai Committee members. Best of breed international programmes were investigated and the Awards were structured to suit all direct media and to meet all possible criteria. Grey Direct was the appointed agency who originated the logo, tone and manner for Assegais 1999. Over the years small amendments to the architecture and the judging criteria were made – based on a “learning” approach. Each year a leading direct agency (usually the Inkosi winner) was responsible for undertaking creative and for “theming” the awards. Until 2003/4, the Assegai Awards were extremely successful, attracting hundreds of entries and maximum attendees at the Gala evening. In 2004, under the MFSA, the Assegai Awards were integrated into the Loeries. This “mixing” of the primary focus of creative and ROI messages proved unsuccessful. In 2005 with the DMA just re-established, no awards were held. However, rather than missing another year, in 2006 the DMA Board elected to create a “direct section” within the newly established Marketing Excellence Awards. However, due to the considerable market equity of the Assegai Awards and member demand, the Awards were successfully relaunched in 2007. Since then, each rendition of the Assegai Awards has built on the success of 2007, adding and revising categories inline with market trends and developments as well as significantly increasing the number of entries year-on-year, bearing testimony to the growing impact of direct marketing in South Africa, Africa, and Middle East.
