Client: The Nigeria Police & MTN Nigeria.

Project: 2008 MTN People Police Marathon
(Event Marketing & Management)

Synopsis: Over the years, the image of the Nigeria Police has suffered badly, fuelling lack of cooperation by the general public. Having developed a pragmatic brand repositioning strategy that can reposition the Nigeria Police in the eyes of the public, we approached the police authorities. The People Police Marathon was born. It is an unusual race exploiting the emotive power of sports to bond the police and the rest of the society in a joint “race against crime.”

Situation Analysis: For almost the whole of its life, the Nigeria Police has been in the public court, persecuted, vilified and chastised without enjoying any kind of support from the people they are to protect. It was such an adversarial relationship. The consequences of all these have impacted adversely on people-police relationship and eventually on the primary role of the police. Following from this, it became compelling for the police to initiate effective strategies toward addressing and breaking the barriers and partner with the people.

The Challenge: The consultancy was saddled with the 360% responsibility to conceive, plan, market and organise the entire gamut of the race for the Nigeria Police and the title sponsor, MTN Nigeria.
Our Strategy: We developed and implemented a theme campaign using TV, radio, print, outdoor, internet, publications, public relations, events and road shows.

Tactics: The race was executed in phases with direct involvement of stakeholders, including the sporting media. Endorsement of the race through official presentation of the race emblem to the Inspector General of Police was achieved to garner credibility for the race. That was followed by a world press conference announcing the race. There was also the IG/Stakeholders dinner that sold the concept to the corporate Nigeria. Print and broadcast media were engaged for the phased unveiling ceremonies of the title sponsor and co-sponsors held in Lagos and Abuja.

Results: The turn out of participants from all over the country and from the corporate and diplomatic communities on the Race Day was unprecedented. The Nigeria Police have never had it so good. The project received massive positive reports in the national media – print and broadcast. So impressed by the organisation of the 2008 MTN PPM was the Nigeria Police that it has now commissioned MarketingMix to run subsequent editions.