MOTHER OF ALL PUBLICITY STUNTS: How Mavin Boss Don Jazzy ‘Forced ’ MTN To Renew Endorsement Contract

Some of us might just be grateful to have witnessed the mother of all publicity stunts in Nigeria recently. It’s not news that anything that has to do with Don Jazzy goes viral so when reports about ‘Don Dorobucci’ gearing to ‘port’ to Nigerian-owned Globacom hit blogosphere, many swallowed it hook, line, sinker and rod while some took it with a pinch of salt.

According to the ‘exclusive’ report which was emailed to a lot of bloggers by a publicist (name witheld), super star members of the Supreme Mavin Dynasty (SMD) were going to ditch market leader MTN and switch to GLO claiming the Nigerian telco was eager to sign the trio of Reekado Banks, Korede Bello and Di’ja all at once.



The report also claimed they were determined to break bank by also offering a record-breaking deal to the Mavin Records CEO, Don Jazzy. The report has however worked in Don Jazzy’s favor like it was intended to and has gotten him a renewed contract with MTN. Prior Don Jazzy and Dr Sid’s contract renewal yesterday, they had only two months left for their contract with the telco to run out and were uncertain if the contract would be renewed, so in order to remind MTN that the Mavin boss was still a master influencer, a carefully hatched out plan was put in place.

Here, it will be recalled that MTN poached popular comic actor Saka in April 2013 from Etisalat, after the latter delayed contract renewal. This move sent the corporate world and social media into a frenzy with many applauding the former for the marketing strategy that saw the latter struggling to save face.
Hence publicists who might have been paid via proxy by Don Jazzy cooked up a plan to remind MTN that they could face the same porting embarrassment if the Mavin CEO’s contract wasn’t renewed on time.

Also, the recent Xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa was already giving the telco serious palpitations especially after Nigerians threatened to boycott the company last month. So the Mavins dumping a foreign telco for a Nigerian rival would trigger a massive exodus. MTN who enjoy being a market leader in Nigeria swiftly had several huge contracts re-newed yesterday including that of Made Men Music Group (MMMG) CEO, Iyanya, Tiwa Savage contract was renewed today

 So once again, Nigerian bloggers have proved to be useful mules in carrying out daring publicity stunts. As at the time of posting this, it’s uncertain if the B-List and C-List acts on Mavin records will be getting any endorsement deals soon, with Reekado Banks and Di’ja yet to prove their brand can sell a product.