The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

So the last time I was in Ghana, I succeeded in not using an MTN chip. Good riddance. With number portability coming to GH this summer, perfect timing. I switched to Vodafone. I won't lie. I chose Vodafone for two reasons. 1: They sponsored Barcamp Ghana . 2: They bought Ghana Telecom and my mother used Vodafone too. I enjoyed their services for the most part and moving forward, I think I'll be sticking with them. Besides, their marketing tagline is 'Power to You'. Doesn't that shout VIM to you? I was encouraged by how Vodafone was marketing itself while I was in Ghana. It seemed they had realised they needed to push the envelope with reaching the Blackberry and texting-crazy Ghanaian youth in order to increase their market share. I saw a friend get a Vodafone Blackberry phone locally for an affordable price. By the way, have you seen their new ultra modern headquarters located in Airport City? See some ads - Power to You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g-ZgmJxDb...

One of the most popular African commercials in recent years is the Coca-Cola Brr advert with the African king. Turns out the guy who plays this character is a famous Kenyan actor called Charles Bukeko. Charles is also in the only Kenyan movie I've seen so far, 'Malooned', he plays a lazy security guard. Are most security guards in Africa lazy? Do they come to work and sleep? Charles' character did. When he happened to be woken up by shouts of help, he dismissed them as 'demons'. It's tough not to like him for his famous shiver in the Coke advert though. There's nothing like a cold Coke. Especially in Ghana. You can see Charles Bukekeo in action here (First section) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCtjnfrZaEM Read an article about Charles here In Ghana, we call Coca-Cola Coke or Mineral. Why Mineral? Beats me. Maybe because it has a lot of minerals in there? No one knows what Pop or Soda is. And Pepsi is a form of Coke, if you ask an average Ghanaian. Fore...

I know Valentine's day has already passed but this is never late. Besides, everyday should be valentine's don't you think? It is pretty commercialized now. It's even National Chocolate Day in Ghana. I didn't get the chance to munch on some Golden Tree on Saturday but I did get some on Sunday. That right there is fulfillment for the weekend. A friend and I happened to be checking out commercials and it reminded me about some African commercials I had found and was going to share with y'all. Well, here they are. I picked up some that revolve around the Valentine Day themes. Please don't tell me I have to tell you what those themes are. First up, we have an ad from MTN Nigeria. I fell in love with this advert when I first saw it. For all the long-distance lovers, this is for you. You need to be in Africa and have MTN though - so that even when you're apart, you're still together. In fact, the Nigerians force on this one. More props. They should have cho...

Many Africans are in love with Guinness. You can check the records, some of Guinness (Diageo's) best business is done on the continent. I will never forget the day I heard the CEO of Diageo Africa speak at the Harvard Business School African Business Conference (HBS ABC) and talk about how the company is doing brisk business in Africa. Two words I won't forget from that speech: bottles and business. Whatever speech you give, no matter how boring, great, thorough and intellectual it is, follow this guy's lead, give your audience a couple of sentences or words to remember. Guinness is also a mark of happiness in some places, which includes Ghana. Take this scenario, when Ghana played Namibia in the 2008 African Cup of Nations and won by a lone goal, many Ghanaians were down, disappointed and angry. They expected the Black Stars to annihilate the Brave Warriors. A one-nil victory was as good as a loss, and Guinness felt the losses too. The bars and spots were empty and Diageo ...

I was in Ghana for the first three months of 2008 and one thing I realised, was the emergence of relatively good relevision adverts/commercials. Ghana was crazy about the African Cup of Nations it was hosting and various companies had tuned their marketing campaigns in line with the football fiesta. One company whose commercials I really enjoyed was that of the mobile service provider called Tigo. The headline sponsor for the tournament was MTN, which was widely publicizing itself around every visible corner. Tigo and other companies like One Touch, Ricemaster, Coca Cola, had done their own ambush marketing. Tigo's campaign was called 'Be a true fan'. According to them, no matter what sport anyone played, their first love was football (soccer). You can see it in these commercials. "It's football time! Tigo, express yourself! Pool - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI-KVz9O-QU Tennis - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUXNFEhc04Q Golf - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1...