SPOTLIGHT: HOW ONE AFRICAN BLOGGER PUT A SPIN TO BRANDING USING LOCAL TALENT

She created a campaign called “Celebrating Beauty & Talent“ 237 style where she brought together some very well known local acts comprised of: three female singers, a former Miss Cameroon USA title holder and two models to do a photo shoot, all wearing African print and African inspired designs made by Cameroonian designers. Y

These ladies were all “Reppin’ Cameroon” 100%. Mainsah also picked Anyi asonganyi, one of the best professional makeup artists out there to showcase her makeup skills on the ladies.

Check out the complete photo shoot of the “Celebrating Beauty & Talent” Campaign HERE and HERE. 

Once released, the photos resulting from the photo shoot were shared uncountable times Facebook and other social media platforms and viewed by thousands of people on the first day of its release on The HotJem as we were given exclusive access to selected photos to share on TheHotJem.com and boy did it create a lot of buzz. 

It was the first time a blogger from Cameroon put together such a campaign with singers, models, a former Miss Cameroon, make-up artist and fashion designers all from Cameroon for a photoshoot to promote a blog website.

What was the result of this brilliant campaign?

The campaign has opened the door to some exciting opportunities that the I Rep Camer boss lady might not have been exposed to before. The campaign put the spotlight on her and brought her some opportunities to work with others in branding their business. The important take away from this, it is important to think ourside of the box. Most blogs would have updated their websites and just announced it to their followers. Yefon Mainsah wanted to do things differently by creating an entire campaign while promoting local talents from Cameroon.

Brands, companies, entrepreneurs, entertainers designers, and influencers also need to recognize the value of such branding opportunities and work with bloggers to create them. The major issue facing most Cameroonian bloggers is that companies don’t think outside of the box and do not believe bloggers add any value to their business. Why will make a marketing  company or a marketing  team in a company or for an ad agency call a blogger to create and coordinate a campaign like the one Yefon created?

On the other hand, Cameroonian bloggers need to step up their blogging game, be seriously and intentional with it and treat it like a business. Only then will they focus on being intentional with the content they put out for public consumption and only then will they begin to look at the big picture. Companies will not work with one who might bring down the image of their company.

Hopefully, this will inspire other bloggers who are looking to focus more on branding  and promoting their brands so that it gains the recognition it deserves. Again in a country like Cameroon where bloggers and online media is not yet respected or taken seriously, its time to put your foot down and show people that you mean biz and are serious about your brand.

Many companies in Cameroon still do not understand the idea of thinking out of the box when it comes to promoting their brands. If there is one thing we need to learn from our fellow neighbors in Nigeria, it should be that they would think of anything to get their products out there and to build their brand.

Watch the behind the scenes of the photo shoot of  “Celebrating Beauty & Talent” video:

_{Visit I Rep Camer’s on Facebook. | Photography: Christian Sankeur. | Video Credit: Na Mysta Adrenlyne Direct Am}.

*_{All photo’s and video provided to THJ courtesy of I Rep Camer*}