Branding Lesson from PR Golden Eagle Awards
Author: yinkaolaito
Yinka Olaito is happy,excited and passionate Brand Communication, Social Media expert, Trainer and speaker. Yinka Olaito helps brands(Profits and Non-profits)with effective communication and positioning for premium service delivery and returns.Yinka Olaito also has special interest in Development Communication and has consulted for noted UN Agencies. Yinka Olaito is the CCO of Michael Sage consulting and African Child Right Inc.Lagos Nigeria
The Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (which I am active member) Lagos state chapter just held its annual general meetings/first Public Relations Golden Eagle awards. A week-long event was full of fun, learning and networking opportunities. The public lecture on Thursday 22nd July was well attended and the guest speakers as well as discussants did justice to the topic of the day. My major attention was on the award day itself (which was Friday 23rd July). This is because I was a nominee for two categories of the awards (one: best contributions to PR education in Nigeria and Best new talents in PR). One of these I actually sent entry for while someone sent entry on my behalf for the second one.
As we know, Lagos is the hub of best professional practice in Nigeria and the contest was keen. My initial fear was the constitution of the panel of judges. Because I did not initially know the composition of the panel. But when we got to the venue and I saw the jury was led by Peter Ogudoro I became relaxed and promised myself to accept the verdict of the jury as truth. If I did not know anything about Mr. Peter Ogudoro at least I am aware of his level of professionalism, integrity and to his credit many of the third generation practitioner in Nigeria (which I am part) caught our niche studying under him.
While I do not want to miss the award, I had the premonition during the week of not getting any of the awards. This thought scared me to the marrow but I did ask myself what is the worst thing that can happen. I went over my last post on Algore(below) and told myself I could still go ahead with life after all I have gained some international recognitions as a professional.
When the award time really came and the head of the jury was asked to make a remark of the yardsticks they used for the awardees I noticed some of the things I did not do right and here is the lesson I learnt which I believe could be useful to someone of the nominees who did not get any award or someone out there that may be musing over a loss of something they cherished.
Always try: never come to a situation where you accept that you are not as good as others or your brand did not merit a higher level. The chief jury said they expected many more entries than what they got. He did say most people in the agencies were those that submitted entries while individuals shy away from submitting entry. If your brand is so sure it is making meaningful progress it will be great not to fear competition. Competition helps you shape up.
Package it well: one other lesson I learnt was the fact that one should learn how to package his/her thoughts, ideas/brands well. What is worth doing is worth doing well. Go the extra mile in brand packaging. Distinguish your entry into any market. I knew that even the entry I submitted was done with little effort just to show up in the radar. So when I saw my name as a nominee in Best PR education in Nigeria with two other noted brands I knew I did not give much attention to the way these noted brands would have packaged their entries. Learn to go extra miles as you may not know who is watching.
Do not Accept temporary setbacks: When you did not get what you want, be a successful failure. Share up the winner. Realize that it may be your turn tomorrow, Go out there and congratulate those who win and learn something from the fall. A Nigerian adage says ‘when a child falls, he looks at the front but when an adult fall he looks backward at the point of his fall( to find out the cause and learn a lesson).
Even though my friend and wife were present-hoping to cheer me up for the award- I stood up, congratulated the winners in my categories, took pictures with them and shared the picture on my facebook album. I went ahead to send other awardees congratulatory text messages.
A guy came to me to ask how I felt and he was shocked when I said there may be something I did not do right. Today I drove to the office of the head of the jury to learn how to improve on myself and entry next year. He did decline to talk based on his position but did commend my entry. That is how to fail successfully. Interestingly just because I was a nominee, I got a request for proposal on social media marketing from an establishment today. Gold from the ashes you say. Let me hear from you. Use the comment section.
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