Product Placement in 'Anokye, the truth of Destiny' 2D cartoon for TV Africa

Anokye, the truth of Destiny

We have one 30min prime time weekend slot and a repeat late night on a week day. This is to cater for both of our audiences: children and males between 14 and 35. 

Synopsis

The best magician in the land wants to find out who he really is and a Prince want to free his people from a tyrannical overlord, but neither can achieve what they desire without the other. Together they embark on an adventure to unite the clans of Akan and free them from the overlords of Denkyira and save the sacred forests. Along the way our heroes learn valuable lessons in life. Anokye hopes that each adventure will lead him closer to his true identity and Prince Osei hopes to see his home land finally free.   

I have really enjoyed the artistic side of creating the artworks for Anokye, but attracting investment is something that I find daunting to say the least, because you have to ask…

I am slowly trying to get over it and  go forth with confidence and our Marketing manager at my side. So far the reaction has been good, but we are only at he start. We have had one bite, which is very exciting! 
Although in my fantasy world someone with lots of money comes along and says,

 ' here's a bag of money, go make a film!' 

and I say, 

‘thank you exec producer' and we skip happily into the end credits.

Our marketing manager and cultural expert Kofi Boateng is the man in the know in terms of brands so we have spent this week ringing up marketing execs in brands and advertising agencies and driving round the streets of Accra, going from appointment to appointment with a hand bag and a folder in a basket. (I think I'll drop the basket and folder next week) I'm going to put all the info on a flash drive or CD (my lap top broke ??!!!"*!) 

We have broken down down every other day. I took some footage of this mornings breakdown when petrol starting leeking from under the car outside one of Ghana’s biggest ad agencies, then the marketing exec came out of the building and saw us, bonnet up and Kofi under the back. This same guy saw us 2 days ago broken down in Kokomelem after we first came to make the appointment for the meeting we had this morning. But the best thing about Ghana is he didn’t make us feel bad. Dare I say that he didn’t appear to judge us. I hope not anyway.

I like the system in Ghana for getting programs on air. You buy the airtime once your program has been approved by the broadcaster, then you find the sponsors whose brands tie in with what you are doing and they give you money. I like the way it gives you lots of freedom to do what you want, but not quite, as you have to convince the brands that what you want and what they need is one and the same. I have a bit of re writing to do this weekend to talk more about the benefits the brands will get out of being associated with us. I had kinda hoped that it was obvious, but I have seen that these people are very, very, very busy. So I have to do that bit of thinking for them.

We have also come up with some other ideas for revenue raising. We’re offering product placement in the series for furniture, architecture, clothes and jewelry, Hence the advert at the top of the page. We are also looking for product tie ins, such as filtered or mineral water, sweets and so on. Product tie ins is are not a big feature here as I had to explain it a lot today. I may have to wait till the first series airs to try that one, but I am convinced that once we get one brand on board for a product tie in, everyone will want to do it.  (Or that could be me dreaming again).

We had a great meeting with a media buyer and advertising man who deals with Sansung. He’s a really busy business man with quite a few different businesses on the go, so although he didn’t have any clients for us at the moment, he picked up his phone and giant business card album and started giving us numbers and the low down on who to go to! I just can’t believe how generous he was.

The other good thing today was feeling that maybe the car will be alright after all. We only pushed it once and it started almost straight away! 

It will be hello to Tema on Monday and I think that maybe I am looking forward to it.

So if you are interested in advertising slots, product placement, product tie ins or just giving us a bag of money then just drop us a line to

ofosuhene.akua@gmail.com.

thanks!