At the recent Creative Week, Union Bank emerged Advertiser of the Year by CHINI Africa, Cannes Lions Official Festival’s representative in Nigeria. The Bank also received the Bronze category award for Integrated Marketing Campaign of the Year. The awards were presented at the 2019 Pitcher awards ceremony, in recognition of the brand’s creativity in the development of impressive advertising campaigns, particularly the ‘Clear Your Doubt’ campaign with its popular tagline – Don’t be an Uncle Thomas, and the more recent ‘Enabling Success’ television commercial.

Both campaigns received commendations from advertising professionals, customers and the general public. The commercial which communicated strong themes of introspection, perseverance, healing and hope of a better future for Nigeria, also emerged the most watched Nigerian commercial on Youtube in 2018 with over 2.7 million views.

While receiving the awards, the Head of Corporate Communications and Marketing, Ogochukwu Ekezie-Ekaidem, said, “Our brand is an essential part of our identity and we are truly honoured to be recognised as ‘Advertiser of the Year’. We are pleased that our campaigns continue to resonate deeply with audiences across Nigeria and beyond. Union Bank’s goal was to elevate the voice of the everyday Nigerian for whom we have enabled success for over 100 years, and we thank CHINI Africa and the general public for acknowledging our efforts.”

The Pitcher Awards is organised to celebrate and honour outstanding works from West and Central Africa in various categories including film, print, design, media, PR and digital. According to a statement by CHINI Africa, “the awards are designed to inspire creative excellence in marketing communications and help provide international recognition for the work, companies and people behind them.”

During the Creativity Week, Union Bank also partnered with CHINI Africa to host the ‘Creating a Better Africa’ (CBA) programme, a conference designed to inspire social purpose, sustainability practices and also to promote creativity as a catalyst for development across Africa.

During the three-day conference, Ekaidem served as the Chair of CBA, delivering an insightful presentation on ‘How brands can play a role in the United Nation’s SDGs’ while Thomas Kolster, renowned international speaker and author of ‘Goodvertising’ featured as the keynote speaker.