The CEE team of the global accounting and consulting firm Deloitte was the winner of the 2005 CEE Best Brand in Practice award. This is the first time that a CEE marketing team from an accountancy firm has won.

The CEE Best Brand in Practice award (now in its fifth year) is given by the Professional Marketing Forum (PM Forum) in Central & Eastern Europe (PM Forum CEE). Like last year, there were a total of three awards presented to short-listed firms.

The 1st Runner Up was the CEE team of the law firm Salans and the 2nd Runner Up was the CEE team of the law firm White & Case. This is the first year that Salans has won such an award in CEE.

Ewa Rzeczkowska, Patryk Zamorski and Ewa Plocharska are key members of the marketing team in Poland that helped compile the winning entry. They said: “For a professional marketer to win the Best Brand in Practice Award is probably the most desired reward. We are particularly happy we made it this year as 2005 marks Deloitte’s 15th anniversary in Poland.”

They also said a special thank you should definitely go to their Managing Partner, Michael Barrington for his support of the Forum 500 project and to Marek Metrycki, Head of Tax for his encouragement and assistance in developing the concept of the Moneta Autrea contest.

“Without them and many other people form the Polish practice, I doubt this success would have been possible. This is also a matter of great personal satisfaction to us that our efforts have been noticed and honored,” they said.

Kinga Tihanyi is a key member of the marketing team in Hungary which also helped compile the entry. She said: “Impact Day launched by the Hungarian practice required a lot of time and effort from the organizers and much conviction and dedication from all staff members who took part in the program. It was also crucial that the management embraced the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and acted as champions. The result, we hope, was appreciated by the participating authorities, the schools and kindergartens, and the community at large. We hope to continue the program and involve more people in other practices in Central Europe and promote the CSR philosophy within the firm.”

Richard Chaplin, Global Founder and Chairman of the PM Forum, as well as one of the judges for the awards said about the winner: “Deloitte has high name awareness in the CEE region. Its challenge was to make a global brand relevant to a local audience. They recognized that this required addressing local audiences in a different way rather than adopting a pan–regional approach. Their submission describes three highly effective yet low cost initiatives:

• Forum 500 brings together the managers of Poland’s largest companies with prestigious speakers such as Jack Welch, Jorma Ollila and Ingvar Kamprad. The exclusive ‘club’ has led to improved image, new business and a buzz in the local community.
• A competition for Polish students in tax law attracted 1,500 participants. It helped to promote tax consultancy as a serious career as well as improving Deloitte’s contacts with academia and its image as an employer of choice.
• A CSR day in Hungary involved two thirds of all local employees, enhanced the firm’s image as a socially responsible business, and improved internal communications.”

Jeffrey Forbes, Founder and Regional Chairman of the PM Forum in Central & Eastern Europe and creator of the award said: “I greatly admire when local professional marketers in the region find the courage and work together with their colleagues to enter an award like this. To me anyone who enters is a winner, but like all contests, we have to pick one each year that deserves the most recognition.”

Rob Holmes, Global Director - Business Development & Marketing for Salans said: “We’re delighted that PM Forum CEE has chosen Salans as one of the winners of the CEE Best Brand in Practice for 2005. Salans has seen a whole series of initiatives come together in a positive way this year that has ultimately strengthened both our client service and the firm’s performance across all of its markets. For this to be recognised by PM Forum is a very positive endorsement of our efforts.”

Witold Danilowicz, Managing Partner of White & Case Warsaw said: “We are truly delighted that for the third time in a row our efforts to adopt a client-focused approach to our marketing have been both successful with clients and recognized by experts. This time, the joint effort of all our 5 offices in the CEE region, awarded by PM Forum, reinforces the strength of White & Case’s brand in the whole  region. We will continue to develop our services in CEE in line with client demand.”

This award was created and sponsored by Jeffrey Forbes to recognize a client-focused and marketing-oriented professional service firm in the CEE region. More than 1,000 professional service firms in CEE are invited each year to compete for this award.

In addition to a certificate, the Deloitte CEE team will be profiled in the winter issue of professional marketing, the worldwide journal for marketing professional services, published by the PM Forum.

About the PM Forum:

The Professional Marketing Forum (PM Forum) is a 4,000 strong regionally-based members’ association, dedicated to raising the standards of professional services marketing and to enhancing the credibility of marketers working in professional service firms worldwide.

The PM Forum CEE centre (PM Forum CEE) was founded in 1998 by Jeffrey Forbes, who is an international consultant specializing in practice development for professional service firms. He is also the CEE Regional Chairman of the PM Forum and is based in Prague. The PM Forum CEE is the largest community of professional marketers on continental Europe with more than 200 individual members in more than 60 firms in nine countries: Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia Romania, and Russia and Serbia and Montenegro.

The PM Forum has been publishing professional marketing for more than a decade, which is the world’s leading journal on marketing professional services. In addition the PM Forum sponsors research, awards, holds regular meetings and conferences. Any professional service firm can join the PM Forum, and the CEE centre includes members primarily from international, but also local firms, in the areas of law, accounting, consulting, property and finance.

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About Deloitte
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About Deloitte Central Europe
Deloitte Central Europe is a regional organisation of entities organised under the umbrella of Deloitte Central Europe Holdings Limited, the member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in Central Europe.  Services are provided by the subsidiaries and affiliates of Deloitte Central Europe Holdings Limited, which are separate and independent legal entities.
The subsidiaries and affiliates of Deloitte Central Europe Holdings Limited are among the region’s leading professional services firms, providing services through nearly 2,000 people in more than 40 offices in 16 countries.

About Deloitte Slovakia
In Slovakia, the services are provided by Deloitte Audit s.r.o., DELOITTE & TOUCHE TAX, k.s., and Deloitte & Touche Slovakia s. r.o. (jointly referred to as "Deloitte Slovakia")  which are affiliates of Deloitte Central Europe Holdings Limited. Deloitte Slovakia  is one of the leading professional services organizations in the country providing services in audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services through over 160 national and specialized expatriate professionals. Known as an employer of choice for innovative human resources programs, it is dedicated to helping its clients and its people excel.