Charles Novia talks about the dangers of brand endorsements in Nigeria

Filmmaker Charles Novia says there has to be a
certain degree of brand harmony in other to curb
this growing menace that is evidently dangerous
for an industry that's only at its infancy
Nollywood producer/director, Charles Novia has
raised cogent concerns about the negative impact/
effect brand endorsements will possibly have in the
Nigerian entertainment industry.

The movie maker, who is also a writer voiced his
concerns over situations where a particular artiste
that had been signed by a brand would not be able
to perform in another show/concert where a rival
brand is a major or even support sponsor.

He also pointed out the fact that future awards
ceremony might suffer a large intentional absence of
top stars, especially where the award is being
sponsored by brand A, and a chunk of the
nominated acts are signed to brand B'.

Novia says there has to be a certain level/degree of
brand harmony in other to curb this growing menace
that is evidently dangerous for an industry that's
only at its infancy.

Below are excerpts from the article titled The
Politics of Celebrity Endorsements published on his
blog:

'However, a glaring reality is coming to the fore and
many may laugh it off right now but it is staring at
us in the face. In 2013, many of the live events and
sponsored concerts were tepid in performance value.

Many of the top acts had been signed by one
telecom brand or the other and since the headliners
in the music industry have divided their brand
endorsements among various telcos, many could not
perform for friends or business concerns where a
competing telco or brand was a major or support
sponsor. This was basically because of watertight
caveats in the artiste's contracts which forbids them
from attending such shows. Thus, most of the live
concerts in 2014 in Nigeria were either lacking in
major star power or just repetitive in talents signed
on by the brands. And the performance value of
such events was basically average. Many of the
brands which had campus shows suffered this fate'.

'The example above is one of many others which
are a usual occurrence. My gut feeling is this; the
business will grow for the brands but the whole
performance and event industry may very well
suffer for this. For example, if a movie awards event
had MTN as the major sponsor and 50% of the
nominees are Glo Ambassadors, only an idiot would
need explanations on why half the nominees would
not be present at the awards even if they eventually
won. Same goes for music awards events. This
cycle is becoming predictable. And the performance
value suffers for it'.

Culled from Thenet