While BHM bagged three awards- Agency Of
The Year, Rising PR Practitioner Of The Year (Enitan Kehinde, General manager,
Lead Consultant, BHM, UK) and PR Practitioner Of The Year Award (Adekunle
Ayeni, MD, BHM).
These wins come months after the company
announced the commencement of operations in Ghana and Kenya, as part of its
Africa expansion, under its globalization strategy. The Africa expansion is
being executed through ID Africa, BHM’s Africa-focused advisory firm with a
nearly ten-year record of supporting clients and partners across many African
countries especially in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.
Nestle, a publicly listed food and beverage specialty company, in the hand won The Best in Corporate Social Responsibility and Excellent In Community Relations Awards; and Teksight Edge emerged Best In Entertainment PR and Best In Technology PR.
Other winners were Mouka Foam, Best In Crisis and Risk Communications, P+Measurement, Best Use Of Research and Measurement, Nigerian Breweries Plc grabbed Best In Internal Communication and Employee Engagement Award, Jeremiah Agada won The PR Journalist of The Year Award and Dangote Group won The Reputable Brand Of The Year Award.
In her welcome address at the event, Chairman,
NIPR Lagos chapter, Comfort Nwankwo, has attained a strong brand status gauging
from the immense interest it is generating all year round.
She noted that, the award celebrates
practitioners and stakeholders to challenge “us to boost professionalism and
invest more in the practice”.
“We want to engender healthy competition
among professional colleagues in the PR industry. We want to make it the most
sought after and the beauty of it is that, any practitioner in any industry
with outstanding, verifiable track records, who has put forward innovative PR
campaigns from concept to execution, has a chance to win,” she said.
Also speaking during the event tagged,
‘Hall of Fame’, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu advised PR
practitioners to be intentional in their practice and to discourage the spread
of fake news especially via the social media.
The governor who was represented by Gbenga
Omotosho, Commissioner of Information and Strategy in the state said: “We need
to consciously fight the scourge of fake news. In the past, it use to be people
posting fake news to cause panic everywhere but now people do it professionally.”
“The social media is a two-edged sword in
which if we use it well, we benefit from it but if used negatively, it get its
own effect,” he said.
The governor therefore charged all present
to always verify every information before engaging them.
Chido Nwakanma, Selection Committee chairman of the event, disclosed the the number of entries in this year's award is the highest in the seven-year history of the awards scheme. The Lapriga Selection Committee believes that the higher number of entries represents an increased interest in and credibility of Lapriga with public relations professionals in Lagos.
He added that a contributing factor is an increase of
seven in the number of categories and enhanced criteria.