Inside Phenomenal Marketing Solutions

Challenge is a phenomenon that has affected many products, individuals and even corporate establishments. Some products survive critical periods while others are pushed off the market place. In this report, Raheem Akingbolu looks deeply into how a few companies and agencies have weathered the storm in recent times to retain market share and solve difficult challenges.

Mouka’s ‘Body No Be Firewood’ Activation
The ‘body no be firewood’ activation remains a classical reference point on the importance of experiential solution in the marketing mix. The activation was a depletion exercise, which was initiated by Kehinde Salami’s Ideas House Limited, following the excesses of the products in the warehouses of distributors and wholesalers across the country. The challenge however was how to shift the amount of volumes of foam products in the open market.

This is where Ideas House was brought in, to fathom a creative idea that could help Mouka deplete the stock in the open market. The first thing the agency discovered was that Nigerians were highly assertive but also like staring a lot. Having established how abnormal situation could grab attention like in the case of an accident on a side of the road which leads to traffic on the other side of the road, as everybody wants to look to see what exactly is happening, so this insight, Ideas House keyed into it by creating an imaginary boxing ring with Mouka Foams in some selected markets. The full-fledged boxing ring inside the open market had two guys who were more or less shadowboxing. The idea was to create curiosity in the market. In a jiffy, everybody had gathered around to try and see which boxer was going to win the other one. Obviously, they didn’t know that everything was actually staged.

As this was happening, crowds gathered at every location and the already stationed promoters were going round the crowd and informing them that there was a promo going on. Then the drama: the referee who was supposed to be refereeing the match between these two opponents was busy sleeping on one of the Mouka foam mattresses next to the boxing ring. At this stage, another promoter was trying to wake up the referee and the referee was basically not yielding to the call, saying that “body no be firewood and you know I need to rest and this new mouka foam mattress is giving me the sound sleep that I need”.

While the drama was going on, other promoters were giving out leaflets to all the bystanders, guests and customers. It was expressly stated on each of the posters that if a customer bought that day, he or she would get about 15 per cent discounts and if the customer made a purchase within the next one week, he or she would get 10 per cent. With this, people were willing to buy.
At the end, all distributors and wholesalers were happy because they just saw a big bloc of people in their outlets buying mattresses based on the brand promise. According to a record made available to THISDAY, the brief was almost 85% accomplished as the activation helped mouka to deplete its stock in the open market.

Mastercard Dining Series
In 2020, the world was on lockdown and everybody was confined at home for almost 12 months. Brands’ opportunity to connect with consumers and the world was severely limited.
In addition to this, the cornerstone of most African economies – SME’s were terribly hit and this had a ripple effect on people and their families. SME’s make up 90 per cent of business but account for only 40 per cent of GDP in most economies.

Then Mastercard, through its agency, DKK, came up with the ‘Start Something Priceless’ positioning campaign, which was a reminder that every day, consumers all have the power to create a memory, ignite a passion, make a difference, and even start a movement.
To this end, DKK, an integrated marketing communications company identified the need to reignite Mastercard’s customers’ passion for dining by partnering with select restaurants in Abuja and Lagos. The initiative was carried out in conjunction with Lost in A City.

As a financial services brand that is virtual and transactional the other challenge was creating an emotive and tangible connection with the consumer and restaurant owners. The agency thus developed a bespoke dining experience for Mastercard customers with unique menu’s, a treasure hunt and a once in a lifetime opportunity to travel to Dubai and experience a true priceless dining experience.

Providing a consistent priceless experience with different tastes was part of the challenge. Given the restrictions on movement and rapid changes in media consumption DKK employed a unique touch point strategy that had traditional above the line but leveraged digital as well as ambassadors to connect and entice customers back to the restaurants.
As part of the solutions, the agency had strategic OOH sites supported by five popular radio stations. In all, digital and social media could be said to be the most successful tool with social media achieving 316,000 clicks vs 76,000 planned (415 per cent) and online click through rate, almost triple the industry standard (7,54 per cent vs 2,52 per cent benchmark).

Amber Free Bus initiative
When the announcement of the Amber brand entry was made a year ago, only a few members of the public took the promoters seriously. Beyond the argument that it was coming into an already saturated Energy Drink market, the brand’s inability to make meaningful difference when it was first introduced, then as Mamba, was still fresh in the heart.

