Food war in a recession:as an avid advert watcher,I noticed the ‘food’ war going on in the Telco world.So, MTN,Etisalat and Glo all have adverts with food as well as some great comedians telling or is it showing the story.Was this a coincidence or no?How well were the stories told?Well,lets see….. And the contestants are:
- MTN Awuf4u featuring Eba and meat with Nkem Owoh(osuofia)-February 2017-2,000 views on Youtube
- Etisalat Offer 2017 featuring Rice,no meat and other friends with #Fishentertainer and Eniola Badmus-February 2017-62,000 views on Youtube
- Glo formula featuring Amala and ewedu with Papy luwe and friends-April 2017-8,100 views on Youtube
Synopsis:All the adverts are trying to explain their promotional value offers ie recharge and get X times more airtime..They are all 60 second ads and seem to have been uploaded around the same time
AD1(MTN) shows Osuofia going to eat at his favorite canteen which seems to have a dress code(yellow) for you to enjoy the special offer of 4X the quantity of food you pay for.Man 1 pays for his food with N100 and Osuofia pays the same amount and gets 4 times the quantity.Day 2-Man comes in yellow attire and gets the osuofia treatment!
Message:Recharge with N100 and get 4X the amount in airtime.
Comment:I had to watch several times to get the message from the visuals and was only helped along by the voice over and written text on the ad.Nice music though.
AD2(Etisalat) shows up and coming comedian -fishentertainer -going into a restaurant to order N200 rice with no meat.Upon bringing his food, they now proceeded to set another table full of goodies in front of him and he asked to clarify whether this was all for his N200.
Message:recharge with N200 and get N1200
Comment:so good was the storyline with its relatable use of consumer insights that I looked forward to seeing it whenever it was due to show.I didn’t need the text frame as the characters along with the situation explained the offer quite well.Only snag is that the offer is for newbies only and usage of a % figure to explain a preexisting offer for current subscribers was not too useful:we (9ja consumers)don’t calculate percentages….
AD3(GLO) shows a typical mechanic workshop setting with 4 ‘seniors’-Pappy Luwe and friends who have ordered an apprentice to get them food from his bargain giving special mama put..praising him vociferously only to see another apprentice with 4 big bowls of amala in front of him.Turns out that mama Risi was doing ‘promo’ with her food and the 1st apprentice had played a fast one on his Ogas by pocketing the change.
Message:Recharge with N100 and get 4X the amount in airtime.
Comment:like the MTN one, I had to watch several times to understand the connection between the food and the offer.Only saving grace was great acting by the comedians involved.
And the winner is……*rings bell*—–Rice with no meat!!!…refreshing and very relatable twist in the food wars…up to the use of word of mouth technique-when the Hungry young man calls a friend to “show now now” and come and partake of the goodies.Nice.
Top site ,.. i will save for later !