The Nation Newspaper

Tag: activation

  • Fero Mobile embarks on product activation

    Following the successful launch of its mobile phones into the Nigerian market, Fero Mobile has embarked on a nationwide activation campaign to showcase the full range of its affordable devices to consumers. The brand will be visiting ICT markets, shopping complexes and tertiary institutions across the South-West, South-East and South-South parts of the country in the month-long roadshow.

    Speaking during the rally in Lagos, Mr. Ratnesh Prasad, Marketing Manager, Fero Mobile, said, “Fero phones are designed for Nigerians, we have packed great features into very affordable products and we’ve ensured that there is an excellent product for everyone irrespective of their class. Our devices delivers great value compared to the major mobile phone brands and we are happy to announce that Fero phones are available in all parts of Nigeria and have been well accepted by the consumers.”

  • GOtv starts customer fair brand activation

    GOtv starts customer fair brand activation

    GOtv has kicked off its customer fair brand activation in Port Harcourt to commemorate its fifth anniversary.

    Beyond the entertainment created for the event, GOtv also used the occasion to attend to customers’ complaints relating to hardware or service issues, using its GOtv clinic to provide such services at the venue of the event.

    The pay TV led its brand ambassadors, Daddy Showkey, Mr Ibu, Aki, Pawpaw, Helen Paul and Oritshefemi, to make the fair exciting and fun-filled.

    Also, it recognised dealers and sales agents at the event.

    With music provided by Naija FM’s DJ Kentalky, comedians Helen Paul and MC Acapella were the hostess and host.

    GOtv subscribers could not help, but hit the dance floor when Oritshefemi and Daddy Showkey took the stage at different times during the event and performed their older and newest songs.

    “One striking thing about GOtv is the refreshing and exciting content. The picture quality and sound clarity are outstanding. Customer relationship is superb. You feel loved when a customer care representative calls you to serve you,” a subscriber, Ada Obi said.

    According to the brand handlers, the customer fair train will move to Enugu on October 15, Ibadan on October 22, Abuja on October 29 and Lagos on November 5.

  • Brand activation is the future

    Brand activation is the future

    As innovation continues to drive marketing, from the old to modern creative leaning, in the face of competitive marketing budget, the Chief Executive Officer of Oracle Experience, Mr. Felix King Eiremiokhae, has said investment in brand activation is the future of marketing.

    Brand activation, a significant part of below-the-line marketing, is an ideal way to build up, change or enhance a brand’s image. It’s a way of communicating with the crowd, and intensifying their relationship with a product or brand. Brand activation can be used in many ways, from Point-of-Sales-techniques to on the field activation.

    Over the years, clients have not been making any meaningful marketing budget provision for brand activation, but the recent success recorded by brand activation agencies has begun to attract interest from brand owners, despite that some still consider it a risky investment. While innovation has continue to be the driver for the growth of the emerging marketing mix in the marketing communication, Eiremiokhae said experiential marketing agencies have moved from  dancing on the streets to seeing themselves as story-tellers in such a way that appeals to the emotion of consumers.

    “So, that is the direction. That is why you discover that most agencies that are not into ideation would struggle as we progress in the industry because every brand wants to tell a story. Story that people can walk away and remember over a long period time, but how many agencies can tell a story through activation? That is another story for another day,” he told The Nation.

    As one of the experiential agencies that drives the big budget and project in the brands and marketing industry, he said challenges in executing groundbreaking   activations have  been huge, adding that the most mountainous of all challenges in the industry comes from practitioners themselves.

    “Life itself is a huge challenge and what separates you from others and makes you outstanding is how you are able to manage these challenges when they come your way. I keep telling people that you need to take risk for you to be able to stand out. The biggest challenge we keep seeing in the industry is ourselves.  We keep doing things that had never been done in the industry and that is a huge challenge for us because you are required by clients to surpass your previous feats. So, it is already difficult for people to understand the direction we want to go. What we do here at Oracle is like a paint, who has all the ideas but those ideas are inside of him. Therefore, trying to reinterpret those ideas sometimes could be really challenging. But the good thing is that clients are always patient with us and give us the opportunity to express our inner thoughts and that make it easy for us,” he said.

    Besides Eiremiokhae said marketing budget, manpower and third party supplier challenges could undermine delivering innovative brand engagement activation.  “Looking at our environment you discover that sometimes budget can also be a very big issue. Besides that, manpower and  third party supplier are huge challenges an agency like ours could face in delivering on these innovative brand engagement activations, but somehow, here we are, the clients are happy with us despite the challenges and they are always ready to stay on a journey with us,” he said

    Despite that he said Oracle Experience was able to executive award-winning brand activations. Some of the activations, he said, included STAR Bottle Tree, Guilder re-launched, Guilder Yacht and Heineken Green Light Experience. “All of them represent different things. If you look at Heineken Green Light Experience, the concept and ideation are totally different from the Star Bottle Tree. The concept of Guilder Yacht was equally very different from that of Guilder re-launch despite the fact that it is the same brand. We create to fit every experience. From the Star Bottle Tree we broke the world record and built a Christmas tree from the Star Bottle to the level of 36 feet. For us, that was quite amazing and it got some international recognitions, one of which is creating a new record in the Guinness Book of Records as the tallest Christmas bottle tree in the continent. It was broadcast all over the world too,” he said.

