George Sombonos: Loeries Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award winner

22 Sep 2013

During 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.

George Sombonos: Loeries Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award winner

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
• Gavin Krenski - Brandhouse
• Claudia Mende - Mercedes Benz
• Mike Glendinning - VW

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

Partners

Major
The major partners of the 2013 Loeries are DStv Media Sales, the City of Cape Town, Western Cape Government, and Gearhouse South Africa

Category
Adams & Adams Attorneys, ADreach, Commercial Producers Association, Greensky, Mediamark, The SpaceStation, The Times, Unilever South Africa, Woolworths

Additional Partners / Official Suppliers
AAA School of Advertising, Antalis South Africa, Aon South Africa, Aqua Online, Art Board, Backsberg, BEE Online, Cape Town Partnership, Cape Town Tourism, Egg Films, First Source, Funk Productions, Gallo Images, Google South Africa, Graphica, GreaterCapital, Grid Worldwide, Hertz, Hetzner, Media Film Service, Meltwater, Newsclip, Paygate, Positive Dialogue, Rocketseed, Shimmy Beach Club, Skyrove, Sonovision Studios, South African Airways, TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg, Tequila\Johannesburg, The Rebellion, Tsogo Sun, Ultra Litho, Wesgro