Celebrity Endorsement/ Brand Ambassadors.

Hello Reader,

I am excited today because its Monday and I get to share my views with like minds and also receive feedback.

Today, I'm writing about Celebrity Endorsement.

Celebrity endorsement is a form of brand or advertising campaign that involves a well known person using their fame to help promote a product or service. Some celebrity product endorsements are such natural fits that we have a hard time envisioning the product without the celebrity’s face smiling next to it. Think of  Michael Jordan and Nike   

In recent times, with the advent of social media, celebrity endorsements aren't done based on the fit with the brand, but with their social follower-ship. Not to ridicule Olympia milk, but I don't see a brand fit between one of the Psquare brothers and a dairy product, I am sure they were trying to match what Loya did with Don Jazzy, I don't see the brand fit there either, but I hope it reflected in their KPI. 

Celebrity endorsements deliver on brand equity, ad resonance, and it has the ability to make people feel that by using a product a celebrity has endorsed, they can attain "super-star" status. 

Telcos in Nigeria have multiple brand ambassadors and it gets confusing. These brand ambassadors even switch from one telco to the other.

The downside of celebrity endorsement is that celebrity images change. For example, Toke Makinwa was a brand ambassador for Maggi. I didn't see the fit, however, she is referred to as Tokstarr and Maggi has a star logo- Not good enough but... she also has a huge female follower-ship on social media. Recently, she had a public break up with her husband, this is not so good for the brand. She's a frequent patroniser of sushi bars in Lagos, nothing about her depicts her as someone who has a passion for cooking or any of that.

Kemi Adetiba would have been a perfect fit for the brand, although single, she shows off her culinary skills on instagram. She has a passion for home made food and loves to cook. They both have a huge follower-ship of females, but the latter fits perfectly with the brand.

I love Knors' new brand ambassadors. It is a perfect fit. it addresses both the young and old generation. The brand will be perceived as one that is being passed on from generation to generation. 

What are your thoughts on Celebrity Endorsement/Brand Ambassadors in Nigeria? Do we get it right?

Please drop your comments below and share with your friends. 

Regards,

Joko.

Referral Marketing

Hello Reader,

I trust you had a wonderful weekend.

An experience I had inspired this post..

Referral Marketing is neglected a lot and this shouldn't be the case. Why? you might ask, not to worry, I will tell you.
Study after study has proven that referral marketing is one of the best forms of marketing when it comes to sales and conversion. Naturally, we all tend to share our experiences with friends, be it good or bad. Let me say before I proceed that a good customer experience is not tantamount to a referral. That being said, it is important to not leave referral to chance, We must bear in mind that good marketing is about deliberately influencing the process. DELIBERATELY. Referral Marketing is about deliberately encouraging referrals by consumers that have experienced your product/service(s)

Referred customers are less likely to leave, what does this translate to? Stronger loyalty. Referral Marketing helps attract  customers who are more loyal and profitable. The strength of referral marketing lies in the ability to target precisely, this is because people know their friends and family pretty well. This in turn helps the brand message spread more effectively than most other marketing channels.

In addition, the consumer feels safer trying a product referred by a family or friend. This is because the consumer doesn't feel he or she is being sold on something. For a family or friend to make a referral, it must have been tried and trusted.

Referral marketing includes but is not limited to family and friends. Some other forms of referral marketing are News publications, customer reviews, influencer opinions and testimonials.

Let me tell you how I got a few free and comfortable taxi rides. A friend of mine called me one evening and sounded really excited. "Joko, please, I will send a link to you on whatsapp, please download it. Its a taxi app, when you download it, I will get a free 2k ride, and so will you on your first ride" I had no reason to object because I know how expensive it is to get a taxi in Lagos, and a 2k discount was really attractive.

I downloaded the app, and yes, I did get a free ride, The drivers take the shortest routes, and even give you a bottle of water, plus, the rates are cheaper than the regular rickety Lagos taxis. I have referred 5 friends and I have gotten 5 free rides. No commercial, No billboard, No press ad. Just 1 referral.

Now I am referring you too. Go to www.uber.com/invite/jokoo2ue.

What are your thoughts? Have you ever had a good experience with any brand and referred them? Kindly drop your comments and share.

Regards,

Joko.

Television Commercials (TVC's)- Do they work?

