Masters of Marketing Honored in Industry’s Annual Awards Ceremony

Ireland’s top marketing practitioners were recognised at the annual Chartered Institute of Marketing Awards which took place last night in the Europa Hotel, Belfast. Now in their ninth year and partnered by Northern Bank the awards were hosted by news presenters Nicholas Owen and Karen Patterson.

Eurostock Foods, headquartered in Newry scooped the top award for marketing excellence in the manufacturing sector.The firm, which specializes in the manufacture of value-added frozen meat products, was recognised for its strong understanding of its marketplace and its ability to create products to meet the identified needs of a leading UK retailer.
                 
Hastings Hotels which has six landmark hotels across Northern Ireland took the top Award for marketing excellence in the Services sector for its rebranding programme, promoting the individuality of each of the hotels in the group.

Other winners of Sectoral Marketing Excellence awards were Norkom Technologies in the Information sector for their strategic marketing approach, Douglas and Grahame, a distributor of men’s and boys wear in the Retail sector, the Fold Housing Association in the Social Economy sector and Belfast City Council in the Public Sector. Award categories were broken down into sectoral, professional and personal sections.

Other winners included:

• Best Marketing Plan-Hollywood & Donnelly
• Best Marketing Partnership Campaign-W5
• Best Brand Programme-Northern Bank
• Best Marketing Team International-FG Wilson
• Best Marketing Team Regional- Tobermore Concrete Products Limited
• Best Performing Marketing Business, Small- ION Technologies
• Best Performing Marketing Business, Large- Randox Laboratories Ltd
• Young Marketer of the Year- Thomas McCaffery
• Marketing Lecturer of the Year-Dolores Campbell Quigg
• Marketing Director of the Year- Patrick Hurst

The awards are open to businesses, public bodies and not for profit organisations from across Ireland. This year’s awards saw a record number of entries across all 16 categories.

Charles Fulton, Chair of the Chartered Institute of Marketing congratulated winners from each category, and said:

“It is encouraging to see such a high standard of marketing across a wide range of sectors and a geographical spread. I congratulate each of this evening’s winners, in particular for the creativity they have shown in developing marketing strategies. I believe the high quality of entries demonstrates the importance of marketing to business strategy across the island.

“This year, for the first time, the awards recognised individual marketing success and achievement through the new categories Marketing Director of the Year, Young Marketer of the Year, and Marketing Lecturer of the Year and we were delighted with quality of the entries in this new section.”

Rosamond Bennett, Head of Communications at Northern Bank said:

“We congratulate all of this evening’s Award winners. Once again we are proud to be the principal strategic partner of the CIM Awards 2007, given the value that we at Northern Bank place on marketing in driving a business forward. The awards continue to ensure a competitive and ever improving standard of marketing across Ireland.”

Over 300 people from businesses across Northern Ireland attended the gala event.

For further information, please contact:
Eleanor Anderson
Stakeholder Communications
T:      028 9033 9949
M:      07834101627