Orijin Bitters Emerges Best Brand In Nigeria At ADVAN Awards
The much anticipated ADVAN Award for Marketing Excellence 2015 came to a thrilling close Saturday night with Guinness Nigeria’s herbal drink, Orijin Bitters taking home the top prize. Origin emerged winner in the highly coveted Brand of The Year category, shrugging off intense competition from equally top brands like Coca Cola, Maggi, Star, Ace Roots.
This award confirms Origin as the best performing brand in the last one year and that didn’t come as a surprise to many. And by virtue of this triumph, Orijin’s Brand Manager Nnamdi Ezeani was named the Brand Manager of the years to a rousing applause.
The night was declared open with a short speech by the President of the Advertisers’ Association of Nigeria, ADVAN, David Okeme who harped on the need for organisations to adopt sustainable living plan in their approach to business, adding that this will be a key factor in next year’s award consideration.
Mr. Mike Ikpoki, CEO of MTN and key note speaker of the night, dwelt more on that in his speech. The speech which was titled “Unlocking growth through sustainable and social impact marketing” was straight to the point as it addressed the changing approach to business and profitability in the corporate environment. He stressed that it is not enough for corporations to run profitable businesses that make money for its owners and shareholders; they must be equally devoted to improving the economy they operate in by contributing tangibly to its growth and development.
“It is important for us as a business entity to run our businesses in such a way that we can meet our own objectives as well as meet the larger objectives of bridging gaps in the society,” Ikpoki said. He stressed that any company that must be taken seriously by stakeholders must be able to position itself to help society fulfill some of its aspirations.
It is in this light that MTN’s robust relationship with Nigeria’s entertainment sector began. The entertainment sector Ikpoki said remains one of the fastest growing sectors in Nigeria and that is why MTN took interest in it by developing and supporting concepts that will drive the industry to growth, like the MTN Caller Back Tune which has become a multibillion naira venture. The company also sponsors the MTN Project Fame which has over the years produced music stars.
Ikpoki obviously pleased with the mileage the company derives from its sponsorship of MTN Project fame noted that the initiative was conceptualise to sift out real talents. The programme now in its 8th year has become the flagship music reality show in Nigeria as it has produced more music stars that any other music reality show. Some of Nigeria’s big music stars that have emerged from that platform are Inyanya, Chidimma and Praiz.
“Nigerian music has become so big and the musicians represent the country around the world and give hope to young people. Everywhere you go in the world you will hear Nigerian music,” he said.
Speaking further on the importance of social impact within the corporate setting, Ikpoki warned that social impact should not just be adopted for public relations purposes but they must be deliberately internalize within the cultural fibre of the business. He rounded off his speech by focusing on country brands and challenging the brand owners in Nigeria to build their brand in such a way that they tell positive stories not just about their organisations but about Nigeria. “All of us have a high responsibility to develop our individual and corporate brands in such a way that they will tell a good story about Nigeria,” he concluded.
As soon as the speech was over, attention shifted to the main highlight of the night which was the award presentation. In the Digital Marketing Category, Star Music App emerged, with Coke’s ‘share a Coke’ and Farous ‘I am Original’ coming second and third. Milo Slam won the Consumer Promotions Category beating MTN ‘Cash Quest’ and Star ‘Football Super Fan’ to second and third respectively.
Ace Roots bitter took home the Best New Brand award, narrowly edging Grand Oak’s Swagga Bitters and Smirnoff Gorana to send and third places. MTN expectedly won the CSR category, Guinness ‘Safe Water’ and P and G ‘Safe Guard’ were first and second runners up. In the Experiential Award Category Star ‘Bottle Tree’ emerged tops ahead of Star Music Trek and Nestle ‘Get Started’. in the Media category Ntia Nsukuma of the Guardian edged MARKETING EDGE’s John Ajayi to the prize and Raheem Akingbolu came third.
Guinness made of Black took home the Campaign of the Year’s award, Coke and Maggi came second and third respectively. Two categories, The Innovation and Consumer Insight categories were not awarded as the entries in those categories were said not to meet required standards
While congratulating the winners on the night Okeme noted that the award which had over 110 entries is becoming more competitive and qualities are improving.
He noted that the award was ADVAN’s own contribution to building and creating capacity in the industry. “What we have done tonight is an opportunity to set standards and showcase expertise and we believe that as many people that are leaving here today are inspired, even those that did not win,” Okeme said.
He also noted that the Award for Marketing Excellence was an opportunity for ADVAN, which has over 90 members to set an agenda for practice. “So what we have done today is to land the message about sustainability, to land the message about social impact and how you can unlock growth by driving higher levels of impact. Now that we have done that a lot of people are going back to their businesses and it is not going to be business as usual,” he said.
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