Success they say is the result of hard work. That Oracle Experience was able to emerge as the Experiential Marketing Agency of the Year at the recent Brandcom Awards is a testament of the agency’s knacks for professionalism and quality service galvanized by hard work and tireless dedication.
Over the years, Oracle Experience, one of the leading experiential marketing agencies in Africa has been breaking new grounds capable of inspiring the actualisation of greater feat in brand management across Africa. These have manifested in the agency’s recent activations across the length and breadth of the country. In particular, the 10 Cities Carnival was a world chest activation.
Disruptive Activation
Oracle has shown the world that it is possible to do an activation simultaneously in different days especially in a multi diverse Nigerian society with over 250 ethnic groups and languages and growing population of about 200 million, regarded as the most populous country in Africa, and the seventh most populous country in the world.
Working on the background that Nigerians love celebration, are proud of their cultural heritage and appreciate their festivals, Oracle and its client, Nigerian Breweries, leveraged on the Easter celebration held recently to connect with consumers.
The Easter carnival was fully loaded with activities from morning till night that kept consumers connected with the Nigerian Breweries brands and equally having unforgettable memories.
Basically, the Easter Carnival was designed as an unparalleled fun-filled experience to project Nigeria’s passion for celebrations and showcase Nigeria’s rich music heritage spread across the different zones.
It was a fun-filled days for a medley of music anthems, fitness and family-centric activities, games, giveaways, live streaming, sing along, selfies and ice-cold beverages such as Goldberg, Heineken, Star Lager Beer, 33 Export, Maltina and Amstel Malta (the Nigerian Breweries brands showcased at the event).
Also, the Easter Carnival which had the theme, “Dreamland of Enjoyment“, ran from April 19th to 21st as music fans relished each night with their favourite music stars, covering Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Enugu, Calabar, Makurdi, Aba, Onitsha, Benin and Abuja simultaneously.
Remarkably, the activation can be rated as a project that deserve to be in the Guinness World Records based on its execution and how it resonated with the target market.
Specifically, the agency set up children’s park, aerobic sections and concert in 10 locations simultaneously in three days of unstoppable fun, giveaways and joy.
The simultaneous event featured a Maltina Happiness Park for thousands of children and families which was hosted by Nigeria’s malt drink brand, Maltina. The Happiness Park was all shades of fun as kids were excited to play new games and make new friends as well.
Apart from these 10 cities activation, Oracle Experience has been in the vanguard of executing outstanding activations since it opened shop in 2006. The agency has risen through the years to become Nigeria’s ‘primus inter pares’ in strategic brand experience.
Oracle Experience has competencies in event and promotional marketing, retail marketing, trade enhancement, digital, social, sponsorship marketing, employee engagement, public event, content marketing, guerrilla marketing and more. The agency is also known for its skills for immersive and inventive technology and moving image too. With a penchant for diagnosing brand problems, bringing to life extraordinary ideas that create emotional connections, fuel conversations and deliver business results, the agency has become a toast for its numerous clients.
Since 2006, it has being in the business of helping these clients bring their brands to life and building better customer experience through experiential marketing, brand strategy, user conferences, activations, consumer engagement, event marketing, sales enablement, shopper and retail, product launch, employee engagement, broadcast design, promotional marketing, sponsorship marketing and digital.
Perhaps a most striking feature of the agency which gives it an edge over other players in the industry and sets it apart in a world of its own is the massive investment it has made on implementation tools, ranging from creative, technical to human capital that can be activated within quick-turn-around time, and also in technovation to drive its operations. More specifically, it has made in equipment critical to day-to-day event management spreading across production, multimedia, light, sound, effects and essential logistics. These investments enable it own and control its working environment. In addition, it has a state-of-the-art large format printing facilities.
Its lightings for instance are directly sourced from Clay Paky, Italy and these include; scenius profile, Hepikos, Sharbar, Spheriscan, Stromy,Igloo series, Sharpy, Mythos super sharpy etc. The agency has such effects as rain bars, lightning and thunder effects, fire bomb, gas projectors and wave flamer, Haze systems , carpet fog system – digitally powered, lasers among others.
These investments, Felix says, is to build capacity to serve the clients better and churn out maximum premium output at the shortest time possible. “We own the things we work with. We don’t rely on third parties as we prefer to do everything in-house. The difference between us and some other people is encapsulated in these words of wisdom that people say, “When a child makes his first money, he spends it.” You will agree with me that such a child is not wise. We decided not to emulate that child. The bulk of the money we get from the industry, we push back into the business only that way can we be stronger.”
Footprints
While some players are quick to assert their presence in the continent or even the West African region, Oracle experience is proud to say its footprint is strategically pan Nigerian and cuts across the entire 36 states of the federation, including the federal capital territory, Abuja. With its presence across the country, the agency has the capacity of activating simultaneously across the network in a single stretch within a quick turn-around time of between 24 to 48 hours. This of course is no mean feat considering the Nigerian dynamics.
Oracle Experience had a lot of innovative initiatives that were brought to life in 2017 but most remarkable of them, what one can refer to as the icing on the cake is the construction of the 70 feet high Eyo masquerade built with a whooping 2750 crates for the Nigerian Breweries’ Star lager beer brand at the 2017 One Lagos fiesta held towards the end of December.
The incredible work of art automatically became the most photographed as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchats were inundated with pictures of attendees of the event behind the Eyo statue. It was also the talk of social media as it was the number one trending topic for a day on Twitter.
Felix King says the project was one of the highlights of the agency’s work in 2017. Surprisingly too, it took a lot to convince the client to agree to the job which has today enjoyed a lot of successes. “It took us three years for the client to agree to the Eyo idea. The idea was birthed in 2015 but finally got the nod of our client for 2017.
“The project was so massive that many renowned news media channels featured it-Channels, AIT, TVC, etc. In fact, you cannot quantify the level of exposure it had. The Lagos State government even asked that we leave the statue for a few more days after. We gave it three weeks extension before bringing it down. It was quite massive bringing 2750 crates to build that. It was quite an experience.
The Beer Festival held in Lagos last year had Star as one of the most dominant brands at the event because of the sensory experience created for the consumers. The five senses of touch, taste, feel, sight and sound were satiated through Oracle’s innovative initiative of taking the consumer through the process of producing the drink and serving it to them.
The happy laughs, thrilling excitement and gushes from consumers at the event indicate that the Star brand has acquired new brand faithfuls.
Another interesting campaign last year for an FMCG brand was the ‘Maggi Naija Pot’ launch. That was one of the most successful launches it did last year. With the kind of success recorded with that project, it comes as no surprise today that the problem the brand has now is how to meet up with production.
The agency also partnered the DStv brand to bring the teeming Nigerian football fans the prestigious English Premier League, EPL, cup during the October/November period.
The agency carried out many projects for Procter & Gamble in 2017. Felix explains. “We run campaigns for P&G 24/7. At every given time, we have campaigns scattered across the country, working simultaneously. P&G believes so much in working in the open market. They do a lot of interaction there. We have been doing that with them for the past 12 years nonstop.
Apart from that, the agency also executed the High Life Fest competition for the Life Continental Lager beer brand, also from the stables of Nigerian Breweries. The event was aimed at reviving, celebrating and promoting highlife music in Nigeria’s South East. At the event there was a showcase of various displays of talents among young Nigerians.
Oracle Experience boasts of 1500 trained field agents. It also boasts of over 300 permanent staff comprising Nigerians and expatriates, all creative, passionate, and talented team of professionals in live event marketing and activations.
The agency has served as an oracle for its clients’ brands and businesses, guiding such brands through the journey to avant garde consumer engagement and connection.