Nelson Reids

The Brief:

The team at GOGLA approached us to coordinate the media and publicity campaign surrounding the launch of its latest report, 'Powering Opportunity in West Africa', funded by the UKAID and prepared by Altai Consulting. The highlighted the impact of Solar Home Systems and followed research conducted across Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Cote D'Ivoire, and Senegal. 

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The Objective:

The objective of the PR campaign was two-fold:

(i) Create awareness of the economic opportunities and impacts unlocked by off-grid solar increase, leading to more support for the solar sector.

(ii) Ensure research findings are widely disseminated and turned into appropriate action.

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Our Approach:

The first step for us at Nelson Reids was to identify the major stakeholder groups vital to the success of the project. Based on our correspondence with the GOGLA team and in-house research, we arrived at the following stakeholder groups: Government and policymakers; Investors; Social protection agencies; Energy industry practitioners and enthusiasts; and the general public.

Next, we mapped each stakeholder group to the intended call to action necessary to drive the off-grid solar energy industry forward. Once done, we then matched the combination to a media outlet whose readers were a close match with our segmented audience.

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The Channel:

After taking a critical look at the media landscape in Nigeria with respect to the report, we opted to use only media outlets within the top 5 in the country- both to establish credibility and show the importance of the project at hand, as well as position GOGLA as subject matter experts whose recommendations and advocacy could bring all the relevant players together to solve Africa's power conundrum. 

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To achieve this, we targeted: 

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(i) Mainstream national print and online media publications to reach policymakers, social protection, and avocation agencies and the general public.

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(ii) Industry-focused publications to reach energy practitioners and potential investors within the sector.

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Key tasks executed by the Nelson Reids team:  

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(i) We worked extensively with the GOGLA communication team to develop press releases and blogs.

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(ii) Distributed GOGLA press releases to the targeted media outlets. ​

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(ii) Created a water-proof media relations strategy and ensured its implementation.

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(iv) Media monitoring and evaluation to track all GOGLA mentions across the web.

The Result:

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(i) 12 top media outlets published the GOGLA press releases. 

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(ii) 980,000 core target audience reached. 

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(iii) 2 Print publications. 

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(iv) 2 Opinion Editorials from the top 3 media outlets in Nigeria. 

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About GOGLA: 

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GOGLA counts Royal Dutch Shell, TOTAL, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Schneider Electric and many other prestigious organizations as members. Established in 2012, GOGLA now represents over 160 members as a neutral, independent, not-for-profit industry association. Their services assist the industry to build sustainable markets and profitable businesses delivering quality, affordable off-grid electricity products and services to as many customers as possible across the developing world. They believe that with the right support, the off-grid solar market can scale to provide affordable solar power products and services to provide electricity to the 840 million people currently living without energy by 2030, in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7. For more, visit gogla.com.

The Brief: 

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Start-up gaming company, 234bet, tasked the team at Nelson Reids to create an unusual promotion around Valentine's day that would drive five critical business objectives: 

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(i) Enhance the brand image and position the brand as a fusion of sports betting and entertainment. 

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(ii) Increase brand awareness and publicity. 

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(iii) Recruit new users. 

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(iv) Improve brand and customer interaction. 

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(v) Enhance brand credibility. 

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Our Solution: One Love. Two Cities. Three Nights. Four hundred percent bonus.

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For a section of people aged 18-35, Valentine's Day means a quiet, intimate affair with their loved ones. For some others, it means outdoing everyone else with the greatest display of affection money can buy. 

We sought to combine both scenarios into the mother of all valentine's day rewards that would see one lucky couple flown between two cities on a private jet, having dinner in the sky, spending three nights in a luxury hotel whilst earning 400% gaming bonus on their first deposit. 

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And all they had to do to win was go-viral, uploading a 30-second video telling the world what they would or wouldn't do for love. Easy Peasy. 

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Mechanics:

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1. All entrants were required to sign-up and place a minimum bet of NGN 1,000 to be eligible for the reward. This was done in a bid to drive customer recruitment. 

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2. We created the #234bet4love hashtag to tract participating entries and campaign reach. This was done to increase customer-brand interaction and engagement, giving participants and the public a chance to see other entries and entertain themselves. 

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Press: 

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The magnitude and class of the reward saw the brand earn over NGN 3,000,000 in free media coverage on Nigeria's top media publications including ThisDay, The Guardian, LindaIkeji, The Independent and Instablog. 

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The Result:

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1. 1827 participating entries.

