BBNaija: Martin Mabutho tells Pulse about ads, sponsorships, placements, stan culture, Nigerian idol and more [Inside By Pulse]

Social media activity hit around seven figures every 24 hours, viewers hit just under 100 million and votes crossed 150 million. Multichoice is also the creator of Africa’s biggest television/reality show, Big Brother Naija.

In 2020, Big Brother Naija extended its run as what David Adeleke described in his newsletter, Communique as Africa’s Super Bowl that runs for three months.

Reality TV star Laycon [Instagram/ItsLaycon] Pulse Nigeria

In 2020, Fierce Nation’s performing artist, Laycon won BBNaija: Lockdown. The show had these reported numbers over 10 weeks;

910 million votes
532 million Twitter impressions
4.1 million unique users
310 million viewers: +74% increase YOY
+134% YOY in channel viewership
+84% YOY in weekday viewership
New viewers: +25%
Male viewers: + 7% to 41%
A large part of BBNaija’s Live viewership comes from mobile: A reported 80%, which suits the new global tech direction.

No other African - or maybe even European - show comes remotely close to these numbers and eyeballs.

When BBNaija holds, the BBNaija channel has 10 times the numbers of any football broadcast. For context, the English Premier League is the biggest sporting event in Africa and it attracts daily allegiance.

This then impacts the African ad, brand partnerships and endorsement ecosystem and causes a scramble to be on one of the world’s biggest reality shows as an advertiser, a partner or a sponsor and those slots come with heavy billing.

The new season of BBNaija commenced on Saturday, July 24, 2021 with new housemates. Boomplay, which was one of this year’s sponsors, had a 24-hour four-figure jolt in app downloads on Google Play Store, especially.

The reason is simple; BBNaija is mega. Aside from the NGN 90 million prize for the winner, contestants go to BBNaija for brand exposure and awareness because they come out of the house to become the most sought-after faces in the country. This comes with numerous brand partnership, ambassadorial and endorsement opportunities.

Inside By Pulse Vol. 10 featuring Martin Mabutho, Chief Customer Officer at Multichoice Nigeria. (ID Africa) Pulse Nigeria

For this reason, Pulse Nigeria had a conversation with Martin Mabutho, the Chief Customer Officer at Multichoice Nigeria and we gathered that BBNaija never stops and preparations for the new season commences immediately after one season ends.

“You know, post-BBNaija/Nigerian Idol events are still part of the season even though the show has ended. The show never ends. When post-show media rounds and the appearances are being done, we are strategizing for the new season,” Mabutho enthused. “We start brainstorming changes, necessary switches, corrections... We also engage sponsors, brainstorm themes and the creative pivot.”

In a marketing project, BBNaija would be described as a cash cow. This chat also came shortly after Nigerian Idol Season Six was completed and to Mabutho, it was a successful show.

“We had a worthy winner, a couple of worthy runners up, we pleased our viewers, pleased our sponsors and met all our objectives,” he says. “At the same time, we were also doing housemate selections for the new season of BBNaija. We also had another team making sure that Showmax was ready to take the show to viewers in the diaspora - UK especially.”

“Our yearly target for ourselves is to surpass the heights of previous seasons of any of our shows. It doesn't look like a far-fetched wish,” he continues. “We are excited.”

At the bedrock of these shows is the will to create superstars. As much as these shows extend the brand of Multichoice/DSTV as Africa’s No. 1 visual content platform, Mabutho and Multichoice understand that people are usually the measure for success in a customer-focused ecosystem. Hence the need to create stars out of regular people.

Ebuka Obi-Uchendu [Instagram/pulsenigeria247] Pulse Nigeria

Ebuka in his signature Agbada {guardian ng} Pulse Nigeria

This also informs the type of hosts/judges that Multichoice hires for Nigerian Idol and BBNaija. They are not just popular, trusted faces, they are also human beings with personable traits. After intense auditions, they are then selected.

Mabutho says, “It’s a skill to be a judge or host on these shows. A lot of people think it’s simply about being good on radio, but it’s never that easy. Credit to our OAPs though, they’re doing an amazing job.”

