The Peer Awards is back with a Caribbean focus

Last staged in 2003 The PEER AWARDS are positioned as the premier awards within the marketing, advertising and PR community. It’s the award to have, to showcase to clients, friends and associates. This award is highly respected within and outside of the profession and is quietly sought-after. The ownership of a PEER AWARD is recognition by one’s PEERS that you are regarded as among the very best. The following dates have been announced on the official website.

ü  Nomination accepted on the website  March 14th 2011 – April 11th 2011

ü  First round of voting on the website – April 18^th– April 22nd 2011

ü  Announcement of the final Four Nominees – April 26^th 2011

ü  Final round of voting on the website – May 2^nd –May 6th 2011

ü  Official Announcement of Awardees – Thursday May 19^th 2011 – venue to be confirmed

Voting in the Peer Awards is restricted to professional marketers, in that they perform a marketing function for which they are paid. Qualified marketers accepted to the Peer Awards Academy will among other benefits be allowed the rights and privileges to vote in the Peer Awards each year. All applications are subject to acceptance by the Peer Awards Foundation Board.

Check the official website for more information www.peerawards.com.jm

AMX – Claro: Mission accomplished

In my view the primary reason for AMX coming to Jamaica via the acquisition of Miphone and subsequently rebranding it CLARO was to have Digicel shift the business focus back to their Jamaican home market and away from expansion plans into Central and South America.

To demonstrate their commit to this singular mission Claro spent a reportedly 350-400 million Jamaican dollars annually on advertising and marketing activities forcing Digicel to match and or exceed that in an effort to secure and maintain market dominance. Not to be left out LIME also stepped up advertising expenditure.

And so when it was announced that Digicel would give up its business interest in Central and South America and Claro would move out of Jamaica it was a declaration that the Claro mission was accomplished.

The Claro vs. Digicel battle is good for all

Yes it was the best thing to have happened to media, advertising agencies, consumers, and government finances in a long time. All derived substantial additional income and profits from the battle. And so the cease fire can only result in a major reduction in earnings and benefits for all concerned going forward. This cannot be good, but what can we do.

Media fallout expected

From all accounts there is just not enough advertising spend in the Jamaican market to profitably support the over 20 radio stations, three newspapers, three television stations, cable channels, significantly expanded outdoor advertising segment, new media and all the other media vehicles out there now and to come. The main players have known this for some time now, but have been able to defer any major decision due largely to the Claro vs. Digicel battle. Now that the war is over some hard cold decisions will have to be made.

Gillings out Price in at LIME Jamaica.

The ad critic understands that Patrick Gillings is out of LIME Jamaica and Stephen Price is the newly appointed head of marking for LIME Jamaica. We wish Stephen the best of luck.

Well that’s all from me for now.

The ad critic

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