Biodun Shobanjo inducted into Hall Of Fame

Excellence, professionalism, innovations and creativity defined the maiden edition of the Brandcom Awards that held at MUSON Centre last Friday. The night saw Biodun Shobanjo, the advertising guru, inducted into the BrandCom Hall of Fame for his contribution to the growth of the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) industry in Nigeria and Africa.

Among other awards, Shobanjo, in 2017, received the Silverbird ‘Extraordinary Business Achievement Award’ in recognition of his immense contributions to the Nigerian Society. In 2018, Daar Communications gave him the Daar Lifetime Achievement Award for his remarkable contributions to the development of the advertising industry in Africa.

In the brand category, GTBank was awarded Commercial Bank Brand of the Year while Access Bank carted away two awards – SME Friendly Bank of the Year and Best Brand in Sustainability. LAPO Microfinance got awarded Microfinance Bank Brand of the Year.

MTN emerged Telecom Brand of the Year (Voice) and Airtel, Telecom Brand of the Year (Data).Other awardees were; Maltina, Malt Drink Brand of the Year; Indomie, Noodles Brand of the Year, among others.

In the agency category, Insight Redefini was recognised with the Marketing Communications Group of the Year award, even as its subsidiary, Leo Burnett was awarded Young Creative Advertising Agency of the Year. The Media Independent Agency of the Year award went to Mediareach OMD and Digital Marketing Agency of the Year award was given to Isobar.

Audio Visual Production Company of the Year went to IBST Media, Moore Advice won the Visual Branding Agency of the Year award, LSF PR Young Public Relations Agency of the Year while Young Out-Of-Home Advertising Agency of the Year award went to Alpha & Jam.

Individual Awards Category had the Marketing Manager of Hayat Kimya, Roseline Abaraonye emerging as the Marketing Manager of the Year while Brand Manager of Molfix, Chioma Mgbaramuko was awarded the Brand Manager of the Year. The Public Relations Manager of Multichoice Nigeria, Caroline Oghuma, got the Public Relations Manager of the Year award while Daniel Obi of BusinessDay Newspaper got the Brand Journalist of the Year.

Speaking on the awards, the Convener of Brandcom Awards-a part of Brandcomfest, Joshua Ajayi said the platform came to fore following calls for years from stakeholders in the IMC industry that felt there is so much more that needs to be done in that regards. “For years, many stakeholders have reached us at Brand Communicator, asking why we do not have a platform that recognises and rewards excellence in this very vibrant industry.

“We shied away from this onerous responsibility to concentrate on projecting the industry as we felt there are enough platforms for this already. However, we have also been inundated with complaints about the falling integrity of awards in recent times where recognition is reserved for the highest bidder rather than merit, which should be the norm.“At Brand Communicator, we felt this industry deserves better, hence we came up with the BRANDCOM Awards,” he said.