Standing Out From The Homogeneity In Advertising.

There is a wave as to how brands communicate the value of their service or product recently. Brands these days have done a lot adding depth and puzzles to their marketing campaign. Unlike before, it’s now about creating scenes that build a sense of intimacy in the mind of the target audience.

Very few Brands have been riding on this momentum in delivering exceptional marketing campaigns.

Abeg, a peer-to-peer (P2P) social payment platform joined this wave with a content marketing campaign which took a different path to get the heart of their target audience.

The campaign which took the internet by storm is perfectly needled with storytelling and It mirrored a part of the movie “citation”. Beyond doubt, it is a successful campaign but worth noting is the unusual approach it took to get the attention of its target audiences — Easily.

The advert proved Abeg understands what it means to stand out from the ‘general homogeneity in advertising’. Homogeneity in advertising is a major setback and a hurdle brands find difficult to overcome.

In context, Homogeneity in advertising is uniformity. It occurs when adverts from brands align with a little difference in concept or strategy. An ideal example of this are adverts from Detergent brands.

The downside to this is, Homogeneity in advertising renders the target audience uninterested, and unwilling to give their attention to brands. Different Brands fighting to share the same kind of message, in the same way, makes these brands lose the Midas touch that gets the target audience’s attention.

Abeg made a great bargain for their audience’s attention through this advert. Several pieces were assembled to make this Content Marketing campaign a success. In this article, I flatten the learning curve on how Abeg did it and give eye-opening, discoveries to learn from.

Lessons to take yield of from Abeg’s advert:

Referencing citation:

Citation is a movie that tells the tale of how “A bright student in Nigeria takes on the academic establishment when she reports a popular professor who tried to rape her.” It gave real context about the ‘Sex for grade scandal that has been normalized in the African institutions.

The storyline of the movie was unique and there was a clever emphasis on how it hooked its viewers right from the start. It points out the problem the movie is built on and just before the main content of the movie, it created curiosity.

‘If the movie intro is an advertisement, it will be considered very worthy, appealing, and undoubtedly gives an expectation.’ This was probably the thought on the mind of the marketing team at Abeg while coming up with this advert.

In 1 min 30-sec, Abeg mirrored a part of ‘citation’ and this was a unique part of the story utilized in selling the brand to its target audience among other marketing strategies. By subtly Referencing a scene from “Citation”, Abeg, allowed the viewers to connect easily and deeply to their advert. It gives the audience the Deja vu feeling- making them want to figure out where exactly they’ve seen such a scenario from.

Prioritizing the problem more!

A conventional approach to marketing campaigns is how most brands focus on prioritizing the Audience first. Instead, Abeg focuses on making the problem the center of discussion. They simply highlighted what the advert aimed at from the onset- an ideal way to lock their audience in.

The “Sex for grade” was the plot of the story, this quickly became the core attention for the unsuspecting viewers and this drove the viewer’s curiosity to patiently watch till the end; allowed them to connect better, and want to contribute.

Creating the eagerness amongst their target to know how the plot will end and how the lady responded to the lecturer’s request.

All Abeg did is make the problem the priority of the users and allow it to drive them till the end of the advert where the viewer found the solution to the problem and a pitch of what Abeg is about.

Note; find a problem that is completely relatable to your target audience. The problem highlighted in this advert makes the internet go agog and has increasingly surfaced since the pandemic. Abeg using this was a perfect hook.

A Clearly Defined Audience:

A comprehensive understanding of who their ideal target audience is allowed Abeg to make a cognizant decision on how the advert is created. It gave room for a well-defined persona, marketing plan, and strategy. An interesting part is how Abeg made the advert personalized by Connecting their audience with experiences they relate to.

The advert is targeted at GenZ and millennials. The protagonist of the story (the main character) easily showed Abeg aimed this advert at those within the age bracket of 18–34.

Abeg intentionally captured the highest segment of social media users in Nigeria. With 26.9% female and 38.9% Male internet users, Abeg targeted a total of 65% of the social media users in Nigeria. Which is the highest segment that can be targeted via social media channels.

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Understanding the audience helped build a great storyline, relationship and allowed Abeg to communicate with its target audience better.

ps: This advert happens to be more focused on GenZ than the Millennials. But has the interest of both.

Building a sense of intimacy:

The advert entailed a constructive and thoughtful selection of words, phrases, and scenes in the video. Abeg established a feeling in the customer’s mind by combining details one would have thought to be nuances. They subconsciously made the viewers the HERO of the story. The whole story is so intriguing that Viewers are flushed with the anticipation of what’s to come next.

The school atmosphere, the characters, the students hanging out, the cafeteria, the words of the voice-over artiste all triggered and got the attention of their audience

Phrases like; “This generation is not like any that came before it”, “They will not be bullied or let down for long“, “you’re a part of this generation” all resonated deeply to this audience as they are similar to phrases like; “We will never be silenced”, “We are unstoppable”, “We are not like our parents”, “We will deal with you”-which was common among youths during the protest against Police brutality and towards disbanding of SARS.

Using these phrases, Abeg attached deeply with their target audience. Motivated them and passed the messages of oneness. This was a great approach to building interest and acceptably pitching their brand service.

Amplifying the message.

Beyond having a great advert, it’s critical to create public attention. This is the last and most important part of it. Abeg amplified their message by ensuring it got to their target audience touch point on the Internet. This involved advertising the ‘advert’ on social news network (blog) including; Instablog, Yabaleftonline among others. It gave the brand the needed visibility and allowed it message reach it target audience.

TL;DR- create an interesting problem, identify your ideal target market, build intimacy, and finally, amplify your message.

From referencing ‘Citation’, to identifying the small viable market for their product. Abeg did a lot to capture and create a long-lasting Mindshare. Identifying their target market was the magic power in this advert. And there was an obvious shift, from being product-centric to target market-centric. A great way to stand out from the general homogeneity in the market.