The Hey-Ho orange juice TV commercials that promoted the brand in Kenya in the 1970s were created in the UK.
The
fact that the Caucasian actors were not a reflection of the market did
not matter to us as much as the enjoyment of seeing in motion happy
people consuming juice from freshly squeezed oranges on colour
television, which was the latest development in broadcast technology at
the time.
Come the 2000s and Kenyans rejected a
telco’s advertising enmass even though it contained African actors.
Research at the time showed that consumers had evolved and now preferred
to see their ‘own’ in advertising content for it to be both relevant
and engaging.
The telco’s plan of shooting commercials
in South Africa with models selected for having the appearance that
would pass as universally African seemed like a very good idea at the
time.
They could create some great advertising and
make wonderful savings from central location shooting and production,
and then deliver it to audiences across the continent.
You can blame the daily helpings of local dramas with storylines and production values that deeply resonated with the wananchi.
As
the ratings of local content shot through the roof, the work of
marketing managers rose to their eyebrows because the highest
advertising memorability and appeal was now associated with local
celebrities and cultural trends.
It still beats me that brands with multi-million
shilling media budgets would import productions with black actors of
unknown origin and then slap on lip-syncing.
Ironically,
the few millions they save on producing great ads will be demanded to
fix the brand image when determined competitors in the category come
calling.
While in Addis Ababa last week we were
introduced to a new beer brand called Habesha that is growing by leaps
and bounds. The story was told to us by an Ethiopian media executive who
was developing promotional activities for the brand, so like with
tequila, we took the tale with a pinch of salt.
The
brand has been introduced into the market and in less than a year it has
become one of the most popular beverages, and when we asked our hosts
to recommend a drink they named Habesha Beer without a hint of
hesitation.
This was one demonstration that it had
captured the imagination of the Ethiopian beer consumers. We also
observed that when bottles of Habesha were served, diners would
immediately pick them up and stare at the word ‘Cold Gold’ on the label.
We
launched an immediate investigation to find out what caused this
curious behaviour and found the answer on the back label where it was
promised that if the text of the word ‘Cold Gold’ had turned blue, then
the beer was at the perfect drinking temperature; if the text was still
white, then it was not cool enough.
In a country that
has frequent power blackouts, this is a wonderful gimmick that initiates
a social norm as the ceremony of determining the chill factor of beer
is performed before consumption.
Obviously this idea
wouldn’t fly in markets where beverages are always served ice-cold
irrespective of the organ-numbing temperatures outside.
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