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Oliver Twist: the Funky Marketing Lever

“Entertainment of the people, for the people, and by the people” – #OliverTwistocracy

When launching a marketing campaign, various levers may be deployed, including adverts, road shows, game shows, PR, launch events etc. The right mix of levers based on the product in question usually leads to success in the market place. This mix gives your product unstoppable leverage. The ‘D’banj-Oliver’ dance video competition, created by ace music producer Don Jazzy, is a lever of sorts.

Created on the 18^th of August, the competition has won an amazing customer patronage, boasting almost 25,000 hits in a few days. A few things are noticeable. Customer response is not local. There is a growing response from Nigerians in the Diaspora and also a few foreigners, signifying product acceptance from the Western world. A fully global reach is definitely imminent.

Analytically, one would ask, what was the customer need? What do people want? People are definitely in search of a spotlight moment, wanting to express themselves freely. The thought of a remotely possible reward further becomes an incentive to do what you have always wanted to do.  People want to dance, act, entertain, be entertained and have fun. They want to be seen, recognised, mentioned and appreciated. It is these needs that Don Jazzy either knowingly or inadvertently has targeted with this competition. With ‘The Entertainer’ himself, D’banj, featuring on the Oliver track, it makes the competition such a strategic fit to these customer needs.

Evidently, the competition is transforming customers via backward integration. They are not only receiving, they are creating and producing. The ‘D’banj – Oliver’ competition is creating producers and entertainers out of customers. The musical product is intense in fostering customer experience. Peopl e are involved in the product. It makes them happy, and fuels an internal ‘feel – good’ experience. Experiential products are known to win customers largely. So many of the videos uploaded already were clearly done for fun and nothing else, pure entertainment – the customer experience.

The typical reality TV show involves several talented individuals vying to audition. Large halls are hired and huge spend is incurred on lighting, multimedia, logistics, security and sound engineering. “Oliver Twist” seems to be an innovative alternative to this existing model.  Why hire a large hall, pay for an elaborate sound system and live band, coupled with logistics and security costs? Don Jazzy’s Oliver Twist model is deployed online, subtly transferring the cost of production to the customer.

Don Jazzy and his team created the content, recorded a simple, easy, 2 minute “how to” video, and uploaded online at minimal cost. It was then left to the online and offline audience to download the content, create their own concepts, rehearse, self-audition, and upload their videos, all at their own cost.

With several video submissions, the buck then stops at the Don’s desk, leaving him and his team to watch, analyse, judge and select winners of the competition. Fortunately for him, what he has created for Mohits, at a minimal cost, is an ‘ideas bank’ for video entertainment. Idea generation is the first step of the innovation process, and Don Jazzy has through this competition utilised this concept. The submissions from his customers, serve as feedback, indicating further customer preferences, styles, imaginations, and proclivities. These can easily be harnessed, leveraged and refined to feed into the next Mo’hits music video production, as the case may be.

As is the case with every model and strategy, there are attendant risks involved. With customers becoming producers and entertainers in this competition, there is the risk of the loss of control on quality and appropriateness of content. Consequently, there are already evidences of video submissions that some have assessed to be inappropriate, which should be rated for viewing. Risk mitigation for this marketing strategy will require content constraining guidelines for future purposes.

Obviously, marketing channels such as YouTube, user generated content and viral campaigns have become a new frontier in engagement for brands willing to take the plunge. Regardless, the media ripples of ‘Oliver’ have extended their spread to “old media” as well with Channels Television airing a spot profile on the Entertainment segment of its highly rated 10 o’clock news.

The whole competition creates further market penetration power for the Mo’hits firm, its major brands – D’banj and DonJazzy, and speculatively, may well be a marketing strategy just ahead of the next album launch. Market sweeping product sales will certainly be in order.

Lessons on Leadership & Good Governance

(Excerpts from Sonala Olumhense’s article, originally published via SaharaReporters website and reproduced with permission)

“Good governance—the onslaught for development and progress through the thicket of corruption, mediocrity and fear of change—is attack, not defense.  Good governance is defiance and demolition of the status quo, not compromise or negotiation with it.

Good governance is the courage to advance, not the authority to sit down—for you may be sitting down on a dying child, or suffocating a genius.

Good governance is NOW, not later; it is ME, not a Minister or a Commissioner or a Permanent Secretary. That is why great leaders deploy personal example.  They liberate hidden gems, including the time to act, and the talents.  They smash down barricaded doors and mountainous stonewalls; in their place they erect giant monuments and expressways that define tomorrow.

That leads me into what is perhaps the most significant thing about great leaders: fear.  They are always afraid, and they are not afraid to be afraid.  They are afraid that while they control power, they cannot control Time.  They are afraid to squander that precious and irreplaceable resource in merriment or indolence.  They want to ascertain they do not run out of it when they are conquering disease or leading education.

Great leaders are always clear that the authority in their hands is a loan, not a possession.  They are afraid that if they delay, History may unmask them as a fraud.

The Great ones are suspicious of the temptations of comfort and sleep.  They understand that social progress demands they stay awake to plot and plan and prompt.  They know they must not only inspire, they must perspire.

The Great Ones understand the meaning of doing; that doing is what genuine service is about.  They understand the paradox that only service defines leadership.

This is why the Great ones do not wait.  They know that waiting is for travelers with no sense of History.  The Great Ones, having seen rain interrupt too many festivities, and festivities interrupt too many good intentions, hold procrastination in contempt.”

Original article is found here