Marketing World - issue 24 | 2015

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Contents Experiential Marketing: Messaging You Can Touch

10 30 Technology Has Created A Dierent Consumer Engagement Model

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34 Financing Cost Is a Major Issue

38 Experiential Marketers Are Getting More Recognition

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40 There Is A Dierential Between Events And Experiential

44 46

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Time, Money, Manpower. These Are Our Challenges

EDITOR’S NOTE

A Brand With Nine Lives strategically.

First of all brands owners should know that only brands which 'mean something' to consumers will survive any onslaught, any test of me.

How do you build a brand that keeps on keeping on?

First, realize a brand is much more than a tagline or elevator pitch. In a general sense, a strong, successful brand will permeate every aspect of the company. “The way employees answer the phone, the way you greet customers, deal with cons tuents both internally and externally. Everyone in the business is, in effect, making a promise to customers, and everything you do will either enhance or detract from the brand.”

The brand messaging must be consistent throughout all communica on—PR, adver sing, internal communica ons—and should be incorporated into every element of employee rela ons.

The internal audience is very, very important. The brand should affect the performance of everyone who comes in contact with it. Training, corporate communica ons and all business development should focus on this promise.

Not only does this drive home

Kehinde Olesin Group Editor

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f you are a fl e x i b l e b ra n d , o n e that can jump from a very high building, land, twist and walk smartly away, you probably have the proverbial nine lives of a cat.

If you are flexible and you have the consumer magic, you have extremely good balance and reflexes you are 21st brand with nine lives.

Surely, we all know brands don't jump down from buildings like cats, but they have survival ins ncts too “when they are pushed to the edge of the building”. Every brand needs to survive but not only to survive, but to survive Group Publisher Akin Naphtal IT& Research Henry Gyedu

Associate Editor, Ghana Carol Opata

Group Editor Kehinde Olesin IT/Business Reporters Derrick N.A Tagoe Deborah Arthur

IT/Business Reporters Tope Ajayi

NIG 3a, Shomoye Tejuosho Close, off Ogunmodede Street, Allen, Ikeja, Lagos Tel: +234 1 291 5803, Mob: +234 806 3603521, +234 8161342518

Contribu ng Editors David Ajao Terry Washington Social Media Execu ve Julius Ofori Boadu

UK Unit 2, Anchor Bay Ind. Estate Manor Road, Erith, Kent, DA8 2QA Tel: +44 777 510 9698 info@instinctwave.com www.instinctwave.com

GH: 6, Motorway Extension, Dzorwulu, Accra, Ghana Mob: +233 208 910 380, Tel: +233 302432849

the message, but an appropriate promise is inspiring and mo va ng for the en re company.

Keeping the brand alive for the long run requires a delicate balance of remaining true to the sacred promise while reinven ng the product and messaging to address customers' ever-evolving needs.

An epic example of brand longevity in Nigeria is First Bank. The bank has fulfilled its promise of dedica on for 120 ye a rs — w i t h i t s e l e p h a nt (though in its different posi ons and colours) recognizable for nearly all of t h at m e . T h i s b ra n d i n g powerhouse is constantly inven ng new products and services that have endeared many even outside the shores of Nigeria.

Another brand is UAC; both (UAC and First Bank) have combined the past, present and future in a brilliant way.

UAC's Gala Sausage roll despite s ff compe on beats others to s ll remain the King of traffic.

Both brands have approached the trends well and have always been part of the local community.

Crea ve Manager Isaac Agyeman-Duah

Crea ve Officer Lawrence Otoo

Business Development Execu ve Gina Ibeh Liability While every care has been taken in the preparation of this magazine, the publishers cannot be responsible for the accuracy of information in herein, or any consequence arising from it.

MobileWorld is a controlled circulation magazine and not available on newsstand. It is free to qualified readers worldwide. c Instinct Wave 2014 No part of this publication may be used, copied or reproduced without prior consent of the publisher.

Diamond Bank Nigeria CEO Stars in new Commercial

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hief executive o ffi c e r , Diamond Bank Plc, Uzoma Dozie, is leading the bank’s drive as an innovative a n d technologically driven financial institution as he features as the lead character in a new television commercial for the Diamond mobile app.

Diamond Bank, a leading retail bank in Nigeria, is ranked among the top six commercial banks in the country.

Following a successful rights issue l a s t ye a r m a i n l y t a r g e t e d a t developing its information technology infrastructure, the bank has introduced several novel solutions that have transformed the Nigerian banking space.

The new TVC, shot in the bank’s corporate head office in Lekki, Lagos, positions Diamond mobile app as the reliable and ultraefficient assistant for the highperforming executive who likes to keep in sync with the personal side www.marketingworldmag.com

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of things.

In character, Dozie says: “As the CEO of Diamond Bank, time is precious and doing things right is important; quickly, efficiently and easy.”

In the ad, despite his visibly busy schedule, he shuns a shortlist of applications for personal assistant position, pointing out that there are some things he never likes to delegate, like booking flight tickets for his wife, getting movie tickets for his children as he promised, and buying tickets to events he wants to attend, all of which he simultaneously attends to on the go via his mobile phone. Then comes the clincher: “I can do all of these on my Diamond Mobile App. It ’s beyond banking. Who needs a PA?” Speak ing on the commercial, divisional head, corporate communications, Diamond Bank Plc, Ayona Trimnell, explained that the T VC reinforces the bank ’s message that the Diamond mobile app is the ultimate personal assistant for easy, convenient banking.

According to her, “Diamond Mobile is borne out of our commitment to

continually offer value -added solutions that conveniently fit into the lifestyle of our customers. It is safe, easy to use and specifically developed for the success-minded individual who is focused on maximising all life’s moments whenever or wherever they are”.

The Diamond Mobile app was recently upgraded with a touch ID feature that allows users seamless login to their accounts by identifying their fingerprints as an alternative to entering a user ID and password. The feature, available on iOS devices, marked the introduction of the service in Nigeria and also positioned Diamond Bank as an innovative institution progressively changing the face of banking in Nigeria with best-in-class customer-focused solutions.

Other features of the Diamond Mobile app include funds transfer, bills payment, events ticket purchase, movie tickets purchase, online shopping, wallet top-up as well as searching, booking and making payment for local and international flights.

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Is Experiential Marketing A Key to Brand Equity?

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In the online world, anything can go viral in a matter of seconds. Videos, memes, and pictures that captivate the viewer's attention can be liked, shared, and re-shared to the point where they reach billions of people. The marketing gurus have taken this phenomenon and shaped it in a way only they can. While things in the virtual world do have a broader reach, they cater to only two human senses, i.e. the visual and the auditory senses.

With experiential marketing, marketing caters to as many human senses as possible. It comprises of advertising you can touch, view, or feel in a physical space.

Akin Naphtal

Group Executive Publisher www.marketingworldmag.com

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There is a claim by marketing experts that this particular brand of marketing can be used to reach the fleeting nirvana called brand equity.

Brand equity results in a product selling more because of the brand it belongs to than a similar product of a lesser-known brand.

Brand equity is a product of multiple factors. These refer to the consumer being aware of the brand — re c o g n i z i n g w h a t m a k e s i t different from its competitors— trying out the brand; preferring it because of an emotional connection to it, which results in loyalty to it.

In order to decide whether experiential marketing is the new holy grail or not depends on how we look at existing cases.

For instance, in 2014, Budweiser designed a special “Bud Blaster” for stores that sold Budweiser. On buying a pack of beer, shoppers were given 30 seconds to catch as many balls thrown by the Blaster as they could. There were prizes to be won, depending upon how many balls they caught successfully.

Late last year in Nigeria, Harpic activation platform designed to commemorate the World Toilet Day (WTD) was lauded by consumers.

Harpic is on the stable of Reckitt Benckiser. The activation was also aimed at educating Nigerians on the need to have clean and hygienic toilets.

The experience train, which visited Oke-Arin, Agege, Mushin and Ikotun markets in Lagos, gave market women and men the sense of hygiene, thus setting the pace for behavioural change.

Harpic, for clean, germ-free and freshened toilet, marked the first WTD in Nigeria, to bring to the front burner the importance of having access to a clean toilet. Relying on the research which shows that 30 per cent of Nigerians have access to

flushable toilets, the brand also projected the potential health implications of keeping an unclean toilet, as well as the vulnerability it poses, especially to women and children.

A consumer described the initiative as a way of helping Nigerians to understand the danger in open defecation and the need to educate everyone on the importance of proper maintenance of toilets at home and public places such as the market.

Also, a shop owner at Agege Market, Bola Alagbe, who also experienced the activation, described his experience as interesting.

“Ordinarily, most people shy away from discussing anything that has to do with toilets, but here is a company that is giving its all to teach people how to use and maintain flush toilet.

In 2013, the “D Rose Jump Store” promoted signature sneakers preferred by Derrick Rose, a famous basketball player. Customers had to jump 10 feet high to catch a sneaker that meant a free pair of sneakers signed by the sportsman. Use your credit card for everything!

The online retailers, Zappos turn the busiest and most annoying day Thanksgiving- into a fun-filled wheel of fortune event at the George Bush International Airport. Customers won prizes depending on which baggage For Big brand Coca Cola, experiential gets more interesting. Bus shelters with brand messages were constructed by Coke in collaboration with the Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau and charity Caritas"happiness" to the frigid in Sweden; while in New York, the message said people could be wearing bikinis elsewhere; and Caritas showed how far donations could go to providing comfort for others.

Milka ,a chocolate brand released a batch of bars that had one square missing from them. Customers who bought these bars were given a choice. Either the missing square would be mailed to them or it would be mailed to a loved one with a special message inscribed on it.

These (and other) case studies beg the question of whether this ploy was successful or not. What did the people who came into contact with these stunts experience? It all boils down to the unforgettable experience they had, and how it made them feel. For instance, meeting your favorite athlete and sharing this experience with them makes it even more special. A chocolate square with a special inscription makes for a stronger emotional connection to the brand.

What this brand of marketing needs to ensure is that the customers should leave feeling good about themselves and then associate those feelings with the brand. This is where brand equity comes in. How they felt would forever be associated in their mind with the product. It will become the deciding factor on whether they will go ahead and buy the product based on these feelings.

The success of experiential market depends on various factors like quality and number of “A” grade impressions - immediate responses of the customer, quality of data captured - for later reviews, the number of follow ups - obtained at a later stage and how that data is then analyzed and integrated into current marketing programs These factors make it clear that it is not easy to decide whether experiential marketing is the only way to reach brand equity and whether it will succeed in every case, even if it is.

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Experiential Marketing: Messaging You Can Touch

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xperiential Marketing is on the rise in recent years as marketers o f ever ything from cars to movies aim to make their brands a tangible presence in consumers' lives either in person or digitally through www.marketingworldmag.com 10

YouTube videos, tweets and Instagrams.

With experiential, the brand is enticing the consumer into their world. One thing to be sure of however, is you don't just move out and get started when it comes to giving any brand an experiential treatment. There are some things that must be in place.

First of all you need to know the brand , it's vital that everyone onboard has a clear idea of what your brand stands for and what your message is. If you don't know your message inside and out, go back and clarify your message. Knowing exactly what you want to convey to consumers is essential,

message across all mediums is crucial. No matter what they're seeing, reading about, listening to or experiencing when it comes to your product, the takeaway should always be consistent.

If you think you will choose a spot or two and do one or two events and you then think the job is done, you may have missed it. One even can and does not equal a campaign You'd never go to the gym once and expect a single workout to transform your body, so you need to keep the same rule in mind when it comes to experiential marketing. You'll need to commit to a certain amount of events to give your campaign the chance to really make an impact.

Determine ahead of time how many you're comfortable with producing and what your expected outcome will be.

Whichever angle you have to your plan, you undoubtedly need to integrate social media from the start.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that it's not about the few hundred or even the few thousand people you reach at an event - it's about the millions you have the potential to reach through social media. From pre-event to post, it's critical to integrate social media. Not only will it give you the most bang for your buck, it will ensure the delivery of your message to a much, much wider audience.

especially when you're connecting with your audience through an experiential marketing event.

Again, being consistent is very key in experiential. Make sure

the creative team you've hired has everything they need.

The greatest thing about experiential marketing is that you get customer reaction immediately and can adjust and refine your message in real time. This means that you have to pay attention to feedback. You'll know within the first few hours of your campaign what's working and what isn't. If the messaging isn't clear at the first event, you can fix it immediately onsite or at least guarantee that it will be changed for the second event.

Pay attention to customer feedback and adjust your event accordingly as soon as possible.

Share with them materials from all of your traditional above-the-line campaigns including TV commercials, print ads, radio spots and billboards. Keeping the same www.marketingworldmag.com

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Our Code Is Our Promise To The Industry Kayode Olagesin Exman President

EXMAN IN ITS FORMATIVE YEARS The Experiential Marketers Association (EXMAN) a body set up to represent the interest of experiential marketing agencies, actually started some years back.

The first attempt was a still birth and I think another effort started about two and half years ago which crystallized into the Association we now have. We inaugurated formally I on the 3rd of July in 2013, and so in a couple of months, we will effectively be two years. One of the first challenges we faced was how to get those people out there who practice experiential marketing to be able to come together.

We are happy that we reached out to as many of our colleagues as we could, and were able to get started with membership of 30 agencies, which was quite good for us.

BUSINESS TERMS The challenges that we face, have to do especially with survival and the operating environment that we are compelled to work in. When I talk about survival, I talk about business terms under which our members are engaged by clients, and those

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business terms over the years have become a lot tougher for us, and many of our members are just hanging there and trying to make ends meet. It looks rosy from the outside, but those of us who are in know what challenges we are facing.

That's the reality of what we are facing now and that's the reason why it's a matter of serious engagement, we intend to visit some clients, the election is keeping everybody sort of distracted now but the intention is to visit a number of major advertisers and make our case to them. So they can see our point of view and hopefully begin to take a look at some of their procurement policies and see how we can make it more bearable so we are able to remain the business.

PROFESSIONALISM AND TRAINING There is also the issue of professionalism. Because we need to be able to add value to those who are also giving us jobs, it is important for us to also look at how we can raise standards and get our m e m b e r s t o t o p e r fo r m t o a particular level which we believe will give the kind of value that our clients expect from us.

Training is also key for us and on account of that we organized a training program entry level staff in agencies as well as client sides. Our first training effort last year was fully subscribed to and ver y well received.

MULTIPLE TAXATION Another part has to do with our experience operating in the field. We face incidents of multiple taxation, we face incidents of harassment from local government and state authorities across the country. A lot of things that we have to pay for are

not receipted which means we cannot also get reimbursed for some of those expenses. If you spend your money and you are not reimbursed for it, it will actually hit your bottom line.

R E L AT I O N S H I P W I T H OT H E R SECTORAL BODIES The first thing that we debated among ourselves essentially is what is going to be the nature of our engagement and our relationship with APCON which is the body that regulates advertising in Nigeria. You can draw a very thin line between advertising and experiential. The way the APCON decree and the wordings of the decree have been couched gives room to say that perhaps experiential is out of it, and so we had to spend some time within our Association, took a very meticulous process of developing position papers, consulting before we arrived at the decision that yes, it is in our interest to have a relationship with APCON, and for which we started engaging APCON. That engagement was truncated because of the problem within APCON then. There is a new APCON chairman in person of Mr Udeme Ufot and so we believe that we will reopen our discussion with them and be able to finalize our relationship with that regulatory body. We believe that will give us some measure of the force of law to back up what we are doing, and we think it's in the interest of the larger IMC industry for us to have that kind of relationship.

CODE OF CONDUCT We are being guided by some international code which we also try to bring and relate to our own environment. We have sent the code out to some professionals' bodies.

We shared with AAAN, we shared with APCON, and we shared with

ADVAN, so that they can also have input to the code as it also affects their business.

So that code is our promise to the industry, and to our clients that we will perform according to this standard for which we got all of our members to subscribe to it, and to do business according to it and for which to get it started, we actually ran a workshop on the code during our AGM. The code is very important because it will ensure that we do give value, and then we work responsibly, and that's the document that I am very proud of that we were able to accomplish within a very short time of our getting started.

I must point out that it is voluntary self-regulation that we are trying to do, rather than wait for somebody to regulate us. We saw the need for us to be able to work according to a professional code and we believe it will be the distinction between those who choose to engage an EXMAN agency and those who choose to engage some fly by night operator out there.

MEMBERSHIP PREREQUISITES First, you must practice experiential marketing, and the way we've looked at it is that you must either be engaging the consumer in a one on one situation or engaging the trade.

So we look at it from the perspective of consumer or trade engagement but engagement is a very key word, and it means that you have a direct interface with them in the course of a c t i v a t i n g . Yo u m u s t h a v e a registered office which means a physical place that we can visit, you must have some functional departments, we look at functions not exactly physical departmental structures but you must have functions which means that there must be somebody handling the client service function, somebody must provide a creative function, you must have the operations function and you must also have the administration and finance

functions.

We have had a number of interests since we had the publication on the agency remuneration in the papers and the admission process is ongoing for them.

If an agency does not qualify for membership; we will tell them the areas that they did meet up, and give them time within which a follow up visit will be made to ensure that they can meet up. At the end of the ongoing admission process we should have 35 members.

PROTECTION FOR EXMAN What we have decided to do as a body is that we are going to engage a law firm to protect our members around Nigeria wherever they are, so where any of our members suffers any harassment or any undue tax, we will engage that body through our lawyers.

They must take us serious that we are doing legitimate business and we have the right under the Nigeria constitution to be able to do business and earn a livelihood without fear of being harassed. Our profession needs to be respected; we need to be well renumerated for t h e s e r v i ce s t h at we p rov i d e because we do provide a value that has a definite impact on the bottom line of the clients that we work for, so we believe that we are part of the wheel of commerce, we keep it going and turning and as such we should be giving the due respect that should come to us.

BUSINESS GROWTH There is improvement in terms of the middle class and of course that is what translates to people having more disposable income to spend on basic and luxury goods and so once that is happening, you can expect that the advertisers also have some more money to spend. So I will say generally it has been a good one, challenges here and there but it comes with the territory.

LEADERSHIP STYLE I believe, I came across a definition of leadership, at the LBS, it was giving

by Dr Christopher Kolade and its says ''leadership is the development of men through the accomplishment of tasks'' From the moment that definition came as they will say in religious circles, it became a Rhema.

Really we have different definition of leadership but that one is kind of unique to me and it sort of aligns with my own philosophy.

As a leader, I believe in empowering people, I believe in challenging people, I believe in encouraging young people. I believe that you will stumble across the way but as you stumble, you will find your feet. So as a leader, I believe that there is a lot in people, that if you challenge them, they will discover what they did not know they had in them, and so I like challenging people, I like getting them to go explore.

As a leader, I don't encourage people to come and dump their problems on me, so people know, you don't come to me and say I have a problem, once you start from that, I just won't listen to you. So if you say to me, there is this challenge and this is what I want to do about it, what do you think? Then, I am all ears.

I believe that you should as a leader create the environment, that is fair, that is a level playing ground, you shouldn't have favourites , you shouldn't place one person above the other and you should be fair and consistence with people, I believe that once you do that then you should be fine.

Who am I as a person? Principled, Honest, and business minded. I take a very serious view to life and tend to take a long term view. In the office, I believe that we are here for business and we get straight to the business.

Outside of work , in the right company, with my family, friends or colleagues, I am a different person entirely. You can say, I have a sort of dual personality. I am an introvert by nature but mix well in the right company.

Driven By The Desire To Be Innovative Segun Aluko Managing Director Btl Solutions Why did you choose a generic name for your company? hen we started out; we j u s t looked at somethin g that will m a k e people connect. First hand is the name, when you see or hear it; you will have an idea of what we are doing.

We don't want to start explaining to people what we do. Most especially if you are a marketing person, you will understand that BTL means ''Below the Line'' it is straight forward, generic.

The same thing with our campaigns, we like our campaigns very simple, straight forward but having a high impact.

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What is distinctive about BTL Solutions?

E s s e nt i a l l y, we h ave h u g e competence in consumer engagement and channel development. Channel development for us is on a different level in the sense that, we observed a ver y huge gap after all the advertising, activations or experiential, sampling etc. There is this need to keep that relationship alive, ensuring that the products that you've done all the marketing razzmatazz for, that the consumers are able to find them. It's one thing to do a great marketing communications campaign it's another thing to build the channels to ensure retail trade presence and continuous patronage. We saw a gap and we have been able to provide services in that area in the last 7 years. www.marketingworldmag.com14

We ' v e d o n e l o t s o f c h a n n e l development and management jobs for some big clients.

What do you think of experiential marketing budget that clients make available for projects?

Clients are no doubt increasing their spend on experiential marketing yearly. They partner Agencies to do events, sampling and sponsorships.

In the last few years, there has been a steady upward trend in brand marketers experiential budget.

According to Event Marketers's Event Track 2014 study, there is an annual increase of at least 5% in experiential budget. And about 65% of the increase is taken from other strategic elements in the marketing mix. This signals a shift in brand marketer's priorities in creating an experience that will become a growing driver of engagement and return on marketing investment.

What are the challenges you are facing in this business?

We have challenges with government regulation, in terms of multiple taxations and the likes. You find local government harassing you, you find the regulatory bodies (formal & informal) harassing you and it's getting really irritating, that's one angle. Then of course, the quality of manpower is also a challenge. We find young people who just had a stint with an Agency, they probably participated in a few experiential projects, telling you that they've also started their own agency.

Many Agencies can't prove their worth at pitches anymore because they lack the depth to pull through.

So the man power thing is a major issue. One key attribute of our Agency is that no matter what, we

will tell you what we feel about your brand and what we feel we can achieve for you. We don't have to win every account neither do we have to do all juicy projects.

Could you just tell me how much you think technology has in uenced this business?

Te c h n o l o g y h a s n o d o u b t i n fl u e n ce d ex p e r i e nt i a l s. Fo r instance when you do an experiential activity, you will have a limited crowd you can impact heavily. The role of technology here is that you could move clips from the experience to the social media, the instagram, facebook, youtube, and twitter. People can actually spread it the more there.

Could you share some of your big moments?

Big moment started in 2007, the first big moment was in 2007, when we went to pitch for the Afribank Public Offer. We were then in quote ''the smallest agency''. Infact we got the brief as an afterthought. They needed a particular number of a g e n c i e s a n d f ro m t h e b o d y language we were not meant to be a force to reckon with. Fortunately, the board of the bank found our strategy to be fresh, bold, and promising. They bought into it and the rest is history. We ran the campaign in 34 states in just 30 days.

Its was a superb outcome. .

Where do you think BTL Solutions will be in the next ve years, do you plan for expansion, are you in other countries?

Yes, as I speak with you, there is a BTL Ghana.

We actually have a partnership with a Ghanaian company; we believe that it's better to have partnerships

with the local guys. We are also tidying up a strategic partnership with a South African Agency.

So, what is your projection for the next ve years?

We are looking at expanding to some other markets, that's one. Two, most importantly for us is we are looking more at innovation in the experiential marketing space. There is still a lot to be done in experiential marketing, a lot of opportunities. So

we are looking at being extremely innovative.

The few campaigns we've planned in the last six months, I can tell you they are extremely innovative.

Globalization powered by technology has created a platform for great innovations. The continuous availability of case studies from many foreign markets provides some kind of a level playing ďŹ eld for hardworking and competent Agencies to meet and

exceed clients' expectations.

Can you just list some of your clients?

We work for Etisalat, Proter & Gamble, Samsung, Bacardi Martini, Diamond Bank, Visaphone and a few others.

Describe yourself in three words?

Simple, hardworking, and God fearing.

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Live + Digital Is The Next Wave Wole Olagundoye Managing Director Exp It seems that within a short period EXMAN is taking shape? e can't be in t h i s experi ential marke ting space and not help the industry organize itself .This is because it was becoming so convoluted with all sorts of people, non professionals, just anybody. Once you feel you can put one or two events together , you feel you are in experiential marketing. So the onus is on us to organize ourselves. The truth is that if we don't have an association that can ring-fence and protect the interest of the professionals in the s e c t o r, w e w i l l g r a d u a l l y b e over taken by charlatans and eventually our existence as an industry would be threaten to the point of extinction.

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As providence would have it, we were able to organise ourselves and the result is what you have today, EXMAN. As the chairman of the membership committee I could say EXMAN has come to stay.

We need to begin to educate the marketing industry in Nigeria that for its survival, there is a need to ensure that experiential marketing keeps thriving and is as potent as can be. This is in tandem with the trend globally, and if the sector is not adequately and appropriately remunerated, then the creativity of that sector will eventually be stifled off, simply because this business is about human beings, it's not about equipment, it's about human

beings, it's about thinking and crafting ideas; and if you are not incentivizing the people and giving them a conducive environment to think, then in no time the industry will die off. We need to be allowed to have that ability to be able to think well and consequently develop effective ideas for the benefits of marketing in Nigeria.

would have to learn within the agenc y environment. Exp, for instance, has contributed tremendously to resourcing the industry as it were, because a lot of people that have left our organization and have gone to form their own agencies and are now in competition with us.

Any plan for an EXMAN School?

Every industry needs good hands, is it different with the experiential marketing sphere?

Yes, like I have said remuneration matters a lot and that's what retaining good hands is all about.

Because you find out that the minute someone starts to show some promise in the experiential marketing space and you start to climb, the next thing is there is attraction to the client side. You see a lot of movement of staff that would have made a huge impact to the experiential marketing industry going to the client side.

The reasons are not far-fetched, we are not able to remunerate at the same level as the client is remunerating. That is the reason, and as long as you keep having talents move like that then you won't be able to retain good hands because just when you think you are grooming and nurturing a good talent, they move on. Although for us, we've been able to at least retain some of our key staff but the fact still remains it's an ongoing battle that we have contend with.

We have to train people from the scratch as we don' t have any educational institution that administers experiential marketing knowledge, that is something one

We have that plan, as EXMAN is currently constituted; there are three working committees, the membership committee, the advocac y committee and the training committee. The training committee has carried out a series of training. They did some of that last year, where they trained EXMAN member agency staff and it is also opened to the entire marketing industry as well. It's going to be an ongoing training that will be happening with some regularity.

This could evolve into a whole formal training institute; I think that's the grand plan and it will take shape as we go into the future.

What's the in uence of the New Media on your industry?

The New Media could be complementary to experiential marketing. But by itself as a potent tool it is strong, because creating experiences is what breaks through the clutter in our overcrowded marketing landscape. There is so much to consume, people are immersed in their worlds. There should be an experience created to bring the brands to life in a manner that resonates with the consumer and allows for brand affinity and that is what brands aim to achieve these days. That's why for us we believe www.marketingworldmag.com

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Could you share some of your big moments or campaigns in the last ve years?

In the last five years, I think one of the biggest thing that we've done, was the campaign that we did for Unilever, which we call GrowFM. It entailed a couple of brands and the whole campaign was driven under the umbrella of behavioral change.

The uniqueness here was the innovative strategy of pushing commercial brands, which would have naturally been done using a commercial marketing platform, on a social marketing platform, thereby connecting with the target emotionally and creating a long lasting impact that would subsequently drive uptake of the brands.

Do you think companies have a d e q u a t e b u d g e t p l a n fo r experiential marketing?

I think we see a slide towards experiential marketing spend these days and that we have seen in the last five years where spend has moved gradually to experiential marketing sector from advertising.

It's the reason why you find some advertising organisations having a second line interest in experiential, simply because the spend is moving towards that experiential.

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We need to keep on building revenues in order to be able to keep ahead of the pack. So for me, that's the main transformation that has happened in the last decade.

Helping with the creation of EXMAN, our industry association, is also a significant part who we have become as we were able to engage, internally and externally, in a more organised fashion now.

Where do you think EXP will be in the next ve years?

We will still be here in the next five years doing our stuff, but on a more serious note, I think there are a lot of things that we are beginning to look at differently in EXP. And we believe in moving with the global trend. The world now is going digital, Live + Digital is the big thing for us. So in the next five years we are going to be pushing the frontier in the Live +Digital space.

We reached over a million children with this campaign in the course one one year.

Now some companies are actually diverting funds to support experiential marketing they are now seeing the effectiveness and the impact on their brands. For instance, if you take the Tobacco industr y, their only means to engage is strictly experiential. So therefore their total 100% marketing budget is directed to experiential marketing activities.

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different angle. Now it's about building the business, building the Exp brand and ensuring that the brand sustains. Being on top and remaining there is a very difficult task, every day you are looking to do things differently because you know competition is always there and want to catch up.

The trend is now on, we can see the spend moving toward experiential.

that experiential marketing is very strong, and the only way brands can win is to make sure experiential is one of its marketing mix so that it can deliver its potential and achieve brand objectives. So new media is helping to complement experiential because you can now direct focus to the new media via the platform of an experiential campaign basically.

What can you tell me about yourself, have you changed in the last 10 years?

In last 10 years, I've grown a lot. I b e c a m e M D i n t h a t t i m e, s o obviously something has happened there. I have a complete shift in focus now as I see things from a

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Felix King Eiremiokhae Managing Director /chief Executive OďŹƒcer Oracle Experience www.marketingworldmag.com 20

We Do The Hard Things And Make It Look Easy – Felix King Eiremiokhae

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hat d o you thin k the strat egie s of experiential agencies will be to survive in 2015?

2015 is going to be tough! But that is the good news because when tough people take on tough things they make history and that is the reason we like to do the tough things and be part of history as the agency that is driving the big bang theory for the industry.

The wind of change is blowing as clients desire that the story about their brands be a “well told story”.

This is where the difference lie between an event company and an ideation company. To the client, everybody can manage events, but it is not everybody that can interpret a brief into a well told story - a story powerful enough it is able to awaken the senses of the observers and consumers.

At Oracle Experience, we don't regard ourselves as an experiential agency, rather we see ourselves as an ideation agency mastering the act of story telling. We are inspired by John F Kennedy's 1961 “we choose to go to the moon speech “ “… and do other things , not because they are easy , but because they are hard” .

Seven years after that speech, the vision was made a reality when man stepped on the moon for the first time.

When will you classify activation is a story well told? It is how much the consumers locate and immerse

themselves in the story you are telling; if attendees at your event struggle to plug themselves into your story, then it is a waste of time and money.

We decided to adapt the guiding principles of the creative ladder and climb the difficult ones amongst other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, and these things are what drive memories for the ideas we execute.

Presently, as an agency we are operating between the ground breaking and contagious ladder, in future, we hope to initiate ideas that will transcend most of our brand activities into a cultural trend. In the short term, we are comfortable on this ladder with a lot of energy focused on scale, impact and flawless execution.

different from a contemporary entertainment program. If you organize a program like “Love like a movie” for instance, it is about Dare Art Alade, so Dare must take the center stage of that program. If I am organizing a “Star - Lagos countdown” for instance, Star must take the center stage of that program that is the perspective from which it should be looked at. Where people get it wrong is that they allow entertainment to take the center stage.

Experience without memories is nothing; the memories constitute the sixth sense which evidently inspires the consumer to take action.

We don't just want people to think about the razzmatazz of an event, the underlying notion is for attendees to bond well with the idea behind the idea itself. This is because the brands are the ones paying the fee for those projects. So your brands must be at the center of activation, to the extent that when you leave that activation ground, you are not going to be talking about anything else, but the brand and yourself as being part of the brand's life

The secret is - once you are able to get to that level where a brand is the center of attraction, then you are making progress on the creative ladder.If we keep laying emphasis on entertainment, the purpose of the brand activation, of bringing the brand to life is defeated.

However, entertainment will always be there to feed the soul for it is written that “man must not live by bread alone” but how you engage the entertainers is very key, they should be part of the story you are telling about the brand.

For instance, at the beer village during the Lagos Countdown, we had entertainment but the 8,000 Star bottle tree was the center of attraction and it became a talking point. Hitherto, the world record for such feat was 1000 bottles in China, and we took it to 8,000 bottles. It was a great activation, using the brand to drive the brand message.

Don't you think that entertainment should be part of what makes an event memorable?

No, it shouldn't be but a spice for the entire process, because you need to start to understand different things in this industry. Brand activation is

You've had big success with the Club Ultimate projec t, what inspires your innovations, the way you make things happen at oracle exp erience, and what other loveable project can you boast of and you have told me one? www.marketingworldmag.com

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Every day we keep trying to see, how much more magic we can create.

The clients look at us and call us the magic makers, which is something that humbles us. The difference between us and most other agencies which keeps us going on performing the magic is about wanting to do something different and also wanting to bring the personality of the brand to life. So, for everything you do, it is always based on the insight and understanding of the personality of the brand.

We have done unique things like building a yacht for Gulder club ultimate (Ultimate Liner) and using Heineken bottles for selfie wall and multimedia LED wall., The Nescafe magic mug flight etc.

We have created other Gulder experience for people at the point of arriving at the venue. We used Gulder crates to create a gothic-like architecture; this was about 3700 crates to create a tunnel. It was a memorable event; you can never forget it, after the show, everybody kept talking about the crates tunnel.

So, what we are trying to do is about the brand and it will always be about the brand.What has also helped with our deliveries is that, we are the only agency in Nigeria that can boast of a Nigerian regional structure.

What are the challenges you face being the Managing Director of Oracle Experience?

You see, life itself is a big challenge, and you even have bigger challenge or challenges when you are working from this part of the world. The good news is that the industry challenge works as an advantage for us. Presently, we are the only agency in the country that can claim a regional foot print across the country with visible infrastructure covering the 36 states and Abuja.

With this network, we have to work around the clock to optimize

standards and efficiency which is not an easy task to manage. Most times these footprints are active simultaneously around the clock, but over time, we have been able to have a standardized system that make the co-ordination of our regional footprint operation look as though we are performing magic. At the initial stage, we had workforce challenge, as you know skilled workforce is not that much easy to come by. To get to a stabilized level, yo u w i l l a l w ay s h a ve p e o p l e challenges; sometimes it's always difficult for people, when you have huge staff strength like this, you have some people who actually have been able to key into your vision, of what you want to do and you also have some people who believe life is a roller coaster. Change is always the most difficult thing to adapt to. We have a lot of people who are used to doing things in a particular way, and now you come up with a system that is designed to disrupt the way people like to do things, its challenging! Especially when you have to manage an excess of 1000 people, but we thank God for his wisdom. That wisdom has made staff the most important asset of the business growth.

Secondly, in Nigeria, getting third parties, mostly to work with globally acceptable standards is tough. The widely renowned Nigerian way is not a way! Trying to get people to just change such orientation into a globally acceptable one has also been a very big challenge.

Hence, for us to succeed, we just have to get our hands dirty to make that happen. Once we start to get the people thing right, I think things will definitely be better, in addition, at the beginning, people were not willing to go on the risk level, I think we have been able conquer that now.Everybody wants to go on the risk level because it is when you do things that people perceive as risky, that you actually

create huge memories in their minds.

EXMAN though new is growing at a very fast pace what do you think accounts for this?

Presently, I think we are a very new body. I may not have the authority to speak on this but I strongly believe my president and the executives are doing everything possible to see how they can function and partner with APCON and other relevant agencies. Infact that is the only way EXMAN can actually have a very strong footing.

Also, it takes a while to get all these things done, it's a young baby, and you know babies must first learn how to crawl before walking, talking, running etc so I think that is the exact process the body is trying to align with.

How do you handle newbies at Oracle Experience?

Basically, I think 99 percent of the people that have worked here, all came in very young; they had no single idea about the industry. I think that also helped because when they came in, you try to introduce them into a new world, the oracle magic world. But again, you know its very brain tasking. Thinking is the most difficult thing to do, it's not easy to think, and it's so challenging to think. The beauty is that when they come, we try to open them into our world, and we try to do as much of the training for them as we want to do, because for me, it is like a school here. When they come here, they come as green horns but within two years they usually grasp the important process.

How would you describe yourself?

I love magic, I am like a child. That is why I do Disney land .

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WE ARE A BIG EMPLOYER OF LABOUR Tade Adekunle Project Consultant, Keskese Limited What is your cutting edge and values, at Keskese? e think fresh a n d strive t o bring news ideas to our concept generation. We do not follow routine nor assume, we are guided by research in coming up with fresh and innovative ideas that will endear our clients' products or services to the consumers. This is our cutting edge and beyond that create that interaction between the brand and the consumer. The value will bring to bear is for concept that we generate to resonate and create that bonding between the client and the consumer. Thereby creating an experience and immediate discourse, that discussion, that interaction between brands and the consumers. And in keskese, when we talk about our core values, we talk of freshness, we talk of ideas, we talk of innovation. So that it is not a routine, everything becomes fresh.

We bring freshness, we bring new focus, we bring new ideas, we bring new direction, that is another dimension entirely.

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Do you think there is enough funding for experiential marketers to actually do the best?

One can't really determine the budget plan any company will allocate for experiential marketing.

The only thing I can say is that, various brands and companies know what they want. They know their needs, they know what they intend to do in the whole year or quarter, and they know there is need

to connect the brand with the consumers out there beyond the usual routine media of press or electronics they want to connect with their brands. So basically, it's for them to see to it that, budgets are available for them to achieve the target for the year.

But do companies really engage so much in experiential marketing?

Of course, most companies right now, do it and they can easily see the result. It has a major effect, because it can easily be measured. This is because you are talking specifically, you are interacting directly with that brand, and you are experiencing the brand first hand, not what somebody is saying to you. You are there, be it a service, be it a product, you know how it, you can experience it. That is why you will see that most brands are devoting substantial amount of money to brand activation and experiential mar keting. I t gives a greater opportunity for consumers to feel the brands or for brands to really be in the face of consumers.

It will continue to be like that, however, like I said, I am not at the other side, that is, the client side to say, the budget they are allocating is either too much or too big, or too small. They all know what is at stake, competition and consumer needs, and they are professionals in their own right to know that this is what they intend to achieve in the course of the year and therefore make enough financial provision for it.

Can you give a candid assessment of the experiential marketing industry in Nigeria?

I will just talk in general, not make

any policy statement about Experiential Marketing Agencies of Nigeria (EXMAN) because I am not in that position to do that. I believe sincerely the individual companies have come a long way. There is the need for us as an association to form a formidable force, just for us to be speaking as professionals. That is the basic reason why we are coming together, to be able to share ideas together, to be able to say, this industr y, we can do it better, irrespective of whether we are competing with each other. We need to be professional about it. We need to be able to know what is right from what is wrong.

That is why, first thing that EXMAN launched in the first few months of its birth, was the code of conduct.

The code of conduct that guides the rules and regulations of the association, code of conduct that even guides our relationship while working out there, with either client and consumers, and the government . It gives us a sort of an over view of what is expected of a professional company while executing a project be it experiential or activation. The Code of Conducts also highlighted different platforms and what should apply while working on different products or services. Beyond that, EXMAN is also giving the issue of training priority.

Retraining ourselves, retraining our colleagues from across board and the numerous supervisors and promoters we use for clients activations.

What are your best moments in the last ve years?

The Cadbury project for an example was memorable. They gave us a brief. There was a challenge in the www.marketingworldmag.com

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eastern region. It was a sensitive brief that getting it wrong could mar our relationship. To the glory of God, client accepted our idea and direction and the rest is history. A market whereby client market share was below 5% before is now above 40%. The Season of Surprises with MTN is also a big success.

What are your challenges and how do you think the government can help the industry?

Basically it is to create a conducive environment for business to strive and survive, especially as regards power. And then part of it also, in our kind of industry specifically, is the issue of multiple taxation, across states, local government, markets, motor parks etc Even in the office, all kinds of demand in form of taxes that

you will wonder what is the benefit to you, your organisation or the general public. The government needs to take a look at this tax issue because if you look at experiential marketing agencies in Nigeria, the number of people we employ directly and indirectly are huge.

What are your projections for Keskese in the next ve years?

Our projection for Keskese in the next five years, is to continue to grow our clientele base.

We will continue to generate new i d e a s. Wh e n we s t a r te d t h i s company, we were very clear in our minds that we are not just going to b e m a n a g i n g o r p i t c h i n g fo r businesses, we are going to create marketing properties of our own and right now, we have five. In actual fact,

we set a target that in 2018, we want to have 20 marketing properties that we would be proud of. At least some company that created those marketing properties from Europe or America, they started one day, but we have started too and right now we have five within four years, so it's something that we continue to create and generate.

Further, we intend to spread to some other countries in the next five years carrying out the job of experiential marketing and brand activation. We have just won a pitch for MTN Benin Republic, it was an international pitch, and therefore we intend to be in key African countries in the next five years.

Linkedin Launches New Ad Network consideration brands". I t comes after the network bought B2B marketing company Bizo last August.

Another of its new products is LinkedIn Lead Accelerator, which sgements customers and targets them with ads and contents dependent on their stage in the buying cycle, both off and on LinkedIn.

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inkedIn h a s launch ed an a d networ k a s part of a range o f

advertising tools aimed to appeal marketers.

The ad network will let advertisers to run ads across LinkedIn as well as external publisher sites that have signed up to the service.

LinkedI n said the its new ad portfolio was targeted at marketers working for B2B or "high-

Samsung and Groupon are among clients to have so far tested its tools.

S t e p h a n H e l l e r, h e a d o f m e r c h a n t m a r k e t i n g fo r Groupon EMEA, said: "LinkedIn Lead Accelerator is helping us reposition Groupon as a mar keting partner to the businesses we work with. From local restauranteurs to major national brands, we’re now able to better analyse our site traffic and identify the sectors that could provide the best leads for us to focus on."

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GDP, Population and Governance Data are Not Enough to Predict Brand Success in Africa In 2013 Nielsen began conducting a quarterly analysis of consumer, retail and business outlook data, as well as macro-economic data across seven Sub-Saharan countries – Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia – with plans to expand to additional countries over time. Historically, one complaint has been the lack of market data within Africa. Without that insight, even companies with the right products for the right market can fail to get them in the right stores, leading to poor sales growth. By bringing together the standard macro-economic indicators with more granular consumer, retail and business data, it is possible to solve the distribution challenges that are so central to success in Africa.

Understanding the retail habits of Africa’s consumersCompanies that understand who shops where, for what, and when can use that knowledge to inform resourcing and distribution strategies.

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or brands eager to tap into the growing African markets and the region’s estimated 350 million middle class consumers, relying solely on macro-economic data such as GDP growth, population trends and regulatory governance data to identify opportunities and predict success can lead to costly missteps, according to a new report from The findings, which are featured in Africa: How to navigate the retail distribution labyrinth – a new report released – show it is the companies that combine retail data from both modern and traditional trade and consumer shopping behavior with www.marketingworldmag.com 28

b r o a d e r m a c r o - e nv i r o n m e n t indicators that are better positioned to identify the right markets, products, marketing and retail execution strategies that lead to sustainable growth and profitability in Africa.

“Conventional knowledge has held that where there is growth in population and GDP, and a stable business environment, a brand can succeed by being launched in the market. Those insights alone don’t provide a complete picture of Africa’s consumer opportunities,” said Allen Burch, Head of Africa for Nielsen. “We found that successful consumer brands in Africa understand three key pieces of retail information: who shops where and for what, which retail outlets are the best for the product to generate sales, and how to build demand amongst retailers and consumers.”

For most of Africa, the percentage of sales through modern trade is still small. While international retailers are making investments in modern trade formats, traditional retail, like the kiosk and table top – a stall set up on the roadside or in a local market area to capture passing trade – is where the majority of consumer retail transactions occur.

Even in South Africa, which has the most modern trade within SubSaharan Africa, 40 percent of sales come from traditional retailers. And while the preferred traditional retail channel varies by country (i.e. table tops, kiosks, market stalls, grocer, etc.), traditional retail outside South Africa accounts for roughly 90 percent of all consumer goods spending within the region.

What a given retailer stocks, in what quantity, the price, the supplier and how often stocks are replenished,

For example, Nielsen’s research and a n a l ys i s o f d i s t r i b u t i o n a n d turnover of particular goods and products shows that in Lagos, laundry detergents are available for sale in 100,000 outlets, but that 80 percent of all laundry detergent

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That’s why matching the flexibility of the vendor in product and pricing strategies is key to increasing demand and sales over time, such as providing branded cooler boxes to table top vendors for items that require refrigeration, or providing free samples appropriate to the time of day and the way a given outlet is used by the consumer.

“With six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world located in Sub-Saharan Africa, and populations that are growing in size and spending power, there is tremendous promise and opportunity for consumer brands in Africa. Companies – be they global multinationals or the rapidly growing slate of home-grown African brands – that look beyond macro-environment data will be best positioned to meet the needs of consumers in this important region,” said Burch.

Creating retailer and consumer demand Many brands have experience working with modern retailers to develop assortment, pricing and promotion strategies that can increase demand at a given location. But applying the same approach to traditional retail won’t produce the same results.

Understanding the retailer ’s environment – how often certain products are replenished, how new products are selected for stocking, use of wholesalers, refrigeration capabilities, etc. – can help brands drive sales.

The vendor makes the ultimate decision on how and when products are introduced to consumers, as well as how an item is presented and priced. In some cases, if a branded package is too expensive, the retailer may open the pack and split it up; there may be no loss in revenue to the manufacturer, but the brand

Identifying the right retailers Even with an understanding of consumer preferences and shopping behaviors in Africa, brands still have to identify the best retail outlets for a product. In fact, a small proportion of outlets can account for a disproportionate amount of sales.

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identity and intention is much weaker.

sales come from 35,000 of those outlets, and a full 50 percent come from just 10,000 retail outlets.

With this type of data, companies can not only identify the right channels, store clusters, outlets, product formats and sizes to meet the needs of Africa’s consumers, they can also optimize supply chains by improving route-tomarket planning, availability, trimming waste and eliminating unnecessary costs to consumers, which can strengthen the whole market.

varies by retail format. This also influences the purpose and frequency of consumer visits.

Depending on the country or urban area, consumers may shop at grocers or supermarkets less frequently because of transportation challenges, but visit local table tops daily to stock up on day-to-day items.

Understanding the willingness of Africa’s consumers to try new products is also essential. There is a strong preference amongst consumers for brands and products they know, have tried before or that have been recommended by a trusted source, but the level of openness differs by country. Nielsen analysis shows that, for example, in Nigeria consumer willingness to try new products increased to 73 percent in Q3 2014, but decreased in Ghana to 53 percent.

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Nielsen will host a live Twitter Chat about Africa: How to navigate the retail distribution labyrinth on Thursday, March 5 at 8am ET/11am GMT with Allen Burch (@allenburch) by using the tag #NielsenAfrica. Questions can be submitted in advance by tweeting @Nielsen with #NielsenAfrica included. .

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Technology Has Created A Different Consumer Engagement Model Tunji Adeyinka ManagingDirector Connect Marketing What are your values and focus here at Connect Marketing? t Connect Marketing, we are a consumer engagemen t company t h a t specializes in about three core areas. Our first area of focus is sponsorship and activation, our second area of focus is field and retail marketing and the third area of focus is content management. In summar y, we are a marketing company providing marketing solutions that are based on consumer insight .We help clients to create unique experiences at different brand touch points. This is the kind of experience that will enhance the client's brand and enable them achieve their business objectives.

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We do this for several clients and you can say that we complement and enhance the capacity of our clients to deliver on their business objectives through our marketing tactics. So we use vehicles like sports, arts, culture and different activities and activations that are themed along those lines. But ultimately it is about achieving the clients' objectives.

Could you please tell me more about the culture theme projects speci cally?

There are clients who use culture as a marketing platform for consumer engagement. So what we do is help them to bring that alive, to amplify it

and to ensure that whatever sphere they have chosen is professionally exploited. Our clients have different challenges in their businesses.

C a p a c i t y, u t i l i z a t i o n , i s l o w, exchange rates have gone through the roof, cost of borrowing has gone up, the macro-economic environment is unstable, cost of energy to power businesses is increasing, the political environment is volatile. In all of these, it is becoming more difficult for businesses to stay in the game.

We recognize these challenges with the client more than ever. Whatever will affect our clients' businesses will definitely affect us. So we see ourselves as the company that helps them to achieve their objectives in this difficult business climate. We see ourselves as an extension of the clients' commercial division. Our values are primed to create an environment that helps us to deliver.

We have about five values, one of our values is 'No BS' or ''No bloated Sentences''. What it means is that we operate with candor, we are very candid, and we are open with our client and we try as much as possible to provide a system that provides feedback.

The second value is mutual respect; we respect the different stakeholders and people we work with. We respect the client, respect our staff, respect our suppliers, and respect everyone that helps us to achieve the objectives that we want to achieve. We respect our staff not just from the point of view of the staff coming to work but also ensuring that they have a good

work-life balance. Apar t from mutual respect, we are building relationships every day. Some of the clients that we work for, we have been with since we started the business. Of course, our teams are very important, so our environment is one where we reward team work and we try to make sure that this comes through in everything that we do. We also try and do all of these within an environment of integrity.

What would you say technology has done to this kind of business?

Technology has really done a lot, if you look at the context of digitization and if you understand that 20-30years ago, the consumer engagement model was ver y different. The consumer engagement model was one-way.

You had the radio, television, newspapers, magazines, billboards, etc. All of these were static and communication was in one direction. With digitization, with technology everything has changed. Technology has enabled a new communication process where you are able to get instant feedback.

Every event, advertising, and other marketing activities provide room for interaction with the consumer in a way that conversations are enabled.

Could you share some of the big moments you've had over the years?

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Octagon. I will like to also use the opportunity to respectfully acknowledge some of the finest men we have worked with who are not with us anymore; Chief Ayo Ositelu, who was one of Nigeria's best tennis writers, and Chief Molade Okoya Thomas, who passed on recently.

how to do best. We have been lucky to work with clients, who have also given us very good platforms, to show what we have in terms of enhancing their objectives. So I may not be able to point to any specifics, but I would say that our work for Coca Cola for example is a good moment. If you look at the kind of work that we did for them in the last four to five years particularly in the area of their football engagement, looking and Copa Coca Cola and the rest of them, we are very proud of that.

What challenge do you think the experiential industry needs to tackle?

Taking our industry to the next level is where we have a ver y big challenge. We need to do something about the kind of marketing education are we giving to people who are leaving school and joining the agencies. At the agency too what kind of education do we have? Can I boast that if you have worked with any agency in this space that you can compete anywhere in the world? We are a knowledge-based industry. We are about intellectual capacity and therefore our greatest investment in Connect Marketing is in developing that intellectual capacity in the marketing area, the project management area, and the leadership area.

We are a very proud of the work that we've done over the years for MasterCard for the last four years, we are very proud of the work that we've done for Lucozade Sports, we are very proud of the work that we've done for Stanbic IBTC Bank, we are very proud of the kind of work that we' ve done for some of the breweries that we've worked for, we are proud of the work that we've done for Samsung. These and other clients have helped us grow over time. The William Sisters Project, Breaking the Mould, we are also very proud of that. That was something that we did with our affiliate,

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that, then we are deceiving ourselves. Secondly, the hungry 'can-do' attitude is also fading away in the industry. People are taking up jobs just as a means of subsistence.

What happened to 'hunger', strength and the inquisitive spirit. We believe it is important to build a competitive environment where competitors can cooperate to improve the climate in the industry.

So what are your projections for the next ve years?

For the next five years. Connect Marketing Service, is working with others to create an industry that is able to stand up, standardize its practices, and that is able to project itself even beyond our shores. If you look at our business and our industry, you will find that there is pressure from different sides and we believe that if we are going to be in existence in the next five years, we need to ensure that we strengthen the foundation.

Who is Tunji Adeyinka?

Tunji Adeyinka is a professional, he is focused, and he is a family man.

Let's face it; if we don't invest in all of

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Financing Cost Is a Major Issue – Kehinde -Lekan Salami Managing Director, Ideas House What are your peculiarities at Ideas House? deas House was set up as what I will call your specialist ideation agency, however with a penchant bias for experiential, consumer engagement and digital marketing. So our focus really is being able to generate Best-In-Class ideas that can add value to our client's brands, the consumers they desire to ser ve as well as the organizations bottom line, which is extremely important. So we don't just create ideas for the sake of ideas, we create ideas that we feel will unlock opportunities for our clients brands to own and dominate.

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Do you think experiential marketers are getting the best of attention from clients when it comes to inclusion in marketing budget?

Not exactly, and there are several reasons for that. We have a lot of clients who still don't understand the concepts of experiential marketing and what it has to offer whilst at the same time, practitioners who are ultimately the champions of the segment don't even sell the concept the way it should sell it to multinationals.

How would you respond to the general comment that marketing budget is being cut?

Are they really being cut? I'm not

sure. I would rather like to subscribe to the notion that marketing budgets are being re-aligned and constantly being evaluated and spent in those areas that clients see value in.

Can you give a candid assessment of the industry in Nigeria in the past ve years?

Well, if am to use us as an example, there has been significant growth with a number of strong partnerships. In the entire marketing communications industry, I have seen a realignment of forces; I have seen prioritization of efforts and needs. Many campaigns now shout digital amplification. And quite honestly why not? There are over 120m gsm active subscribers and the opportunity to connect at the very personal level has never been so enticing.

As a marketing practitioner, if you do not understand that that is where the market is going, then you had better go back to the drawing board and reposition appropriately to take advantage of the digital future.

Now, as regards digital campaign for some brands, what have you done so far?

In many respect, we've infused digital components into some of the experiential campaigns that we have carried out. From Guinness, FMCG and Telco, we've had some digital support in several activities that have been executed. On the grandious scale, there are some high level discussions around some new

concepts, which we will roll out before the end of the year. For the moment, I can't reveal the industry category but I can assure you that its in the right space.

What are your challenges and do you think the government could help solve these problems in any way?

To begin with, I will like to say the biggest challenge facing marketing communications industry is financial. Financing cost is a major issue; multinationals are pushing you to 60-90days payment terms, and the manner in which they are going about it in terms of how it is delivered is a big concern for me.

Typically, there are two internally recognized and acceptable ways to remunerate an agency. It's either through what we term the retainer fee remuneration model or commission based remuneration model.

What has been happening in Nigeria in recent times is clients are taking what obtains in a retainer-based structure and applying it unilaterally in a commission base structure. My comment, it simply cannot work, that's number one. Two, finance cost, typically your agency fees covers three key line items which are your cost of operations, your manpower costs and then profit at a ratio of 40:40:20. So whilst operational cost to deliver on the project is expected to be 40% of agency commission, 40% will go to manpower cost and balance 20% is your profit. That's what makes up your agency fees.

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Now in a scenario where the client expects you to fund their PO's, cost of funds is on average about 2.3 percent a month. With a 15% agency fee, it means a 30 day activation which has a 60 days payment cycle technically means that final agency fee has reduced to 8% (if client pays no later than the 60 days). The question begging for an answer is WHY should the agency pay for the cost of funds?

My viewpoint on this matter is quite simple.

Multinationals need to do something and I am happy to inform you that we now have EXMAN (Experiential Marketers Association Of Nigeria) of which I am the current Financial Secretary.

EXMAN has close to 40 registered agencies with many more joining the fold. The association is currently responsible for pushing the agenda to engage multinational companies in order to sell its story and agree on a workable model that is a win win for everyone working in line with APCON and other regulatory bodies.

How can government better support the experiential marketing industry?

I feel that government needs to do a lot more. They need to assist us in our category by having access to SME funding. If you look at how many people in the activation and experiential space that we employ across every town, every city in Nigeria on an annual basis, it means we are big employer of labour. I think the Minister of Trade and Industry + Labour & Productivity should include in policy formation a deliberate scheme that sets aside a special SME fund for marketing communication companies to be able to access and or act as guarantee to our members who seek loan from banks as long as

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those members meet cer tain criteria.

The second thing is they need to create an enabling environment and promote laws that are universal across geographies. So what obtains in Kebbi in terms of marketing association and local government charge should actually be the same thing that obtains in Calabar and Ogbomoso.

This way, we no longer have this aberration where there are different policies across the country.

Could you please tell me your best moments in the business in the last ve years?

It depends on how you are going to categorize it. When you talk of my staff, and when I see fulfillment, for me that is gratifying, that is a major achievement and a good moment.

When I see the fact that month on month, you are able to keep to your promises as a business leader with respect to meeting your financial o b l i g at i o n s I s e e t h at a s a n achievement and a good moment.

When I see some of the things that we' ve conceptualized in this business, which hither to the marketing industries think not, I see that as a good moment.

I'm happy to see that we are reshaping the industry by creating a new space of Ideation, redefining processes and challenging conventions on a daily basis as an in-built habit. Our recently rolled out 'Guinness Ref' on trade project is testament to our ideation and execution belief system.

When I also see the growth of the business, over the last six years, I see that as a good moment, and when I see some of the CSR initiatives that we carry out as a business to assist our chosen

charities and the smile it brings to their faces, it makes me a very happy man, a fulfilled business leader.

So what are you projections for the next ve years?

In the immediate, my goal is for us to win a Cannes Gold Lion award, and most certainly win a Loeries award. If experiential agencies are successful in being entered into LAIF awards, I would also be delighted if we can win some awards there too. I has spoken to some senior members of the organizing committee to consider including our sector in future editions and current feedback appears positive fingers crossed. As an ideation agency whose vision is to Be The Number One Ideas Factory Of Reference, we can only lay claim to that accolade once we win a major international award. As we move forward, we also desire to entrench our footprint in the digital space and really prep up our special projects offering creating p ro p o s i t i o n s a n d m a r k e t i n g properties that have a life of their own.

Co u l d yo u p l e a s e d e s c r i b e yourself in three words?

I am highly professional, target driven and a great motivator of talent

Experiential Marketers Are Getting More Recognition- kunle Onime Managing Director MPC Limited www.marketingworldmag.com 38

What are your ethics and focus here at MPC? ur focus has always been the fact that we are the fi r s t indigenous experiential marketing agency in Nigeria. The fact that we are the first indigenous experiential marketing agency means that we will remain the first in terms of service delivery we will give the best, and we hope that in the couple of years we will be able to entrench ourselves in the minds of the entire Africa.

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Are you in any other country apart from Nigeria?

We are in Ghana, we in Guinea Conakry, full fledged operations in these countries.

Could you just give me an insight of what you do at Guinea Conakry?

We operate a full fledged experiential marketing agency, We work for Guinness, Coke, our operation in Guinea started with Nestle.

What are your views on companies' budget for experiential marketing?

You know, experiential marketing is a newly evolving in this part of the world, prior to now, there was no budget at all, there was nothing. In fact a lot of people do not believe in experiential marketing. But as time evolved, things started to change and things started to pick up. Prior to now, it was a marketer's market but now it's a consumer's market. If you want to reach your end consumers d i re c t l y, t h e n yo u m u s t g o experiential.

So things have started to change, things have started to evolve, as a result of that we are beginning to get a little bit of recognition, we are

beginning to get a little bit of acceptability, people are beginning to recognize the fact that , experiential is a key arm of marketing. We've started getting a little bit of budget, and as time goes on, things will begin to improve; things will begin to pick up. Even with political campaigns all over the place, people are going experiential.

So we are getting that kind of recognition and acceptability, in a couple of years from now, there will be a bigger boom in the business, and there would be more significant improvement in the Experiential marketing budget.

What could you say has been the in uence of technology on the business?

Technology has taken a major shape, it has helped to assist in growth, it has helped to form and develop the business further, so much so that its gone beyond just going into the market and making noise.

What is your biggest campaign in the last ve years?

For me, what we sell is memory, memorability and recall. We try to ensure that every of our events and activations, there is what a customer, consumer is able to take out.

We create an experience between you and the product that is on display, so much so that you will fall in love with it because we have created an affinity between you and that product. So we have several of those, I can hit my chest to say that have done more than five million road shows, in this country. I started experiential marketing in Nigeria since 1994, for some brands, we do as much as 500 activations in a year, some 350, some 300, some 200.

Calculate it, and some years we could be running like 10 – 15 different brands, so let's do a calculation on it, if am running nothing less than minimum of 10

and am running 250 activations per year for 15 years, what would that be. All these are good moments and good campaigns for us.

What are your challenges and do you think the government can help in any way?

The government is making matters worse, the challenges that we face here is the same challenges every other exper iential mar keting agencies face across Nigeria.

First of all, the government has failed to realize that we are a major player in the growing economy of this country. We take a lot of armed robbers off the streets. Now imagine all those number of people that we employ, if MPC alone says that we have 40 staff, there is no experiential marketing agency in this country that has less than a 100 casual staff, promoters and brand ambassadors.

The government has failed to recognize us, but yet exploit us. You pay tax to local governments, you pay to state, you pay to federal, in the course of our activations, you have to pay LASAA fees, Kai, police, area boys,etc and that is a lot of money.

What are your projections for the next ve years here?

Our projections are very clear; we've been in operations as MPC since 1999, and hopefully we will be here forever, by the grace of God. We are going to have a huge celebration when we are 20 and by that time, we would have captured a minimum of 5 Africa countries, we are in 3 now, we hope to catch another 2, we would have caught those 2 but our movement to a permanent office slowed us down in terms of our financing, growth and developmental plans.but now we are beginning to stabilize again and then we will move into 2 more countries, and that will commemorate our 20 years in existence in the business of experiential marketing as a

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There Is A Differential Between Events And ExperientialBiodun Oshinibosi Project Marshal Abelinis Limited What is Abelinis' DNA all about? e are a project intellig e n t compa ny with values anchor ed at delivering unique experiences profitably without compromising on best practices and quality.

