It was a seven-star performance for Chain Reactions Africa (CRA), one of the continent’s leading Public Relations and Integrated Communications Consultancy, as it took home seven African SABRE trophies, more than any other PR firm in the 2024 competition.
The awards, which were held at the end of the annual African Public Relations Association (APRA) Conference, were presented by Provoke Media, organisers of the awards, in Basam, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivore on Thursday.
The work covered campaigns for the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), and its Lagos Blue Rail; 9mobile’s The Hack – Expand Your Hustle’; ‘Taming the Bull’ for the Presidency; and ‘Next Era of Happiness’ for leading biscuit company, Pladis Foods Nigeria Limited.
Receiving the awards on behalf of CRA and its clients, Managing Director/Chief Strategist, Mr. Israel Opayemi, noted that this is a seven-star performance by consultancy at the 2024 SABRE Awards.
He said: “To emerge as the highest winner at the 2024 edition of the award with seven SABRE Awards is humbling as well as exciting for us at Chain Reactions Africa. We are immensely proud to be honoured on such a global platform like the SABRE awards which is the holy grail of Public Relations globally as the awards programme is dedicated to benchmarking the best PR works across the globe.
“I am making a three-fold dedication of these multiple trophies to our clients who believe in us, my team members who do the brave works relentlessly and our dear country Nigeria. Ten years ago, we were at the SABRE Awards in Miami, Florida in the United States watching and applauding as winners took turn on stage. Ten years ago, we were asking for a seat at the table. Today, we are sitting in creative resplendence at the head of the table. Today, we are flying the Nigerian flag on the global stage. We are now a territory of reckon and relevance in the global PR space”.
It seems winning awards is just a Chain Reactions thing, chuckled the CEO/Editor-in-Chief of Provoke Media, Arun Sudhaman as Opayemi rose up seven times to receive the awards. CRA also picked up four Certificates of Excellence in recognition of its work in launching the Nigerian Youth Trend Report 2024 known as ‘ARAMANDA’, ‘Next Era of Happiness’, ‘Lagos Blue Rail’, ‘The Hack – Expand Your Hustle’, and ‘Taming the Bull’.
The President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, Dr. Ike Neliaku described the awards by CRA as “a harvest of honours for Nigeria”. He thanked the team for its outstanding works saying, “thank you for making us proud”.
CRA has over the years won several prestigious SABRE awards and has been awarded more than 15 Certificates of Excellence. At last year’s award, the company won CEO of the Year category for the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu for use of PR to tell the story of his administration’s achievements and scooped two Certificates of Excellence in the Corporate Image category for the ‘Momentum Campaign’ for Cellulant, a flagship payment solution provider; and ‘Marketing to Consumers’ category for ‘The #NaijaHighlandah Campaign’ for William Lawson’s, Scotch Whiskey brand.
The 2024 Africa SABRE Awards shortlist included more than 120 campaigns, selected from over 500 entries in this year’s competition, which recognises Superior Achievement in Branding, Reputation and Engagement. The campaigns were evaluated by a jury of industry leaders.
