The Awards ceremony is to recognize individuals and organisations for outstanding performances in the field of marketing and inspire industry leaders to refocus their institutions into more marketing- oriented companies.

The Award programme would be held on the theme: "Celebrating 30 Years of Promoting Marketing Excellence: Synergies for the Future."

Among the major competitive areas the ceremony would consider are; Hall of Fame, Personalities, Media/MARCOMS organisations, Business organisations, Products and Not-for-Profit Organizations.

Mr Daniel Kasser Tee, the Vice President of CIMG, said the Non-bank financial institutions award has three categories – Finance House of the Year, Savings and Loans Company of the Year and Micro-Finance Company of the Year.

He said the Institute had also introduced the Telecom Company of the Year to cater for the large number of essential support services companies operating in the telecom sector.

"Three more awards have been introduced due to the relevance of those sectors – Real Estate Company of the Year, Private Health Facility of the Year and Postal and Courier Service Company of the Year," he said.

Mr Tee noted that the criteria for selecting the winners and benchmarking their performance would include Marketing Metrics and Innovation, Technological Innovation, Social Impact, Contribution to National Development, and Public Image.

Others are Market Share, Success in the Market Place, Customer Service Orientation, Ecological and Ethical Issues, and Competitor or Competitive Orientation.

Explaining how companies could qualify for the "Hall of Fame Award," Mr Tee said companies that had won awards in any category for three consecutive times could be inducted into this category on the fourth win.

Mr Kojo Mattah, the President of CIMG, thanked the Institute's sponsors for helping it to sustain the annual award ceremony, which he said, was very costly.

While the CIMG agrees that the personalities and organizations be recognised for exceptional performance, he said, the decision processes for awarding must be tested ones with clearer evidence of their sanctity for the awards to command the needed respect from the society.

"One sure way of doing this, is for organisers of the awards schemes to manage the selection process such that our decisions would be backed with credible industry data from well-known research organisations, as well as the inclusion of trusted and recognised professionals and personalities experienced in the area of the particular award," Mr Mattah said.