Hello Reader,

Why do brands spend so much money on TVCs? Does it affect consumer buying behavior, decision making, or switching behavior?Does it work? Yes it does. A TVC is created to generate top of the mind awareness among target audiences (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Peripheral).

A memorable Television commercial will help in getting the brand name/message out to the audience and also aid recall either by heart, humor, tagline or a jingle. 

Growing up in Nigeria, my favorite beverage brand was Milo. This is not because of its taste or quality, frankly I see no difference between the brand and its competition. Why I loved the brand was because of that particular jingle - Milo PA PA PAPA PAPA MILO! This also extended into my love for Choco Milo. The first thing that comes to me when I see either brand is to recall that message because it instantly plays in my head.

     TVCs create impact and persuasion which arouses viewer interest immediately and remains memorable.Television advertising has continued to strengthen,this can be attributed to television excelling at brand building and raising awareness thereby making audiences  appreciative of memorable commercials. 

Alcoholic beverage brand “Star” has always used commercials TVCs to push its brand to audiences, and growing up I saw a lot of these commercials. I was in a bar with my Dad and his friends for the first time when I had become legal, and when the barman came up to me and asked what I wanted, ‘Shine Shinebobo’ just played in my head. That started my love affair with the brand. How fitting that it would be another commercial that would make me switch brands. 

About a month ago Gulder launched the ‘BE THE MAN YOU'RE MEANT TO BE’ commercial. I was attracted to it because of its humor, and just last weekend, I was out, and even though I had never had the brand before, I wanted to be the man I am meant to be, so I ordered Gulder instead.

Television commercials impact us more than we think when it comes to making decisions on FMCGs such as Toothpaste, Milk, Cooking oil, beverages, noodles, e.t.c, or services such as  Telecommunications, insurance, banking a funny commercial, jingle or tagline, might just be the deciding factor in picking between two very good brands.

Please drop your comments and share memorable TVC's you have seen in recent times and in the past.

This write up was done by Anire Eyesan. Anire is a Brand Strategist at Switcheroo IMC.

I will be accepting guest bloggers like Anire every last Monday of the month. Kindly forward your write ups to onijokotee@gmail.com

Have a lovely week.

Joko.

The Apple Watch... To do or Not to Do.

Hello Reader,


I am sure you had a wonderful holiday.

Today, I want to talk about what crossed my mind last week Wednesday.

Over lunch on Wednesday, I was thinking about the Apple watch. I am a big Apple fan and I keep myself up to date with their latest devices. I was thinking to myself, will advertisers see this as an opportunity to connect with their consumers?Advertisers are constantly looking for ways to connect with consumers, is this another way?

Some of the key features of the apple watch include the ability to bring key messages and other pieces of information closer to consumers than ever before. Messages, Alerts, to-do lists, emails, sports scores are part of a consumers daily life and for brands, this is an opportunity to have a personal connection with the consumers. However, we need to take cognizance of the fact that as the devices people use to consume content becomes more immediate, it by definition becomes more intimate. Brands need to make sure they are not encroaching in the consumers private space.The engagement over a wearable has to be precise, because if it goes wrong the consumer may label the brand as intrusive.

I had a discussion with my colleague and I asked his take on advertising on an Apple watch, or any wearable device. He responded thus "The watch is very expensive, how many people can afford it?" Immediately, I thought to myself, there are some ostentatious few, and since the watch is more or less an auxiliary for the iPhone, I'm sure a few people will purchase the watch. I also asked a very good friend what his take is on connecting with consumers via the Apple watch. His response was..." Arrrrgh, Must advertising be everywhere? must you guys be everywhere?" This was a great insight for me with regards to privacy.

Real life scenario, I was in an Uber taxi a few weeks ago, and the driver had an Apple watch. He was getting series of calls, and all he had to do was click a button on his watch. I felt that was super cool, plus he wasn't distracted from driving.

In conclusion, I will say brands should do a journey mapping exercise to find out whether their brand is ready for the Apple watch. They also need to remember that in addition to the intimacy of the wearable device, the consumer only really glances at it, so its critical to determine where a brand can communicate information in a glance able time frame.

Imagine the possibility of a  branded "Time Check" on the Apple watch similar to what you have on radio. E.G "It s 8:00 AM have you had your Dano milk today?

Again I'm thinking, will digital marketers need to optimize in-app advertising on smartphones for the Apple watch and any other wearable device?

What are your thoughts? Kindly share in the comment section.

Thank you.

Joko.

