By Sanya Ademiluyi
There was no avoiding the recent general elections. So, for the bold marketer
You had to do the next best thing: try to exploit the election fever.
Needless to say, doing this effectively is typically risky business. One wrong move or a lack of well considered ingenuity and you are toast.
That would explain why only a handful of marketers tried the tough task of tapping into the election fever that gripped the country from mid-January,2015 to early April.
The bold enough marketers include GSM network, Etisalat and online consumer goods marketer, Jumia.
Etisalat took the equally bold headline: I Choose….. Obviously, it was a season of choosing and every Nigerian old enough to vote would be drawn to those two words. Then, using the standard brand endorsement method ,it got a well known TV broadcaster, Funmi Iyanda to do the job.” I switched to Etisalat.. because it offered me something better than my former network,” she says.
Media could have been a challenge. How do you get your message noticed in a mass media clogged by political messages? Well ,you have to be bold to be noticed. Etisalat went for a front page bottom strip space. The headline –I Choose…
If that does not grab your attention in a political season I wonder what would.
The GSM network also followed up with a TV commercial, which dramatizes the same message also featuring Funmi Iyanda. Its a cinch.
Jumia on its part ,told its customers it had many choices to suit every taste. In the weeks before the earlier February 14,2015 date scheduled for the presidential elections which coincided with Valentine’s Day, Jumia put out messages which said, ‘Choose Love.’
There were others such as ,so-called ‘Election Day Special’ in which the online consumer goods marketer created sales and marketing buzz around the elections and offered discounts to buyers.
