Mabutho, Ekwujuru To Receive Posthumous Honours At 2021 Brandcom Awards

The organizers of Brandcom Awards, Nigeria’s leading brands and marketing publication, Brand Communicator has concluded plans to honour two illustrious brand personalities that passed away this year.

Former Chief Customer Officer of Pay-TV giant, MultiChoice Nigeria, Martin Mabutho would be honoured with Marketing Icon Of The Year, while The Former Chairman of Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria and head, Brands & marketing desk of Vanguard Newspaper, Princewill Ekwujuru will receive the Brand Journalist of the Year Award.

Mabutho died at 47 in the early hours of Tuesday, August 24, 2021, a month to his 48th birthday, while Ekwujuru died after battling for more than two weeks in a coma, trying to overcome serious brain damages he sustained in a ghastly road accident. He subsequently died on July 23rd, 2021.

From 1999 when his professional journey started at MultiChoice, Mabutho rose through the corporate ladder to become Brand Manager at MNet Africa in South Africa from 2003 to 2007; DStv Mobile’s Sales and Marketing Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa and Head, Marketing and Sales. He would later become MultiChoice Nigeria’s General Manager of Sales and Marketing and Chief Customer Officer in October 2018, five years after moving to Nigeria.

As MultiChoice Nigeria’s CCO, Mabutho was responsible for driving the customer group strategy, which covers customer value management, sales, marketing, customer experience and care.

He was part of the team that launched Africa Magic in 2003, the Big Brother Africa show, Big Brother Naija, Idol West Africa, and several other shows on DStv.

Princewill Ekwujuru worked with great passion and commitment with Vanguard Newspaper for 20 years. He headed the Brands & marketing unit of the Business Desk of Vanguard Media Limited till his death on July 23rd, 2021.

Due to his dedication, he was elected the National Chairman, Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria (BJAN). He won several awards including ADVAN Journalist of the year in 2017. Ekwujuru hails from Njaba, Imo state, and is married with children.

This year’s Brandcom Awards holds on Friday, November 19, 2021, at D’Podium International Event Centre, Ikeja, Lagos. The event will equally recognize some brands, agencies, and marketing communications professionals that have made outstanding contributions in the last one year.

According to the organisers, this year’s awards night promises to be an unforgettable experience as the stage is set to celebrate and honour achievers in the brands and marketing industry, especially those who have gone the extra mile to make great impact in the industry.

In the words of Joshua Ajayi, convener of Brandcom Awards and publisher of Brand Communicator, “We are also poised to celebrate the giant strides achieved in the last one year at our 2021 award based on our mantra of Prestige, Integrity, and Credibility. The awardees were painstakingly assessed by a panel of assessors who judged based on established guidelines. To date, Brandcom Awards is adjudged by industry players as a credible award platform amidst the falling integrity of some awards in recent times. We boldly say our awards remain credible and we won’t rest on our oars”

Brand Communicator is Nigeria’s most consistent brand and marketing communications magazine. It is also a partner to the two biggest creative advertising shows on the continent, Loeries Africa Middle East and African Cristal Festival. The platform was named PR magazine of the year 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Lagos Chapter.