But despite the resistance and the global pandemic that has almost shut down the entire market, Amber, after a global rebranding and market strategy plan, was re-introduced in Nigeria. To coordinate its 360 degree market plan, MediaEdge, an integrated marketing firm was hired. Perhaps because the agency had in its kitty a media platform and an experiential marketing arm, it hit the ground running immediately with activations and news around the Amber brand everywhere.

Among other campaigns, the brand promoters had introduced the Free Bus initiative to ameliorate the hardships of Lagos commuters. It was a decision that was taken, not only to position the brand but to tackle the traditional trademark of traffic jams, long queues and endless wait by commuters at bus terminals which often result in high transportation costs.
Another initiative of the makers of the premium energy drink that resonated with its consumers and Nigerians in general is the Amber Empowerment Scheme (AES). The scheme, which was launched at the height of Covid-19 was aimed at improving the standard of living of Nigerians, especially at the critical period of the national economy. According to the brand owners, the empowerment program is designed to empower students, retailers, startups and unemployed Nigerians.

Amber’s story thus became an epic one considering its disruption in a market many spin-doctors had predicted was a settled one. It is even more intriguing that the launch of the premium energy drink came at a time economic and social activities were at their lowest ebb due to the Covid-19 global pandemic.

New Crystal and the Niger Bridge illumination
As part of the positioning tools to deepen the penetration of the re-launched Life Lager Beer from the stable of Nigerian Breweries Plc, New Crystal Limited, an Abuja based Out-of-Home firm, was hired to breathe more life into the new brand. The company did the unusual by identifying the Niger Bridge as a common symbolic platform that would connect the brand with its south-eastern consumers. It embarked on the multi-million naira project of illuminating the bridge to establish closer bonds with its core consumers in that part of the country, and enhance its brand identifier, which the iconic bridge represents.

It was an instant success as the creative approach caught the attention of the people and gained huge traction and boosts the profile of the brand. The lighting up of the bridge is viewed by analysts as ‘a historic landmark’, that was not only significant for the company and the Life lager beer brand, but also the people of the south East, due to the long-standing relationship existing between the brand and the people of the South Eastern region. Today, Life Larger has suddenly become a popular choice of Nigerians in the East.

Star Xmas Tree
Many organisations before now do not take experiential marketing as an essential aspect of their marketing communication strategy. But with the change in communication process away from one-way communication to two-way communication and brands wanting immediate feedback for communication efforts, experiential marketing has now become a critical component of marketing efforts.

In recent times, the Star bottle Christmas tree, handled by Felix King’s Oracle Experience was no doubt a breathtaking effort that is a product of high creativity. The activation was conceived to reposition Star Lager as well as excite Nigerians during the yuletide period. Christmas tree was not new to many, especially during December, but to create a Christmas tree that many yearned and craved to see with their phones and camera competing for space to take the picture shows a great effort went into creating the idea. And that something fragile like bottles, 8000 in all, was used to create a very tall and unique tree is exceptional.

The brain behind the project did not stop at that because a typical Christmas tree is triangular in shape, in creating this tree, it broke the norm, as the Christmas bottle tree was shaped like a step-like pyramid, with four steps that are progressively narrowed from the base.
Its base is large and rounded while the top is sharp-pointed. Placed on the top is the brand’s logo. The bottle tree is about 32 ft high and 24 metres wide. Its area is about 400 metres, which is almost the same size as a racetrack.

Town Storming and PinPoint Marketing
At the time Procter & Gamble, a multinational player in the FMCG sector wanted to reintroduce Pringles into the Nigerian market and push up official sales, there was a challenge of across-the-border smugglers flooding and saturating the market to the detriment of formal channels. It required immediate response, which compelled the agency to draft in Quadrant MSL, a PR agency to nip the challenge in the bud. Among other solutions, the agency coordinated in-store demonstrations in 102 major retail outlets, which helped push up sales. The peak of the campaign was the conceptualisation of town storming & pin point marketing, which created a new segment by taking Pringles direct to consumers on high streets and to six institutions of higher learning in Lagos and Ibadan. The coordination of the events and the supporting media exposure recorded a huge success at the brands point of re-entry.