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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
AWARD-WINNING Bulawayo Chiefs FC have set their targets on complementing their recognition of being among the country’s top three Social Media and Digital Marketing Campaign of the Year 2021 by producing positive results on the field of play.

Chiefs came third in the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe (MAZ) National Social Media and Digital Marketing Campaign of the Year 2021 category, receiving their certificate on Thursday.

They were beaten to the top spot by Zimnat, while Zimgold were the first runners-up.

To be in the running for the award, MAZ looked at companies and organisations that demonstrated good social engagement on social media platforms. Competitors had to show good integration with offline activities for the campaigns they carried out between August 2020 to August 2021.

In September, Chiefs won MAZ’s Best Southern Region Media and Digital Marketing Campaign for the Year 2021, beating United Refineries Limited and Ingwebu.

Chiefs, who will be celebrating their 10th anniversary in two months, are the most followed local club on twitter with 57 400 followers.

Being trendsetters, it’s difficult to ignore Chiefs who even during the Covid-19 lockdown continued to make news with their new clothing line venture, Amakhosi Wear.

They’ve managed to win the hearts of neutrals with their captivating tweets.

“This (being second national runners-up) means people are seeing and appreciating our efforts. It also serves as an encouragement to brand Bulawayo Chiefs that we need to keep going and we’re on the right track. There’s nothing good like getting recognition for good work and now our aim is to go for the top award,” said Thulani Javas Sibanda, Chiefs’ spokesperson.

Sibanda said his team is motivated by responses they get from their followers, who challenge them to generate content that creates dialogue and interaction between Chiefs and their fans.

“It’s not easy to generate creative material for fan engagement. Lucky for Bulawayo Chiefs, we’ve got a strong team and every morning we get up and say, what are we going to give our fans? We need to keep them informed as well as entertained. When we started the social and digital media movement, we wanted to let people know about Bulawayo Chiefs and the club’s followers. Now we’re being mentioned in the same breath with corporates like United Refineries, Ingwebu, Zimnat and Zimgold is a bonus.

“Now, as much as we continue to push the marketing side on social media and digital platforms, the grand plan is to get results to complement our marketing side. The more we get results, the more we go haywire on digital marketing,” said Sibanda.

Chiefs believe winning matches, continuous posting of good results will lead to an increase in the number of their followers, with their dream being to have a million followers on twitter and other social media platforms.

Meanwhile, MAZ corporate communications manager, Auxilia Chiukuse commended Chiefs for being trendsetters in the sporting field and making their brand visible.

“The awards celebrate marketing excellence in Zimbabwe. We also honour companies, brands and personalities that would have excelled.

“In their nomination form, Bulawayo Chiefs showed that they were visible on twitter with a good following. They were very much active and engaged their audience. Also, they interacted with other clubs, locally and internationally, making their brand visible beyond borders,” Chiukuse said. — @ZililoR