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A Night That Tickled Marketers
[July 28, 2014]

A Night That Tickled Marketers


(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The 2014 second Marketers' Night happened last Friday night at Hotel Africana. The evening kicked off with a cocktail, giving chance to marketers from some of the top companies to network, catch up and make new contacts. At 8pm, the MC, Mitch Egwang, got the action started with his captivating approach, this time round with the "Marketing Africa 10-second challenge".



Mitch would ask a random question, where if one answered it right in ten seconds, they would win Shs 10,000. This kept everyone on their toes. The highlight of the challenge was when a representative of one of the top banks failed to mention ten other banks in Uganda. The Marketers' Night is a brainchild of Marketing Africa, a regional magazine aimed at keeping marketing professionals abreast with the latest in the industry.

The night is organised in conjunction with Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL), through one of its brands, Tusker Malt lager. Last Friday night's focus was about making your strategy work. And the keynote speaker was Nigeria's Dr Wale Akimenyi, the Chief Transformation Officer, Power Talks Consultants. He shared important tips for growing and maintaining brands, through winning strategies.


However, it is important to note that Akimenyi's ability to hold the audience is unrivalled. When he was called to the podium, the DJ played Yemi Alade's Johnny, which got the motivational speaker dancing. But Mitch advised him to stick to public speaking and leave dancing to the pros. Akimenyi revealed that some of the drivers of failure of strategies are misplaced objectives.

"You may have the strategies but if they are not making sales, you have nothing," he said referring to how the World Cup hosts Brazil had more ball possession and shots at goal, but ended up losing 1-7 to Germany.

UBL's Marketing Manager Themba Nobanda stayed away from the football talk, but used music to drive his point home. He called upon the marketers to borrow a leaf from musicians, who make melodies - with hook-up lines that make their fans sing along.

"Therefore, all effort should be put in coming up with strategies that get the target market hooked to the product," he said.

The night's entertainment was provided by guitarist Myko Ouma, who was backed by Sam Bisaso on the bass, Vian Wamala on the percussions, Steven Kigozi on the keyboard and Emma Dragu on the trumpet and also provided the much-needed vocals.

The all-male band kept the guests entertained throughout the dinner, doing renditions of songs such as Christina Aguilera's Say Something, John Legend's All Of Me, Mowzey Radio and Weasel's Neera and Myko Ouma's Alur among others.

Copyright The Observer. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

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