The search is on for this year’s star marketers to celebrate the latest innovations and creative campaigns across Ireland.

The call has gone out for businesses in Ireland to shine a light on the success of their marketing campaigns as the 2016 CIM (The Chartered Institute of Marketing) Ireland Marketing Awards was launched in Belfast.

Carol Magill, CIM Ireland Network Manager, said: “These long running awards, now in their 17th year, are an important way for businesses and individuals to really showcase their work. We’ve opened for entries early this year as we know there are so many companies out there doing amazing work and this gives them the time to put together an award-winning submission. In addition, we’ve added an independent marketer category, as well as categories across many sectors and areas. Entries are free at present, and companies and individuals can enter in up to three categories.”

“CIM has an international presence, with over 30,000 members, including 13,000 studying members. Last year, the Awards attracted over 100 entries from across all sectors. This is why winning an award or being associated with our ceremony as a sponsor brings unrivalled prestige – the scale and scope of CIM’s brand is unique.”

This year, CIM held a launch event at The Academy, Ulster University in Belfast, with specific information on how to enter, tips from the judging panel and a personal account from one of the past winners, Nicola McCleery, head of marketing at Danske Bank.
Winning a CIM Marketing Excellence Award Ireland has proved invaluable to past winners, helping to instil confidence in both prospective clients and suppliers. It is an opportunity for companies to enhance their corporate image and position themselves as a trusted brand that has been recognised by CIM, the world’s leading professional marketing body.

Nicola said: “Danske Bank is absolutely delighted to have won the 2015 CIM Ireland Marketing Excellence Award for Marketing Team of the Year. Gaining recognition outside of our sector and from the professional body of marketers has given each individual within the marketing team an enormous sense of pride and achievement for what we do to satisfy our customers on a daily basis. The award not only acknowledged our creativity and hard work in delivering an exciting and innovative youth recruitment campaign, but also has inspired us to deliver the best marketing activities time and time again, and to keep pushing the boundaries. Winning the award has galvanised us as a team. Each one of us contributed to the campaign and together we achieved it through collaboration, coordination and focus – giving us a real sense of collective purpose, identity and confidence.

“It has been wonderful to be recognised, and is an encouragement to accomplish even greater things in the future,” she added.

The launch this morning also saw CIM announce associate sponsor PML Group, a Belfast and Dublin-based ‘Out of Home’ (OOH) communications specialist, which recently became part of the Posterscope Worldwide Network.

Darren Jackson, director of PML Group, said: “PML Group is delighted to be associated with CIM’s 17th Ireland Marketing Awards. These awards recognise the role that integrated communications (including advertising) make to the marketing mix and celebrate marketers who ensure their campaigns deliver for customers by demonstrating return on investment. PML Group is also focused on these objectives, and on pushing the boundaries of customer interaction and delivering on brand awareness, and, most importantly, commercial objectives.”

The deadline for entries is 3pm on 30 September 2016. A gala event will be held in the autumn to announce the winners. For more details visit the CIM Ireland Awards go here.