Marketers to award outstanding firms

The marketing profession has continued to grow year on year to become a pillar to the success of business in Uganda.  

But personalities that have excelled in this field rarely gain recognition either monetary or social. This state of affairs happened to change last year during the unveiling of the first edition of the Uganda Marketing Excellence Awards (UMEA).  

Speaking during the unveiling of the second edition at Serena Kampala Hotel recently, Shafik Ssemakula, the Evolve Africa director, the organisers of the annual awards, said the best was yet to come.

He said they will for the first time since the unveiling of the award, be the category of Advertising Campaign of the Year, Partnership Marketing Campaign of the Year, Digital Marketing, best PR campaign of the year, Best Innovation, best Experiential Marketing Campaign of the Year, and best Not for Profit Social Campaign of the Year. 

Other categories include Best ESG Campaign, Marketing Campaign of the Year and the Marketing Pioneers Award. 

Sponsors for UMEA 2023 include Serena Kampala Hotel, Nation Media Group, I&M Bank, Uganda Development Bank (UDB), Wango App, Matooke Republic and Radio City. 

John Paul Okwi, an official from the MTN marketing department and the lead in UMEA Awards jury, said Uganda, which is one of the best entrepreneurial nations in the world has nothing much to celebrate about this previlaged position.

“But Uganda also boasts of having the highest failure rate of new businesses. Marketing is the missing link in the survival of these businesses,” he said. 

He said the reason why businesses, which include multinationals with a strong capital base as well as SME who don’t have the capital to survive, is tough macro-economic environment, inflationary pressures and flimsy marketing practices. 

“These businesses, whether big or small, are failing to ably and efficiently take their products and services into the market place. Some of these don’t think that publicizing the business name is important or even doing a small marketing campaign on social media is the thin line between their success or failure,” he said. 

For the 2022 UMEA Awards, CFAO Motors won in the best Advertising Campaign of the Year, Best Partnership Marketing Campaign was won by Talent Africa, Best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Campaign was won by the Cancer Run (organized by Rotary International in partnership with Centenary Bank), Agency of the Year (Traditional Media) was won by FAO Advertising Agency Ltd, Agency of the Year (Digital Media) was won by Zus Agency, while most Accomplished Individual in Marketing was Dr Mugerwa. The Best Experiential Marketing campaign was won by Jonnie Walker, while the Best Marketing Campaign of the Year was won by Guinness Uganda. 

The jury for UMEA 2023 awards, to be held at Serena Kampala Hotel on November 30^th include Jacky Namara, John Paul Okwi, Dr Mugerwa, Rogers Anguzu, the Chief Commercial Officer at Victoria Beverages, among others.