The Head of Business Development at Charterhouse Ghana, Kafui Dogbatse has said that some Ghanaian companies do not see the relevance behind sponsoring some key programs and how it affects their brand.
In an interview on TV3’s Twitter space which was hosted by Helen Appiah-Ampofo, Kafui talks about how sponsorship has changed over the years as he happens to have been in the space for 16 years.
“Truth be told, I think that the sponsorship space has changed drastically over the years. For the past 16 years, I’ve been in that space so I’ve seen the phases of sponsorship in terms of how companies react. It all balls down to the changing phases of brands and companies for the past 15-20 years,” he said.
When asked whether companies of today could be considered slacking when it comes to keeping up with the changing phase of sponsorship, he said that “Unfortunately, yes! Some companies just can’t seem to see what association with some programs does for their brands. I have had the privilege of working with some huge brands in Ghana; Ghana Music Awards, Miss Maliaka, Stars of the Future. These are huge brands that draw significant numbers in terms of eyeballs and followership.”
In addition to his earlier submission, CEO Kafui said that some organizations have diminished the value of advertising to just “jingles and LPMs”.
“If you’re trying to paint a picture to a company that ‘The people or audience you are trying to reach are here so come and put your brand or product here’, they just don’t seem to see it. I think they go for the most simplistic form of marketing. They have reduced advertising to jingles and LPMs,” he added.
Speaking on some of the flaws organizations that reach out for sponsorship commit, Kafui Dogbatse identifies two key ones and uses the platform to share some words of advice.
“Based on my own experience, sometimes, when we are asking for a budget from companies, I think that in some cases, we’re overly ambitious in terms of the amount of money we are asking for. Over the years, marketing budgets have been cut drastically so the quantum money available for companies to spread around is smaller. So when someone within the creative space is requesting funds from a company, they need to be mindful of the request, bearing in mind that is a very limited pool that they are requesting from,” he shared.
He continued, “One of the things we should be mindful of is the value we request from these companies and also be sure that the audience that we are looking at attracting for the event that we are doing, are the same as that of the ones the company is aspiring to get. So it’s very important that the proposal that you send is within a reasonable budget and let the potential sponsor see their audience in the audience that you are looking at getting.”
