Am sure you
all must have heard Genevieve Nnaji is the latest Etisalat Ambassador in town
and the deal is said to be worth 100million Naira.
In this
article, Charles Novia discusses celebrity endorsements using Genevieve’s
latest endorsement citing Genny's endorsement as an example...Read below:
A couple of days ago, there was an excited
buzz on social media in Nigeria that Nollywood actress, Genevieve Nnaji, has
been signed on as one of the new Brand Ambassadors of Etisalat, a
telecommunications company operating in Nigeria and sundry parts of the globe.
Amid the congratulatory messages from her fans sent to her on some sites, a few
cynical remarks caught my attention. (By the way, congrats Ms Nnaji!) One
commentator simply known as ‘Da Trut’ wrote in one of the comments section in a
blog which I reproduce here; ‘Congrats, Genevieve. But wait o…your Boyfriend,
D’Banj is a Glo Ambassador and now you are an Etisalat Ambassador. It has been
reported that two of you will marry this year after being live-in-lovers and
dating steadily for a while now. Since both of you have not denied this piece
of news, I assume that it is true. With this new deal of yours, does it mean
you cannot attend any show sponsored by Globacom in which D’Banj is a headliner
despite him being your BF and you being expected to support your beau? And same
goes for him too in any of your Etisalat sponsored shows? Won’t your
relationship be strained by this?’ However nosy this comment may seem to some
people, there is an underlying fact which many celebrities and of course the
general public have overlooked when it comes to signing brand endorsements.
Most of these contracts, if not all, are watertight for the artiste. The dos
and don’ts imposed on the artistes could be argued in a civil rights court of
law! But then, most artistes are quick to sign off the dotted lines basically
because of the lump sum being paid to them by the competing brands. Which is
all well and good too, depending on how you look at it. And don’t get me wrong.
I wholly commend all the brands cashing in on the perceived goodwill and
traction many of these celebs have and investing in their art and to a large
extent, the entertainment industry.
These brands have uplifted the creative
industries through such investments and the industry is the better for it.
Really, it is. However, a glaring reality is coming to the fore and many may
laugh it off right now but it is staring at us in the face. In 2013, many of
the live events and sponsored concerts were tepid in performance value. Many of
the top acts had been signed by one telecom brand or the other and since the
headliners in the music industry have divided their brand endorsements among
various telcos, many could not perform for friends or business concerns where a
competing telco or brand was a major or support sponsor. This was basically
because of watertight caveats in the artistes’ contracts which forbid them from
attending such shows. Thus, most of the live concerts in 2014 in Nigeria were
either lacking in major star power or just repetitive in talents signed on by
the brands. And the performance values of such events were basically average.
Many of the brands which had campus shows suffered this fate.
In October 2013,
the Nollywood Movies Awards held at the posh Intercontinental Hotel, in Lagos.
Comedian Basketmouth had been hyped as the compeer of the evening, supported by
Dakore Akande. I was standing at the red carpet lobby, interacting with invited
guests as we had cocktails when one of the organisers, Alfred Soroh, came up to
me. He whispered to me that there was a problem and it had to be solved
urgently. Apparently, immediately Basketmouth came out of the lift and saw a huge
backdrop with Etisalat written on it, he quickly dashed back and refused to compeer
the show. His reason was that he was a Glo Ambassador and could not be seen on
an Etisalat sponsored show. It makes sense. When I asked the organisers if they
didn’t think it out before deciding on Basketmouth as the compeer, they
explained that Etisalat came in just a few days to the event. Segun Arinze, a
tested and trusted hand, had to be drafted immediately to co-compeer the event.
The example above is one of many others which are a usual occurrence. My gut
feeling is this; the business will grow for the brands but the whole
performance and event industry may very well suffer for this. For example, if a
movie awards event had MTN as the major sponsor and 50% of the nominees are Glo
Ambassadors, only an idiot would need explanations on why half the nominees
would not be present at the awards even if they eventually won. Same goes for
music awards events. This cycle is becoming predictable. And the performance
value suffers for it. But there may be those who would argue that the brands
are capable of sponsoring their own events with only their brand ambassadors as
headliners. I concur but for every show such brands sponsor, it becomes
predictable. I would know that any MTN show would have Wizkid, KCee, Davido,
Don Jazzy and other ambassadors as performers just as a Glo event would have
MI, Bez, Lynnx, Omawunmi, Burna Boy, D’Banj etc as performers. Truth be told,
when you watch them once, you have watched it all. Bring them up again in
another sponsored show, even for free and many would reluctantly attend just as
many would not. Performance value. Brand Managers reading this may well snigger
at this but I would advise that they meet with their counterparts in other
companies suffering this same problem and iron out a few of these issues.
Artistes must be free to attend other shows of competing brands as long as they
don’t endorse the sponsoring brand nor endorse their own brand in such shows.
Harmony is needed. The entertainment industry should not be cannon fodder for
the corporate wars. In 2014, we all must enhance the performance value. (By the
way, that phrase is my coinage and I think I like it.) The artistes themselves
must step up their game. There is too much emphasis on the cars they buy or the
shoes they wear by their publicists, which is not bad by itself but it gets
overdone and sometimes come out in bad taste.
Artistes should be seen to be
adding value to their lives and the society through more of personal social responsibility
programmes rather than personal ‘I don buy am’ publicity stunts. Granted, how
they spend their money is entirely their business but the people out there
don’t really know how they MAKE their money most times. And it’s not from shows
or endorsements only as they are made to believe. Story for another day. What I
am saying is; how many of these new generation artistes have impacted
positively on the moral conscience and inspirational equity of the youths? Very
few. In music, almost none. In Nollywood, just a cosmetic impact. Story again
for another day. But I am not going to knock anyone in this write-up. I commend
the dedicated efforts we all have put over the years to build the entertainment
industry to this level. But the level is still in a pre-foundation stage. The
structures are lacking. As we like to say all the time ‘but we will get there!’
Where ‘there’ is as good your guess as mine.
And my
opinion is basically, my opinion.
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