Managing Director and Chief Executive
Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Steven Evans, yesterday described the decision of
one of the brand’s artiste, Afeez Oyetoro, popularly known as Saka, to dump its
competitor and acclaimed “dominant operator,” MTN, as a “mistake.”
Evans disclosed this at an
interactive session with reporters on Mobile Number Portability (MNP) at
Raddison Blue Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. He said Saka’s decision was a
mistake, arguing that it is not uncommon for people to make mistakes once in a while
in life.
“Saka made a mistake. Sometimes in
life, people make mistakes. He is still coming back,” he quipped without
further explanation.
He was responding to a question
bothering on whether the telco will re-examine its policy of not fully
converting its artiste to brand ambassadors considering its experience with
Saka.
Sources close to the artiste alleged
that his promoters had passionately appealed to Etisalat to convert him to its
‘brand ambassador’ after using him for the activation of several ad campaigns
that recorded resounding successes but the mobile operator turned deaf ears to
these appeals. The source said it made the suggestion to the telco several
times without success, lamenting that rather than weigh the option on altar of
reasoning, Etisalat preferred to pay him between N200,000 and N250,000 for each
campaign and let him go.
The source said when MTN dangled the
carrot of N20 million at Saka, he did not wait for any further consultation
before jumping at the offer.
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