Anakle features Pete Edochie in new Wikipedia campaign

Long after Chinua Achebe’s Things fall Apart TV series, was rested, Pete Edochie seems to have resurrected the ghost of that block buster drama, howbeit in a new body, through a recent commercial to drive awareness for Wikipedia in Nigeria. In the short video, which features some of the prominent casts of the original “Things fall Apart” series, Edochie plays an older Mazi Okonkwo in a classroom, where he is dazzled by Mazi Obierika, played by Chief Nduka Eya, another senior citizen classmate who seemed to know everything. Impressed by Obierika’s knowledge, Edochie rushed over to Obierika on their way home to find his secret. “How come you know so much about the world from this our village?” he asked, still looking confused.
Chief Obierika brings out his phone from under his goatskin bag, “The secret is Wikipedia,” he says with a wry smile.
The short 3minute video which has garnered almost 1 million views on Facebook alone, is a new campaign by Wikipedia to drive awareness and inspire use of the platform in Nigeria. It is the first Wikipedia campaign for the Nigerian market and it was done by one of Nigeria’s leading Digital Marketing agency, Anakle.
Wikipedia is already very popular in Nigeria, especially within its key market segment. It is rated by Alexa as the 11th most visited site in Nigeria. But the company is now looking to reinforce that consumer connection, as well as drive new usage outside of its traditional market segment.
From the inception of the brief, Anakle had decided that the Wikipedia story was better told with a Nigerian flair, using characters and visuals that are not just compelling butalso familiar to the average consumer. That was how, the agency won the pitch, sailing ahead of other equally capable and enterprising competitors in the areas of creativity and strategy decision. And according to Effiong, there is no greater Nigerian story than Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
But getting Chief Edochie to play a part in the campaign was no tea party. “We flew to Enugu to meet with him, and it was a great meeting. Chief Edochie is a real Igbo chief, so we spent most of the morning drinking his wine, hearing stories and history from him,” said Editi Effiong, CEO at Anakle.
“When we got around to discussing the script, he insisted we read it right there. Immediately we finished, he told us it was a great story, and he was going to do it. It was a relief, and more importantly, a validation for the direction we had taken. From then on, it was a matter of scheduling.”
“Our second hurdle was that it became apparent to us that no one could play Okonkwo, especially an older Okonkwo, better than Pete Edochie – who played it in the original NTA TV series. In fact, we wrote the story with him in mind. But we were also caught in the significance of the moment, and tried as much as we could to re-assemble many of the cast members from the original Things Fall Apart production. This is where we have to be very thankful to Chief Edochie, who helped make this happen. Chief Nduka Eya, for example, who played the role of Obierika in the Wikipedia production, played Ezeudu in the original production, and we were lucky to have him.”
While “Things Come Together” with Edochie was targeted at a more mature market segment, Wikipedia also deployed another video with the same message for a slightly different audience. This time around, Emmanuela and the Mark Angel Company brought in to drive the communication. And like almost every other productions from Emmanuela and company, the skit has become an internet sensation with over 5 million views on Facebook and YouTube at the last count. The campaign has also provoked a lot of talkability around the tech brand among Nigerians on social media.
This campaign is undoubtedly another major badge of honor for Anakle which is already known for a number of compelling, highly engaging works. And within a short period of setting up shop, Anakle has steadily risen up the industry ladder to become one of Nigeria’s leading digital marketing agencies, leaving its creative footprint on major brands like Unilever, Coca-Cola, PZ Cussons, GTB, Adidas, P&G and the list goes on. And no doubt its exploits with Wikipedia has won them even bigger professional accolades.
The underlying message behind this campaign is clear; Wikipedia is taking the Nigerian market more seriously. For example the Wikimedia Nigeria Group is already working to improve local Nigerian content on the platform. And there could be some investment announcement soon given the level interest the company has shown in the country and its desire for a bigger footprint in Africa’s biggest economy.
But Wikipedia is not the only global tech giant paying close attention to events in Nigeria; several of the other big players like Google and Facebook are also doing same. And the reason is very obvious. “We’re living in what I believe is the golden age of Nigeria-mania internationally, both in tech and pop culture,” Effiong said.
Series of studies from global research agencies have shown that Nigeria is indeed one of the fastest growing tech markets in the world with vast growth opportunities. And according to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Internet access revenues in Nigeria will rise by a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.2 per cent to reach $4.4 billion in 2021. That makes Nigeria one of the most exciting investment locations for any tech company desirous of real growth.