Africa Quill Awards
Exciting news for South African communicators was the launch of the all new Africa Quill Awards, run by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Africa Region.
South African communicators who have entered the Awards rate them very highly in terms of recognition and furthering of their careers. Past winners of the international awards from South Africa include Pietie Mackenzie from FNB, an internal communications specialist, and Sophia Dower, Content Manager of Words’ Worth, an external communications and marketing company providing specialist communications to corporates.
According to Pietie, awards are a good benchmark of success and this is one of the major factors that encouraged her to enter the International Gold Quill Awards in 2006.
“It’s about recognition not only for the individual, organisation or country, but recognition for communication as a profession,” she says.
FNB entered its communication programme around a campaign called Banking on Knowledge: University of Banking, which won a Gold Quill Merit Award. The campaign promoted a two year certificate in banking available at no cost to FNB’s contact centre employees. The focus of the campaign was about turning contact centre consultants into bankers to ensure a great customer experience.
“The fact that over 80% of employees registered was a clear indication that communication played a huge role in the successful buy-in to this initiative,” Pietie says.
Word’s Worth has won four International Gold Quill Awards over the past few years - one excellence award and three merit awards.
“We entered because the IABC commands a lot of respect amongst senior communicators and can be a valuable marketing tool for a small business such as ourselves,” she comments.
This year there is a new opportunity for both Sophia and Pietie to be measured against their South African peers. The Africa Quill Awards will recognise communication excellence in Africa and South Africa. This will be a regional version of the international awards and winners will automatically be entered into the international awards competition.
According to Sophia, the Africa Quill Awards have real potential to give the local communications industry the recognition and kudos that it deserves.
“The international Gold Quill successes have always made an impact on our clients. We have found that the awards have helped to raise the profile of communication and communicators, This level of award catches the attention of the people who count - the MDs, marketing directors, –and other senior management and draws much-needed attention to the fact that good communication has a key role to play,” she states.
“Communication is usually the first area to be affected by budget cuts and often isn't taken seriously enough. The Gold Quill Awards have helped to counter that. I’m sure the Africa Quill Awards will develop the profile to do the same,” she concludes.
According to the IABC Africa Region, the Africa Quill Awards will go to professionals who have proven that their communication programmes effectively furthered the goals of their organisations, boosting revenues, saving costs, rallying employees or contributing in any other way to their organisation’s success. There are 26 different categories spread across the work areas of communication management, communication skills and communication creativity.
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