Politics and policy
Lessons and questions from highly publicised ‘return of Makmende’
Just A Band, the group behind the new Makmende fad, say they met under strange circumstances, and have fictional biographies posted on their website. Photo/COURTESY
Posted Friday, April 9 2010 at 00:00
• Makmende uses viagra in his eye drops, just to look hard
• Makmende can never have a heart attack, his heart is not so foolish to attack him
• Makmende doesn’t call 911, 911 calls him
Whether or not these traits can also be attributed in real-life to the talented actor, the 24-year-old Kevin ‘K1’ Maina, who portrays this fearless warrior and man of mystery is a moot point.
What is rather more obvious is that Makmende’s meteoric rise to prominence highlights a number of issues of importance to Kenyans.
‘Viral’ Propagation of Content
Just-a-Band’s innovative use of the Internet in promoting Makmende tells us of the potential of ‘viral’ advertising or ‘viral’ marketing to increase brand awareness or product sales.
It is said that Just-a-Band, whose second album, ‘82’, was one of the most popular releases in Kenya this year, had not planned any sort of online campaign for the video short besides putting it on their Facebook page.
As soon as the Band members saw Makmende jokes from fans online, they decided to do a Twitter and Facebook page for him.
The rest, it seems, is history. This should come as no surprise.
Within the last decade, it has become increasingly popular for people with no special technical background or technology to generate their own content and disseminate it widely through the use of video clips, images or text messages to reach audiences worldwide.
Just-a-Band’s success with Makmende shows us that it is possible to build a brand or shape consumer tastes in music and other entertainment industries within a relatively short time through the interplay of Internet-based media and more traditional media, such as TV and media interviews.
This means our marketers (perhaps even those behind ‘Brand Kenya’) need to focus more attention on online marketing tools and their transformative effect on the practice of marketing.
Information age challenges
It could be that Makmende’s success is really describing a quiet revolution in the way we do business.
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