Pulse Influencer Awards 2023 ceremonies achieve record attendance

More than one thousand influencers, celebrities and media/entertainment industry leaders attended the ceremonies, which mark the end of the Pulse Influencer Awards 2023 season.

Now in its third year, the awards this year not only surpassed previous outings in audience engagement (pageviews, shares and reach) but also in industry attendance. This year, we recorded over 2.73 million votes from audience members in participating countries. We also saw more brand partnerships and sponsorships for the awards this year including brands like MTN, Ayoba, Indomie, Whitley Neil, Jameson, Gino and more.

The Pulse Influencer Awards were created with the objective of providing a platform to recognise, highlight and collaborate with influencers and creators in Africa who are excelling in their niches and building engaged, expanding communities.

Influencers represent an increasingly important vertical for digital distribution and an opportunity for brands to connect with the right audience. In previous years, the awards have achieved this objective, and this year, even more so, with more influencer attendance, a substantial leap in vote, engagement and reach metrics.

Katharina Link, CEO at Pulse said, “At Pulse, the success of our 2023 Influencer Awards highlights the rich creativity across Africa. Every year, we aim to celebrate and elevate digital talents who inspire, entertain, and reflect our vibrant cultures. This year’s record engagement has been truly inspiring.

“The awards represent an important part of our work in initiating collaborations in digital media in Africa, and our aim of building a melting pot for creativity, digital media and content distribution. This year definitely represents a milestone achievement toward that aim. While we celebrate today’s achievements, we’re also looking ahead, always aiming higher.”

Speaking on the awards this year, Kanyinsola Aroyewun, Director of Marketing and Content Growth at Pulse said, “Each year, the Pulse Influencer Awards grow bigger. We discover new creators through the nomination phase, and we feel the strength of the nominees’ communities during the voting phase.

“I am elated to report that this third edition of the awards has been concluded with our numbers showing that this was the biggest and best edition yet.

“We saw significantly higher turnouts in all our markets from the influencer and celebrity communities, and a positive audience feedback that was stronger overall.”

Some winners from the markets are Blacko, who emerged the Music influencer of the year in Ghana, Bella Okagbue who won the awards in both the Fashion and Lifestyle categories in Nigeria, Holy Dave, winner of the Food Influencer of the Year in Kenya.

In Senegal, Malaw Pikine won the TikTok Influencer of the Year, in Côte d’Ivoire, the awards for Business Influencer of the Year went to Dabali Express and in Uganda, Ceci Ka Mummy clinched the new category Next Gen Influencer of the Year.

The statistics from this year’s awards indicate that it was a bigger awards season than previous years by far. Pulse looks forward to a bigger success with the Pulse Influencer Awards in the coming years.