Celebrities and brands are the most dependent on each other when it comes to marketing strategies.
Most brands in the market space would readily look to partner with a well known figure with a huge following on social media and command in the society, this is to increase it's sales while also sponsoring the celebrity’s projects.
Tanzanian celebrities have of late been getting deals from leading brands in the East African market as brand ambassadors, this as compared to Kenyan celebrities.
The recent cases being for instance Diamond Platnumz as brand ambassador with a paint company, Harmonize as brand ambassador for a leading bank,in Tz, Wema Sepetu with a Juice manufacturing company and several others, without forgetting Diamond’s baby mama Hamisa also got a deal with a hair and extension company.
While there are several celebrities in Kenya who are also representatives of many products in the market place, many more still admit to it being a challenge.
According to veteran music producer Tedd Josiah, artists need to build themselves more as brands with a better outlook to life and morals so that they can attract the big brands towards them.
“Brands are afraid of putting their products against an artist’s face then next moment you have a scandalous situation with the artist and it affects your brand. They’ve also realized that artists don’t command as large influence as they used to think especially when it comes to people with buying power" said Josiah.
Adding "Our artists command numbers of people who are mostly in high school or fresh out of college and don’t have disposable income so if you tell the artists to help push your brand and you are selling a jaguar car who will buy it?”.
Kenyan artist, Apesi, who has also been a brand ambassador for Pacho footwear shoes collection based in Kisumu city, admits to the gap between the two countries(Kenya and Tanzania).
“Companies (Brands) work with numbers. How many people follow you, your packaging as an artist in terms of how you put yourself and what you stand for to be able to become a brand ambassador? Kenya is still growing in terms of packaging and branding. Though there are some celebrities who are really doing it like Erick Omondi, Jalang’o and Akothee,” says Apesi.
Tanzanian night life and lifestyle generally puts them on top, says Coast based artist, Kitole Kenda
“Brands will partner up with an artist who increases their sales. Once an artist is able to increase sales of a product, then they become a hot cake and every other product will be chasing after you. Tanzanians artists have a very vibrant lifestyle and especially the night life with so much support from their own fans,” says Kitole Kenda.
Kitole Kenda’s new hit Haki iwe ngao, which was in collaboration with several other artists, was also sponsored by Sabaki waters. And they have also worked with the county government of Kilifi on other hits.
In addition to this, Coastal Films C.E.O Hassan Faisal has advised Kenyan celebrities to be mindful of their lifestyles as this is a huge determinant when trying to attract a brand.
“Most Kenyan Artists once they reach a certain level their Ego goes up.They even despise their fans. They have no touch with the common mwananchi. A company looking for endorsement needs an artist with a market penetration index. Most artists’ lifestyles is reckless with drugs usage and alcoholism. No company needs that tainted image,” He says.
According to Grandpa records C.E.O Refigah, as much as some artists might be able to dominate headlines on the media, they are not necessarily productive enough for a brand to readily want to go into partnership with. Most of these are people who still need to up their game in order to gain full support from the corporates in Kenya.
“In Kenya, we have a good number of celebrities who have done major corporate endorsements, yet we have debebrities who are good at grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons but with no value. Once you become the darling of the masses, the corporates will look for you, while the other big problem we have as an industry is we don’t have enough proper talent managers who are good when it comes to artists branding,” says Refigah.
While for music publicist, Agnes Nonsizi, most artists who work without a management cannot well represent themselves in terms of business especially in the boardroom. Therefore in order to win the endorsement, one needs to have a good manager who understands the business aspect of entertainment, so that both parties can have a win at the end of the day.
''These celebrities don’t have people who can represent them in boardrooms. Even if there are 'managers', they lack good managers who can represent them in the boardroom and have a business conversation, a manger should be able to have a business conversation"she told Ommy Dallah.
Adding ''I have seen celebrities either under-quote or over-quote themselves or just not understanding what they are supposed to do, some end up getting the deal but they don’t deliver''
While on the same breath, most corporates are only conversant with faces which have been in the industry over time. So more artists and the entertainment scene need to invest more on their celebrities just like how other countries, Tanzania and Nigeria do.
Nonsizi charged ‘’I also don’t think that most brands out here are aware there are celebrities who would match their brands. Me and you could know the top celebrities because we deal with them everyday but these brands don’t know there are celebrities that exist and can do justice to their brands, they just know of the usual faces and that is why we see the same people in the little advertisements we see around.’
Some of the Kenyan artists who have managed to attract attention of brands includes Akothee who has so far worked with several brands including Silverstone airline, Peptang Juice , Weston Hotel among other. Gospel singer Size 8 has also partnered with Softcare, while rapper King Kaka secured a deal with French cognac company Remy Martins as the brand ambassador for East Africa.
