@Njung'e
Finya fwd>> ama play> kwa hiyo remote! I bet it's on rewind!
@Taz
Are u an employee of EABL? or a friend of an EABL marketing employee. I find most marketers in kenya (and no offence) behaving like a board of directors when it comes to sporting events. They want you to bring the problem, solution, plan etc. Their work is to fund it and get immediate sales off it, yet ironically they will get into first world concepts like reality shows (TPF) and fashion show sponsorships which are quite elite and dislocated from the rest of the town. Problem is our market is not that advanced and so expecting a bunch of part timers (KRFU) to come up with grandiose marketing schemes like TPF will take long and when they do come, they will be expensive. The solution is EABL should have dirtied their hands and created greater marketing opportunities for themselves off safari sevens and off the shujaa team but they didn't, I don't mind helping them. We all saw what virgin did from their sponsorship of 13m. Safaricom will even do greater things, you can bet on MJ. From day one, tournament already changes name to Safaricom 7's, don't be surprised to see vodafone boards adorning the side pitch hapa na pale. KQ are slowly learning and cleverly pushing their brand locally and internationally using Shujaa. Bamburi have been extremely smart pushing bamburi locally and lafarge internationally through super sport coverage. We have seen Supersport dirty their hands covering kenyan soccer everywhere inlcuding ongwaro and naivasha. Kenyan club soccer has the lowest stadium attendance in east and central africa. But these kaburus are not foolish when they start reaping the fruits you will skia the usual hue and cry from marketers. Sometimes i can't help but think the disconnect between sport and corporate sponshorship has a lot to do with too many of our sisters in decision making roles in marketing departments of corporates, even when they do sponsor, their press communication sounds unconvincing and borders on corporate drivel. We can't blame them sports is positioned as a male dormain in most of our families. I am sure sfaricom sponsorship was an MJ call 100%.
EABL want a full stadium the size of kasarani with everyone getting high on tusker, which to me is not marketing but sales. This is what pre-occupies EABL and has lost them such gem opportunities. Safari sevens still remains a beer company's dream marketing opportunity, there may be on average 10K guys in each of the two days, but bear in mind they are there for more than 5 hours and for two days partying. Look at soccer which EABL likes to comfort/deride themselves with, ignore the english premier league, our games last 2-3 hrs, the spend on beer is very low, FIFA banned alcohol in stadiums. The pub crowd will always be there and you can't tweak their decisions much at that point, they are already in the bar.
Taz I also find the argument of EABL market being only Kenya very inward looking and a horse in blinkers view of things. Nothing stops EABL from selling outside Kenya where Diageo is not selling, EABL claims to sell in UK and US, what better and cost effective way than to position the brand in those markets than using the IRB circuit or sports, it's relatively cheap compared to sticking logos on DSTV and running old black american ads in between the games. I remember when EABL sponsored the sevens team, none of the marketing folk ever bothered to go and see a tournament outside kenya. We all know they come to safari sevens for showbiz at the hopitality tents. When virgin first sponsored the team the Commercial director and austalasia regional honcho flew into dubai for the first leg of the series. I am told their marketing guys including Branson closely followed the team for the rest of the legs.
Sample this Dubai consumes at least two times beer consumption of nairobi (nai popn, 4m, dubai 4m) largely due to the high disposable income and profile of residents-3m is expatriates. There is no brewery there and the key brands are Heineken, Forsters, Windhoek and Millers. From my limited geography, Ruaraka brewery is only 5 hours away from dubai by flight, it surely must take shorter time to ferry Tusker there than to ferry Windhoek, incidentaly Tusker was also a better beer than all these a while ago, can't vouch for their quality nowadays? but how will they discover these markets if the marketers in EABL confine their thoughts to Nairobi, Safari sevens and DSTV viewership in kenya. Safari sevens is the premier 7's tournament in Africa, the audience and in turn market should be measured using the people accessing DSTV globally when the tournament is on at the very least not the numbers entering RFUEA gates and beer sales at the village and stands.
PS. It's almost impossible to hold an IRB circuit leg in nairobi due to altitude. We would have to go to Msa which is zero alt or dala- which is not very high. I reckon MSA would be ideal coz of hotels and party atmosphere, lakini wapi uwanja....