ABERJE AWARDS 2022 HIGHLIGHTS THE BEST OF BRAZILIAN COMMUNICATION

From a total of more than 340 projects enrolled countrywide, 16 national winning companies were awarded in 48^th Aberje Awards ceremony. Gerdau was elected Company of the Year, and the Communicator of the Year by popular vote was Gerdau’s Pedro Torres

The 48^th edition of the competition gathered on November 29 the leading organizations and communication professionals and awarded those who contributed to promoting good practices in business communication in the country in 2022. It was a tribute to professionals and organizations that help establishing the leading role of corporate communication in Brazil. The event was held at Casa Giardini in Sao Paulo.

Gerdau was awarded Company of the Year. Gerdau is the largest Brazilian steel company and one of the main suppliers of long steel products in the Americas and special steels worldwide. The ceremony also praised companies that were running in the competitive categories. These cases stood out most among the 73 finalist projects (regional winners) of 340 projects enrolled from the five regions that compete in the awards. In addition to the competitive part of the award, Gustavo Werneck, CEO of Gerdau, was honored as CEO of the Year; Ricardo Viveiros, of Viveiros & Associados, as Professional Path of the Year; and Cynthia Provedel, of Caminho do Meio, as internal communication, culture, and development professional, was granted the “James Heffernan” Award of Educator of the Year.

The trophies were distributed in 16 categories that make up the Aberje Awards and in the following axes: Focus on the Theme, Focus on Audiences, and Focus on Media. Each axis had the evaluation of up to six jurors. These are programs, projects, campaigns, and communication actions of companies, consultants, agencies, independent professionals, and organizations from all over the country, associated or not with Aberje.

The Awards aim to promote and disseminate efforts and initiatives in business communication and include five stages: checking, regional evaluation, regional awards, national evaluation, and the grand closing ceremony when the national winners are recognized and awarded.

The whole process is guided by strong governance and transparency. The winning cases go through rigorous stages in the evaluation process: from the screening of projects, independent audit, and evaluation by the regional judges to the oral defense of the projects to the Judging Commission in the Panel of Cases. In total, there were 280 judges and 78 awards.

The stage of the Cases Panel was carried out online and broadcast on Aberje’s YouTube channel.

MEDIA OF THE YEAR 2022

The Permanent Program to Combat Disinformation of the Electoral Justice of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) won the Special Communication Award for Democracy. The award recognized its importance in combating misinformation and thus ensuring the Brazilian electoral process legitimately and democratically.

By showing that good journalism depends on all kinds of investment and expanding knowledge about our Constitution in a highly critical period for the country, the Media of the Year Award – TV  was awarded to the newscast “Jornal Nacional” for the series “Brazil in Constitution.”

Daily “O Globo” was awarded in the Newspaper category for its excellence in acting at local, national, and global levels.

The Content Production category awarded Braskem’s Content Hub / “The Economist” as Media of the Year. The partnership established with one of the main global financial outlets has created a global platform of excellent visibility beyond conventional advertising or sponsored content formats.

Due to the commitment and dedication to the theme of mobility, the Media of the Year Award – Specialized Media was awarded to “Mobilidade Estadao,” a project that gathers news, podcasts, videos, web stories, and playbooks to deliver quality information in an accessible way.

The category Regional Outlet awarded the daily “A Tarde,” highlighting its history, importance, and projection for the future.

COMMUNICATORS OF THE YEAR

Each year, the Aberje Awards also elect the Communicators of the Year, a tribute granted to the ten professionals who stood out most in their roles within and outside their organizations. The names of the ten professionals (see table below) are selected from the results of the winning Aberje Award projects. The list is then analyzed and synthesized by Aberje’s governance in its Board of Directors and Advisory and Deliberative Councils, based on a rigorous survey of professional data made by its Memory and Reference Center. Traditionally, the nominees are disclosed for popular voting, and in 2022 the public chose Pedro Torres, Global Head of Corporate Communication and Institutional Brand at Gerdau.

SPECIAL AWARDS

This year, the CEO of the Year Award is with executive Gustavo Werneck for the extraordinary leadership ahead of Gerdau, whether in communication for governance and business conduct or in translating values and fostering innovation.

SEE BELOW ALL THE CATEGORIES AND WINNERS:

 

CATEGORY	WINNER
Organizational Crisis Management	BRK Ambiental
Diversity and Inclusion	Mineração Rio do Norte – MRN
Ethics, Integrity, and Compliance	Santos Brasil
Brand	VTEX
Organizational Memory	Klabin
Organizational Sustainability	Vale
Consumer/Customer	Neodent
Press and/or Influencers	Gerdau
Multiaudiences	IFood
Internal Public	Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Porto Alegre
Society	Unimed-Rio
Event	IFood
Audiovisual Media	Vale
Digital Media	Grupo Energisa
Printed Media	Sotreq
Special Publication	Mattos Filho
Company of the Year	Gerdau
Communicators of the Year	Ana Carla Lopes (Grupo Boticário) Carime Kanbour (Klabin) Daniele Salomão (Energisa) Juliana Calsa (BRK Ambiental) Luís Gustavo Pracchia (ArceloMittal) Marco Greiffo (Volvo) Pedro Torres (Gerdau) Rafael Oliveira (Unimed-Rio) Raphaela Borba (Neodent) Simone Tcherniakovsky (Novo Nordisk)
Media of the Year	TV: Globo Network – Jornal Nacional – Series “Brazil in Constitution” Printed Newspaper: O Globo Regional Oulet: A Tarde Specialized Media: Estadão Mobilidade Content Production: Braskem Content Hub / The Economist Special Communication Award for Democracy: Superior Electoral Court (TSE) – Permanent Program to Combat Disinformation
Award “James Heffernan” Educator of the Year	Cynthia Provedel
Professional Path of the Year	Ricardo Viveiros
CEO of the Year	Gustavo Werneck

THE AWARD

Since it was created in 1967, Aberje Awards have followed the changes in the industry and, today – through the presentation of inspiring cases and sharing experiences – it helps to promote best practices of communication of companies and institutions throughout Brazil.

Over more than five decades, more than 2,600 projects and 900 different companies have been awarded. You can check the winning initiatives from previous editions at the Aberje Memory and Reference Center and the books published by the Aberje Editorial containing the summaries of the award-winning cases, both regional and national.

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