    Clients don’t want to take risk in brand activation.

    Despite that, brand engagement activation is the way to go in the marketing communication industry. He said most clients are afraid of taking a risk except for few ones. “Most fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) businesses like to play safe when it comes to taking risk in brand engagement platforms. They are not ready to take such risks, but before a brand can become exceptional and outstanding it has to take risk with such remarkable activations.

    “Nigerian Breweries is a company, which likes to take risk. They have the belief that they have all it takes to embark on the journey with us. So as a global company, NB is not just playing around at the local market, they are also playing at the international stage because Heineken is a global brand therefore, whatever you are creating locally, of course, you need to also showcase it internationally,” he said.

  • Driving anti-counterfeiting with marketing activation

    Driving anti-counterfeiting with marketing activation

    The colour of Christmas and New Year festivities took a different form in Lagos as Kasapreko Company Limited, makers of Alomo Bitters rolled out a weeklong marketing activation aimed at boosting consumer knowledge of the brand against imitations, writes Adedeji Ademigbuji

    As part of efforts to enlighten its consumers during yuletide especially in Lagos, the makers of Alomo Bitters, Kasapreko Company Limited, has rolled out a weeklong marketing activation aimed at boosting consumer knowledge of the brand.

    The marketing initiative, which will be ongoing till mid-January 2015, is also intended to deepen consumer consciousness about their wellness and safety by encouraging them to make healthier consumption choices amidst the euphoria of the yuletide.

    To support this, a well branded activation truck and a team of Brand Ambassadors have been deployed to strategic touch-points in the city of Lagos to educate consumers on the safety features of Alomo Bitters as distinct from the imitated version and other bitter brands in the market.

    For days, the ambassadors have been moving from social events to street carnivals and jams, market areas and neighbourhoods across the city of Lagos to drive the brand key message of Alomo Bitters as the “authentic African herbal bitters.”

    The ambassadors also distribute flyers which contain vital product information. Radio hypes anchored by popular On Air Personalities and a television commercial that has been specifically produced, are also running on selected city stations just to ensure the consumers are equipped with adequate information they need on Alomo Bitters, thereby safeguarding them  from harmful imitated products in the market.

    According to officials of the company, the rationale for the initiative is that as Nigerians shop and catch fun of yuletide, they could also be assisted in making healthy choices while they also get some incentives for their loyalty to the brand over the years.

    The Managing Director, Kasapreko Company Nigeria Limited, Mr. Kojo Nunoo, said the marketing initiative is part of steps to empower consumers to have access to genuine Alomo Bitters at all times against the backdrop of the criminal faking of the brand.

    “Criminal faking of the original Alomo Bitters has been a major challenge we face in Nigeria. As a safety, health conscious, ethical and responsible corporate citizen, this bothers us a lot, hence this campaign is aimed at helping the consumers to know the things to look out for when buying Alomo Bitters,” he said.

    While stressing that the campaign also affirms the company’s conviction in the time-honoured dictum that consumer is king, Nunoo said the safety and wellbeing of consumers are of utmost importance to the firm.

    “This is why we leverage the Christmas and New Year festivities to bring the flagship Alomo Bitters closer to the Nigerians, so they can know more about their favourite Alomo Bitters, made in Ghana by Kasapreko Company Limited. We are delighted to use the occasion of the year-end to also share love with Nigerians and to promote friendship, a key brand personality attribute of Alomo Bitters,” he declared.

    Corroborating, the Sales and Marketing Director, Mr. Sam Osafo, said the consumer activation aligns with Kasapreko’s vision of care which flows in every sip of Alomo Bitters which people take. “This consumer contact programme re-assures lovers of bitter drink that any time they drink Alomo Bitters, they are not only drinking to enjoy; they are also drinking to stay healthy because of the medicinal qualities of Alomo Bitters,” he said.

    The Marketing Manager, Mr. Peter Adegor, on his part explained that taking the brand right to the consumers where they are, is an important aspect of the wholesome qualitative process that goes into the production of Alomo Bitters.

    According to him, “we ensure that the quality of our product is consistent from the point of sourcing the ingredients to the production stage and all through to packaging and delivery. The intent is that the consumers have the finest Alomo Bitters in their hands, hence this initiative to get the consumers well informed about the original Alomo Bitters is consistent with the quality assurance value chain that stands out our brand of bitters from others.”

    In order to deepen consumer experience during the weeklong activation, Adegor  said free brand collaterals such as flyer, T-shirt, face cap and ball point pen among others were given out in addition to huge discount enjoyed by consumers at the point of purchase.

