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Oh, two things we didn’t mention.
One, notice the typos on the ads. One headline says “Responsible drinking is everyone’s concern for everyones benefit”. Yep, missing apostrophe. The said punctuation mark is also conspicuously absent in the one that states “Its about quality not quality watch your limit”. Notice also the missing fullstop between the two separate statments. Surely, the number of reading eyes that scanned the ads should have noticed something mising?
Two, the resposible drinking web page, just like EABL brands’ consumers, can only be enjoyed by those over 18.
(Any typos on this post were purely intentional.)
EABL recently announced, with quite some fanfare, their intention to initiate and strengthen a number of self-regulation measures. They are obviously aware of the changing face of the market, both locally and globally, where attitudes are a lot more politically correct, and the market is considerably more intolerant toward the negative effects of ‘vice’ brands. Former initiatives by EABL include the attachment of the “Drink Responsibly, Live Responsibly” tag to all their present visual communication, including TV commercials.
While EABL’s sales curve might continue to rise – indicating either that there are more people drinking, or that the same number of people is now drinking more – they are not willing to shirk the responsibility of promoting responsible and safe drinking, as part of what they refer to as “a balanced lifestyle”.
It’s noteworthy that they are doing so before the inevitable action of the government and lobby groups (most notably the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse or NACADA). Still it’s commendable that they are doing something about setting the facts straight as far as (ir)responsible drinking goes.
Still, their communication is too ’safe’, so to speak (see below). To change people’s habits would require some more media space, and a bit more shock therapy. Let’s hope they inject more funding into their Responsibility Campaign, especially with the festive season approaching.
Click here to visit their responsible drinking webpage.
Those that doubted the success of the Eveready IPO (yes,we included), have lately and quiet obviously been proved wrong. Despite the odd bit of negative press, there were still many sightings of the characteristic long lines outside the selected financial intitutions and brokerages. Obviously, there’s lots of money sitting around waiting to be plunged into a promising investment. We’re seriously considering ‘Kithunjino & Daughters Enterprises’ now.
Just to add another view to this issue, it seems that IPO’s have taken another odd life of their own now, regardless of how much (or little) backing (or bad publicity) is put behind them. Their effect now is not very uncomparable to pop culture now. Owning shares now seems to be one of those aspects of modern lifestyles that’s considered healthy, advisable and hip. The yuppy culture now will comprise drinking mineral water, visiting the gym regularly, taking care of one’s physical appearance, and owning shares in KenGen.
We love this country.
For a company going into an IPO, Eveready East Africa are really quiet. Too quiet in fact, especially in the face of the already lukewarm response so far (See Smart Company; 21st Nov). Any idea why that would be the case?
All I’ve seen so far are a few somewhat half-hearted press ads (nothing like the powerful ones we saw from Kengen – pun intended), and a bit of PR. The folks at Eveready might simply be riding on the hype that KenGen and ScanGroup created. Steven Smith (the MD) looks pretty smug to me, and it seems Kenyans will buy shares into any company going public, even if it went by the name Kithunjino & Daughters Enterprises. While that may be the case, I still think Eveready owe us a lot more than they are giving us in their communication. They want us to buy into them. Surely, it’s the least they can do.
Maintaining a day job, and all of lifes challenges – and then a blog – is really tricky at times. Actually, ALL the time. After a long hiatus, theblog moderator is back to post a short comment to say hi and hope tht you are all well. Coming up will be Sokoni articles we wrote for among others, Nokia (for their annual Face Of Africa beauty pageant), Kenchic (their new ‘kuku’ ads), and the StanChart Nairobi Marathon. Keep it here! Meanwhile, a little strip that brought our little house down. Art Directors should particularly identify with it.
