Annual CEE Best Brand in Practice Award
The PM Forum CEE is proud to announce the sixth year of its annual Best Brand in Practice award.
The award is regional and invites firms in the CEE region to work together toward a common goal of convincing the judges why their firm is the "Best Brand in Practice" in Central & Eastern Europe.
The benefit of course, is that all the firm's offices in the region can now share the recognition and accolades of the award. Wouldn't it be nice to prove to your clients in the region that providing super service is a core value of your firm across the entire region?
In past years, the award had been focused on individual offices in the region, to encourage local marketing teams and management to work together to show how they care about clients and deliver super service.
But as the region becomes more developed, and the marketplace increasingly global, the need for firms to work seamlessly across borders intensifies. This means that more and more marketing is done internationally, and firms with offices in the region, can only benefit by working together.
Even those local firms that are not part of a global network have to show that they too have contacts in the region and can work internationally. So the regional focus of this award does not discriminate against local firms because they should equally show how they stand out in the region.
So a big global firm with multiple offices in the region will be judged accordingly, just as a local firm with only one office, that works with other firms on an international basis. In other words, the more offices your firm has in the region, the more you have to prove your worth in the region.
Firms with offices in the following CEE countries are invited to enter: Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldava, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet republics.
The fee to submit a regional entry is only a symbolic EUR 100 and the deadline this year is Friday 29 September 2006.
The goal of the award is to recognize a professional service firm in Central & Eastern Europe, which has gained a competitive advantage and added value to its firm and clients, by adopting a client-focused approach across the region.
The judges for the award are Richard Chaplin (Founder and Chairman of Professional Marketing International - see About the PM Forum) and Nadia Cristina (Managing Editor of professional marketing, the worldwide journal for marketing professional services). Both judges are based in London and are therefore not biased toward any firm in CEE.
The judges (in London) will focus on five criteria when assessing which firm has the Best Brand in Practice (see below for criteria).
How to Enter this Award
To enter, the firm must explain in one or two pages, how it has addressed the five criteria below.
- Distinctiveness (How distinctive is your firm and its message in relation to other firms in the CEE region?)
- Relevance to clients (client feedback - about the firm and its message in the region - will be particularly important.)
- Coherence of delivery (Proof that your firm has actively aligned its corporate, brand and people values in CEE.)
- Value added to the firm (Has your firm been able to sustain higher fees, increase client preference, reduce staff turnover and improve margins as a result?)
- Contribution of local marketing professionals to the process (The entry must be visibly lead and submitted by someone based in CEE, not just travelling to the region).
All entries must be sent by e-mail only to Jeffrey Forbes along with your complete contact details and list of all offices in the region that participated and will share in the award if you win.
You should also indicate how many fee earners and total employees your firm has in the region. Please DO NOT send any materials by regular mail. They will NOT be forwarded to the judges in London.
Jeffrey Forbes will confirm receipt of each entry. If additional information is required by the judges we will contact you.
The cost to enter is a symbolic EUR 100 per entry and firms do not have to be a member of the PM Forum to enter. This award is open to any knowledge-based business-to-business professional service firm based in Central & Eastern Europe.
The deadline for 2006 entries is Friday 29 September.
And what do the winners get?
- The winner (photos and interviews will be dominated by people based in CEE) will be profiled in the winter issue of professional marketing. This is Europe's leading journal which covers the topic of marketing professional services from an international perspective. The prestigious honor of being profiled in this journal is supported by the fact that these Best Brand winners are the only firms ever from CEE, to be profiled in this journal. (Note: We regret that the same people cannot be profiled twice in professional marketing).
- The winner and all runners up receive a certificate for each office in the region, that they can frame and place in their offices.
- Names (along with any photos) of the winner and all runners up will be placed on the PM Forum web site and details of the awards will be communicated to members and the professional and business communities in CEE, Europe and the rest of the world where applicable.
- Only the winner will be given the CEE Best Brand in Practice logo (see logo below from last year) in electronic form to use on their web site and promotions for an indefinite period of time.
Remember, the deadline to enter for the 2006 awards is Friday 29 September.
Good luck and may the best firm in the region win!