Timing and bringing Big Brother's house to Nigeria

Some editions ago, BBNaija used to come in Q1 of every year and the house used to be South Africa. The last edition was held in Q3 2020 while Big Brother’s house has moved to Nigeria, over the past three years.

According to Mabutho, changes to timing is a no-brainer for Multichoice.

“We have to be aware because we operate in a community that is regulated by occurrences outside TV. We moved the data last year because of the elections,” he says. “Football is huge, but BBNaija is bigger and in a different segment so it can’t really affect the timing as much. Timing is everything - we also look at timing versus what we want to achieve commercially.”

Commercially, payTV is about creating content that subscribers want to pay for. Multichoice knows that BBNaija can’t run for 12 months, so it’s about feeding content that will provide a platform for shows like BBNaija and Nigerian Idol. To Mabutho, these reality shows are like crowning glory, not the entire thing that represents Multichoice.

Speaking of no brainers, so is the choice to move Big Brother’s house to Nigeria.

“Multichoice Nigeria does Big Brother Naija and it’s a Nigerian company. It only made sense to build a multimillion dollar operations facility to host it,” he says. “BBNaija is a locally produced service that travels around the world. Why then do you want to take it somewhere else? Convenience can be guaranteed because we can work it and we have. It is a world class facility.”

“We are also employing a Nigerian crew that’s trained by Nigerians for Nigeria. Why should we export that? If the show was held in Nigeria, this exchange would be impossible,” he continues. “Even the hairstylists who make pre-eviction hair are Nigerian. So are the interior designers, the architects, DJs, chef, stylists are Nigerian. It’s a benefit system.”

Creating a theme

As noted earlier, brainstorming for a theme for BBNaija begins right after one season ends. The 2019 edition was tagged Double Wahala while that of 2020 was tagged Lockdown due to COVID-19. This year's edition is tagged Shine Ya Eye.

According to Mabutho, some of these themes are inspired by Multichoice’s ability to either look inward, at the brand of BBNaija contestants or the society as a signifier. The idea is to make a theme represent something. This season’s tag is mostly like a warning to the contestants as regards the competition they face.

“Last year’s theme was pretty straightforward and easy to agree with, but some of these themes were birthed off arguments and conversations around suitability,” Mabutho jokes.

Pulling of a season in the thick of lockdown

When the 2020 edition held, lockdown measures had just been softened while health protocols remained rife to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Yet, a show had to go on albeit with a change.

“We appreciate a good challenge, it keeps us where we are and on our toes. We work eight days a week. The challenge was trying to move from our template to another template,” Mabutho says. “Usually, we would go with 30,000 people and hit cities for auditions. This also made for good TV, but last year we couldn’t do that. We had to be innovative and follow ratified guidelines to do the show. This is also credit to our team.”

“At some point, this also meant that we kept certain [contestants] in isolation for a fair amount of time. Our viewers wanted the show and we had to give them,” he continues.

COVID has also impacted Multichoice’s relationship with the media. In past editions, the company and its PR partners invite media practitioners to Big Brother’s house to spend a night before housemates move in. That won’t happen this year for obvious reasons.

Sponsorships and ads

As noted earlier, numbers mean visibility for Nigerian Idol and particularly Big Brother Naija. Thus, there is a scramble for slots by brands. While most people think it’s simply about money, Multichoice is also interested in preserving and fostering its brand.

“When we get offers, we have to conduct our due diligence to first of all know what is brand fit. You wouldn’t expect us to work with brands that don't resonate with our audience or brands with a contrasting ethos or bad PR,” Mabutho enthused. “We have brands offer us three-year deals with year-on-year revenue increase, but we can’t do that, unfortunately.”

“As much as that guarantees certainty for us, it’s only fair that we give new sponsors the chance to appear on the show every year. It’s fresh with new horizons. It’s not even about revenue, there is a tendency to get stale when it’s just one brand,” he says. “Businesses need to grow and they need new ideas for that. Brand deals can help freshen you up and present your brand to another audience with new possibilities.”

“It’s also about giving a fair partnership opportunity to everybody because we are just that big,” he concluded.

While ad placement doesn’t always translate to conversation for certain brands, Multichoice offers support to brands to make sure they get optimum value on their placement.

