Organizers and partners pose for a photo after the launch of the UMEAS 2024 at Serena Hotel on Friday.
On Friday September 27, 2024, Evolve Africa announced the fourth edition of the Uganda Marketing Excellence Awards, UMEAS slated for Friday, December 13, 2024.
Now in its fourth year, the UMEAS are an opportunity for different companies and brands to showcase their marketing successes and signify the quality of their businesses.
Following the successful 2023 and 2022 editions, Evolve Africa has announced this year’s Uganda Marketing Excellence Awards under the theme ‘Promoting Sustainable Marketing.’
According to Evolve Africa Co-Founder Shafique Ssemakula, the awards span every aspect of Marketing, Communications and Digital right from ideation to creation and execution.
“The UMEAs will explore how well Brands, Marketers and their Agency partners have leveraged different media channels, digital and traditional, to create campaigns that have made a powerful impact on their target audiences for the projects/campaigns executed from November 2023 to October 2024,” said Ssemakula.
Ssemakula said entries for participation in the UMEAs 2024 are open via www.umeawards.org but highlighted that participation is free and open to any organization that will have engaged in a marketing campaign with potential to win them an award.
Evolve Africa also presented a five-member Marketing Council of renowned industry professionals that was selected based on leadership, contribution towards the profession, experience, and academic qualifications.
The council will oversee the nomination and critical awards winner selection for the UMEAS 2024.
Ssemakula noted that the council shall determine all nominations and hold a 60% take on all public vote categories while the public shall carry 40% of the final decision for the considered for six (6) of the eleven (12) categories of the awards.
The major aim of establishing a council, is to ensure professionalization, credibility, transparency, and fairness, of the entire process” Ssemakula noted.
They include; Dr Benedict Mugerwa, Ngulumi Immaculate Nabatte, Johnpaul Okwi, Jackie Rukare Namara, Rogers Anguzu, and Barbra Arimi Teddy.
The 2024 UMEAS categories are; Advertising campaign of the year, Best use of partnership marketing, Best use of digital marketing, PR Campaign of the year, Best innovation- new product/ service, Experiential marketing Campaign of the year Best Not for profit/Social good campaign, Best ESG campaign, Rising Agency of the year, Agency of the year, Marketing Campaign of the year and finally UMEAs Marketing Pioneer Award.
Ssemakula said that the nomination criteria and eventual winners for the Uganda Marketing Excellence Awards 2024 shall be based on five major aspects: challenge/problem, Originality/creativity of the idea, strategy implementation, integration of the communication across different platforms, Impact & return on investment.
Caroline Ampaire, Head of Media and Digital at UBL also reaffirmed the brewery’s commitment to sustainability in all its marketing efforts.
“As a business, we have always made deliberate efforts towards promoting sustainability. From integrating eco-friendly packaging to reducing our carbon footprint in production, we are continually evolving to meet the needs of both our consumers and the planet. Our goal is to ensure that every initiative we undertake not only drives brand growth but also contributes to a more sustainable future for us all,” she said.
Entries are open now and submission deadline is October 31, 2024.
The winners of the UMEAS 2024 will be announced on Friday, December 13, 2024, at an awards gala at the Kampala Serena Hotel.
The UMEAS 2024 are powered by Evolve Africa and sponsored by; Uganda Breweries Ltd, Centenary Bank, Kampala Serena Hotel, Equity Bank, NSSF, Nation Media Group, Radio City 97FM, Matooke Republic, Kadanke Brand House, Roke Telkom.