Advertising agencies foul entertainment scene?
Source : KUTLWANO
Author : Lucretia Chima
Location : GABORONE
Event : Entertainment feature
Gone are the days when music promoters would jostle for an opportunity to bring different acts for mass entertainment. Those Thursdays, when radio stations would be flooded with adverts for up-coming open air music shows, are no more. Walls and fences around Gaborone donning posters and banners of upcoming music festivals which used to be an eyesore to city council officials, now bear ugly scars as a reminder of what has been.
Names such as Easy B, Pp and Zen are now rarely mentioned on radio or newspapers interviews promoting music festivals. All that drama has mellowed down. Only here and there do you see banners on the streets. Instead, corporate shows have become the in thing, attracting the well-heeled of Gaborone`s socialites to posh venues.
This has left the masses with only a void to fill. A shift to these posh events has seen organisers selling out tickets in advance because of the demand from the entertainment thirsty revelers. Botswana Craft bears testimony to this shift given the huge turnout that graced events such as Letlhafula and the 12th edition of Fete De la Musique.
One would ask whether the shift in the Gaborone entertainment scene is a result of cosmopolitan cafés taking over or music promoters lacking creativity? Scorpion Risk Services managing director, Bino Siziba, decries the shift in organisation of music shows given that it has also impacted negatively on their services as bouncers.
Bino reckons that only a few posh entertainment organisers require their services since they mostly engage security companies that only provide a limited number of security guards.
One of the revelers, Katlego Odo, says as students they prefer events where they can buy affordable drinks since in these up-market venues the prices are way beyond their reach.
Seasoned promoter, Seabelo CB Modibe of Lekoko Entertainment, faults the unregulated advertising agencies who have now deviated from their core duty of advertising to hosting shows.
“In recent shows featuring foreign musicians, all the spectators had to do was to buy a certain number of products of a company that is being promoted to earn a ticket. So if buying 12 beers or airtime affords one an opportunity to watch his favourite artiste, why wouldn`t they buy?
Such a practice has rendered music festival to lose popularity hence music promoters are skeptical to organise shows which invariable end up as flops. “My wish is for advertising agencies to concentrate on their core business, as we are not encroaching on their own mandate,” pleads Modibe.
His suggestion is that to stop the practice, COSBOTS must charge advertising agencies more for organising shows. Seabelo says it is only in Botswana where advertising agencies have usurped the work of music promoters.
Botswana Entertainment Promoters Association (BEPA) chairperson, Zenzele Hirschfield, also concurs. Hirschfield says even government has approached them as BEPA expressing the same concern.
“We are worried that festivals are no longer popular. We too are partly to blame for this because we were too slow to come up with new strategies to adapt to the changing environment.”
“Macufe festival in South Africa is held during the day but it is so popular. Botswana Craft shows are proof that there is still a chance for day shows,” reckons Zen.
However, she says they are working hard to protect their trade and their intention is to hold two major calendar events that will sell Botswana music and the country. “Although companies prefer advertising agencies, they should be made to understand that agencies are not concerned with talent development but marketing of their client`s products.”
Conversely, DJ Soares Katumbela of Streethorn Promotions believes that this emerging trend presents opportunity for growth for promoters provided advertising agencies worked with them.
He says over the years, music promoters were disorganized something that tarnished their image. “Advertising agencies do not have the technical know-how on issues of artistes and artistes` management, and under normal circumstances they should engage promoters to take care of such,” says Katumbela. ENDS
