Happy Ntshingila makes Absa happy!

Absa's commitment to employ top talent is paying off. At this week's Sunday Times Business Times Marketing Excellence Awards ceremony, Happy Ntshingila, Absa GroupMarketing executive, was named 2007 Marketing Person of the Year by a 63-member business council consisting of key decision-makers in the marketing industry.

The awards, in existence since 1975, reward marketing discipline in the South Africa boardroom and recognise great marketing campaigns that produce significant return on investments and bottom-line results. This honour places Ntshingila at the top in terms of marketing professionals.

"It was a huge surprise and I could not have done it without all the people that I havethe pleasure of working with - both before and during my time at Absa," says Ntshingila on winning this top award.

Ntshingila says the Absa brand is a dynamic and very exiting brand to work on. "My team mirrors that and we intend to take the brand to new heights in the near future".

Absa also won the following awards for its sponsorships. They are: Absa Cup - Silver Award (Large Budget Category), Absa Cape Epic - Gold Award (Medium Budget Category) and Absa KKNK - Gold Award (Medium Budget Category)

The judges had the following to say about Happy:

"Having blazed a trail in the advertising world during the formation of HerdBuoys, and revolutionised black influence in advertising well before the concept of BEE was introduced, Ntshingila went on to head up the marketing division of a leading financial institution. He has strong leadership skills in heading up group marketing where he has both mentored young individuals and also established a marketing influence in the business unit’s executive committees.

"He has rapidly transformed group marketing and created a strong team spirit that is permeating the organisation. He and his team have established their brand as number one in their category in the Sunday Times/Markinor top brand survey. The awards adjudicators were impressed with the manner in which he has popularised the brand amongst the emerging black middle class, without losing traditional market support.

"Added to this has been the endorsement of an international brand which demanded subtle leveraging of this association, whilst maintaining the dominance of a truly South African brand."