1st Nigerian Beer Festival: A mix of revving brands, lifestyle and culture
To achieve top of the mind awareness for their brands, leading beverages companies in Nigeria participated actively at the recent Nigerian Beer festival to create connection with the large crowd of consumers that attended the event.
The event opened daily with hundreds of fun seekers, who thronged the Atlantic City waterfront, venue of the festival, to savour the excitement, fun and entertainment of the carnival-like fair ground.
There was a rich display of beer, as the various brands seized the opportunity to activate unique engagement strategies that made for personal engagement with their target audience and provide a lasting experience in the minds of the consumers. They had their products available for exhibition and tasting. It was also a fitting atmosphere to showcase fashion, lifestyle and culture in a festive atmosphere.
Consumers grabbed the opportunity to sample and enjoy the variety of brands from the brewers’ portfolio. The participating beer brands included Heineken, Star, Goldberg, Gulder, 33 Export and others were readily available to the delight of the crowd.
Nigerian Breweries, which is the foremost brewer in Nigeria, revved up the atmosphere as its leading brands became the toast of the teeming crowd who thronged the waterfront venue of the festival.
Nigerian Breweries Corporate Affairs Adviser, Kufre Ekanem explained that as the foremost brewer, the company ensured that the Nigeria Beer Festival was rich with various beer brands that would connect with diverse consumers in a unifying and responsible manner. “Our company’s involvement in the Beer Festival was to reinforce the culture of beer as a social lubricant, which brings people from diverse backgrounds to unite in enjoyment through responsible drinking.”
At the Nigerian Breweries corner, participants were made to experience the process of making Star Lite. The participants were brought into the brewery pavilion in batches to watch a video, which engaged them physically. After wearing their headset, the light went off and the video came to live, thereafter, bubbles dropped, water showered on them and the machine they were standing on started to vibrate, symbolizing the mixture of the ingredients in the video. The participants were amazed and thanked the brand for putting up such an engaging show for them.
The event also afforded consumers of the world renowned premium bitters and classic alcoholic drink, Campari, an opportunity to relish the vibrant hue, intense aroma and inspiring flavour of Campari in-bar cocktails mixed by professional mixologists.
Brand Manager Campari, Rilwan Shofunde, stated: “Campari lives up to its promise of not only providing superior quality cocktail base, but also to create stylish yet unique drinking experiences for consumers. It is in support of our beer-drinking culture that we are participating in the very first Nigeria Beer Festival, so as to encourage our fans and consumers to keep enjoying mixing Campari with their preferred beer brand. This is the true spirit behind our ‘Campari Loves Beer’ mantra.”
The festival played host to Campari Brand Ambassador, 2Baba, often referred to as ‘Mr. Campari.’ The iconic singer added colour to the event, while fans also had opportunity for ‘meet and greet’ sessions.
In his reaction, 2Baba said: “I am always delighted to share the excitement and passion of Campari drink with my fans anytime, anywhere. As the number one lover of Campari myself, I am at the Nigeria Beer festival to support our mixologists in showing them the true meaning of ‘Campari Loves Beer.”
The big animated bottles of Star and Guinness at the entrance of the venue welcomed participants and beer lovers. As the event gathered momentum, new friends were made, old friends chatted and great memories were shared even as they sipped their beers.
Guinness Nigeria and Campari made their stands very colourful. Campari created a Very Important People (VIP) section, with chairs, which made customers feel they were in a high class bar.
Guinness placed its sales representatives at strategic positions in the event hall. They welcome the participants and ushered them to their seat. The concept was to treat every customer as a VIP.
Organisers of the event said that the festival was indeed a carnival of entertainment, sales, tourism and a gathering of the largest community of beer producers and consumers from across the country. They added that it presented economic value for the brands and the nation’s economy.
The event, which started Monday, 25th September and ended on Sunday 1st October, 2017 was filled will glamour and funfair and the closing ceremony was celebrated in grand style, especially as it coincided with Nigeria’s 57th Independence Day celebration marked on October 1.
The aim of the festival, according to the organizers, is to promote responsible drinking culture. It is worthy of note that Nigerians drink 16 million hectolitres of beer a year, which is half as much as South Africans – the continent’s biggest beer market.
The Atlantic Waterfront, venue of the long week event, was filled with merriment and good music that made the atmosphere calm and exciting. From upcoming artist to music icons, the stage was lit up with beautiful music, rendered in great tunes.
The organisers hoped to growing the event to a height that it will be rated side by side with German’s Oktoberfest beer festival.
Oktoberfest is the world’s largest Volksfest (beer festival and travelling funfair). Held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, it is a 16- to 18-day folk festival running from mid or late September to the first weekend in October, with more than 6 million people from around the world attending the event every year.
The festival was supported by Lagos State Government. Mr. Babatunde Annan, Deputy Director, Creative Arts, who represented the Permanent Secretary in the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, explained that the government collaborated with beer brewers in the country and their counterparts across the globe to stimulate the economic and tourism potentials in the state.
Beer consumers and sight seers, who thronged the fair venue, applauded the beverages brands for making the event memorable. They said the event has put Nigeria on the global map as a tourist destination.
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