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.

.
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

.
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.