Winners announced at Marketing Society of Kenya’s annual awards

Speaking at the event, MSK Chairman, Mr Charles Kairuki, noted that the Society was intentional on enhancing inclusivity and diversity in the Award ceremony. This was to uphold integrity, credibility and encourage participation of marketers in all sectors.

“This year, we received over 200 entries, which we credit to the new segmentation of categories with a focus on six sectors that highly influence our economy: manufacturing, health, technology, financial services, academia and hospitality,” said Mr Kariuki.

“There was also a focus on having a category that celebrated the efforts of small businesses to enhance their creativity to meet marketing objectives and targets.”

Hospitality industry had the most entries

According to the Chief Judge, Ms Rose Kimotho MBS, the hospitality industry recorded the highest number of entries at 28.4% while manufacturing and academia contributed 27.9% and 27% respectively. 

Technology contributed about 9%, whereas financial services recorded the least number at just over 7%. Small enterprises only comprised about 9% of entries, with large companies at 71%, and medium ones comprising about 20%.

“This is a clear demonstration that the representation of small enterprises is still insignificant and I urge the Society, through the Chairperson, to work on programmes

and partnerships geared towards providing better accessibility to marketing training, mentorship and services for small enterprises,” Mrs Kimotho added. 

Other winners included East Africa Breweries Limited (EABL), which was the overall winner of the Marketing Campaign of the year (for Johnnie Walker’s ‘The Ones Who … Keep Walking’ campaign), Mediacomplete, which won the Best Influencer Marketing Campaign of the year for the Coca Cola-Fanta #ColourEveryMoment (Fruit) campaign, and Marketing Students Association of Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT), which won the Marketing Maverick Institution of the year award.

The event, which attracted over 500 participants, culminated in a celebration to mark the 60th year of MSK. The Society is a founder member of the African Marketing Confederation (AMC).