by Remon Geyser (@remongeyser) In an exciting country where infrastructure is booming, the economy of Ghana is growing fast and the people are embracing a new age of online socialism. However, it’s time for brands to step up to the plate and synchronise their communication to better unify the Ghanaian football warcry — although there is a big pool of fandom, there is always going to room for the branding landscape to use the available channels.
Football is nothing short of an iconic sport in the Pan-African region and, indeed, a lifestyle that is aspirational to the millions of fans who pride themselves in following and supporting their local teams. As the region’s voice on social media is now echoing more prominently than ever before, the conversations are enticing brands and agencies to do their part in helping to cement this unifying voice for Africa.
Twitter is an example of a mainstream social-media channel that is being used more and more to promote the strong community of African football supporters. The movements of local clubs, as well as national teams, are followed, players are tracked, and opinions are shared. The popularity of social media in the Pan-African region has granted brands a new channel of communication and, for the first time, online campaigns are starting to make a presence — and a returning impact.
In Ghana, football could be considered a national pastime and part and parcel of its cultural heritage. The Ghanaian population boasts over 5m people who have access to the internet. This growing population of online Ghanaians are passionate about keeping up-to-date with the latest movements of their national soccer team, the Black Stars. Impressing the national landscape by going far in many World Cups, Ghanaians can be proud to facilitate such talent representing their country.
Radio, television, online campaign, media personalities — all of these tools may be used by brands to get the ball rolling and score.
Radio stations
Two radio stations that are very popular with the Ghanaian people are Joy 99.7 FM and Citi 97.3 FM, Joy 99.7 being the second most-popular Ghanaian FaceBook page and the third fastest-growing one.
With a high popularity rate, soccer-centric brands should be cramming the airwave spaces to promote the soccer lifestyle in Ghana — a quick-fire radio spot portraying hype and reaching out to anyone that has access to a radio — and, in general, most media consumers do.
Television channels
According to statistics, UTV, TV3 and Viasat1 are the most-popular television channels in Ghana.
Although always tricky to adapt an international brand’s tonality to a foreign outlet, brands such as Adidas and Nike would be champions in this medium of communication. These brands are already associated with athletes, and as such have a deep connection with fans of football. These brands would only have to appeal to the psyche of the Ghanaian football fan which, as in many other African countries, is an aspirational and idolising one.
Breaking the fourth wall is a vital element in connecting with any audience and, since soccer is so inclusive in Ghanaian culture, sport-centric brands should break down these boundaries and create an emotional feeling whereby fans feel part of the action. This will inevitable help to cement the national pride associated with soccer and help to amplify the underlying passion for the sport.
Media personality
As luck would have it, Ghana may enlist at least three homegrown heroes to promote the national football landscape.
- John Dumelo was the country’s first citizen to reach over 1m likes on Facebook, and it’s not hard to imagine why, since he is Ghana’s golden boy of acting. Nominated for six awards, and winning two, Dumelo’s personality is a valuable resource in reaching out to the greater football fandom of Ghana.
- Kofi Kingston (Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah) is a Ghanaian-American internationally acclaimed WWE champion, claiming 11 titles in various categories in his wrestling career so far. Gaining over 3m likes on Facebook (and the only Ghanaian celebrity to have more than 1m followers on Twitter), his stance of power and masculinity could help to sustain the public opinion of the strength of the Black Stars and other regional teams.
-
Kevin-Prince Boateng. Credit: Sara Zizza, Flickr. Kevin-Prince Boateng is a football player of Ghanaian descent on his father’s side. Boateng has played for Germany (his mother’s nationality), as well as many other clubs around the world. With just under 2.9m Facebook likes, local football fans are proud of this international representative.
Brands should sponsor the football hero to follow through with some sort of PSA, alerting Ghanaians the importance of heritage and lineage, linking it to the national pastime of football.
Online campaigns
Online campaigns in the Pan-African region haven’t made a substantial impact as of yet — the Nigerian elections which went viral on Twitter and help to build the image of a few brands is probably the extent of what we can expect for now.
However, the future of Ghana entails a world where online presence and conversation are growing. Football brands such as the GFA and popular cellular networking companies such as MTN Ghana should begin to formulate hashtag trends, running in line with their communication across multiple platforms, as this positively affect the overall ROI.
This information was provided by Springleap’s Trend Spotting platform.
Every month, Springleap provides an oversight of local trends in the South African market,
sourced from among its 22 000 African creatives, with new country specific reports planned
for a number of key African and Middle Eastern markets.
10% discounted subscription rate for MarkLives readers!
Remon Geyser (@remongeyser) is a burger fanatic, wine connoisseur and eSports enthusiast (yes, a fancy term for playing computer games). He is also the research lead for Springleap, heading up a new global creative research division while obscurely attempting a PhD. Springleap provides instant creative expert feedback to rock marketing ROI. Remon contributes the new weekly “Talk Africa” column, covering Pan-African trends, on MarkLives.com.
— MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every Monday and Thursday. Sign up here!