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Think back to the time when the words ‘Win A Car’ generated mass excitement, and realize just how much brand promotions have been trivialized. It seems the trend is to get the market excited, albeit for a short time, about one brand or the other.
Yet, it is common knowledge by now that no brand promotion will generate any long-term brand equity. The short-term sales peak is good, but promos will never be the be-all and end-all of brand communication.
Still, it was intriguing to see the extents to which brands were willing to go to ‘reward consumers’ and earn millions of shillings in bite-sized morsels. Since promos seem to be all the rage now, we decided to put together a few pointers to follow if you’re considering getting your own little promotion running. All these, we have observed from the veterans in the game. Ladies and Gentlemen, we present:
The Ad Boardroom Guide to creating a Brand Promo™:
Step One – The Loot
Get a nice ‘grand’ prize. It drives the promo. It’s not really the size of the booty that matters. It’s how you present it. You can’t go wrong with money. It’s the denominating factor that unites everyone; even those outside your target group. It may present a few problems when a house-help wins a Merc, but even a middle-aged man could win on an Always promotion if cash is involved! Always remember to flash as much of the brown legal tender as possible, all over you artworks and TV commercials. Refer to it as ‘cash’; feel free to precede it by the word ‘easy’ if you like. Keep the main prize amount at six figures and above. Always display the reverse side of the note – the one with the elephants – because showing former presidents’ portraits might evoke unfavorable reactions. If you must make use of visage, opt for the one of our founding father. Oh, and never doubt the power of consolation prizes. Anything smaller than the main prize can count as consolation, from a power generator to a family-size Thermos flask.
Step Two – The Baptism
Pick a good name. Since it will be the most prominent identifier of your promo, it should sound “nice”, “catchy and “memorable”. It’s best if the name sounds good when mentioned at deafening decibels in sing-song Kenyan style, by a male voiceover on a sugar high. Always craft the name using the tried and trusted ‘Promo Moniker Template ™’, which follows the format; ‘Kiswahili Title’ followed by ‘na’ followed by ‘Brand Name’. The Kiswahili title should depict a won state, either explicitly (Shinda, Kuwa Bingwa, Tajirika, Vuna Doh’, Nyakua Chapaa, Pata Bibi) or implicitly (Jionyeshe, Meremeta, Rarua, Bambika, Rembeka, Washa, Tetemesha, Ura, Timua Speedi, Simama, Angukia). The inevitable ‘Na’ should comfortably lead up to your Brand Name, because with so many other promos out there, your brand needs to be part of your unique promotional ID.
Step Three – The Process
Put together your mechanics. They must be fashioned so as to make the promo as “Easy-to-Enter” as possible. There must ALWAYS be a purchase involved; otherwise your overall efforts will be useless. You could either include an entry form only with the pack, or ask the consumer to include a proof of purchase with his entry. If you’re in the service sector, then ensure your mode of entry is tied as closely as possible to the service in particular. Then, you can proudly place the token reminder at the end of your communication: “The more you enter, the greater your chances of winning!!”
If you choose to ask a question, please don’t strain your consumer. Go for an absolute no-brainer; “The Sokoni magazine article entitled ‘Ad Boardroom’ is published by which magazine? S_K_NI”
Place a bin outside a “selected outlet”, into which the entry forms will be dropped. Plaster it with enough promo posters to create a radiation-proof layer. This will not only assure you of ‘strong branding’ in all the clutter. It will also keep your bin from being tampered with.
However, there’s a different route for those of you with the cheek to make your audience spend more money as they try to win some. Avoid entry forms. They’re so 1990’s. Use mobile telephony, and make more money! It’s not enough that your audience is buying into your brand. Burden them further by having them send a certain code to a premium rate number where you can charge them more. Besides, they do want to win, don’t they?
Step Four – The Noise
It’s time to let the people know! Radio, and point of sale material will suffice if you are unable to go into TV and outdoor. If you are fortunate enough to have a monopoly, get away with a simple on-pack sticker.
The objective of any promo is to be as loud as possible. So don’t hold back. Starbursts are your friend. The whole colour spectrum is yours for the plundering. Use the largest typefaces you can fit within an A3 poster. Go into photography. Use beautiful, elated-looking models. Let them smile giddily, laugh insanely, jump, dance, run, scream, bang a drum, climb a tree – whatever makes them noticeable – just as long as the masses are able to remotely identify with them.
Use the power of women. Take a bunch of pretty college girls and station them at the above referenced selected retail outlets, and traffic-heavy roads. Give them a profuse supply of flyers to hand out, and have them rehearse little speeches to recite to your audience one-on-one. If your ad doesn’t get the people you want, the beauties will.
