by By Warren Brett – Cluster Executive, SEA Region, Smollan Tanzania 

The digital era is on us with the pandemic sealing the deal as tech and ecommerce stepped up and on parade. Tantalising us with seamless, effortless shopping, even at 3am when sleep just won’t play the game – essentially reprogramming our DNA.

In the bigger picture looking well beyond the horizon (or is it just around the corner?), we are ultimately gearing up to be humanoids where our bodies are landscaped for tech. Super handy, but not just yet. As it turns out we also like the human-on-human experience – to network as a crew, to be part of a crowd and share experiences.

Warren Brett Cluster Executive, SEA Region, Smollan Tanzania, takes a closer look at activations in Africa. Where personal and immersive experiences capture interest and set the scene for a properly engaging story and where the customer feels great about their decision to buy product X or Y. Therein lies the beauty, that cannot be experienced (for now) from a couch.

Activations are the key that unlocks the connection between brands and consumers as they drive to incite trial and drive conversion, selling benefits over features and affecting behavioural changes.

As the market becomes increasingly flooded with a wide range of products and services it breeds a highly competitive environment to gain customer wallet share. So too, consumers are becoming increasingly discerning and with said tech developments and internet penetration they are not only well exposed but also knowledgeable. In turn, retailers and brands have had to shift their focus from awareness to connections, which have proven to offer a longer-term customer lifespan.

In Africa, companies are now offering more interactive BTL activities including activations as a must have in their marketing plans from sampling activities, experiential activities, and instore activations to drive brand and increase product uptake. A chance to build, target and engage.

“Activations in Africa are on the increase – an opportunity to position brands differently based on who your target market is, where they are shopping, and what they like to be associated with. As well as addressing specific needs both functionally and emotionally. With the economic difficulties affecting the region we’ve seen that consumers are shifting their shopping behaviour to purchasing more local products that are cheaper. This has forced multinationals to focus on the benefits of selling promotions and association marketing that is primarily being driven by consumer facing activations,” says Brett.

For niche brands – events, high-net worth activities i.e., golf activations and tastings as well mall experiential activations are beginning to sway consumer decision-making. At the other end of the mass brands scale, initiating high traffic activations such roadshows, market storms and home-to-home are reaching B-C2 consumers.

“We can then measure the effectiveness of activations with the ability to track reach, conversion as well as consumer insights which assist in tailoring the activation strategy to fit a specific consumer segment,” added Brett.

That said, there are challenges as reported by www.ecommerce.co.za. Customers in Africa in generalised terms are happy to experience brands for free during trials and shows, but not necessarily patronise the brand going forward.

Valuable strategies to shift this narrative include:

• Using activations to increase brand value as findings show that customers in Africa do not regard value as making extraordinary promises but rather, as consistently fulfilling simple promises.
• Thoughtfully planning and running activations that deliver the right messages to the right audience at the right frequency through the proper channels.
• Determining the exact role of the activation at each step of the buying journey. Offline and online activations must also be in sync.
• Prioritising intimate customer engagement over massive events can create new opportunities for understanding customer behaviour, consumption patterns, values, and lifestyles.

“Giving support to value chains and creating a buzz with consumers who have not necessarily experienced these types of events before is incredibly satisfying. We’ve seen first-hand in Kenya how we were able to reach 56,000 consumers in a week with a conversion rate of 91% for one client; 30,000 in-store customer interactions with approximately 7,500 Pcs sales recorded for another, and in a roadshow and caravan format, onboard 19,569 traders. It makes the activation potential in Africa, despite the challenges, so exciting,” said Brett.

Meta: Find out which token, Binance Coin, Uwerx or OKB is most likely to break new grounds in 2023. Learn more about the newcomer Uwerx and how you can utilize its presale to maximize your profits by investing in a future AAA asset.

A very specific form of cryptocurrency, utility tokens are digital assets that serve a purpose within a broader ecosystem. Utility tokens like Binance Coin (BNB) and OKB (OKB) are very popular as they offer different services within their respective exchanges and blockchains.

Yet, one new utility token, Uwerx, is gaining traction in the crypto industry as it not only offers different advantages, the platform itself is becoming a hot topic within one of the fastest-growing industries: freelancing.

Binance Coin (BNB) – Too much Dependency?

Serving the dual purpose of being a crypto exchange utility token and the second-largest second-generation blockchain (BNB Chain), Binance Coin (BNB) is immensely popular.

The Binance Coin (BNB)’s performance is heavily dependent on the crypto market in general. With bull scenarios, there is a flurry of users and projects on the BNB Chain, prompting its supply vs demand curve to skew as more and more people use it. This is evident from its ATH of $671 in May 2021, when the latest bull cycle was at its peak.

But in less than two years, its value has dropped by nearly 60% to roughly $277 as the market slowed down. The lowering demand has also affected Binance Coin (BNB) trading volumes.

The near future has decent predictions for Binance Coin (BNB) though. With returning confidence in CEXs and the continuation of Binance Coin (BNB) quarterly burn, it just might rise to north of $350, a 26% increase.

Uwerx (WERX) Presale Gets Ready to Rumble

Uwerx (WERX) is understandably a different category of utility token, as it serves not an exchange. But don’t let this fool you. Uwerx is one of the most ambitious projects of its kind, set up to weed out issues faced by online gig economy freelancers.

Offering better security (both data and work), an astounding lower platform fee of just 1%, and overall protection of both freelancer and buyer rights, Uwerx has caught the eyes of freelancers and investors across the world.

Uwerx has already passed an audit with InterFi Network and SolidProof and has locked liquidity in for 25 years after the presale. An upcoming presale of 1 WERX for $0.0065 and a prediction that it might jump as high as $1 in the first few days is something to consider. That is a near 10,000% increase!

This is apart from the fact that the team has just announced it will be stepping down eventually, giving its users control of the platform, followed by a complete tax removal.

OKB (OKB)

While OKX is one of the top exchanges like Binance and its OKB (OKB) serves similar purposes to Binance Coin (BNB), the token lacks the same popularity. It hit its ATH of $40 in the same time frame as Binance Coin (BNB).

OKB (OKB) has seen an increase of $51.32. Though it dipped as low as $13 in 2022, it has rebounded and has since then beaten its initial ATH.

But OKB has a much better prediction, with some estimates putting it $60 before 2023 ends, translating into an 83% jump. Yet, OKB (OKB) prediction is largely dependent on several factors, such as increased OKEx and its OKExChain user adoption.

Uwerx (WERX) Presale set to win

With hypothetical weapons drawn, utility tokens like OKB (OKB), Binance Coin (BNB), and Uwerx  will have a three-way battle for supremacy this year.

Good and established as they are, both Binance Coin (BNB) and OKB (OKB) performances will not be able to touch Uwerx performance. This presents a unique and promising opportunity for investors who would like to take the chance of increasing their net worth to new levels in just a short period, participate in the presale by following the links below:

Presale: invest.uwerx.network

Telegram: https://t.me/uwerx_network

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uwerx_network

Website: https://www.uwerx.network/