It was indeed a colourful night at the Exceptional Marketing Awards held October 22, 2020 at the Annual Marketers Convention in Bulawayo.

The Awards night sponsored by PureOils (Zimgold) was held at Troutbeck Inn in Inyanga to cap the 2020 Marketers Convention.

Dressed to the nines, delegates braved the breezy Inyanga weather and followed the award night’s colour theme, Digital Age.

The Exceptional Marketing Awards run by the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe recognise organisations and individuals who would have achieved outstanding success in their planning and implementation of marketing and related areas strategies, annually.

The overarching goal of the awards is to honour organizations and people who would have exhibited exceptional marketing prowess and at the same time showing professionalism at the highest level.

The most coveted award of the night was the Marketer of the Year which was sponsored by Zimbabwe Independent. It was won by National Foods’ Marketing Manager, Lawrence Kutinyu.

This award is given to an individual who has spearheaded or implemented a financially viable campaign. The award winner should be innovative and should be a team player.

They are required to demonstrate the highest level of customer relationship management skills and  extraordinary success despite unavailability of adequate resources.

The individual should also have been with the company for at least 6 months.

The first runner up for this award was Daniel Chipato , the Chief Sales Officer of Proton Bakers and second runner up was Zanele Dube , General Manager Sales and Marketing PPC Ltd Southern Region.

One of the night’s tightly contested categories was that of the Marketing Oriented CEO pitting BancAbc’s Managing Director Dr Lance Mambondiani, National Food’s Michael Lashbrook and Zimnat’s Workmore Chimweta.

The award went to Mambondiani while Lashbrook and Chimweta were first and second runner up respectively. 

The award criteria looks at the following, forward thinking, a risk taker and always comes up with innovative ideas. He/She must motivate and inspire marketers and other aspiring marketers around, ensure that executions meet objectives.

The CEO must actively share responsibility with his or her team , executes excellent communication skills and customer relationship management for both internal and external staff. He/She must appreciate the use of IT based strategies and Set high standards of integrity.

His /her organization must be producing excellent results and outputs.

The award was sponsored by Image Magic Corporate.

National Blood Service Zimbabwe’s Esther Massundah was named as the Public Relations Practitioner of the Year. She was battling it out with  Patricia Murambinda from Delta Corporation and Zimbabwe Tourism Authority’s Godfrey Koti They finished first and second runner up respectively.

The award is given to an individual who has managed to maintain good corporate reputation for the organisation that he or she works for and has good media relations. He/she must maintain good relationships with both internal and external stakeholders and have the ability to effectively respond to public inquiries and complaints.

The award was sponsored by Marketers Association of Zimbabwe.

The Brand Manager of the Year Award went to Kundayi Pamela Mawema. Pamela is the Brand Manager for the Premium Brands Category at Delta, which comprises of Local and Regional Premium brands -Zambezi Lager, Castle Lite, Golden Pilsener, Bohlinger’s Lager, Flying Fish and Redd’s.

The award was sponsored by ZiFM.

The Best Jingle of the Year went to National Foods for their kick-start your day with Pearlenta Nutri-Active Radio jingle.

The second runner up in this category was Nyaradzo Group for the Nyaradzo Score Packplan and first runner up was Pure Oil Industries with the Zimgold Cooking Jingle. The awards was sponsored by Star FM.

Tanganda won the best TV advert for their Discover the Tea of African legend enjoyed the world since 1924 on second spot was RTG with the Gateway Stream-The Future is Here now advert and Chloride Zimbabwe with the Exide TV advert.

The award was sponsored by DSTV.

The Best Print Advert of the Year went to BAT for their Dunhill advert, Stanbic Bank was first runner up with their Brand Repositioning advert and Zimnat’s new claims process finished as second runner up.

National Food’s Allegros Popticorn Billboard was adjudged the Best Outdoor Media Advert of the Year followed by Econet Wireless Zimbabwe’s Digital Lifestyle Network Thematic Campaign. And Pure Oil Industries’ Zimgold margarine billboard finished as the second runner.

The award was sponsored by Askeland Media.

The Best Social Media and Digital Marketing Campaign of the Year went to Delta Corporation Limited-The Mighty Zambezi Lager Bonfire Promotion with Mambo’s Chicken following closely as first runner up, followed by Pure Oil Industries.

The award was sponsored by ZINARA.

Cassava Smartech was adjudged as having the Best Website for 2020 followed by Nyaradzo Group and Old Mutual. Cassava Smartech and TelOne.

The Exceptional Corporate Social Responsibility Campaign was awarded to CBZ for the CBZ Donations Campaign, for their Refurbishment of Hospitals, Netone and Telone were first runners up and Nyaradzo tree planting in schools completed the category as the second runners up.

A new category for the Exceptional Responsibility Covid Response Program of the Year 2020 was introduced this year to recognise corporates that have made strides to fight the global pandemic.

The award was won by Econet Wireless for their Covid 19 Donations Campaign with Delta Corporation’s- Care into trade /consumer /community campaign as the first runner up and the Netone/Telone Refurbishment of Hospitals as the second runner up.

Econet walked away with the Customer Engagement & Experience of the Year Award.

Askeland Media went away with the newly introduced Marketing services supplier /Products Supplier of the year award. Runners up in this category were Image Magic and TBWA.

Proton Crunch select cookies were adjudged as the New Product or Innovation of the Year followed by National Foods Allegros Popticorn and Ecosure’s Pamwepo/Sisonke Cover. The award was sponsored by Dicomm McCann.

For the second year running , Mambos Chicken bagged the Marketing Oriented SME of the Year award ahead Image Magic Corporate and Yanaya Restaurant.

The Integrated Promotional Campaign of the Year went to Delta Corporation for their Mighty Zambezi Lager Bonfire Promotion.

Select Research won the inaugural Best Market Research Company of the year award. The runners up in this new category were XRI Research and Probe Market Research. The award was sponsored by National Foods.

Congratulations to all the winners.