And finally;
Step Five – The Buffer
Cover your back. Promos are made and handled by the hands of mortals. Mistakes happen. The phrase, “Term and Conditions Apply” applies to you too. Use it generously. Should there be a fiasco of any sort, remember that there are some that fell into that murky pit, and came out shining. So can you. Make your conditions clear, but in the smallest print your crammed space can allow. They’re there only for legal formality’s sake anyway. And never forget to pay the Betting Control and Licensing Board its dues. Ignore them and regret it for a long time. Always award your winners. Make it a public spectacle, so that the next time you come around, you shall be believed and followed.
And there, my friends, is promo-creation at its simple best, as demonstrated by the experts. No need to thank us. You’re welcome.
One of the awe-inspiring things that advertising can do, is make us realise things that were around us all the time, but we had ignored or taken for granted. It makes these things tangible, and causes us to re-look at them as if regarding them for the very first time. It changes perceptions. We could compare advertising to puberty, which has been known to transform dorky pimply girls into buxom beauties.
KenGen’s recent thematic advertising campaign did something of similar proportions. We were reminded that electricity is not restricted to a switch on the wall, or a bulb in the ceiling. We became aware of the existence of real people who (we’re made to think) work their rear ends off to make sure that we can light your shacks, watch our TV, heat our bathwater, iron our clothes and read our newspapers. They make sure that streetlights stay on, traffic lights stay working, industry cogs keep moving and the economy keeps growing.
It is a fact that the need for electricity could, for many, well assume basic status. KenGen, by positioning itself as the principal provider of this fundamental need, has placed itself high in these consumers’ product perception hierarchy; that space in their mind that is shared by quasi primary need products, like mobile phones and alternative medicines.
The HISTORY.
The Kenya Electricity Generating Company, KenGen, was formerly the Kenya Power Company (KPC). Registered in 1954, one of KPC’s initial tasks was to construct a transmission line between Nairobi and Tororo in Uganda, and develop electricity-generating facilities in the country.
Fast forward to January 1997, and KPC was formally separated from KPLC in the midst of a reform wave sweeping through the energy sector and the entire economy. KPC assumed the role of power generator and KPLC played distributor. Come October 1998, and KPC was re-launched under a new name and corporate identity. KenGen was born.
KenGen, assumed ownership of all publicly owned power-generating plants, and maintained its relationship with KPLC, selling its generated electricity to the sole distributor. A little over half a century later, KenGen is doing dreadfully well. Sample the stats, Kshs.2,000,000,000 (!) profits last year alone, 80% market share, 4.2 billion (chargeable) units of electricity annually, and optimistic progressions of a 7% market growth rate every year. But you probably knew that already, and that, we can attribute to one dazzling advertising campaign, courtesy of the good folk at ScanAd.
The CAMPAIGN.
Spread across print, TV, radio and outdoor, this campaign took place in two phases. Phase One, sold KenGen, the brand – using thematic communication to speak on what KenGen is all about. Phase Two, sold KenGen, the company – a more tactical sell that sought to herald its impending Initial Public Offering (IPO).
The two phases followed a similar vein, showing us how much we take electricity for granted, by asking us (and having us ask ourselves), “Where does electricity come from?”
Whoa. Tough one.
They answered that it comes from natural elements, wind, water, steam, and oil.
But who on earth can convert those into electricity, and bring it to me?
Why big, strong KenGen, of course. KenGen can, KenGen has, and KenGen will.
It was a simple idea. One would think it wouldn’t really stir the spirit and warm the blood. ScanAd blew that notion right out of the water. They brought in Matthew Peevers of Sounds and Pictures to direct and produce a simple but stirring pair of TV commercials.
The brilliantly shot ads made use of time-lapse effects to show various cityscapes, capturing their visible transition from broad daylight to twilit darkness, and the consequent setting in of a different kind of light – KenGen generated light. They cut to show a similar presence of KenGen in the industrial sector, retaining the same stop-motion effect. They went on to display token shots of various KenGen power plants, artfully using the same visual effects to take us through what would otherwise have been a bland day-in-the-life visual of KenGen employees.
They even dared to venture into the dangerous waters of incorporating company directors into the ad. While we’d have shudder at the ominous repercussions, they cleverly sorted it out by capturing stills of the bosses standing in those power-poses that you’d see on movie posters and pop music CD covers. They then superimposed these shots in unconventional positions on screen with the power plants in the background.
In between all these cuts, they ensured that white titles flicker onto a black screen much like fluorescent tubes do, each title summarizing what the voiceover was saying, just in case you got too caught up in the imagery.
The BOARDROOM SAYS …
KenGen has made history by successfully running an introductory thematic ad campaign, and following it through immediately, almost concurrently, with a tactical share issue campaign. There was absolutely no breathing time in-between. That’s a first. Imagine a boy meets girl scenario, where the lad encounters, befriends, dates, courts and marries the lass, all in one sitting.
