As a qualified marketer who has been present at many awards ceremonies organized by both the marketing and advertising fraternities I think it is a professional obligation on my part to submit this review.
To begin with the greeting which I and many of those who followed me received at the entrance to the hall from the attractive young lady was a curt “from which company are you?” For a moment I thought it was yet another security check. One would have expected a cordial “Good evening, may I know the name of your company so that I can help you find your table.” SLIM has a duty to brief those attractive young ladies who act as ushers on how to greet their guests.
Brand Excellence Awards 2008 was a big bore. It was conspicuous by its lack of audience appeal, call it glamour if you wish, which was the hallmark of previous SLIM ceremonies. From the stage décor to presentations it fell far below the expected standard. SLIM owes it to the audience, especially the members of companies which participated and still more specially to the companies with winning brands to make the awards night something to remember. The glitter and glamour one associates with a celebration of this nature was sadly missing. It was only the enthusiasm of the winning teams that gave life to an otherwise drab show. Let me highlight some areas which contributed to the boredom.
The series of TV commercials which were shown twice over for around 20 minutes each time left the audience bored and listless and wondering what this had to do with brand excellence because the products advertised were definitely not brands of excellence. Some of them were not even the brands of the sponsors. If indeed these TV commercials had to be shown it would have been best to show them in batches in between the awards.
The lecture and there is no better word to describe this talk on the importance of brands was not at all appropriate for the audience. It would have been better had the learned speaker explained the different categories and their significance in the context of brand excellence in the market place.
Quite in contrast was the short message by the Chairman of the Panel of Judges. It was excellent in both content and style and was appreciated by all. It was in fact one of the highlights of the evening.
The panel of judges was well chosen and their competence is unquestionable. But in fairness to them they deserved better recognition.
One way would have been to invite them to give away some of the awards. What we did witness was a rather boring procession of SLIM office bearers going on stage over and over again. A talking point amongst the audience was the rational behind SLIM’s decision to select a ‘has been of yester-year’ as Brand Icon of 2008.
It was 12 years ago that this individual led Sri Lanka to win the World Cup. Regrettably he is no longer the admired and respected person he was.
The wisdom of having a CSR Brand of the Year is questionable. CSR is still a misunderstood concept and often equated with charitable deeds.
As far as I am aware it is only the Chamber of Commerce which has very comprehensive set of criteria for its CSR awards. SLIM has over extended itself by getting into this area.
Going through the list of nominees it appeared that many reputable brands which have won the confidence of customers and are in fact household names were missing. Was it that they were eliminated in the first round of judging? Or was it they did not participate? If it is the latter which I suspect it is, then SLIM has failed to effectively market its own brand, namely the Brand Excellence Awards.
Taking everything into consideration what was supposed to be an evening to celebrate Brand Excellence turned out to be an evening which lacked excellence.
A.R. de Fonseka,
Colombo.
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