ADVAN affirms readiness to recognize value in marketing, calls for award entries
By Felicia Nwosu
The Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN, has affirmed its readiness to hold the prestigious ADVAN Awards for Marketing Excellence as a way of recognizing value in marketing, while also calling for entries from prospective candidates. ADVAN said the high profile ceremony is billed to hold on 26th of November, at Civic Center, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Ediri Ose-Ediale, the CEO and Executive Director of ADVAN, while revealing some of the jury and planning committee teams, said the 2023 award is themed: “Marketing as a Persistent Driver for Business growth”, which signifies how marketing revolves around value creation. She added that it is centered on identifying organisations that are adding exceptional value to the industry.
She explained that the award has become more robust with the expansion of new categories such as the People’s Choice Award, where consumers vote the brand of their choice, through an online voting process. She also mentioned the introduction of the Future Leader of Marketing Award, which initially used to be for undergraduates. The ADVAN CEO said this time they are taking it a little bit further to young brand managers, who will be evaluated in their brief writing skills competition. According to her, this is to ensure that young marketing managers understand how to write briefs earlier in their career journey.
“Every year we innovate to respond to the realities of our time. We had it last year but this year we are expanding it. It is going to be consumers voting for their most loved brand in specific industries so we have a People’s Choice Award for FinTech, financial institutions, FMCG and several others. We have expanded because we realize that sometimes you cannot put all of them together competing in the same space because each has its specific consumers.
“We want you to shine in your industry so we are going to put it out there and say let your consumers vote. This is because not every brand is an ADVAN member, but we want to sell the value of marketing, marketing done scientifically with global best practices so when we do that we shine the light on these organizations to say how you relate with your consumers. If you say you are a people’s brand let the people tell us that you are. If they don’t vote for you, maybe it is a way for you to go back and say why they didn’t vote for me.”
Osamede Uwubanmwen, President of the association, said each year, the award continues to be a learning process from previous ones, also serving as insights on people’s outstanding achievement, which is the premise of its existence. He reiterated that ADVAN will continue to recognize excellence in an unbiased manner, beyond the marketing space but across academics as well.
Uwubanmwen said the award over the years has remained both transparent and credible, and so it demands to be handled by credible individuals who are seasoned marketing professionals that understand the criteria.
Head of the panel of jury, Prof Bolajoko Nkemdinim Dixon-Ogbechie, (Professor of Marketing & Decision Sciences) Head, Department of Business Administration, University of Lagos, expressed the need to reward and recognize value addition, creativity, hard work and excellence among marketing professionals.
“I was very glad to take part in it because anything that talks about quality, anything that talks about how we can make the marketing profession better because there is no way any organisation can survive without marketing but you need to know how to market your product well because marketing is about satisfying the needs of the target market it is not just about selling products it is about having a relationship with consumers and meeting their needs better than others. For you to be able to do that effectively, you need to be able to add value which others will not be able to add and with this award we are able to identify organisations that have been highly valued better than others.”
The Professor of Marketing & Decision Sciences, while underscoring the criteria, announced that there are about 20 categories for 20 different brands.
“One thing is that the brand must be outstanding; it must have an objective, a clear objective it’s pursuing, in line with the target market. If it is able to do that effectively, based on the laid-down criteria, then definitely that brand is strong to come to us. We have different categories, and each category has specific requirements. We have about three to four different requirements for each category. We are going to objectively assess every one of them, based on the criteria that have been developed. There are about 20 categories in all, some are new, and there is a slight twist this year.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the award planning committee, Yusuf Murtala, Marketing Director Coca-Cola Nigeria Plc. , extolled ADVAN for its recognition of excellence in an ethical and unbiased manner, with focus on value and creativity among professionals. He also affirmed how reputable and credible the award has been with commitment to ensure its sustainability.
We started preparing our business cases for months ahead of the official announcement. When I was called and I was told that they want me to chair the award ceremony, I said this is the least I can do to give back to the practice of advertising. I want to assure every single person that we will have a very good award ceremony we will work with the committee screening and make sure that we put up a good show.
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