Granted, the folk at KenGen could have gotten away with a stand-alone communication of a sale of shares. It had a lot going for it already. The stock market is at its best. Potential investors had read the signs, word had gotten round, and excitement was piqued. A healthy cross-section was ready to get involved; seasoned investors, multi-millionaires, housewives, business owners, high school graduates; they all awaited the IPO with a giddiness so intense, that it swayed the Nairobi Stock Exchange, and caused mass downward shifts in other share prices.
At the time of writing this, only a few days remained to the share issue. You know by now how it turned out.
Much as KenGen had an easy sell in hand, they opted for the straight and narrow, choosing to invest in communication for the long-haul. Without going into the introductory and long-lasting thematic pleasantries, they would have compromised on a chance to build the kind of equity that will last beyond short-term benefit.
KenGen and ScanAd knew what kind of product they had in hand, and what idea they had mind. They refused to take something so apparently passable and chose to give a simple, yet somewhat awe-inspiring story to it. They carried through an informative, effective and engaging advertising campaign, rolling it out strategically and ingeniously. This can already be touted as one of the most successful campaigns of 2006. Kudos to all involved. With the brand built, deals sealed, and shares vehemently trading, let’s see what happens next.
There’s really no other sports event, or world event for that matter, that compares to the FIFA World Cup. Indeed, so much has already been said about this spectacular blitz of football action, that we don’t quite know what we can add to it that you will find new. Nonetheless, we’ll try. In this article, we’ll feature those commercials that led up to the event, and either whet our appetites for it, or sold us products or services we’d find useful during World Cup month. Next issue, we’ll take a look back at the ads that punctuated the action, and entertained (or exhausted) us in between half-time breaks, and sponsored segments.
First, a look at the event itself:
The FIFA World Cup is a brand by itself; its trophy is one of the planet’s most recognizable icons. The World Cup (notice how nondescript those words are, world cup) carries its own character – an aloof, mysterious, almost untouchable makeup, but one that is doubly tangible and profound. We might never really figure out the ambivalent exhilaration this brand generates, but who ever said we should? We’d rather just allow the deluge of hype to submerge us totally; and this one time it’s fully justified. Besides, it happens for just one month every four years. This excitement thankfully carries itself across to advertising. It seems that football season is one of those times that we can truly have a good time on TV. Viewers worldwide simultaneously receive two 45-minute periods of absolutely commercial-free entertainment, and the premium advertising space in-between means only serious advertisers qualify. Often – not always – the advertisers ensure that their media budgets are justified, by flighting ads worth the grandiosity of the event.
This episode of the World Cup saw a number of local and international advertisers take advantage of the hype to sell their brands, and ideas. We’ll focus on the curtain-raising campaign for Nakumatt, Sony Wega, and Coca-Cola.
NAKUMATT
Nakumatt surprised us with their pre-World Cup spot. It is set, like most of its other TVCs, in the supermarket aisles and counters. This time round we get a glimpse of almost all its countrywide branches, thanks to a relevant and effective idea. Business is as usual in one branch of the supermarket, until a football drops from a basket and rolls towards a customer. Without missing a beat, he artfully dribbles the ball, and finally kicks it hard enough to launch it all the way to a different Nakumatt branch. Another football-crazy customer receives it and also launches a deft display of footwork before passing it to yet another customer in a different location. This entertaining action continues all through, the ball flying to branches as far away as Mombasa, Kisumu and Kisii. In between, we are treated to humorous variations in the action. One staffer instinctively kicks the ball away from an intricately stacked pyramid of tin cans, a security guard curiously regards the action through his CCTV screens, the action is frozen at intervals to allow for titles such as ‘quality’ and ‘value’ to appear, and every player displays such skill – we wonder why they aren’t on the national team.
The clincher comes at the end, when a teller, at a totally different branch from the original one, catches the ball and swipes it through. Its price is displayed without a hassle, as would 40,000 other items sold in Nakumatt’s seamless network. Good one.
We must point out though, that the said idea, as scintillating as it is, is by now very unoriginal. We saw a similar execution on the MTN TV spot for the African Cup of Nations. The creatives and director involved had obviously seen many football ads before they got to work on this one. There’s a buffet of shots, angles and techniques that we’ve observed on many an international football ad. Other shots, meanwhile, are amusingly goofy. One for instance, has the ball whooshing through the air, superimposed against a waterscape, towards the setting sun. It then descends into dry land, where the sun shines like it was noon. The end shot has the hero winking at the camera so hard that his face jerks to the side, almost like he was sucker-punched. Nonetheless, this is a spot that has its audience entertained, and Nakumatt glorified further.
