The event, which took place at the State Apartments of Kensington Palace in the British capital‚ was organised by the World Branding Forum (WBF), a global non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing branding standards as well as consumers.
Describing the award as awesome, the Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Mike Ikpoki, said: “This is another first for the MTN Group and MTN Nigeria. It shows we are not only concerned with providing services but adequately keying into the expectations of our consumers who are very essential to our business. As a brand, it has given us additional impetus and determination to continue to deploy best practice and people solutions for the benefit of the organisation and all our stakeholders.”
MTN was one of the over 2,500 brands nominated from 35 countries. Of the total number of brands nominated, only 119 brands were selected as winners in their respective categories. MTN emerged as winner in the telecommunications category.
Chairman of the WBF, Mr. Richard Rowles, said feedback from consumers was a major factor for the award nomination.
“The Award is a celebration of the achievements of some of the greatest brands around the world. To win‚ a brand needs to have built a good reputation and trust with consumers‚ as 70 per cent of the scoring process comes from consumers voting for their favourite brands‚” Rowles said.
The World Branding Award looked at brand valuation, consumer market research and online voting with more than 65‚000 consumers from around the world who participated during the voting period. In every category, each wining brand was named “Brand of the Year”. Global winners from other categories include Apple‚ Cartier‚ Coca-Cola‚ Facebook‚ Google‚ Guinness‚ HSBC‚ IKEA‚ Johnnie Walker‚ Kleenex‚ Lego‚ Louis Vuitton‚ McDonald’s‚ Mercedes Benz‚ Nescafé‚ Nike‚ Rolex‚ Shell‚ Starbucks and VISA.
Earlier this year, MTN Nigeria also attained the internationally coveted Gold Certification on the Investor in People, UK. The Gold certification followed an earlier accreditation of MTN Nigeria as an Investor in People organisation in 2013.
The accreditation made MTN Nigeria the first company in Nigeria and indeed in West Africa to receive such recognition. MTN Nigeria is also the first operating company in the MTN Group to attain this status, Ikpoki said.
