THINK LOCAL, ACT GLOBAL: Lessons from the MTN "Saka" Ad.

  The first time i heard this expression about a decade ago, i marveled at the sheer ingenuity of the mind that conceived it.

As antithetical as it sounded, my young mind did not fail to grasp the meaning , as i was quick to compare and connect it with an earlier encountered similar business phrase: think big, start small!

The art of thinking local and acting global couldn’t be more needed in any field than brand advertising, particularly in our clime here!

In the bid to create world class advertising, get a shot at Cannes and other similar awards, and mirror our colleagues in the western world, we fail to see that what truly attracts us to their advertising is the originality of their stories.

A quick look at the largest selling brand of cigarettes in the world, Marlboro, shows the impact of local thinking , and global execution.

The perception of the Marlboro brand is that it is proudly Texan! “When Texans roll, they roll big” is a cliche we have gotten used to hearing in Movies, and i might say gotten to believe too.

So, Marlboro is set up sometime in 1924, initially appealing to female smokers, but soon after, medical researchers come up with a study linking smoking to lung cancer. Consequently, Marlboro repositions to appeal to the male folk.

What do we see? The Marlboro man, a big Texan (all things Texan are portrayed as big anyway) wearing a cowboy hat (Most, if not all Texan’s signature is their cowboy hat) bestriding an imposing horse, with a long whip in hand!

From thence on, every visual of a man wearing a hat with whip in hand standing or sitting on a horse, is instantly identified as the Marlboro man!

The viewer/consumer understands it is Marlboro, and is quick to tap into the qualities brought to life by the Ad. 

Qualities of masculinity, courage, heritage, pride of being Texan, Class and Self confidence.

Every element of the ad is indigenously Texan and proudly American!

The African and the Asian looks at this ad, and fantasizes about being Texan.

Local Thinking, Global Execution!

As Nigerians, before we run off to South Africa or UK to shoot our next TVC, it is imperative we look at our idea again and ask, how Nigerian is this concept?

Nigerians are very cultural! No matter how educated and urbane we become, we still defer to the dictates of our culture, norms, beliefs and attitudes.

This explains why MTN’s “mama na boy”  resonated. 

Our society’s child sex  preference was fully leveraged on in the ad.....irrespective of the controversies later generated! 

At least, it brought talkability to the brand and started a conversation!

In the last 72  hours, everybody has been talking about the MTN “I don port” TVC commercial. While it seems to have gone viral on social media because of the use of the “Saka” character.....The character really only got people to see it the first time.

The real reason why everybody seem to be watching it over and over again is simply it was a product of a local resonating idea,  given global, or world class, if you may, execution! 

A functional message that was given clinical emotional execution.

Let us look at the five elements that has made the TVC gone viral and which if appropriately harnessed, can make any other TVC attain equal, if not more talkability and top of mind awareness!

STORY-TELLING:

Nigerians love stories! From our villages, gathered round the oldest man or woman in the hamlet under the moon-light; to our urban neighbourhoods, where people going to work would park their cars to know the full details of a sighted incident  or accident;  even to our suburbs, where Okada riders, Tricyclists and other groups of people crowd together around a second-hand TV store, to watch any kind of movie being shown,  even when the narration is not in a language they understand. Call it whatever you want: gossip, gist, yarns.....our society binges on stories!

From the outset of the TVC, Saka is the master story teller, ensuring that his audience is engaged in the two way communication as he narrates MTN’s story. 

His audience is fully participating as we can see in the call and response situation that plays out.

Communication in brand advertising should not be a monologue, but a dialogue...It is no longer ME...but WE. The back-up singers in the TVC simply represented the listening and viewing audience.Therefore whatever feeling Saka succeeded in evoking in them is the same that eventually is evoked in the consumer!

RELEVANT MUSIC:

There is no limit to the audiences music can reach, to the feelings it can evoke. Music, they say is a universal language which everybody understands. 

Music, when used in brand advertising, should not be music for music sake, but relevant music that would resonate with the audience, the trend and the brand! Kirikata....Kirikata... Does not sound like a fine blend of Terry G, J Martins, Flavour and Timaya? 

And that is what everybody is practically sounding like now! 

And that style almost sounds like some kind of church praise stuff that instrumentalists like to call ‘calypso’.

Basically, the music cut across all cultural, religious, age, social and economic classes in the society. 

DRESS:

When you want to connect with a teenager or a young youth, you dress in Jeans and T-shirt; to appeal to corporate people, don a suit; to appeal to everybody, wear something that the old, young, corporate and blue collar worker can easily identify with. A stylish ankara! You can never go wrong with that.

The entire cast in the TVC wore stylishly cut ankara dresses that everybody could identify with, and doing what we can all see ourselves doing in an ankara dress, which more often than not, is why we got the ankara dress in the first place: DANCING!

DANCE:

Dance, African dance to be precise, is communal. It is always inclusive. It is always done in groups....and signify an expression of happiness, joy and celebration. Unlike, the western world, Africans don’t dance for dance sake, or purely as an art. 

We dance with deeply embedded meanings which our dance bring to the fore. 

All the flips, spins and break dancing look cool, but how much do they resonate with the generality of the audience?

I watched Saka’s TVC with a couple of female colleagues, and funny enough, they danced in similar fashion by the time we were watching it for the third time. And these are ladies between 24 and 30.

MESSAGE/TAKEOUT:

The essence of communication is message/meaning transfer!

In communication school, we were taught that communication must basically inform, educate and entertain.

With our brand advertising, we are quick to entertain and mildly inform, but the education part is usually downplayed. Mostly because, it is usually the mechanics (how to) part of the communication, which is usually not so interesting,  and also because we are trying to fit into the 45” or 60” time frame allowed by our media plan.

“I don port” clearly explains how to take advantage of the mobile number portability initiative. The consumer therefore watches the TVC, is entertained, informed of the availability of MNP....and educated on the details of how to “port”.

MARKETING LESSON: Think Local, Act Global. Always look within. Every marketing problem always has its solution right inside its geographical and cultural environment.