2. Over 5,000 gaming users signed up. 

3  Over  9 million people reached with the digital campaign. 

The Brief: 

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Our client, an African media giant requested the branding, promotion, digital campaign and publicity of its annual event celebrating the Africans who excelled in their respective industries. 

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Branding:

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1. We designed the logo adapting Queen Ida's face to express the depth of the company's Nigerian roots and showcase the pride of African heritage to the rest of the watching world.

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2. We designed communication and promotional digital banners for each nominee using beautiful, high-resolution images with spotlights and colour to make each nominee proud of their achievements in the year under review as well as inspire everyone else who came in contact with the material. 

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3. Strategic placement of the communication materials; class of influencers engaged; and strategic partnerships with high-level institutions, positioned the event as a world-class celebration of excellence- sparking both desire and aspiration.

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Digital:

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1. We created a website for the event that allowed the public exclusive information to each nominee. The website allowed the public vote for their choice candidate across the various categories- keeping them engaged and fostering that feeling of being part of something bigger than themselves.  

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2. We drove the digital campaign using online pools and content about the awards, organizers, nominees to engage the public. 

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3. Programmatic, display and social media ads ensured that the message and the event were well-publicized and penetrated all social strata. 

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Press: 

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We kept the public abreast of the voting as it happened real-time with digital press releases and print publications at little or no cost thanks to strategic partnerships forged with other media houses as part of the project scope.

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The Result:

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1. 1,039,638 votes across social media and event website. 

2. 15 million Nigerians reached. 

3  Multiple viral trends using event hashtags. 

4. Attendance of High Level Nigerians- including state governors and upper echelon of the African political scene; celebrities across entertainment, media and sports.

Preparing the strategic communications plan for $200m global paper giant. 

Our client, a global leader in the paper and pulp industry revamped its strategic plan to focus on long-term thinking in a bid to remain competitive and secure its future.

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The objective was to communicate the company's new vision; the action plans to be executed; and the imminent changes in human capital, structure, culture and ways of working to employees and other key stakeholders- keeping them informed to their new responsibilities, motivated to win as one and excited for the future that would be the emergence of a truly world class company.

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The Message:

The message was designed to achieve three goals:

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1. Build morale and a sense of being, by appreciating all key stakeholders for their monumental efforts and commitments over the years that had seen the company grow into a leading paper and pulp powerhouse in the world.  

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2. Deliver a clear understanding of what was at stake and what was required of each and every one involved, from senior executives to trainees and vendors- establishing a unified goal and reiterating the positives of collective effort and a winning mentality.

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3. Keep everyone abreast of how the strategic plan was coming together as regards implementation by department and any modification in plans, parts or personnel.

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The Channel:

The right message to the right people via the right channel is what makes for optimum communication. So, we alternated the delivery channels using a carefully blended mix of emails, bulletin boards, roadshows, meetings and conferences to best deliver the message at each phase of execution. 

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Feedback: 

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A critical part of implementing the strategic communications plan for us, was to establishing a water-tight and credible feedback channel to get unadulterated and unbiased key stakeholder views as regards the wholesome transformation in the organization- understanding the climate and situations on the ground to better inform decisions.

The Result:

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Initiation of a smooth transformational experience for a global powerhouse. 

The Brief: 

Our client, a start-up gaming company sought ways to differentiate its brand from the pack of over 70 competitors in a keenly contested industry while appealing to both ends of the social class.

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Our response, the fusion of Sports + Entertainment: Making Gaming cool again for everyone. 

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Process:

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We targeted high-level events in the Federal Capital territory that attracted both upper and middle-class Nigerians- getting them to interact with the brand and experience its unique attributes and features.

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The Mechanics:

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1. Using outdoor miniature basketball hoops and setting up at the event venues hours before the events commenced, we quickly attracted all early comers who wanted to do something fun while they waited.

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They picked cards and tried for free drinks- winning only when they made all shots corresponding to the number on the cards picked correctly.  

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Having everyone trying out and cheering each other on, we completely eliminated social class and brought everyone together. 

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2. Using virtual reality and e-sports, we brought high level and middle-class Nigerians together, bonding in our tents, as attractive brand ambassadors explained brand USPs. 

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Publicity:

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1. Ticket giveaways via Social Media and radio tours using celebrity brand ambassador. 

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The Result:

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1. Over 1,000 users signed up at the event venue.  

2. Over 3 million Nigerians reached through digital and offline campaign.

Created in collaboration with South-African Based Agency, FORT. This pan African spot leveraged key influencers across the region to highlight the key features and benefits of the Opera News App. It is currently running on Multichoice’s DSTV.