There is probably no other campaign in this country that has been more fiercely criticized and resisted than the Nigeria Rebranding Campaign. Although the campaign may have its problems, I think it is borne out of the same genuine passion that many Nigerians share for the nation. It may not be immediately apparent how much we love our country as Nigerians until something elicits a response in that direction. The recent outburst and outright condemnation by Nigerians from various parts of the world of Sony’s Playstation ad that portrayed Nigeria in bad light is a confirmation. However, although Nigerians share this love for the nation, a strategically coordinated effort is required to harness this latent passion for the general good of the country. For this reason I commend the Honourable Minister of Information and Communications Professor Dora Akunyili and her team for work done so far on the Re-branding campaign.
I have heard many people say we should fix our infrastructures first before we begin to run any campaign. They have a point. After all we all know the popular saying that the fastest way to kill a bad product is to advertise it. But really, Nigeria is not a bad product and we should take advantage of the power of communication. Sometimes communication is where you start from. A well crafted message is potent enough to cause a transformation and in this sense can be a catalyst for the infrastructural development we all yearn for. Even if we think the leaders are those who require the change the most, because they are an integral part of the nation, they will not be immune to the impact of the message.
Having established that we require a well structured communication, I want to point out what in my opinion is wrong with the present campaign and needs to be addressed so we can move to the next phase. Firstly, re-branding is a technical term which only refers to a shift in the way the image of place, person, group, product or service is expected to be perceived. It does not assign a value to this change and does not necessarily mean a change from negative to positive. In fact there are brands that do not want a “good” image for strategic reasons. I used to work on Pepsi account as a copywriter and part of the brand character for Pepsi at that time was to be ‘irreverent’. The word re-branding has now become a synonym for corrective attitudinal change. This for me is an abuse of the expression. A successful re-branding process should end with a pen portrait of the new desired character. That is where the re-branding should stop. The new brand image will now form an element in the “Creative Strategy” from which the desired campaign will be developed. Re-branding should not be a continuous process and should not be the theme of the campaign.
Coming to the slogan “Good people, Great nation”, I think rather than the slogan, it should form the objective of the campaign. I believe that as the objective of the campaign, that is: “to cause people to perceive Nigeria as a great nation of good people”, it is an achievable goal because the claims are fundamentally true. There are good people in Nigeria and we have lots of examples to buttress this point and obviously Nigeria is a great nation in terms of population, land mass, crude oil, sports, skilled manpower etc.
I do not think that it will be very productive to confront the audience with a message like “good people, great nation” mainly for two reasons. Firstly, it is not a unique proposition. many nations can claim the same thing. Secondly and even more importantly, although the statement is true in certain respects, it is not believable, because it is not consistent with the experience of the audience. How can you say the people are good, when stories of armed robbery, kidnap and fraud fill the news everyday? How can you say the nation is great, when there are no roads, water or electricity? The truth is that the same problems may arise even when you talk about developed nations because life is not perfect anywhere. It is difficult to stay completely on the rational level when you’re trying to sell patriotism. That is why the famous line by former American President, J.F. Kennedy “Don’t think about what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” has remained relevant to this day. And this is where the ingenuity of the creative team in the advertising agency comes in. A good creative team of Copywriter and Art Director should be able to pass the message without offending the sensibilities of people. Sometimes, an idea is better sold to the heart rather than the head. And when we choose to sideline professionals, things don’t always turn out right.
In closing, I want to recount this story of how communication was used to successfully turn around the fortunes of a community. In 2007, Yubari City in Hokkaido, Japan, went bankrupt with a debt of $353 million. They hired Beacon Communications, Tokyo to promote the city, reenergize its citizens, and help them pay off the debt. After a detailed study of the city, they realized that Yubari recorded the lowest rate of divorce in Japan. They built their PR strategy around this subtle finding and developed the idea, ‘Yubari, no money but love.’ This became a very successful campaign that turned Yubari City into a tourist destination and helped them come out of debt. This campaign won a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2009. Communication is the most powerful tool in today’s world. It drives the economy, it drives politics, and it drives social life. We can use it positively to build our nation.
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