2019 ADVAN Awards rewards innovation, inspires brands
The 2019 Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) Awards for Marketing Excellence has witnessed a huge harvest of awards for brands. The event is the most prestigious awards in the Nigerian marketing and advertising industry, and it was amazing to see that efforts on creativity and innovation were rewarded during the ceremony.
The turnout was wonderful and many brands that entered for the awards were rewarded based on the set criteria.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, the First Vice President of the association, Bunmi Adenigba, noted that the awards had, in no small measure, provided fillip to the brands and advertising industry, adding that innovation and creativity drove business performance.
“What we have been able to showcase with this event is to demonstrate the excellence in all of the ground that has been done by players in the industry, and the reason why we do it is to promote marketing excellence so that any brand that has won today will be inspired to do more and the brands that haven’t won will be challenged to take their creativity to another level.
“Essentially, we want brands to have a say and a voice to things that really matter to consumers and we want to be sure that the brands are doing exactly that,” she said.
Adenigba stated that advertising had come of age in the country and Nigeria’s ad spend was over N200billion, adding that a lot had been put in.
“Beyond the quantitative of what we are doing, I think the bigger proposition is on the quality of what we are achieving; the kind of narrative and conversations that we are using our brands to drive. Regardless of the absolute amount that we put into it, what matters more is brands connecting to the heart of the consumers and also proper representation of the interests of the consumers.”
On how she would describe the ADVAN awards in terms of the growth of advertising and marketing in Nigeria, Adenigba added that the awards had helped the industry to increase the quality of work that is being put out.
“It’s not just about doing good works to come here and get awards but also about the standard that each of these brands has to meet to ensure that the criteria are met. For example, being able to show how your creativity has added to business performance. The award is driving depth and it’s something we want to continue to build on because we’ve seen year on year, how brands have shown up and have been able to demonstrate the impacts of their campaigns on lives, businesses and communities.”
She believes the communication that ADVAN drives is bringing back value to the organisation, and is helping practitioners and brand owners to improve the quality of products and services that they give to consumers in return. She urged practitioners to expect lots of collaborations with the realisation that one central thing that brings them together was the consumer, and they must protect their (consumers’) interest at all times.
For Bridget Oyefeso-Odusami, 2nd Vice-President of ADVAN, industry practitioners should not stop creating using innovation and ensuring that creativity fuels all that they put out there.
“As marketers, creativity should be our fuel, ensuring we do better than the previous year. I think that’s what one of the brands here tonight has done. Year-on-year, we have seen them come out to win great awards and it’s because they keep going back to the drawing board to see how they can improve.
“For ADVAN, they should continue to remain the middle man, ensuring that organisations and policy makers meet and sync to produce policies that favour all the parties involved and as for the marketers like myself, I’m challenged. I kept telling my team that we must be up there next year, even though we are a financial services brand,” she said.
Also speaking, Roselyn Abaraonye, Marketing Manager, Molfix said ADVAN awards for marketing excellence provided marketers something to look out for.
“I would say a big thank you to ADVAN because I strongly appreciate the platform that it has provided for the marketers to be able to showcase their work and get rewarded for it. It helps us to improve and have something to look forward to.
“While doing our work and plans from the beginning of the year, we are always thinking ‘ADVAN’. For me, that’s what I do in order to fall in line with the required criteria, so that at the end of the year we can reward ourselves,” she said.
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