MUSICAL CHAIRS

He who pays the piper calls the TUNE.
 This saying does not apply in Kenyan Marketing and Advertising. Actually a few Corporates have tried  their hand at marketing through Music.

The first one bieng Tusker with its T.V show Tusker Project Fame

which ha run for six consecutive  seasons, the winners of the show however do not have exactly successful music careers.
 Another Trial was by Orange Telekom. Orange beat ya street.

This was a dance show targeted towards the youth

 It was televised for about three months and winners announced and that was about it.

The next casualty is Airtel. with its Airtel Trace Music Star

 the cycle continues televised for two months winner announced and show is over may be they will be another season next time.

Musical chair for those who never played this game this is how it is played. For example four chairs are arranged in a straight line and they are four participants who go round these chairs as music plays in the back ground.Immediately  the music stops all participants are supposed to be seated. Whoever is not seated is out of the game till one winner is left.

The winner of the Corporate Musical chair is Safaricom.
  Safaricom understand the concept of O M R.

To get the largest market share through music it is not a sprint but a marathon.
Safaricom have employed the  OMR  concept which means.

 1Obtain.Obtaining this is the easy part through aggressive marketing now you have a large audience and have all of their attention.

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2 Maintain. Maintenance here is  where you keep the audience involved and interested.

3.Retain. To retain now here is the most difficult part.Keep the audience always coming back year after year without fail.
Safaricom has not held any Musical competition Instead they invested in festivals.

The Safaricom Jazz Festival. Held at the  Ngong Race Course.It  was packed audience with over six thousand attendants.Every one who attended had something positive about the positive.In another 4 months there will be another Jazz Festival and even a larger audience will attend Kudos Safaricom.

FACE THE MUSIC

The year 2014 is  one of the worst years for advertising in Kenya.
Where did all the creativity go?.

One particular campaign is extremley poor in every form, manner and kind

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For this campaign Airtel has two T.V Commercials.The first one is of a lady in the office and tries her luck at singing to win a chance to win a trip to be with Akon and get a recording deal.

 Airtel is mocking Kenyan talent, the lyrics which this lady sings are so horrible,"unataka number yangu boy,nina taka number yako girl."now here comes the worst part of this commercial finishes by saying Yeah believing she has nailed it.The lady cannot sing to save her life.

Now the second advert is equally worst.A Chef comes in and starts singing a jaguar song as he cooks.They are already two problems 1.Jaguar cannot sing.2.The chef cannot sing, my advice stick to cooking.

Airtel is mocking kenyan talent.The concept behind the campaign is for one to sing and win a trip to be a trace music star with AKON. Yes Akon is the ambassador.

Here are some facts for Airtel.

1.Every one can sing
2.Not every one can  sing exceptionally well.
3.It is for the above reason not every one should sing.
4.A nice singing voice is a talent a gift which few poses on this planet.
5.For the best results talent is harnessed and nutured to produce perfection.
6.Someone singing through the phone is not an accurate basis to judge a competitors vocal range and ability Akon knows this.Super stars practice fours hours days and years.Trace knows this. Kindly Trace do not insult our intelligence and talent.Hold better and more quality competitions.  
7.A better way to do this competition is actually through auditions.
8.Kenyans can sing however not all Kenyans can sing exceptionally well.
9 Airtel if you want to fuse with music, then open Airtel Music Academy.

ART ATTACK

There are messages that are every advert portrays. The obvious, immediately noticeable ones, which are usually whatever the advert is advertising; the product. Then there are subliminal messages. A case in point is the Airtel TV commercial Shikisha Story.

The main point of the advert is that the more you talk the more free airtime points you get. The script goes, a young man calls his mother and tells her that he wants to be a rapper. This is how he knows to get free talk time, because as soon as he says that, his mother goes into a frenzy. He later says that he is quitting his job to egg her on. The parents are in such a panic and even show up to his house in the middle of the night.

This commercial brings out issues on how Kenyan parents view The Arts; the arts being Art Craft and Music - yes I hail from that glorious era. I did all these 3 subjects in primary school and even then, they did not take them seriously - so much so that they were eliminated from the syllabus.

In the TV commercial the boy mentions that he wants to be a rapper. His mother immediately flips out; she says there is no way he can do that after they took him to school, what is he doing, etc. So basically, the advertisement is telling kids to yes, get more talk time for talking longer, but also - if you go to school, please don't waste your parents' money and become a rapper.

This is only one example - but we all know Kenyan parents think like this. Art is a failure, not a failsafe, to that generation. Forget about the fact that art just gave Okwiri Oduor, winner of the Caine Prize, 1.5 MILLION shillings. Forget that off the top of anyone's head, people can name artists IN KENYA who are LIVING off their art- whether musicians or rappers or poets or writers or photographers (Aaron Rimbui. Eric Wainaina. Kato Change. Victor Peace. Mark Kiarie. Owuor Arunga. Juliani. Nonini. DNG. DJ Stylz. DJ Pinye. Ian Mbugua...)

Speaking of Lupita Nyong'o, her win of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress was a turning point for how Kenyan parents view the Arts. Suddenly there was a perfect poster child for every Kenyan child! A KENYAN actress. On an INTERNATIONAL stage. Winning an Oscar. That meant it could be done! Granted, people may say, oh, she was an MP's daughter etc. But not all successful artists in our country are MP's children. The point is not where she came from; the point is that it was done. And that there is a way to do it - and she showed it to us.

The mentality is slowly changing. In time we will fully embrace art as a profession, and a logical career, and something to be respected and aspire to. One day we will have art and music school all over Kenya.

I believe Airtel should sponsor more Art Programs, for the simple reason that the sciences are not everything. Not everyone is going to be a doctor - and YES. Some people want to be rappers. AND THAT IS OK.

Life is painful. It has thorns, like the stem of a rose. Culture and art are the roses that bloom on the stem. The flower is yourself, your humanity. Art is the liberation of the humanity inside yourself.” 
― Daisaku Ikeda