George Sombonos: Loeries Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award winnerDuring the first evening of the 35th Annual Loerie Awards, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, George Sombonos, the CEO of Chicken Licken, was honoured with the Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award. The award was introduced by the Loeries in 2007, to recognise an individual for their marketing achievements over an extended period of time. Each year, a shortlist is compiled - based on the success of brands over previous years at the Loeries. This year the short list included the following brand leaders: George Sombonos - Chicken Licken George Sombonos is a deserving winner of this accolade. Rarely is a leader so completely involved with his brand. Not only did he found Chicken Licken over 30 years ago, he is also is the owner and the MD and the CEO. He is also the marketing director and the human resources guy. He occasionally answers the complaints line and he even still finds the time to clean tables in his franchises when he needs to. George is Chicken Licken. In the 11 years that George Sombonos has worked with Network BBDO, the Chicken Licken brand has been awarded 27 Loeries, 9 of those gold. In that same timeframe, it has grown from a R300m to a R1.4bn business. When George chose Net#work BBDO as his agency, over 10 years ago, he told the agency that he would make the chicken and they must make the ads. He is the only person to whom the agency presents work. "He has only ever bombed one piece of work," says the agency, "and he was right." George comes to every TV shoot and always stays until the very end. He remembers every director and crewmember from every shoot. George understands that when you are faced with huge competitors, every piece of work needs to be both breakthrough and effective, and he measures results real-time based on sales. All the 2013 Loerie winners will be listed on the Loeries website (www.loeries.com) from Monday, 23 September. Follow the Loeries on twitter @Loeries PartnersMajor Category Additional Partners / Official Suppliers Important Loerie dates to diarise in 2013:Loeries Exhibition Venues Migrate magazine - issue 17 - Available at Exclusive Books & CNA Creative Week Cape Town 14 - 22 September 2013 www.creativeweekct.co.za For more information go to www.loeries.com. |