In an industry that is increasingly being reinvented by digital trends, with traditional revenue streams becoming less and less lucrative, players in the entertainment industry are eyeing creative ways of earning money.
Top among the preferred options today is influencer marketing. Almost every corporate entity and brand is using celebrities to pass on their message or sell a service or product. The catch being, celebrities have a huge online following that brands would want to leverage.
But singer A Pass says artistes must reach deep into their creative brains, their comparative advantage against ordinary salesmen, if such endorsement deals are to earn them meaningful money.
“Companies reach out to me in order to market their stuff. I’m a marketing guy. To make sure people fall in love with your brand, I have to believe in it,” A Pass said during one of the sessions during the recent Uganda Innovation Week in Kampala.
He alluded to his song Kyupa ku Kyupa whose concept he pitched to Club Beer and asked that Uganda Breweries Limited (brewers of Club) foot the video shooting expenses. And Club did.
“As a creative, I’m not going to sound serious while marketing a product to you. I’m going to find a way to make you fall in love with it. The more I’ve done it, the more clients I have got. I don’t reach out, they reach out. Artistes must do things that will compel people to come to them,” added the Didadada singer who has worked with Jumia, Sumz, Nile Special and Club Beer.
Cutthroat competition and the hunger for fresh sounds has meant that for a musician to thrive economically, they must have to innovatively diversify. Especially in a country where a dormant copyright law has meant musicians cannot earn royalties from their works.
Had this not been the case, people like Daniel Kazibwe aka Ragga Dee who represent the old-school music industry, would be cushioned. But even he has managed to tap into endorsement opportunities over the years. He has worked with brands like Bell Lager, Club Beer and Shell.
Ragga Dee whose career spans 33 years says it is tackling subjects that appeal to all generations that has kept him relevant.
“You have to know your clientele. I started with Ragga, then I saw a generation of Lingala come, so, I did Lingala. Then a mix of Afro and Reggae came, that’s when I did Bamukasakata. For the time I’ve been in the industry I’ve been doing music not for me but for the lovers of music,” Ragga Dee, also on the panel, mentioned.
“If you sing about what people like, not what you like, you can live longer. I did songs about landlords, weddings and introduction (kwanjula). All these are subjects that everyone relates with. The wedding song (Empeta) was the song that made my life easier. I still get booked to perform at weddings.”
For fashion designer, Brian Ahumuza (Abryanz), branding has been the key in business.
“Before you market yourself, you need to brand yourself. Who are you? Why am I buying this product? It took me 8 years to come up with a clothing brand of my own. But I was in the fashion business and I understood, I learnt so many things and endured a lot of challenges. I felt it was time for me to market myself as a clothing line,” he revealed.
He said after 8 years in the fashion business, he felt he had the power to price his products at a certain amount (sometimes considered hefty) and those who understood his value would buy them anyway.
That’s when in 2010 he launched Abryanz Collections, Brian’s attempt at breaking the stereotype that had made fashion in Uganda synonymous with women. Until then, the mention of fashion reckoned only with names like Santa Anzo and Sylvia Owori.
“The right consumer will always come. You have to understand your target market and ensure what you are selling appeals to the target market.”
Twelve years later, the annual Abryanz Style and Fashion Awards (ASFAs), a brainchild of Brian, have become a calendar event that Uganda’s fashion and entertainment scene looks forward to.
A Pass says now that he has got his way around the mechanics of endorsements, it could be time he starts negotiating for stakes in the different brands he works with.
“I’m thinking, can I have 5 percent in each of the 10 companies? Because I’m making you money. That means I can make money with you. We’re going at that level.”
Regarding music, he says on top of stage performances, he benefits from music royalties (he’s a member of two American music rights associations), citing how four of his songs were licensed by Disney and used in its 2016 film Queen of Katwe.
However, the pursuit of money must not cloud one’s principles, according to A Pass. For example, he doesn’t work with betting companies “because I don’t believe in betting”. He says betting companies have offered him much more money to endorse them but he feels this could influence his fans negatively.
