Safaricom has been awarded Best Multi-Market Communications and Best Microsite for its Capture Kenya campaign, at the first ever African Excellence Awards held recently in Cape Town, South Africa.
The annual awards are held to honour outstanding achievements in the field of PR and Communications across five continents, and also saw Safaricom emerge 1st Runners Up in the Social Media category.
Capture Kenya is an annual campaign by Safaricom designed to nurture photography in Kenya. The campaign was launched in 2013 and seeks to work with talented Kenyan photographers to showcase the beauty of Kenyan landscapes, people and culture through photography.
It involves commissioning professional and promising amateur photographers to capture the best of Kenya in line with a prescribed theme each year; images captured are then showcased in Safaricom’s annual calendar and other marketing collateral.
In 2015 the theme was #ThisIsMyKenya which sought to encourage Kenyans to take charge of the Kenyan narrative by telling audiences – both locally and abroad – positive stories, sharing glimpses into everyday life in Kenya and publicly appreciating the country’s beauty through social media.
Commenting on the win, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said: “It is a great honour to be recognised for a campaign that we launched to encourage positive storytelling not just for us a brand, but for the people we serve; Kenyans.”
He added: “We are grateful to have had an opportunity to work with some of Kenya’s most talented photographers and bloggers to create a collection of images and stories that reflect a side of Kenya that many people forget to appreciate, and in that way steer the conversation back to positivity.”
The Excellence Awards are hosted by Communication Director, a renowned quarterly magazine whose readership comprises of global decision makers in the corporate communications, PR and public affairs practices.
“Over the past years, we have noticed a growing demand for companies and communication agencies to benchmark themselves with other communication professionals in the field. Competitions like the African Excellence Awards mean new opportunities and endorsement for organisations, and we’ve set out to provide this by introducing Awards that recognise African creativity and content,” said Rudolf Hetzel, Chairman of the Jury and Publisher of Communication Director magazine.
The Excellence Awards are a global brand that started in Europe ten years ago before growing to become a worldwide competition that celebrates the best that African PR has to offer.