“It depends on what they want to achieve. Let’s say you’re trying your new product, and you need to tier your message into an annoucarial within the first two weeks before switching it up to a call-to-action, we can use the housemates to try and demonstrate the benefits of the product before switching it back to call-to-action,” he explains.

“If the end goal is app download, you can give us your target per week/per month. We can then evaluate if tasks might suit your product. It then becomes about the amount of tasks you bought and the time slot that suits your product. A condom will be more suited to primetime while a bottle of juice will be more suited to daytime,” he continues.

Mabutho further explains how Friday night slots are usually “popping” because people are settled in one place, watching TV. For the clients that get the slot, Multichoice’s creative team then tries to help weave your message into an organic storyline.

“An example of organic marketing is what Pepsi did last year; they created apparel that suited hot street fashion without a huge logo hanging out from the chest,” he goes further. “Why don’t you even make it a desirable product? You don’t have to promote bottles because you’re a drink company. You could promote it with clothes."

“You can also do a game show; Showmax did that last year and we saw the conversion. There was a malaria drug company that marketed with plain old airtime and their sales went through the roof - increased by 400%,” he ended. “Companies just need to get created with marketing and ads, that’s all. Sometimes, we advise on the best way to go about it.”

Marketing through third-party social media channels?

Over the past two years, entertainment businesses have found new ways to promote their content in order to reach a bigger audience. Some have taken to Instagram Live, IGTV, Reels, Twitter, Periscope and more to promote their product. Recently, Gucci launched Gucci Garden Experience on Roblox.

Gucci also created NFT merch earlier in the year. Rappers like Logic and Travis Scott have also taken to livestreams on Twitch. In 2020, BBNaija had 530 million Twitter impressions. One would assume that a Twitter livestream of the show could be an option, but not for Multichoice.

“We are a full on media company, but we will go to any company that is beneficial to our brand and provides value to shareholders,” he says. “As much as there is potential exposure, it wouldn’t make sense to present on any streaming platform aside from our own. Why should we stream on Twitter when we have DTSV mobile?”

“This is also a platform to develop our own products. Showmax got a huge jolt in 2020 and our products are growing fast in a developing Sub-Saharan African market,” he continues. “It’s been proven that product flywheels don’t just benefit shareholders. The network effect that flywheel benefits the ecosystem and we are Africa’s most desirable brand. It only makes sense that we promote our products.”

Mabutho is right. Companies like Apple, Transsion and Amazon have proved the importance of a flywheel. As much as companies can aid each other’s growth, there is a place for ownership rather than just the vanity of it.

The change in voting

Over the past few years, voting was mostly based around telco infrastructure in Nigeria. It has aided revenue generation for everybody. But this year, voting will only happen on Multichoice’s website, not with telcos.

Despite the fact that Multichoice might lose revenue from the telco voting system, it wants to guarantee ease and affordability for viewers, who don’t have to pay before voting anymore.

Now, they can simply vote online. When you are Multichoice and you know voting will probably hit upwards of 1.5 billion and you can pitch the voting page to advertisers, why do you need telco infrastructure when you have yours and your leverage?

Stan culture

Laycon and Erica's stans were at war for the better part of one year until recently. (Instagram) Instagram

While stan culture is toxic, stans fuel the success of BBNaija. Contestants are usually alluring personalities that attract people for who they are. This then proceeds to split opinion. As much as this drives social media activity, Multichoice doesn’t want to succeed with toxicity.

“The power to determine who walks away with NGN90 million worth of prizes and the direction of stardom for a lot more others is incredible. And it’s been given to the people in an African society where people relate with success and dream through people,” Mabutho says. “This comes with opinions and naturally results in resonance with contestants on shows.”

“However, we do not tolerate hate and we moderate messages on our platforms - especially those that go to screens,” he continues sternly. “We don’t tolerate hate mails or toxic messages that could drive people to self-harm and even worse. That’s not what we want. As Ebuka always says, it’s just a game at the end of the day. Love who your love, but exercise restraint.”

Mabutho then proceeds to urge viewers and fans to be easy on each other. However, he was keen to reiterate that Big Brother Nigeria is rated 18 as well as the connotation of that.