The Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, on Friday won the prestigious Marketing Man of the Year Award 2009 of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG). Mr Awal received the recognition at the 21st edition of the institute’s National Marketing Performance Awards held at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Accra Friday night. The awards event seeks among other things, to promote high professional standards in the marketing fraternity as well as encourage excellence among marketing practitioners. It also aims to promote awareness for the marketing concept and its importance to the success of businesses. This year’s event was on the theme: “Africa as an emerging market: The role of marketing,” to highlight the continent’s potential as a good investment destination, organizers said. Mr Awal, whose three-year stint with the top management of Graphic Communications saw the group’s profit soar to over 800 percent received a plaque, a citation and a certificate. Chief Executive Officer of Allure Africa Limited, Ms Dzigbordi Dosoo, picked the CIMG Marketing Woman of the Year Award. She nurtured a beauty and spa enterprise into a company with presence across the continent and beyond, organizers said. The Country Manager of SC Johnson, a “fifth-generation” marketing company, Mrs. Doris Kafui Kwawukume, was also handed the CIMG Marketing Practitioner of the Year Award for successfully adding several top brands to the company’s products pool. Mr Ghagwan Khubchandani, Chairman of Melcom Group, received a Special CIMG Award while Paul Yao Asafo, a business executive, was handed the Marketing Student of the Year Award. On the companies tier, mobile telecom company MTN received three awards for CIMG Marketing-Oriented Company of the Year, Radio Advert of the Year and Print Advert of the Year while Zain was adjudged the CIMG Telecom Company of the Year, 2009. ECOBANK Ghana picked the CIMG Bank of the Year Award while the African Regent Hotel was announced as the Hospitality Facility of the Year. The Ambassador of Togo, Mr Tete Jean-Pierre Gbikpi-Benissan, who was the special guest of honour for the event, said Africa must start to pull itself out of the woods and reinforce its relevance in world trade as the current 3% trade volume between the continent and the rest of the world is nothing to write home about. “If we want our continent, Africa, to gain relevance and secure a decent place among the nations, here is a very simple recipe: let us make Africans and others realize that truly this is a market, an emerging one, but still a market!” he said. Mr Gbikpi-Benissa, who is also the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, with 50 years into indepence, “it is about time we moved on to the next stage: that of the implementation of the sweet words contained in the too numerous speeches lest they be considered eventually as sweet nothings.” See pictures from Friday's Chartered Institute of Marketing Awards (2009) here. The following is the full list of award winning companies and individuals at the CIMG Awards. Bank of the Year – Ecobank Motor Firm of the Year – Japan Motors Media Organisation of the Year – Graphic Communications Group Limited Agro-Based Company of the Year – Blue Skies Ghana Limited Petroleum Company of the Year – Total Petroleum Ghana Limited Manufacturing Company of the Year – ABL Accra Brewery Hospitality Facility of the Year – African Regent Hotel Insurance Company of the Year (General) – Vanguard Assurance Company Insurance Company of the Year (Life) – ELAC Telecom Company of the Year – Zain ISP Company of the Year – Busy Internet Marketing Oriented Company of the Year – MTN Brand Activation Company of the Year – Malta Guinness Street Dance TV Programme of the Year – Zain Touching Lives Radio Programme of the Year – Happy Sports (on Happy FM) Radio Advert of the Year – The “And Then” Game for MTN TV Advert of the Year – Tigo Outdoor Advert of the Year – Tigo Print Advert of the Year – MTN Emerging Brand of the Year – Vodafone Product of the Year – Alvaro from Guinness Ghana Brewery Limited NGO of the Year – World Vision Ghana CIMG Hall of Fame Award – SIC Insurance Company CIMG Hall of Fame Award (Retail Category) – Melcom Group Limited CIMG Hall of Fame Award (Motor Firm Category) – Toyota Ghana Limited By Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana