■ Untold story of I don port o
The surprise parting of ways between Etisalat and one of the enter- tainment talents en- gaged for its brand market- ing projects, Afeez Oyetoro at the launch of Mobile Num- ber Portability in the Nigerian telecommunication market in 2013, has been blamed on the casual approach of the telecommunication company to its brand marketing and marketing communication advertising productions.
the actor was Etisalat’s brand ambassador, Saka as the actor is popularly known, was just a model on a tactical basis. He added that the assumption that the actor was a brand ambas- sador of the company was oc- casioned by the success of the campaigns he was used for.
most powerful way to commu- nicate the MTN brand as the preferred network and porting destination.
communication company, which incidentally was the market leader during the num- ber portability regime, but failed to achieve the same feat in Nigeria because according to him, MTN went on to attack instead of taking a defensive stance.
“This popular icon was en- gaged by an advertising agen- cy that used to work with Eti- salat for a couple of advertising campaigns. This particular agency worked with the actor on a project-by-project basis and did not sign a long-term contract with the actor.
“The resultant advertising campaign was a masterpiece that got the marketing industry, the marketing communication industry, the telecommunica- tion industry and the entire country talking,” he pointed out.
“A major lesson from this experience is that brand man- agers must change their casual approaches to talents engaged in brand marketing and mar- keting communication adver- tising productions,” he said, adding, “We need to develop more strategic long term re- lationships. More than ever before, brand managers also need to continuously inter- rogate the key factors behind propositions and marketing successes.”
This is the submission of a marketing management ex- pert, Kolawole Oyeyemi in his recently published book entitled, ‘Kill or get killed: The Marketing Killer Instinct.’
The campaign, the author noted in the book, hit at the heart of Etisalat’s strategy, as well as the strategies of the other competitors.
“As the youngest operator with the desire to capitalize on the mobile number portability regime for growth, the national acceptance of the campaign significantly watered down the impact the brand would have had on the market leader and on the psyche of the custom- ers with inclination to port; it threw a credibility punch at the brand. People surmised that if a major icon of the brand could port to the competition, then it was a loud encouragement to port from the brand.”
Oyeyemi noted that MTN’s competitors in neighbouring Ghana mounted aggressive campaigns against the tele-
•L-R) Dr Nkem Okeke, Deputy Governor, Chief Willie Obiano, Governor, Chief Mrs Ebelechukwu Obiano, his wife, Princess Chinwe Nwaebili, Speaker, Anambra State House of Assembly and Justice Peter Umeadi, the Chief Judge of Anambra State at a brief ceremony to mark Governor Obiano’s birthday at the Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia… at the weekend.
Oyeyemi who is currently the President of Advertisers Association of Nigeria (AD- VAN) opined that the failure of the telecommunication com- pany to evaluate the amount of value the actor added to its brand while he was with the company as well as its failure to foster a better relationship with the actor exposed him to poaching by a competitor.
“Unfortunately, Etisalat and this agency parted ways, and consequently the actor was left as a free agent at the ex- piration of the contract he had earlier signed with the disen- gaged agency. He remained a free agent until MTN’s agency approached him and a deal was struck. He was a perfect fit to communicate the switch to the MTN network,” he revealed in the book.
The book, Kill or get killed, according to the author, is a revolutionary marketing clas- sic that borrowed the war met- aphor and likened marketing to global politics and wars, which he posited are about sharehold- ing struggles.
Commenting on the rela- tionship between Etisalat and the actor, Oyeyemi noted that contrary to the public view that
Oyeyemi noted further that the idea of using a personal- ity that had come to be associ- ated with the Etisalat brand as a symbol of a switch to the MTN network was considered the
While using some of Af- rica’s famous brands and prod- ucts to illustrate his point, the author identifies factors attrib- utable to successes and failures of some of the brands.