Following the unveiling of the world’s largest advert poster, which broke the Guinness World Book of Record, Nigerian Breweries has adopted a national consumer engagement campaign to sustain its brand equity of Guilder, writes ADEDEJI ADEMIGBUJI.
The competition in the Nigerian beer market has continued to generate rage. Even as Western beer consumption is reducing due to the global downturn, according to a market intelligence report by Corporate Nigeria, a research firm, the brewery industry continues to thrive, while consumption of beer, put at 18.8 million hectolitres behind South Africa’s 31 per cent, has continued to heighten competition among brewers.
This is however not surprising. According to FinTell, a financial intelligence magazine, Nigeria’s volume-growth in the beer market, supported by significant annual investment in capacity of over $1.5 billion in the last three years, is rising steeply. “Though second to South Africa, Nigeria is Africa’s largest fastest growing beer market; climbing six places to the 19th position in the most recent data for country rankings on consumption,” the report stated.
Unfortunately, engaging this motley crowd of consumers has been the bane of brewers especially with the wave of consumerism which demands much responsibility and the spirit of giving back to consumers whose loyalty to various brands, have turned the industry to a cynosure of global investors.
As a result, brewers commit fortunes to marketing communication in an effort to engage consumers and also sustain the brand recall in consumers’ minds through experiential campaigns. Based on Mediafact report, an industry intelligence survey, the surge explains why the sector has continued to remain among the top three highest advertising and marketing spenders.
Striving for the souls of consumers, has lead to lots of brands from the industry top players – Nigerian Breweries, Guinness Nigeria and other brewers, launching world record-breaking projects, and each of these jumbo campaigns are also used as platforms for consumer reward campaigns.
For instance, when Guinness launched the largest jersey in the world towards the African Cup of Nations in 2013, the brewer took about 200 consumers to South Africa to watch the matches through a tailored consumer promo. Also, NB, through its Legend Extra Stout and Heineken brands, has rewarded many consumers with all-expense paid trip to Dubai, Europe to watch live matches, among others.
However, to deepen the crave for the heart of consumers and its share of the market, NB recently unveiled the world’s largest advertisement poster, again by following the same rule of consumer engagement. Coming at a time when the Nigerian economy is just starting to reflect potentials of buoyancy, experts have reckoned that the promotion is already causing ripples in the nation’s highly competitive alcoholic beverage market.
First is the choice of words in describing the promo which is being positioned as, “Nigeria’s biggest consumer promotion. And just to put its money where its mouth is, Gulder unveiled the world’s largest poster on Monday, August 24, 2015, to coincide with the launch of the National Consumer Promotion.
To build consumer trust as a way of engagement, the brand owners enrolled about 200 journalists for an experiential task, Gulder Ultimate Search where winner emerged to win an Brand New Hyundai Elantra For N220 at the Enugu Stadium where the largest poster was also unveiled to commemorate a national consumer promo for the Gulder brand.
The CEO of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr. Nicolaas Vervelde, said the Gulder brand is synonymous with various innovative feats in the beer market, hence the production of the poster. Though regarded as another marketing gimmick, consumer promotions are desirable, as companies struggle for a bigger size of the market and a greater percentage of consumers’ disposable income.
So how big is big? How big is the 2015 Gulder National Consumer Promotion, which necessitated the brand managers to refer to it as the biggest consumer promotion in Nigeria? “A simple way is to look at the prizes on offer. The grand prize is a brand new Hyundai Elantra car, and Gulder is giving away 15 of this model of vehicles. Well, there are 14 left to be won as Chuka Nnabuife, a journalist with National Light newspaper won the very first Hyundai Elantra car at the unveiling of the Gulder Ultimate Promo held on August 24 with journalists from all over Nigeria as participants,” said a brand analyst, Mr. Yemi Kushimo, CEO Kush Media.
“Gulder has created three channels for its teeming consumers to win big at this year’s edition of its National Consumer Promotion. A peep into the prizes at stake may just give an insight into how gargantuan the Gulder Consumer Promotion truly is,” he added.
To engage beer consumers, the brand handlers said there are three legs to the campaigm in which consumers will be rewarded with various prizes, the ultimate of which are the brand new 2015 Hyundai Elantra cars for 14 Nigerians, courtesy the 2015 Edition of the Gulder National Consumer Promotion.
While willing consumers are expected to bond with the Gulder brand through purchase to unlock the various promises and treasures of Gulder under the crown corks, the brand handler said there are various stages of experiencing the engagement.
“First is the instant prize crown corks. As the name connotes, the prizes can be claimed instantly. The second crown cork is the differentiated crown cork category with alpha numeric codes inscribed underneath the corks. Holders of these crown corks have to send the codes to 20388 to be part of a national raffle draw that would be held forth-nightly. Holders of the third class of crown corks – the experiential crown corks- marked Ultimate Chase, will have to report at designated national chase venues with six of those crown corks to participate for an opportunity to win a brand new car. Aside the prizes to be won, the Ultimate Chase, gives consumers the opportunity to imbibe the brand’s core values,” the brewery affirmed in a statement.
During a media launch of the promo, the first of the 15 brand new Hyundai Elantra cars up for grabs and it was won by Mr. Chuka Nnabuife who works with National Light newspaper, Anambra State. Nnabuife beat eight other journalists at the Gulder Chase to discover the key to the car that he eventually won. That leg of the promo was devoted exclusively to journalists.
The Marketing Manager, Gulder, Life, “33” Export, Mr. Emmanuel Agu, said: “This is a promotion like no other, and that is the message we are passing to the consumers. We are trying to paint a picture of what it means to be big in the eyes of our consumers, hence the unveiling of the World’s largest poster to kick off the National Consumer Promotion.
“The message we are passing to the consumers is that this year’s NCP is like no other. No beer brand will be able to do what Gulder has done this year and no consumer is left out as there are prizes for every category of people. We brought in the aspect of the chase because the brand is one that talks about masculinity, determination and resilience. It is a brand for successful people. So we brought the brand essence of Gulder to life by including the Gulder Golden Chase. If you are strong and energetic enough to run and jog, why not jog for a fortune,” he advised.
As a result of these mega activations, industry observers said the Nigerian marketing communication is coming to global reckoning with the unveiling of the largest advertisement poster and world largest jersey in Nigeria.
