Tsogo Sun Marketing Award presented to Suncoast dynamo

The coveted Tsogo Sun Marketing Award 2005 for marketing employees within the group's five casinos was presented to Robbie Naidoo, marketing manager of Suncoast Casino, at the group's marketing conference on 10 November for going beyond the highest expectations within the job and achieving a 36% increase in annual revenue growth.

Under his marketing management, Suncoast secured 58% of the Durban gaming market in the only competitive casino environment in South Africa, attracting 8.1 million visitors in the financial year ending April 2005.

Robbie is responsible for five departments under the marketing banner, as well as strategy formulation and rollout, divisional budgets, agency management, media liaison, customer relationship marketing, advertising and public relations, and a staff of 50, among other activities.

Before joining Suncoast in 2002, Robbie held several jobs in journalism between 1988 and 1997, including owning and running his own newspaper in Zululand at the age of 25. He then joined the KZN Tourism Authority as marketing communications manager from 1997 to 2002. He was co-chairman of the Ethekweni Business Forum in 2004-2005 - the 20-member Durban Indian-based businessmen's forum that reports to President Mbeki's office.

Significant too, among Robbie's numerous achievements, was the management of negative perceptions of KZN's image following brutal crimes against tourists in 2001. At the time he drafted an anti-crime strategy that is still being used by the province.

The award, which was instituted in 2002 by Tsogo Sun's marketing director, Noeleen Bruton, aims to recognise the extraordinary contribution that marketing employees make to the Tsogo Sun gaming environment.