Freedom through responsibility and diversity through people…colleagues, family and society at large

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What are your views on adequate inclusion of experiential budget in the overall marketing budget by companies that we have around?

Most companies are tactfully penetrating and earning share value using experiential initiatives, hence it makes load of business s e n s e to b o o s t t h e c h a n n e l adequately to further achieve desired business results.

Association of Nigeria with over 30 registered members and our leaders are engaging appropriate authorities with the bid to earn desired status where necessary.

Many people in the industry say the payment pattern has not helped the business. What are your views?

I truthfully think so because of a number of concerns. Most clients now pay between 30 – 90 days after retirement/invoicing which means that agencies need to source for funds (At high interest rates most time because of time constraints) to execute jobs. By the time payment is made, one is left with slim margin after paying the bank and deducting running costs within specified period.

However, some of us are lucky with some of the clients we work with as our concerns in this regard are constantly been addressed.

Can you give an assessment of experiential marketing in Nigeria now?

Well, I think it's growing progressively. Businesses now know that there is a differential between events and experiential initiatives. From north to south, east to west, urban and rural, experiential ideas are being implemented to achieve marketing needs.

Apart from the challenges you have with the payment pattern, what are the other challenges and do you think the government can help in anyway?

Running businesses in Nigeria is quite challenging because the very basics are lacking. The business ambience is not friendly as it is easier for the elephant to pass through the needle's eye than to get funds most times. Electric Power generation and access to business funds are the major challenges.

W e n o w h a v e EXMAN…Experiential Marketers

In enhancing the business ambience, government can help

by ensuring the very basics are available…Quick access to soft funds, increased power generation, regulated and securely monitored tax system which eradicates multiple taxation, …

What are your best moments in the business, in the last four years?

My best moments in the last four years are those moments when we win accounts and deliver unique business results exceedingly. We currently meet BTL needs of MTN, British America Tobacco Nigeria, HPZ (Home appliances category), SAP and a couple of other notable brands.

So what are your projections for the nex t ve years here at Abellinis?

Our projection is to at least be in 5 emerging African markets in 5 years. We are close to closing one already. Be the most sort after experiential agency from Africa, delivering clients satisfaction with excellence.

So how would you describe yourself?

Biodun Oshinibosi is a resourceful, result and people oriented young man that believes in making things happen. My past and present colleagues say I am a humble team player with clear vision; my kids say I am the best daddy and oniteminikan4eva says, I do fear God and I am an unconditional lover.

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Our Focus Is To Create A Vision That Differentiates Us Otis Ojeikhoa Managing Director Brands Optimal What could you say it's your focus or values at Brands Optimal? irst and foremost, it's re a l l y a b o u t where we are coming from.

We are coming from a place

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where we are just like everybody else and we were going to continue like that until this moment. If you look at all the names you have in the experiential marketing world, what t h e y o ffe r a n d h o w t h e y a re perceived, everybody looks the same.

So the challenge is how do we d i ffe re n t i a t e o u r s e l ve s, o ffe r something fresh and valuable and what sort of vision do we create for ourselves? Our focus is to create a vision that differentiates us and how to drive that vision with the core values of professionalism, selfexpression and actualization.

So what are the challenges you face in the industry not just necessarily at Brands Optimal and the industry in general?

The biggest challenge is the fact that, the profitability in this whole practice is eroding and very soon, if not checked, there will be no i n d u s t r y. T h a t ' s t h e b i g g e s t challenge.

r idiculous, rates that are not sustainable for the growth and the profitability of the marketing communication industries and get jobs and worsen the already bad situation. These are the key challenges we face. To fix these issues and pursue the overall growth and profitability of the industry, The Experiential Marketers Association of N igeria (EXMAN) has been formed. Through this umbrella, we will improve and help develop the much needed skills sets, empower members to excel and protect the professionalism of the practice.

So what are the contributing factors?

Why are we losing? First, you have clients that increase their payment terms arbitrarily without logic and rational. When payment terms are moved from 30 days to 120 days, agency commissions are reduced by wide margins and borrow rates at the banks are still as high as they are, surely, you have a time bomb. That's the biggest challenge. We also have the challenge of multiple taxation by the government tax authorities who harass you to same tax and levi at every turn you take. Skill development has become also more expensive now. You hear about unemployability of candidates often nowadays. It is true. The cost of developing skills has significantly increased because of weak e d u c a t i o n a l fo u n d a t i o n . T h i s increases the cost of operations against dwindling profitability. It is very difficult now to get people that you can brief and they do the job easily. So you spend a lot of money which is expected though, but it's a lot more difficult now to develop skills, build skills in people than it was in the past. So that's also our massive challenge.

Let's talk about the big moment, the campaigns you've loved so far in the business?

They are many and i am proud of many of them. To answer your question however, I will mention a few as I remember them. The Zain official market launch is one of them.

When Zain was going to launch we were challenged to plan and execute an iconic experiential launch campaign worthy of a giant like Zain.

So for me the challenge then was that how do we find an iconic location where we could have such a launch? So I took a car, I drove around Lagos, visited iconic locations including TBS, National Theatre and all of those places. They all just fell short of iconic. Then I drove through the Bar Beach which was still under contruction at that time but the plain had been paved and finished. I saw it and I said; yes!

This is it. Experiential activation with over 500 man crew by the Atlantic Ocean should be iconic.

Then of cause there is the challenge of quackery in the experiential marketing practice. Because there no regulation it's almost like an all comers affair. So if you have a laptop, if you have been a team leader in some activation or event, people automatically see themselves as practitioners - you can go into a client office, offer rates that are

It was the first time that activation will happen at the New Bar Beach, now it's being used every day. The audacity of choice and the massive deployment of equipment and helicopters all turned our magical.

The other one that am very proud of is the platform, ''Airtel Night of Influence'' which we created. It was absolutely world class from the

ideation to the strategy behind it, to the eventual execution and the results that came out of it were truly remarkable.

Then of course, the rebirth of Lacasera, the Lacasera Apple story campaign that we ran some years back. That was also a defining moment of my career. Then of course Hero Lager Beer from conceptualization to launch and what we continue to do for the Brand today make me feel very proud. After 28yrs of void, we redefined the night life experience in Onitsha.

S o how would you describ e yourself?

I am a restless person, mentally on the move. I want to do something big, I don't think that I have done anything big yet that's why am restless.

I love to work. I also love to think.

When am in a brain storm session, you wouldn't know that it's the same quiet Otis. I just like to let myself go at those moments.

I am also running against time, so many things that I should have done by now that I have not done.

Above all, I love my family.

So where do you think Brands Optimal will be in the next ve years?

Definitely we will be a name to reckon with in the experiential marketing environment or in the communications industry. We will continue to do great stuff and work hard at creating enjoyable moments while at it.

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Time, Money, Manpower. These Are Our Challenges - Ayo Elias Managing Director Tequila Nigeria www.marketingworldmag.com 44

What's your focus here at Tequila, what are your values?

Our values c a n b e summed up in these w o r d s .

Number o n e : I n t e g r i t y, Number two: A sense of urgency, Number Three: A commitment to continuous improvement, Number Four: Mutual Respect and Five: Team Work. Those are the values that drive us, so that we can deliver on the expectations of our clients. We don't want to just deliver to their expectations but surpass them; so that way we can be assured that the business that we have with them can be sustained.

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Do you think experiential agencies are being adequately funded by clients?

When you talk about marketing budget, it is all a factor of different things. It depends on what the client's ambitions are in the market; What brands the budget is backing; What the client believes the brands can do in terms of gaining market share, having more affinity among its consumers, and how that eventually turns out to profit the client. So the thing is that agencies don't have the say in what the budget will be, but there is a responsibility to ensure that the budgets are judiciously spent such that the brand gains value for it and the clients gains values for it too. So therefore, the thing about budgets is, they are guidelines but then, they also become the means by which you can, do some good work, some great work depending on the variables that you meet in the market place.

It also depends on what the brand is, what the character of the environment is, the mindset of the c o n s u m e r s, h o w t h e t r a d e i s interacting with the brand, all of these things have an impact on how

their budget will be deployed and how effective it will be. At the end of the day, everything is linked with the client achieving its desired goals.

What are the challenges you face on this job and can the government help in any way?

The challenges we have are time, m o n e y a n d m a n p o w e r. T i m e because more often than not you find out that the clients are rushing the agencies into implementation and sometimes the prep time is not adequate. It's also evidenced from a brief that comes on a Monday and the client wants to get an immediate response; sometimes you hear 24hours, sometimes it is 48hours. If you have a very good client, you can have 1week to 2weeks, but sometimes they give 24-48 hours turnaround time, so time is an issue.

Money is an issue because, more often than not you find out that Below the Line agencies are using their money or credit from the banks, to run these operations. It is a challenge because there is so much that an agency can have at any given point in time based on the work that it is currently executing, what it is being owed based on work that has been previously done and the scope of that new job or the new jobs that it has to execute.

Since we are not the Central Bank of Nigeria, you definitely have to be very creative in how you manage money with respect to getting the jobs done.

Finally, manpower is an issue because getting good quality people can be a challenge.

So those are the challenges: time, money, manpower, not necessarily in that order; but if it were to be ordered, I will put money first. It is a major challenge.

things, but technology must work within an environment that also enables it to work effectively. So I think technology really has been put to good use whether it is on the executional side in terms of delivering a great event or even field marketing, making the field work that we do much more easier. I think there is still a lot that technology can do. As the environment gradually becomes much more mature, the role of technology will only increase and get better. So the potential for it to be a significant aspect of our business is still there. Right now I will probably say that it's still something below the 50 percentile range, but the possibilities for it are very great.

So could you share with me some of your good moments in the business in the past ve years?

The work that we've done consistently for Etisalat, is a high point. Also, there are sales activations that we've done for different FMCG clients that have been good in the sense that they were challenging targets for those FMCG clients, but the agency was able to rise to the occasion and met those targets. So I will say that, overall the work that we've done for Etisalat and different FMCG clients are our high points of the past five years. This is because it shows that there is a consistency of service delivery and with the consistency of service delivery, there will definitely be a refining and enhancement of the skills that we bring to bear.