Hawking of Alcoholic Beverages

Hi Guys,

Whats your take on the hawking of alcoholic beverages in traffic?

A particular brand gets me so upset the way they hawk their alcoholic beverages in traffic. I must say that they are very strategic with their timing, it must have been well thought through.

I am not sure which law enforcing body should probe this very irresponsible act, but someone needs to do something about it.

The law enforcement agents responsible for the conduct of drivers and the safety of motorists are too engrossed in bribe collection that they over look such an irresponsible act.

It strikes me as this company is more interested in the sales of its product than the safety of Nigerian citizens. With the increase of road accidents in Nigeria, I don't think motorists should be tempted with alcoholic beverages.

What do you think?

I know, I had to take a picture of this guy.

Advertising in another West African State.

Hi Reader,

Since I joined this field, a lot of things have changed for me. I query every commercial, every billboard, every print advert, everything. I ask my self, why was this ad placed here? Why this copy? Sometimes I say to myself, this is so nice, if I work on a similar or competing brand, I definitely will do this. I think it comes with the job or passion for the job.

So I was in Ghana over the weekend and even from the airport, I observed a lot of things. How strategic Zeniths airport branding is- I don’t know why I never noticed in times past- when boarding the flight, there are different boards (about the size of a lamppost) on both sides of the walkway. I thought that was quite creative. I do not have an idea how much that would have cost them.

I was reading Wings on the flight- picking it up didn’t ever occur to me in times past, but because I had proposed it in one of my media charts, I wanted to see what the content was- and I saw a few brands advertising on it. It was dominated by the banking sector. GTB, Stanbic, First bank, to mention a few.

I saw the Mountain dew “do the dew” on wings as well, and I wondered, why? It’s quite some money to spend for a soda to get awareness. I have seen the billboard at Dopemu, I have seen the BRT branding as well, why wings? I for one haven’t bought the drink and I am pretty sure I am a potential target. Maybe my training is wrong, but I thought Media planning has to be cost effective. I stand to be corrected, but I think that money could have been invested in other mediums that would have delivered greater ROI.

 On arrival, I found out that beyond advertising in Murtala Muhammed Airport, Zenith bank was also advertising in Kotoka. I really like the persons(advertiser/media planner) thought process.

I must say that Ghana does a whole lot of billboard advertising. There are billboards everywhere, and it got me thinking to myself, does OOH deliver so much ROI for these lot? Their OOH ranged from Unipoles to portraits, to LED’s to something that looked like the shape of a light box except it wasn’t lit and mounted on a pole, it was just on the floor (Roll up banner)

I also observed that they had these directional signages with different offices or companies on it with arrows indicating which way they were. To me, that’s exposure for the different clients/ brands.

The most fascinating is one that I haven’t seen in Nigeria as yet. On construction sites, brands are allowed to advertise. I saw something like a wall drape that star did on a construction site in Osu, Accra. Good exposure for the brand, I also saw something similar done by Eco Bank.

 I got Microgynon FE brief, a contraceptive, its not an emergency pill, its more like a family planning pill. I struggled with my strategy and plan. I didn’t know what time belts will suit such a brand and what placement will be appropriate. What was critical for me was to not expose the brand to younger people and in turn encourage pre marital sex. I called up some radio stations and they told me I could place commercials between 8 and 10 and others said as long as the message is not explicit, it could be aired at any time of the day.

In Accra, I saw a billboard advertising an oral contraceptive Lydia and boldly written was “The power of choice” Although the billboard was mounted close to the Military hospital; it just didn’t sit well with me. I don’t know about their culture and what is morally acceptable, but I’m sure such billboards wont sit well with Nigerians.

What do you think? Feel free to drop your comments.

                                                   

                     Star advertising on a site. I gathered that some Lebanese guy owns the building and                        intends to build office spaces.

                                       Would this billboard work in Nigeria? what are your thoughts?

                                                Cover of Wings by Arik. An in flight magazine.

Regards,

Joko.

Hi Reader,

My name is Jokotola Oni-Olusola. I am popularly referred to as Joko.

I work for a Media independent and I create Media Strategies and plans. I also assist with media buying.

I intend to post interesting topics relating to my field and keep you updated with latest trends in the Advertising industry.

I must tell you that I am new in this industry, hence, I will need this blog to be as interactive as possible so I can learn from you, and you can learn from me as well.

Feel free to comment, and share my posts. Lets learn from each other.




Joko.