Owerri Experience

Competition in the stout market Competition in the stout market in Nigeria has assumed a new dimension since the revitalisation of Nigerian Breweries’ premium dark beer brand, Legend Extra Stout a few years ago.

The market, hitherto dominated by Guinness Extra Stout pre-Real Deal campaign era, has witnessed tremendous growth in consumer promotion deployment, brand activation, thematic and tactical creative campaigns and actual share of voice in the media.

To this end, pundits believe that the marketing antics of the two leading stout brands in the market would take a while to abate. But the exciting part of the whole episode is that consumers are at the centre of this epic battle.

Having spent a better part of its early days trailing Guinness Stout, Legend Stout through its Real Deal campaign in 2012 recorded a milestone when it was announced the best stout in taste and quality at 51st Monde Award ceremony in Athens, Greece.

Meanwhile, while patrons of Legend were still rejoicing over the feat achieved through the award, Guinness Nigeria responded and scored a big plus through the Sponsorship of Super Eagles at the 2013 African Cup of Nations. With the victory of the team, Nigerian consumers re-dedicated their loyalties to Guinness Stout.

But this was not enough to checkmate Legend owners, who quickly leveraged on the promotion launched in 2013, where consumers were rewarded with instant gifts prizes such as 32” television sets, generating sets, BlackBerry handsets and many more.

Also in 2013, the brand created an engagement platform tagged Legend Real Deal Night, where consumers were invited to engage with the brand through music and comedy, through which consumers were also rewarded with gifts.

In furtherance of this, Nigerian Breweries recently repackaged ‘Taste & Tell’ campaign tagged Season 2 to reconnect Nigerians.

Speaking on the activation, Mr. Emmanuel Agu, the Marketing Manager, Stout and Lager- Nigerian Breweries Plc., said apart from connecting consumers with the brand, the Legend Taste and Tell Activation is actually a unique forum for consumers to test their knowledge about their brand. “The unique thing about the campaign is that it poses the question to consumers: how well do you know your brand? It’s a question that only the consumer can answer. So if you participate in the contest and you correctly identify Legend that you means you truly know your brand,” he stated.

He disclosed that after Lagos, Benin and Owerri, the Legend Taste and Tell Activation will move across other key cities in the country, including Enugu, Ibadan, Nsukka, Auchi, Uyo, Calabar, and Abeokuta amongst others. Testimonies In Benin, few consumers recounted their experiences and rededicated their loyalties to the brand. Ehichoya Dagama is no wine connoisseur. He doesn’t pretend to be one. But when it comes to Legend Extra Stout, Dagama can sufficiently hold his own.

The Edo State born chap was one of the winners in the Legend Taste and Win game which took place at The Playhouse Event Centre, Benin, Edo State recently. The Legend Taste and Win game, essentially a blind taste contest, was held among Legend Extra Stout consumers during the activation. Dagama and two others were pitched in a contest to determine who could correctly identify Legend Extra stout from three unmarked glasses containing different stout brands. Dagama emerged winner from the lot. Little wonder he is known as Mr. Legend by his friends.

“I switched to Legend stout from my regular beer brand more than six years ago and since then I have stuck to Legend. If you call me a Legend expert you won’t be far from the truth because it’s now my preferred stout drink. It is only fitting that I should be rewarded for my loyalty that’s why am happy I am a winner,” he said, proudly displaying the brand New Plasma TV he won courtesy of the Legend Taste and Tell Activation.

Dagama was not the only person to be rewarded for his love for Legend Extra Stout. Two other winners; Blessing Koffi, a professional dancer, and Abel Isele, a student of the University Of Benin, were also lucky winners in the Legend Taste and Win Activation. They went home with a brand new Generator and a brand new Refrigerator respectively.

Whilst the event also featured music from rave artiste, Terry G, and two comedians; Buchi and De Don, the Taste and Tell game took the centre stage as the crowd jostled for an opportunity to be selected to participate in the blind taste contest. Unfortunately, the game could only accommodate 12 players and the unlucky ones who were not picked had to make do with cheering the participants. So how was Dagama able to pick out Legend from the other brands? He replies with a coy smile playing around his lips: “That was quite easy. If you drink Legend regularly then you will surely know. Legend has a peculiar bitter-sweet taste about it. When you taste it, it wakes up your taste buds. That is something I hardly get from other stout brands” he added.

Obvious thrilled with her feat, Blessing Koffi, a Ghanaian professional dancer and also a winner in the Test and Tell Game in Benin, says she was attracted to Legend because of its long lasting and thick foam. Koffi, who is in her mid 20s said: “The truth is I hardly take alcoholic beverage because I am a dancer and need to be fit. But if I have to take any alcoholic drink then it must be Legend Extra Stout. I like its taste but what I like most about it is its long lasting foam.”

Benin was not the only city to experience the Legend Taste and Tell Activation. The Lagos leg, held a couple of days earlier, was no less exciting. There was live music from dance hall artiste Oritse Femi and comedy from De Don while a special cultural performance from the Eyo masquerade also added to the thrill of the night. But for the audience, the icing on the cake was the Legend Taste and Tell Game. Just like the Benin leg, participants were randomly chosen to sample and identify Legend Extra Stout from three unmarked glasses. It was an exciting way to end a weekend for teeming consumers of Legend Extra Stout in the city of Owerri, Imo State. Cool as the evening was, the excitement in the air around Umunkoto along the ever busy Nekede Road, was palpable; even a visitor could tell something was up in the vicinity.

As early as 7:30pm, the event section of the Winter Suite Hotel had no empty seat available. Bottles of Legend Extra Stout, and a few other brands from the stables of Nigerian Breweries Plc., littered the tables where the occupants enjoyed the contemporary hit songs blasting from the giant speakers strategically mounted around the arena.

The event was the Owerri leg of the second edition of ‘Taste & Tell’ campaign. The event went full blast at exactly 8pm when the compere for the evening, De-don, a comedian mounted the stage and welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming out to support their brand. De-don went on to explain what the event was all about and proceeded to drop a few rib cracking jokes targeted at the Igbo people.

Like the Lagos and Benin activations which featured Yoruba and Benin cultural performances respectively, the Owerri leg also featured a performance by Nna Nyelu Ugo cultural group. The group took the audience, which had the Igbos in the majority, back to their roots with their soulful rendition of traditional folk songs. Comedian Funny Bone was next to take the stage and got the crowd reeling in laughter with his jokes which centred on the women folk.

The high point of the event, however, was when the audience took centre stage to play the ‘Taste & Tell game. The ‘taste-and-tell’ game, involved a blind taste game where volunteer tasters tasted several drinks poured into cups marked ‘A’ to ‘C’ after which they were asked to identify the cup that contained Legend Extra stout. Participants who correctly identified the cup were rewarded with fantastic prizes such as 9.5kva generating set, LED TV and a refrigerator among other things.

The game was conducted in batches of three volunteer tasters. Two out of the three tasters- Vitalis Chilaka, a 300L under graduate of Quantity surveying, Federal Polytechnic, Uwana, and Augustine Chukwuebuka, and upcoming artiste correctly identified the glass that contained Legend Extra Stout after tasting the unidentified drinks in the first batch. For their feat, Vitalis and Agustine were rewarded with a 32’ inch LED TV and refrigerator respectively.

Reacting to their winnings the duo attributed it to their loyalty to the Legend brand for a long time during which period they have become accustomed to that unique bitter taste of Legend Extra Stout.