The major aim of the UMEAS council is to ensure credibility, transparency, professionalism and fairness of the entire process. Photo | Andrew Kaggwa
Award shows are revered and loathed by many in equal measure. Some have complained that the criteria is never straight forward, while others believe they are always fixed. It is partly the reason many people simply avoid being part of awards altogether. Yet Evolve Africa recently announced the fourth edition of the Uganda Marketing Excellence Awards (UMEAS) slated for December 13.
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.
During the launch at Kampala Serena Hotel, it was revealed that this year’s edition will be held 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.
On sustainability, John Paul Okwi, the chairman board UMEAS, said marketers influence a lot of things from the environment to people’s ways of life.
“Sustainability is not just about the environment but employees’ welfare too. You may have a good marketing campaign but do employees have contracts?” Okwi said.
A council was also introduced, which will oversee the nomination and select winners in critical categories.
Ssemakula noted that the council will determine all nominations and hold a 60 percent take on all public vote categories while the public will carry 40 percent of the final decision for the consideration of six of the 11 categories of the awards.
The major aim of establishing a council is to ensure professionalism, credibility, transparency, and fairness, of the entire process.
The 2024 UMEAS categories include; 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 and UMEAs Marketing Pioneer Award, among others.