MARKETING COMMUNICATION DIGEST

Globacom, Nigeria’s second largest telecoms operator, is a wholly-owned Nigerian company belonging to the massive business empire of Mike Adenuga, Nigeria’s second richest person, with 100% of its shares held locally. It is an international brand with about 35 million subscribers, 24% share of the Nigerian telecoms market, and majority of Nigeria’s internet users. This is one brand that is very strong, now even beyond the south-west of Nigeria and prides itself as the king of data, evidently. And it has made a lot of things easy and possible in Nigeria. It charged the least for SIMs; and Glo it was that paved the way for per-second billing in Nigeria after MTN and Econet had made it seem impossible. However, in marketing the Globacom brand, or Glo Mobile, if you like, it embarked on a gargantuan Brand Ambassadorship programme, more than any other brand in Nigeria, or in Nigeria’s history. It is Glo that has spent money the most on non-glowing brand ambassadors. The strateg...

Imagine you were running a business and you received an email from someone you didn’t know that looked like this: “Hi, I do a lot of great stuff. Can you give me N5million, or introduce me to any of your friends who might be able to?” How would you feel? What would you think? Could you imagine a high profile artist such as Tu Face, Tiwa Savage, Whiz Kid or Olamide sending something out like this? Yet variations of this kind of message are being sent by music artists every day.  You can change out the amount or even trade the sponsorship money for some kind of service like booking a tour — but the tone ends up being the same each time. In other words, it sucks. This kind of pitch does not work. Let’s try that again… Put yourself back in the seat of a business owner or a Marketing Director. Now, imagine you received a message from a trusted colleague or friend of yours who writes: “Hey! I just came across this amazing artist who’s doing some great work and would be...