Casers Group bags National Productivity Merit Award for outstanding performance
Casers Group, one of Africa’s leading advertising groups, has been awarded the much coveted nationwide award, National Productivity Order of Merit Award (NPOM). The award presentation took place on the occasion of the 18th National Productivity Day, recently held in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nigeria.
The event, organised by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment was held at the NAF conference centre, Kado, Abuja. The event organisers noted that Casers Group was nominated and subsequently awarded the NPOM Award for its “high professionalism, continuous improvement practice and immense contribution s to wealth creation and overall development of Nigeria.
Complete Advertising Services or Casers for short was born a little over 33 years ago when its founder decided to leave a blossoming career in one of Nigeria’s biggest and most capitalised companies to pursue a dream. That dream which started with a company has now grown into a group of companies offering diverse but complementary services. Remarkably, Casers Group has recorded many notable achievements over the years. As a group it has built a consistent track record of winning international creative awards. It won Nigeria’s first Epica, Cristal and Loeries awards. Locally it is also the most awarded at the prestigious Lagos Advertising & Ideas Festivals (LAIF).
At the corporate level, the National Productivity Merit Award acknowledges and awards organisations that are self-reliant in their adaptation and application of technology in order to guarantee for themselves cost effective operation and productive efficiency. Also, the award, according to the organisers, recognises companies that show a trend for sustained increase over the years in such areas as capacity utilisation, sales turnover, profitability, employee welfare schemes and training facilities.
The organisers further noted that the Caser’s Group was the only company in Nigeria’s marketing communications sector that offers free scholarship to all the children and wards of its almost 170 member staff. Since the introduction of the scheme in 1992, over 6000 children have benefited from the Casers Group Child Assist Scholarship from Primary to tertiary education level.
During its 30th anniversary, Casers’ Group conducted the first online Youth Challenge (CYC) in Nigeria which involved the participation of over 10,000 Nigerian youths. A total cash prize of $25,000 was awarded to the winning contestants to empower their further education and talent development.
Also, Casers Group developed the Voting Ethics for the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) which was formally presented and received notable commendation from the Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osibajo. In addition, the Nigeria Unity Orientation Campaign was developed by Casers Group for AAAN.
Speaking to pressmen after the awards ceremony, the Chairman of Casers Group, Enyi Odigbo, who received the award from His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, said that the award speaks volume of the excellence from the Casers stable in helping people make choices by the way they promote brands they work for. Commenting on the implication of the win for the industry, he noted that based on the importance of the industry to the country, a lot more needed to be done.
“Our industry has a lot of fundamental work to do, but what this tells us is to appreciate the enormity of our responsibility as a profession. We are custodians of public opinion. We must be responsible enough to know that we can shape opinions, actually make people go ‘mad’,” he said.
Also commenting, Vice Chairman of Casers Group, Ikechi Odigbo, told pressmen that the award received was a significant milestone in the Casers Group and its subsidiaries-DDB Lagos, BBDO West Africa, Nexus and DDB offices across West and Central Africa.
“For us as a Group, it is a statement, a fulfilment and reward for the vast milestones that we have achieved overtime, it also represents a significant milestone for the entire IMC because I believe this is the first time that a marketing communications Group is being recognised by the Federal Government for its exemplary service and contribution to economic growth and so we are elated on the conferment of the award,” he said.
He continued: “This award is for every staff within the Casers Group because this is the result of their hard work which has also being shaped by the vision of the Group Chairman whose philosophy is to build a culture where we are enemies of the ordinary. That commitment to be enemies of the ordinary in the way we do things, in the way we think, how we engage projects and business activities is what is creating the traction and the milestones of achievements we are seeing after 33 years of existence.
“This is corroborated by Enyi, who three years ago, during the Group’s 30th anniversary, had said that at the heart of the group’s operations lay its people. As he had bluntly put it, the group has achieved its many successes because of its people.”
Kelechi opined that if people were the most important asset, then a company has to be very detailed in the way it approaches them. “In our group and in any company I run today, I think we have some of the most amazing people policies in this industry. I am not talking about casual things. For instance, in the Casers Group, we have a high-flying chief protocol officer whose job on a daily basis is to show me how to hire, retain and motivate the most passionate people on this planet.”
Casers Group is joined on the organisational award list by Dufil Prima Foods Plc. and 5 others, as well as Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman of UBA and philanthropist, Tony Elumelu, the Chairman of Channels Media, John Momoh and 22 others in the individual category of the awards. Since inception, 333 individuals and 84 organisations have been honoured with the National Productivity Order of Merit Award.
Casers which means Complete Advertising, was born a little over 33 years ago when its founder, Enyi Odigbo, decided to leave a blossoming career in one of Nigeria’s biggest and most capitalised companies to pursue a dream. That dream that started with a company is now what has become a group of companies offering diverse but complementary services. Remarkably, Casers Group has recorded many notable achievements over the years. It won Nigeria’s first Epica, Cristal and Loeries awards. It is also the most awarded at the prestigious Lagos Advertising & Ideas Festival (LAIF).
From the outset, Casers’ vision was to pioneer a new thinking, build a creative business solutions organisation that would be an extension of the clients’ businesses rather than just a supplier or service provider. To bring this to life, instead of hiring client service executives, it hired brand managers whose vista and responsibilities extended beyond client servicing to providing business solutions and thought leadership.
At the heart of its operations is a co-creative philosophy and its resolve to be different, not for the sake of being different but to always find a better way. As opportunities arose to shape choice beyond advertising, Casers spawned some of today’s leading players. These include DDB Lagos, one of Nigeria’s biggest and arguably most awarded advertising agencies in the country; BBDO West Africa, a global creative force in marketing solutions; Nexus, a premium company with specialisation in Out-Of-Home operations and franchise management across Nigeria and SpaceTM, a leading events and activations company.
The organic spinoff of these subsidiaries led to the adoption of Casers as the brand for the sprawling marketing communications and media investment groups. In 2015, Casers Group extended its reach and influence beyond Nigeria with footprints in 6 countries which include Benin Republic, Cameroun, Congo Brazzaville, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Guinea Bissau, through the acquisition of MW Marketing Services. Today, the group is arguably the largest marketing and communications group in West and Central Africa.
Photo caption – L-R: Minister of Labour and productivity, Dr Chris Ngige, congratulating Casers Group Chairman, Enyi Odigbo as he receives the National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) Award from His Excellency, President Mohammadu Buhari, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha in Abuja (middle), recently.
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