Starcoms and Insight's Parting Of Ways – I Saw It Coming

The news that filtered in through the Nigerian Marketing Communications grapevine, that Insight Communications Limited, Nigeria’s biggest advertising agency, had resigned (or was sacked?) from the Starcoms account, came as no surprise to me. When the news finally broke in the mass-media, the two parties gave the usual explanations about the parting of ways being mutually agreed to by both parties, that it arose primarily as a result of a need to enable both parties develop their businesses better. Insight Communications handles part of the very lucrative VMobile Global System of Mobile Telephony (GSM) account, and expressed a belief that continuing to manage the another telecom industry account in Starcoms would create a conflict of interest of sorts for it, thus necessitating its resignation pf the account.

But all the cleverly-generated sound bites and press releases aside, the marriage between the two parties was, in my view, doomed to future failure from the very beginning. You need to have an understanding of certain features and antecedents of the two organizations concerned to know what I am talking about.

Insight Communications is without doubt the biggest advertising agency in Nigeria. A member of the Troyka Group, it proudly handles the advertising brief of some of the biggest organizations in Nigeria. Insight does everything in a big way – from the way it handles its pitches, the cars its employees use, the salaries they earn and of course, it minimum expectations from its clients.

Starcoms Limited on its part, is presently the biggest Private Telephone Operator (PTO) in Nigeria, operating a network consisting largely of fixed lines and with less than two hundred thousand subscribers. The company also doubles as one of the most dynamic in the industry. Circa 2002, when it decided it was big enough to get a professional advertising agency handle its marketing communications, it contracted UB40 Communications, an up-and-coming agency, which had executed quite a few well-received campaigns for some small and mid sized clients.

UB40 went ahead to make Starcoms a household name in its areas of operations and coverage. From its ingenious creation of the Starcoms drum logo and usage of its accompanying mechanism in its radio commercials, UB40 was able to create a special niche for Starcoms in the hearts and minds of its target audiences. Things however changed around 2004, when it was announced that Insight Communications had wrested the account from UB40. The change I believe, was precipitated by a change in the top management at Starcoms, and reflected a desire by the new players to associate Starcoms with only the best in all spheres; signing on the biggest ad agency in the country was a very logical extension of this philosophy.




As a persistent supporter of the worthy underdog, I had always believed that Starcoms’ abandoning of UB40 was premature, and was even more strongly convinced it had made a huge mistake when it transferred the account to Insight. Being not only a registered professional advertising practitioner, but also an avid student of the history of the profession, it was clear that the cultural antecedents and strategic campaign methods of Insight could not work for a company like Starcoms as it presently is.

As stated earlier, Insight has handled some of the biggest accounts in Nigeria, and its Marketing Communications Group has pioneered many of the biggest, most impressive and expensive marketing communications initiatives in Nigeria. From the very first spectacular outdoor advertising hoardings, to Unipoles and of course its uniquely creative, national and multi-media executions of ad campaigns, Insight has proved itself as the master of the grand campaign. It was not unusual for an Insight campaign to cost in excess of =N=50 Million (almost $400,000 USD) – a huge amount by Nigeria Marcom Standards. A roll call of the Company’s clients includes impressive behemoths like Nigerian Breweries Plc (The most capitalized Company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange), De-United Foods Industries Limited, Nestle Nigeria Plc., Seven-Up Bottling Company, and of course, VeeNetworks Limited, owners and operators of the VMobile GSM Network – Companies that can easily afford to undertake the effective, but also hugely expensive campaigns that Insight is known for.

While I had no problems with Starcoms’ desiring to work with only the best, I was more concerned about its ability to financially support the Insight way of doing business. With UB40 at the helm of its Marcom efforts, the Starcoms brand was built using the less-expensive, but still effective radio medium, with a strong tactical usage of the outdoor medium, which was anchored on the more common and less-expensive 40-sheet sized boards and a few larger-sized boards.

With Insight at the helm however, it characteristically moved Starcoms towards flirting with Marketing Communications campaign methods and media that it could really not afford, like a 45-second television commercial, which was obviously both expensive to produce and expose. Starcoms, under Insights’ guidance, also began to use unipoles and other larger, but more expensive forms of outdoor advertising. Working with the biggest agency was also expensive. Insight Communications’ account management and other employees are known to command top-Naira salaries. The cost of having one Insight Communications Account Director and his team work primarily on your account required that your business/account be large enough to support those kinds of overheads.

When I noticed this, I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before things went awry between the two parties. While I have no clear figures to support this, but I am certain that Starcoms’ marketing communications billings in the first six months of its management of the account, exceeded the entire billings incurred during all of UB40’s
two or so years of stewarding the Starcoms brand. I am sorry to say this, but I do not think the brand enjoyed a commensurate recognition and equity vis-à-vis the increased expenditure. It could be argued that this was as a result of Starcoms’ inability or unwillingness to strictly adhere to the communications strategy and tactics recommended by Insight, or that Advertising requires time and constant repetition to sink into the minds of target audiences and elicit the required reactions. The fact however remains that when the client simply can not afford your recommendations or proposed budgets, then the possibilities become clear; you either change your strategic direction, resign the account or have the client ‘resign’ you.