    It would be recalled that the Group Chairman and Managing Director of Kasapreko Company Limited, Ghana, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, recently denounced the faking of Alomo Bitters by unscrupulous cartel which has resulted in significant loss of market share and revenue. He called on relevant authorities in Nigeria to wade in.

  • Rising profile of consumer activation

    Experiential marketing connects consumers with brands via face-to-face engagement and leaves personal memories that enhance high level of brand recall.

    Though with consumers still inundated with traditional advertising platforms, such as Tv, radio, billboards, newspapers and magazines, among other above-the-lines, last year proved to be an embryonic year for experiential marketing as it laid the foundation for the future of the emerging aspect of marketing communication and bonding with consumers.

    In what appeared as a boom last year, the use of consumer activation or what might be termed as brand activations in experiential marketing is already showing a good yield for the emerging marketing communication aspect in 2014. It is estimated that so far over 20,000 experiential marketing activities were implemented in Nigeria.

    After overcoming a piece meal attention from brands handlers, it is swiftly becoming a key tactic in campaigns. From reports, its budget increased by 7.6 per cent in 2013, against economic growth of 1.6 per cent, and it is predicted to skyrocket even further this year.

    The Chief Executive Officer, Oracle Agency, Felix Eiremiokhae, reflects of the rising profile on experiential marketing. “Experiential marketing is the real conversations and meaningful impressions you can count. On the surface, it looks like experiential produces smaller numbers, but experiential is about quality over quantity, and they’re authentic numbers. This is the difference between big data and real data,” he said.

    Also, an experiential marketing expert, Ororo Azemhobor said the emerging marketing tactics could deliver more audience than traditional advertising, “Half a million people could read a newspaper, but does that mean half a million people read the advert inside? No. Traditional has a larger potential reach but experiential gives a realistic impression count based on direct engagements.”

    When building brand activation, experts said experiential marketers must understand that storytelling is key to delivering return on investment for brand owners. “You must have a good story; when you have a good story, you now talk of production,” Azemhobor said.

    For instance, the past three editions of Amstel Malta ShowTime hardly made any impact with storytelling. Consumers’ opinion on the activation generally was poor as many of them wanted the show yanked off even before it began.

    But after understanding the importance of storytelling in experiential marketing, the 2014 edition of the ShowTime appealed to the right audience. “This year’s Amstel Malta ShowTime featured entertainers like Sound Sultan, Phyno, Gordons, and others who took Lagos by storm with superb performances at the finale in the indoor sports hall of the University of Lagos. The entertainers featured in the Lagos edition of the concert drama directed by Ice Nweke, tagged “The Rush” – which fused artistry by ballerinas, singers, actors, fire eaters, jugglers, dancers, rappers, instrumentalists, comedians, et al – told the story of a young man’s journey to success in brilliant theatre,” said a brand analyst.

    With the good story-telling for the activation, a musical star, Sound Sultan, who also served as a judge and mentor on ShowTime this season, said “the experience has been worth every single hype.”

    Amstel Malta Brand Manager, Hannatu Ageni-Yusuf, expressed pleasure at the success of the 2014 edition of ShowTime expressed his delight, “this edition has been the most explosive we’ve ever had and we are very glad as a brand that we decided to do this. We thought of a way to give young talents a better opportunity to showcase them, rather than just compete and walk home with cash prizes”.

  • Hot Robb makes mark with brand activation

    In a cluttered market, clients and agencies are turning to brand activation to get to consumers a desired experience that will enhance brand value and purchase.

    To help one of Nigeria’s oldest brands, Hot Robb ointment, the brand handlers held an activation in Ibadan last week. The event will remain evergreen in the minds of residents and traders of the new Gbagi Market in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State.

    PZ Cussons, makers of the brand, stormed the popular market with Hot Robb. The crowd at the market Main Parking lot was large; they trooped from all nooks and crannies of the city.

    Using a popular Fuji artist and celebrity endorser, Saheed Osupa, who connects with the low-end of the market, it was a double joy for the consumers as they were not only entertained by  the fuji artist, they were also rewarded with various gifts while most of them were given free medical services which included blood pressure (BP) checks, massaging and free products sampling.

    Also, the ambience created by the brand  provided an opportunity for the PZ Cussons team to sell their product, using well- dressed sales girls.

    A computer accessory seller, Mr. Oladimeji Muyideen, who witnessed the event, said: “This is the first time a brand is doing this type of thing here, especially with our own son, Alhaji Saheed Osupa. PZ Cusson’s Hot Robb activation is innovative and a great event.”

    A health practitioner, Dr. Sekinat Adebola, hired by the firm to  offer free medical services at the Hot Robb Relief Centre, described the programme as a platform for consumers to access.

    The Marketing Manager, PZ Cussons, Mr. Charles Nnochiri; Regional Sales Manager West, Mr. Oni Bashiru and the Brand Manager, Robb, Aro Olalekan, described the initiative as a means of deepening the market share of Hot Robb in the market as well as bond with its teeming consumers to bring the unique values and promises of the brand to the public.