SONY-WEGA
The Sony Wega spot, our personal favourite, is absolutely amazing. It’s a different kind of ad, with an idea that’s so intriguingly simple and well executed, it’s almost surreal. Its treatment is authentic, laid-back, almost retro, and very, um, ordinary. Captured entirely in just one shot, we see two nondescript young men engage in an extraordinary show of football expertise, only they are not kicking around a football, but an old black box, which we later realize is an old TV set. For the entire duration of the spot, they pass the box to one another, each effortlessly pulling off every juggling trick in the book. Not once does the action, or the box, touch the ground. All this occurs in an absorbing unpretentious way. There’s a mild and modest method applied to it – no hype, nothing too noisy about it – except at that point when one of the guys delivers a hard boot that crashes the telly against a wall and into smithereens. Why on earth would one do that? The answer comes at the end. “Make room for a Wega”. Brilliant.
Really, I wish all ads grasped audiences and delivered ideas the way this one does; in a straight, understated fashion, but to gut-wrenching effect.
I wonder how many takes they had to pull off to get it right, how many outtakes there might have been, how many TV’s they had to be slam into the wall before they wrapped, how many kids may have taken the ad a bit too literally and tried the same thing … how many advertisers will learn to take such risks and feed the audiences such effective shockers.
COCA-COLA
The Coca-Cola spot, in many people’s books took the cup (gauche pun intended). First flighted during the half-time break at the much-publicized Barca-Arsenal UEFA Cup Final in May, the ad is as simple as it is intriguing. Executed entirely in clay animation, it brings across the simple premise, “We All Speak Football”. The tagline is quite something by itself. Yes, football does bring people of diverse cultures together. Human beings with no physical, cultural or lingual similarity are moved by the spirit of the game, and for that duration of time that we are under its spell, differences between us cease to matter. Coca-Cola were well aware of the ammo they had, but still, rather than follow the well-beaten path of harmonious, emotional, worldwide-friendly communication, they chose to use another language we all understand – dreadfully effective humour. The spot begins by establishing various characters going about their daily tasks; an Einstein-esque scientist prepares to dissect a lab rat, a chef is about to chop the head off a live de-feathered chicken, and a lumberjack readies a final swing of his axe at a terrified tree. All the while, each of them is listening to his radio as a match is relayed to them live. We then hear that a goal’s been scored, and all the resulting celebration turns enemies into friends.
The mouse gets up rejoicing along with the scientist, and they hug. The naked chicken does a jig and bumps chests with the chef. The woodcutter and tree embrace, and the poor tree falls. Then, we see a cactus and balloon hug. A short stocky man seated in bed with his wife leaps out and does a jig just before a handsome stranger, obviously the wife’s boy-toy, pops out of the wardrobe and joins him. The awkward moment doesn’t last in the face of celebration, and the two, both in their underwear, embrace like old buddies.
Just writing down the description makes me realize how crazy the spot is, but it works, effortlessly. It’s all executed exquisitely. One could watch it over and over and snigger like they were seeing it for the first time. The attention to detail is superb; the tree cringes as the cutter takes his last swing, the squeaky lab rat has a bald patch where the incision would have been made, the translucent balloon’s face is drawn on with a felt pen marker, the balding husband wears old long-johns while his wife’s handsome ‘mister’ wears briefs and socks over his well-sculpted frame. The facial expressions are clear, the music (quite similar to the Safaricom thematic tune) fits into the action smugly. And in the midst of it all is the brand – good old Coca-Cola – proving once again why it’s one of the world’s most powerful brands, and pleasantly surprising us with a somewhat different way of carrying out its advertising.
PRINT:
NTV
The print front was not any quieter. NTV, the only one of TV’s Big Three that didn’t have the rights to screen the tournament, ran a print campaign, titled ‘Women’s World Cup’. All set in pink, they weighed down the other side of the equation; the one where normal life can continue outside of the World Cup fanaticism. What the games held for the guys, NTV would match up in their programming. Good one.
MOBILE PLANET
Mobile Planet also ran an sms promotion (one of a multitude) that thankfully had some good advertising work to go with it. This one’s grand prize was a trip for two ladies (I had expected some backlash from anti-stereotype feminists) to Dubai during the duration of the Cup. Such headlines as ‘This World Cup, 32 Nations Compete, Six Kenyan Women Win’ and ‘Boys, this World Cup, Tell the Girls to Get Lost’ graced our newspapers. An amusing campaign.
NANDO’s
Finally, the Nando’s chain of restaurants put up outdoor communication encouraging us not to miss a minute of the action by ordering takeout food, obviously to save us from such arduous tasks as cooking, or eating out while the games continue. That’s a different way of looking at things!
All this said, we are watching for what other advertising ideas the World Cup has spawned. See you next issue.
AOB:
If we were to look at all the communication that’s out as a result of the World Cup, plus a plethora of humorous e-mails doing the rounds, we could safely judge that men dig the tournament, and women absolutely hate it. But surely, can we define audiences so broadly? Doesn’t this point to many other targeting errors and inconsistencies that marketers may involve themselves in? You tell us.
