Local movie otherwise called Kumawood actors and actress have been looked down upon by our telecommunication networks because of their (telecom networks) inability to spot the changes they can bring into their company. Osarfo Anthony writes this editorial advising these networks to also contract the local actors and actress and see how they will boost their market.
If our corporate bodies, especially the Telcoms, are to pay attention to the Kumawood industry and its exploits; they would contract its actors as their brand ambassadors.
Can you name any one Kumawood actor or actress who is a brand ambassador of any of our telecommunication companies in Ghana? For a little over 5 years now, the concept of celebrity brand endorsement has become very popular in our showbiz industry. Yet, our Kumawood actors are largely left out of this mutual benefitting marketing tool – brand endorsement.
I am not implying since the corporate bodies use our elitist celebrities as brand ambassadors, they should also do same for the Kumawood actors and actresses just for equality sake. The reality is that, there are many Kumawood actors and actresses whose fame are sharper and have huge followers far more than some of the elitist stars in Accra the corporate bodies use as their brand ambassadors. Statistics inform all of us that over 60% of the Ghanaian population are illiterates.
These illiterates or less enlightened, are the very market our Kumawood industry feeds. A poll I conducted for Kumasi based Boss fm 3 years ago revealed that illiterates buy phone credits more than the educated or elitists class. This is because most of our uneducated brothers and sisters don’t paraphrase their thoughts well in phone conversations (talk too much) and also do not explore or cannot explore other alternative mediums for communicating. Some just feel overwhelmed buying credit and talking on phone– call it ego-deluge if you like.
Whereby, the educated or elitist class could use or explore other non-phone mediums such as an office landline, Facebook, email, Twitter, Skype, sms etc without spending much on phone credits. Majority of the common hawkers or the market women are limited to using the phone to communicate. This means, our Kumawood actors are serving a huge market! Our corporate bodies are not exploring the Ghanaian market to its fullest stretch. Consider LilWyn as the brand ambassador of Glo; picture Agya Koo as the brand ambassador of MTN; think of Kwaku Manu as the brand ambassador of Expresso. The response could be massive!
I will also not fail to touch on our Kumawood actors and actresses -“stop being local champions in Kumasi and think out of the box for once in your lives!” Kumawood actors and actresses should get managers and publicists to sell them as brands and not just walk about as popular Kumasi actors or actresses. They should take a cue from Nana Ama Mcbrown who had to contract consummate sports journalist Mr. Charles Osei Assibey as her official Commercial Manager to negotiate on her behalf for her GO TV channel endorsement deal. Kumasi should not be the end of Kumawood actors’ career boundary or limit.
There are more opportunities to be explored! Limiting your talents to only acting is a big risk to take and a waste of your potentials. “If you are a star, see yourself as a palm tree.” Like the proverbial palm tree, all its parts are valuable; so should stars or celebs be. Kumawood actors and the Telcos should work around each other’s Goodwill. Until then…..MOTWUM!!