What are your projections here for the next ve years?

I think we should look at great corporate performance, business expansion and more clients.

Could you please describe yourself in three words?

Simple, Hardworking, Focused.

What is the in uence of technology on this job?

Technology can always influence

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Alomo Bitters: The health Gains of a Seal

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ctivities of counterfeiter s of fast m o v i n g consumer g o o d s (FMCG) in the country have been a major source of concern to manufacturers and government regulatory agencies. Apart from the loss of income and other problems counterfeiters create for manufacturers, the health implication of consuming these counterfeit products on a nation is best imagined than felt.

The increasing prospec ts and exponential growth of the alcoholic bitters market has made products in

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this category susceptible to activities of counter feiters who illegally benefit from the growth of the market which is largely fuel by the huge annual adverting, marketing and promotions (AMP) budget of manufacturers.

shining seal which is similar to that found on the non-polymer Nigerian N a i r a n o t e s, a n d i t h a s b e e n strategically positioned on the cap of every bottle of Alomo Bitters for easy identification of the authentic bitters brand as against the imitation.

In other to protect consumers' health and follow through on its corporate objec tives and philosophy of providing consumers with authentic African herbal bitters, Kasapreko Company Limited, producer of the multiple awards-winning medicinal alcoholic beverage, Alomo Bitters, came up with a strategic step, the launch of a new hologram seal cap, to help consumers differentiate the authentic Alomo Bitters easily.

The Hologram seal is a silver-like

Speaking at the unveiling in Lagos, the Managing Director, Kasapreko Company Nigeria Limited, Mr. Kojo Nunoo said the introduction of hologram seal on the caps is one of the initiatives by the company to checkmate criminal faking of Alomo Bitters by unscrupulous profiteers and to protect consumers against the consumption of substandard bitters products which endanger human life.

“This initiative is a security standard for global brands, and essentially it is meant to ensure clear brand differentiation and to highlight the unique features that distinguish Alomo Bitters from the imitated version and other substandard bitters products in the market,” Nunoo said.

He added, ''criminal faking of the original Alomo Bitters has been a major challenge we face in Nigeria.

As a company that places priority on the wellbeing of our consumers, this bothers us a lot. Hence the launch of the new hologram is aimed at helping the consumers identify the authentic Alomo Bitters when making purchase.'’

Buttressing the process involved in having the hologram security features on the caps of Alomo Bitters bottles, Nunoo said the company went as far as Germany and the

United States to get reputable hologram seal companies to create the unique hologram for the brand.

“This is how much we value the wellbeing of our consumers,” he stressed.

The Head, Consumer Prospection Council (CPC), Lagos office, Mr. Tam Ta m u n o k o m b i a c o m m e n d e d Kasapreko Company Nigeria Limited for rising up to the challenge of protecting consumers of their product, Alomo Bitters. “CPC is charged by the federal government with the responsibility of attending to consumers complain and also protecting consumers from activities of importers and manufacturing of substandard products and counterfeiters of existing ones”.

He added that “we congratulate Kasapreko for this effort because apart from protecting consumers

this gesture would also check activities of counterfeiters which is definitely affecting the market share of the brand” Special Guest and Special Adviser (Commerce and Industry) to the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Seye Oladejo, commended Kasapreko for taking another bold step in consumer protection, and said the dangers of consuming counterfeit and substandard products were numerous among which were ill health and loss of life.

“Since Alomo Bitters has a big market share in N igeria, it is important to also start manufacturing the brand here in Nigeria, the Lagos State Government is developing large Agro – Industrial Parks in Imota Ikorodu and Ilara, Igbo-nla Epe to provide the much needed support for companies like Kasapreko to manufacture here in Lagos.

“With the hologram seal now on the caps of Alomo Bitters, I am confident to state that consumers will not only continue to enjoy their favourite medicinal Alomo Bitters, but they will also remain healthy and safe,” he said.

Speaking on the rationale for the new Hologram seal, the Marketing Manager, Kasapreko Company Nigeria Limited, Mr. Peter Adegor, said the need to protect Alomo Bitters brand equity and to continue to guarantee consumer safety were paramount to the management of the company.

“We need to exterminate this fear and reassure consumers that they can still enjoy their favourite Alomo Bitters. The launch of the hologram seal, therefore, speaks to our determination to make our consumers continue to live healthy and active lives by having access to genuine and authentic herbal drink they have always stayed with, which is Alomo Bitters,” Adegor said.

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The All- New Mercedes-Benz C-Class; An Entirely Different Experience

By Derrick Tagoe

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h e n e w Mercedes CClass is here to take on the BMW 3 S e r i e s , Jaguar XE and Audi A4 i n t h e competitive compact executive sector. Prices start just under $38,400, making the C-Class slightly more expensive than the outgoing model, and slightly pricier than the competition. The new C-class heralds a new era in the MercedesBenz success story and sets new standards in the premium mediumsized category.

It is the first car to be built using Mercedes’ new rear-wheel drive architecture (MRA). This uses around 50 per cent aluminum in its construction – up from 10 per cent before – and cuts 70kg from the body. Other weight savings mean the new C-Class weighs around 100kg less than previously, which all helps improve the driving experience.

The big selling engine is expected www.marketingworldmag.com 48

to be the 2.1-litre diesel in the C220 and C250 BluTEC, which provides plenty of power and competitive claimed fuel economy figures.

However, it’s carried over from the previous car and remains pretty gruff and noisy.

The C-Class’ upmarket atmosphere is spoiled when you twist the key and Mercedes’ ageing diesel rattles into life. The 2.1-litre engine fails to settle down on the move, either – it sounds strained when extended and drones on the motorway.

The new C-Class is a bold departure from its predecessor. Its striking and dynamic design clearly exudes sensuality and arouses the emotions. The hallmark propor tions of the Mercedes saloon are seen in the long bonnet, the far-sitting passenger co m p a r t m e n t a n d t h e s h o r t o v e r h a n g s . Fr o m t h e s i d e s , dropping lines also highlights a typical Mercedes-Benz signature.

The automobile offers two different front-end designs: the bold sports grille with the central star for the Avantgarde and standard design line, and the classic radiator grille with the central atop the bonnet for

the Exclusive design line. These front-end designs demonstrate the e ffo r t l e s s s u p e r i o r i t y o f t h e Mercedes-Benz design.

The rear design also emphasizes width and its powerful shoulders give the C-Class another striking athletic appearance. Rear light design is distinctive and gives the car an unmistakable identity in the dark.

The interior design in the C-Class is on a level that can be found in higher vehicle categories. This applies to the carefully chosen high-class materials and precision of the finely-crafted details.

Up front, there’s lots of room in the comfortable seats, with plenty head and legroom. The driving position is better aligned now, too, and visibility is good. There’s plenty of space in the doors and dash to store the usual on-board clutter, with all models including a media interface for connecting your smartphone to the car.

Many of the new C-Class’ components are well proven – it has an established engine and gearbox.

As you would expect from a new Mercedes, the C-Class is loaded with standard safety kit, including seven airbags, a driver tiredness monitor and tyre-pressure warning. It’s been given a five-star Euro NCAP crash test rating.

Plus, you can add hi-tech options like Driver Assistance Pack, which brings blind-spot warning, lane departure assist and adaptive cruise control. Other highlights fitted to the car include an £825 head-up display and £545 Active LED lights with cornering function and high-beam assist.

Airtel Nigeria Unveils New Outlet at Apapa Mall essence as a customerc e n t r i c o rg a n i z at i o n and we are here to render quality services to all our new and existing customers in this locality.

He described the shop as a one -stop solution centre for customers residing in Apapa and environs, and assuredresiden ts that Airtel L-R: Oladapo Dosumu; GM, Sales & Distribution Airtel Nigeria; Femi Oshinlaja, Regional Operations Director Lagos, will continue to Airtel Nigeria; Edero Daro – Idollo, Regional Retail Head, Lagos, Airtel Nigeria; Alhaji Baale Ajibola Igbalaye, Representing His Royal Majesty Oba Fatai Aromire, The Oba of Ijora Iganmu Kingdom Apapa, Lagos; Alhaja Sariatu Amusa, create specific Iyaloja of Ifelodun Ogungbe Market, Apapa and Tolulope Tope-Awofeko, Head Retail Showroom & Franchise, Airtel Nigeria during value offerings the commissioning of Airtel Apapa Mall Showroom, in Lagos. that will not only meet their among other services. communicatio Speaking at the launch, the ns needs but also help them company’s Regional Operations eading succeed in their respective Director, Lagos, Mr. Femi Oshinlaja, Telecomm endeavours. explained that the new service unications While cutting the tape to declare the point was in line with the company’s service showroom open, His Royal Majesty goal of taking its customer service provider, Oba Fatai Aromire, Oba of Ijora d e l i ve r y to t h e d o o r s te p s o f A i r t e l Iganmu Kingdom, commended Nigerians.

Nigeria Airtel for expanding its customer has taken service channels to the people of He said: “This project was born out further steps to deepen customer Apapa and environs. of the commitment and desire to service delivery through its retail reach people around this locality footprints, with the commissioning The Oba, who was represented by with the quality products and of an Alhaji Baale Ajibola Igbalaye, noted services of Airtel, and also to provide ultramodern showroom in Apapa, the showroom will afford residents solutions to challenges faced by Lagos. of the area easy access to Airtel’s both new and existing customers on robust range of products and the Airtel Network”.

The new showroom which is located services and also offer quicker in the Apapa Mall, along Park Lane, resolution to service related issues.

He noted that the showroom will is a walk-in service centre that offers The Airtel Apapa Mall showroom address the quest for better service customers the convenience and has five service points and a VIP experience by the residents of ease of access to Airtel’s range of section designed to offer express Apapa and environs just as he value-added products and services services to high value customers. It addedthat quality customer service as well as the comfort of first-hand is a full-fledged service delivery delivery is at the heart of the contact and interactions with point as well as customer o p e r a t i o n s o f t h e c o m p a n y, customer service agents. relationship centre that will provide explaining that this attribute has The shop is fully equipped to both existing and prospective accounted for several awards in provide a diverse range of services customers sales and service favour of the company. including enquiries, SIM registration support.

According to him, “Quality customer and replacement, sales of low-end ser vice deliver y is the main and high-end mobile devices, ingredient that defines our very electronic and voucher recharge

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