Of Saka, porting and logic of history

An interesting debate has been raging on in the communication and
advertising sub-sectors in the last couple of weeks. It was stirred by
the sudden and dramatic switch of camps by artiste Hafeez Oyetoro,
alias Saka, from Etisalat to MTN. This controversy is similar tothe
occasional hullabaloo thatalways accompanied the defecting of a
notable Nigerian political figure fromone political party to
another. 'Saka' is a popular character that was specially created to
market Etisalat by its ad agency, and was highly successful in that
regard. But quite suddenly, on the heels of the Nigerian
Communications Commission's Mobile Number Portability campaign
recently, MTN cleverly got him to "port go" and thus he deserted
Etisalat in a manner that seems to have left a sour taste in the
mouths of not justsome people in the advertising world but also many
observers.

Yet, the question remains whether any real breach of professional
ethics had been committed by either the artiste or MTN as a company,
given the fact that 'Saka' is believed to have had no written or
verifiable contractual accord with Etisalat. The lessons that could
be drawn from this include: (a) the need for written contractual
understanding or agreement to seal important business relationships
between an artiste and his employer.


(b) The need to remunerate artistes adequately so that they would
think twice in the face of tempting offers by competitors.


(c) The need to adopt impact measurement as a vital component of any
major or successful campaign and


(d) The need to avoid the temptation to underrate any artiste because
in a dynamic world like advertising, the least expected model may
prove the ultimate ambassador of a brand.


But, above everything else, the dramatic "porting" of Sakaand its
impact so far on the latter's portability campaign and the obvious
shock and tremor it has left in the other camp count as a big plus for
artistes generally who may henceforth no longer be takenfor granted by
those who hire them.


Nevertheless, having made great waves in so short a period, not a few
observers believe that Saka's time was really up, because any further
campaign on the side of the same brand would certainly be affected by
the Law of Diminishing Returns.


All in all, one should salute the regulatory wisdom of the NCC for
wittingly or otherwiseaffording Nigerians an opportunity to let off
steam and rewind via a veritable dialogue or discourse as an
unexpected result of the introduction of the long-awaited Mobile
Number Portability campaign.


In fact, the controversy promises an unintended consequence of
boosting the portability campaign at little or no cost to the
regulatory body. What's more, it is all happening at a time when
theplayers in the political arena certainly may be tinkering with what
they know best: swapping of political platforms—a situation which in
political parlance they variously term "carpet-crossing" and
"decamping"


There is no doubt that "carpet-crossing" and "decamping" have
offensive or negative connotations compared with "porting" which has
now crept into our political/business lexicon, thanks to the NCC.