Zo-Mari Tanker is this year’s recipient of the Pepper Advertising ‘Golden Pepper Award’; announced during the company’s annual Christmas Party, held virtually for the 2nd year recently. “Each year, the Golden Pepper Award recognises the person who best exemplifies Pepper’s values of taking ownership, openness, curiosity, fairness and a passion to serve, while having fun” said Pepper’s General Manager, Keitha Oliver. She continued: “ Zo-Mari is all of that and more. Her biggest asset is her laser like focus on her clients’ projects. When Zo-Mari is on your project, you’re in good hands”.
Zo-Mari began her career in the ad agency world shortly after returning home from studying English Literature and Theatre in the UK. In 2008, she joined Government Information Services Limited (GISL) as their Senior Media Relations Coordinator. From here she rose in the ranks, culminating at the position of Head of Promotions. She worked in front of the camera as well, becoming a co-host on the station’s television magazine programme, Morning Prime. Bjorn Stodart, Creative Lead at Pepper, said: “Zo-Mari brings balance to our stressful agency life. She is organised and has a sense of humour and as a creative you want people like Zo around you.”
Zo-Mari’s varied experiences, including being an actress who has worked with major local theatre companies, and a Zumba instructor, help to keep her grounded and close to what’s going on. “Zo-Mari has great emotional intelligence and that is one of the qualities we look for at Pepper before we look for anything else. Nowadays timelines are shorter, so we have to support each other and take ownership for our actions and Zo-Mari gets it” said Keitha Oliver, General Manager.
In accepting the award, Zo-Mari said she was grateful to the supportive team that helps make doing her job easier. She said further “At Pepper someone is always sharing information or an article on something in digital or marketing and I like that because we’re always learning. This year we also attended AE Boot Camp, hosted by the Agency Management Institute, based in the US. The Boot Camp taught us both the strategic and tactical sides of working with clients and the agency.”
Pepper is a Caribbean-based, extended team that helps companies grow through strategic brand development and tactical execution. In early 2010, we signalled the start of our journey toward digital transformation, winning a Gold Award at the 2009-2011 Advertising Agencies Association of Trinidad and Tobago (AAATT) Creative Excellence Awards. A decade later, we are now a Certified Google Partner and through a deep understanding of market variables, we craft solutions with the right mix of imagination and insight to help our partners’ businesses thrive. Today, we focus on three main industries; financial services, FMCG and retail. Our core team of sixteen (16) supports businesses together with an extended team of digital and creative experts.
