MARKETING COMMUNICATION DIGEST

The most popular brand in the world is Coca-Cola, among the first words in the vocabulary of most of the world’s children. They recognise the logo before age 2, and crave the drink fervently not long after. Coca-Cola is to be found in every country of the world and has become a synonym for pop, sodas or non-alcoholic beverages. In the same vein, McDonald’s is the world’s largest fast-food company, and brand of choice to over half of the planet’s on-the-move eaters, serving over 75 million meals per day worldwide, a venture for which it is worth over $90b. The brand has undoubtedly, also assisted in ensuring that a third of the American society is obese. Both names are united in the unwholesomeness of their exceedingly popular brands. Consumers and health watchers had long been suspicious of the ingredients in the McDonald’s buns as well as the excessive sugar and salt which may lead to diabetes and high blood pressure. The calories packed in each Big Mac meal and...

Rio 2016 has come and gone. But once again, Nigeria has missed the opportunity to establish itself as a nation brand. We have missed out on the Publicity the enormous 17-day visibility accorded participating countries, or better put, the media attention accorded medal-winning countries, by a 3.5 billion worldwide viewing audience. Nigeria missed those glorious moments when the world stood still for champions as they received their medals. Those moments when media mention provoked interest in some otherwise obscure countries. Those moments the people of the world open their hearts and minds to the peoples of the countries showing up and more so, winning the medals. And the Olympics is always a veritable platform to get media attention. We had little to celebrate, and that guaranteed our media blackout. No mentions! Not even our traditional sports of wrestling, boxing, football and athletics could herald us. We still grapple with the fundamental problems of mediocrity, indiscipl...

The Rio 2016 Olympic Games are here, and from August 5 – 21, the world will focus on premium Sporting activities. Attention is high, so is the opportunity-to-see. Corporate brands take marketing advantage, people and nation brands too. Flags are flown, anthems are played, medals are won, records are broken, creeds are projected, races fostered, ideologies are entrenched, beliefs are reinforced, stereotypes are reawakened, prejudices are doused, or pretended to be. In the spirit, one of the biggest smartphone brands in the world, and privileged Olympic sponsor, Samsung, is cashing in. Accordingly, the mega tech company issued the 101-second Samsung Official Rio Olympics TVC, One World, One Anthem . The commercial celebrates the world, its people, and made to bring the world together in unity, in harmony, in one voice, with one anthem. The TVC sampled anthems of 15 countries, four of them African, excluding Nigeria, Africa’s biggest market for Samsung smartphones. Even though t...

…Today’s strict brand guidelines date back to Nike’s ambushing moment in ‘96 Unless you happen to be a company like GE, Coca-Cola or McDonald's—a brand that can afford the reported $100 million to $200 million it costs to be an official Olympic sponsor—you'd better not mention the Rio games in your marketing. As social-savvy marketers have quickly learned, the U.S. Olympic Committee has ironclad regulations, backed by U.S. trademark law, that restrain non-sponsoring brands  from saying anything, even vaguely evocative about the Olympics.  A casual mention of Rio on Facebook? A congratulatory tweet to a gold medalist? Even tweeting the term "gold medal"? Don't do it! "There's a good chance they'll come after you, especially if you're using what they consider their intellectual property," said Jim Andrews, Senior Vice President at Sports and Entertainment marketing agency ESP Properties. "Most brands don't do it because ...