Organisers of the SABRE awards have judged 9mobile winners in two distinct categories - The SABRE Award for Superior Achievement in Reputation Management and Special Event/Sponsorship based on the telco's innovative and transformative campaign titled The Hack, Expand Your Hustle.
The SABRE Awards, organised by PRovoke Media, is the world's most prestigious PR awards programme dedicated to benchmarking the best PR works across the globe. It recognizes exceptional campaigns, by brands, and agencies that exhibit the highest levels of strategic planning, creativity, integrity, effectiveness, and business results across Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa.
9mobile carted home these awards based on its recognition of the importance of SMEs in driving the economic growth of Nigeria, thus positioning itself as an SME-friendly company to support their development and success to thrive and scale their businesses.
This drive to see SMEs succeed led the telco to launch a novel entrepreneurship programme - The Hack, an Enterprise Business Growth Series designed to empower entrepreneurs by giving them the knowledge, technology, and access to the market required to help them grow, with imprints in various Nigerian cities and university campuses.
With the Hack, 9mobile showed the endless opportunities in the SME sector while addressing challenges that business owners confront, assisting them in expanding their enterprises and overcoming obstacles, taking them through the hacks the SMEs need for business growth.
Expressing her delight at this global recognition, director, Marketing Communications Saidat Lawal Mohammed said: "It gives us great joy to see our work recognised by such a prestigious and globally respected organisation such as PRovoke Media, organisers of the SABRE Awards. We know that this is a highly sought-after award and based on other projects we beat to clinch these awards, we are super delighted to be recognized on a global stage. What is key for us are the results we achieved and the impact we made which has served as an elevation for this recognition", she said.
She went on to thank the management of 9mobile for their support of the Hack initiative, and the marketing communications team for the synergy in driving the campaign.
Lawal Mohammed affirmed that through this project, 9mobile burnished its reputation as Nigeria's SME-friendly telecommunications company, adding that "in the end we reached over 23.7 million people online, had over 20,000 knowledge participants, 382 entrepreneurs exhibit and over N10 million in Grants to budding entrepreneurs. The journey of the Hack has been fun and equally impactful".
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The SABRE Awards for Superior Achievement in Reputation Management recognizes public relations work that has played a central role in corporate strategy, positioning, and messaging. In its submissions, 9mobile demonstrated that its PR professionals took a lead role in creating and developing a corporate reputation platform and explained how that platform shifted perceptions, built stronger stakeholders' relationships, and ultimately contributed to corporate performance.
The Special Event/Sponsorship category recognizes the creative spark and execution by brands and agencies in how to bring to life their ideas and strategies and
propel their campaigns into the target audience's consciousness, raising brand exposure and providing a competitive advantage.
9mobile had previously won Certificates of Excellence under the Corporate Social Responsibility category for its Health Talk Series and Health Workers Appreciation as well as Future CEO Initiative under the Technology category.
The 2024 Awards for Superior Achievement in Branding Reputation and Engagement (SABRE) will be held on May 16 in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire, on the sidelines of the annual Conference of the African Public Relations Association (APRA).
