An interesting debate has been raging on in the communication and
advertising sub-sectors in the last couple of weeks. It was stirred by
the sudden and dramatic switch of camps by artiste Hafeez Oyetoro, alias
Saka, from Etisalat to MTN. This controversy is similar to the
occasional hullabaloo that always accompanied the defecting of a
notable Nigerian political figure from one political party to
another.
‘Saka’ is a popular character that was specially created to market
Etisalat by its ad agency, and was highly successful in that regard...
But quite suddenly, on the heels of the Nigerian Communications
Commission’s Mobile Number Portability campaign recently, MTN cleverly
got him to “port go” and thus he deserted Etisalat in a manner that
seems to have left a sour taste in the mouths of not just some people in
the advertising world but also many observers.
Yet, the question remains whether any real breach of professional ethics
had been committed by either the artiste or MTN as a company, given
the fact that ‘Saka’ is believed to have had no written or verifiable
contractual accord with Etisalat. The lessons that could be drawn from
this include: (a) the need for written contractual understanding or
agreement to seal important business relationships between an artiste
and his employer.
(b) The need to remunerate artistes adequately so that they would think twice in the face of tempting offers by competitors.
(c) The need to adopt impact measurement as a vital component of any major or successful campaign and
(d) The need to avoid the temptation to underrate any artiste because
in a dynamic world like advertising, the least expected model may prove
the ultimate ambassador of a brand.
But, above everything else, the dramatic “porting” of Saka and its
impact so far on the latter’s portability campaign and the obvious shock
and tremor it has left in the other camp count as a big plus for
artistes generally who may henceforth no longer be taken for granted by
those who hire them.
Nevertheless, having made great waves in so short a period, not a few
observers believe that Saka’s time was really up, because any further
campaign on the side of the same brand would certainly be affected by
the Law of Diminishing Returns.
All in all, one should salute the regulatory wisdom of the NCC for
wittingly or otherwise affording Nigerians an opportunity to let off
steam and rewind via a veritable dialogue or discourse as an unexpected
result of the introduction of the long-awaited Mobile Number Portability
campaign.
In fact, the controversy promises an unintended consequence of boosting
the portability campaign at little or no cost to the regulatory body.
What’s more, it is all happening at a time when the players in the
political arena certainly may be tinkering with what they know best:
swapping of political platforms—a situation which in political parlance
they variously term “carpet-crossing” and “decamping”
There is no doubt that “carpet-crossing” and “decamping” have offensive
or negative connotations compared with “porting” which has now crept
into our political/business lexicon, thanks to the NCC.
The point one is trying to make here is that if for any reason any of
our politicians switches camp , we should be sympathetic and charitable
enough to see the situation as an act of “porting” and no longer
“carpet-crossing” or “decamping,” in order to make the action appear
less offensive or dirty by de-emphasising the ugly or negative content. I
have digressed.
But returning directly to Saka’s controversial porting, one would like
to posit that there is nothing strange because examples of players in
various fields at various times porting forth and back on grounds of
better opportunities or quest for self-fulfilment abound in history.
Take two cases. Sir George Taubman Goldie was a professional soldier in
the British Royal Artillery where he rose to be a captain. In that
capacity, Goldie had toured Sudan and the lower Nile River area. With
his eyes on business, even as a military officer, Goldie developed a
good interest in the sprawling country to the west of Sudan, and
subsequently played Saka by dumping his military commission and
switching to the English Niger Company—an association of English and
Scottish merchants spoiling for real colonial exploits in the Niger
Delta territory.
The result of this earliest form of porting by Goldie was the emergence
of the Royal Niger Company a few years later with the full complement of
royal chatter granting the company exclusive trading rights up to and
beyond the lower Niger basin.
With that charter, Goldie proceeded to set up a military outfit with
whose help he stamped out pockets of resistance to the anti-slavery
efforts of the British government and enforced peace apace with
flourishing trade in the territory. Thus, before the 1885 Berlin
Conference on the partition of Africa, Goldie had on behalf of the
British government secured treaties with many communities in his area of
operation which eventually helped Britain to effectively lay claim to
the whole territory that finally emerged as Nigeria.
Almost simultaneously, as Goldie was working to secure the Niger area
for Britain, Major Fredrick Lugard, another Royal Artillery officer, was
also playing Saka, “porting” and joining the league of British
merchants and colonialists —an adventure that saw him work at various
times in various places including India, Hong Kong and Uganda. Lugard
finally “ported” back to the Royal Niger Company in the last days of the
Royal Charter after which he “ported” yet again to Her Majesty’s
service whereupon it became his place in history to amalgamate Nigeria.
So, the whole idea of the creation of a great and prosperous entity like
Nigeria under the British Empire is chiefly a glowing tribute to the
foresight and good business sense of the British Niger Company which,
like in the MTN/Etisalat/Saka scenario, had encouraged both captains.
Goldie and Lugard opted to “port go” from a boring and less lucrative
career in the military in favour of more profitable exploits in the more
rewarding sphere of business and colonial pursuits.
Therefore, what the heights achieved by people such as Goldie, Lugard
and others tend to show today is that there is nothing strange or new in
the role Saka played recently on the marketing or business scene.
In a volatile world like ours, nothing should be expected to be static
or sacrosanct and the advertising or marketing scene is, to me, part and
parcel of that world—a universe whose beauty, fascination and essence
partly depend on the extent to which individual players, playmakers and
playmasters can determine the direction of their worlds.
By Romanus K. Adimora
Adimora is an economic strategic analyst,
E-mail: leadergest@yahoo.com
