Wimbart Takes On Nollywood: A Brief Guide to Press Week for #RokOnSky
We live in a celebrity-driven world. And for that reason, brands have latched on to them, using them as salesmen. Why? Because having a famous face is the easiest way to create credibility and awareness for your brand. It’s the same concept every where in the world and Nigeria is no different.
If you are a true fan of Nollywood, you’d know that Rok is now on Sky Channel 344. The award-winning Nollywood film studio, headed by actress and producer Mary Njoku, will be showing Rok-produced movies, TV Shows and magazine shows, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The best part of this is that it’s F-R-E-E.
To celebrate the launch of this awesome Nollywood channel, Rok held a huge star-studded Gala dinner a few hours before Nigeria’s Independence Day and brought not one, not two but over 30 Nollywood stars to London to celebrate this glorious occasion. As a Nollywood enthusiast, this was exciting because London has never hosted this many Nollywood stars before.
Wimbart was tasked with securing interviews for not just Mary, but cast member’s of Rok’s upcoming drama series Husbands of Lagos and Single Ladies. As the stars were only around for a few days, we had to be strategic about the who, what, why and where’s of the interviews. The good news was that there was going to be a press room at the gala dinner where the press would have access to all the stars and vice versa.
In my last post, I mentioned that the media rounds were the highlights of my career – this fact remains the same. The day before the Nollywood gala event was the day we had to carry out most of the interviews. My day started with Yvonne Jegede, Bola ‘Nino’ Ninolowo, Uche Odoputa and Peggy Ovire who were promoting Husbands of Lagos on Voxafrica’s brand new show called ‘The Guide’. Meanwhile, Jess took Mary Njoku to BBC Broadcasting House to record for BBC Africa’s ‘African Women You Need to Know’ segment.
After dropping Yvonne and co at their hotel, I headed to iROKO’s London office to meet one of my Nollywood faves, Mercy Aigbe-Gentry, Mary and Jess for an interview with True Africa. Mary and Mercy both spoke about what spurred them on to Nollywood success. From there, I took my second trip to Voxafrica with Mary where she spoke live on Voxafrica News about the launch of #RokOnSky.
To wrap up the day, I took my Nollywood ‘hubby’ Alexx Ekubo to visit the Afrohits Crew at The Beat London 103.6. Whilst I was briefing Alexx on the key messages for his interview, he appeared to not pay attention at all…I was worried. However, all my fears were cast aside the moment he jumped on the mic – he conveyed the message perfectly. Not only that, he publicly declared that I was one of his wives his wife.
Friday was the gala launch event and it was amazing! It was lovely to see the Nollywood stars all glammed up and mixing with Nigerian influentials based in the UK. On the press side, we had the likes of Pulse, Battabox, Voxafrica, Glam Africa, CNN, True Africa and more. Wimbart’s role was to connect the press present with the Nollywood stars of their choice for interviews – this ran smoothly because there was enough time for media outlets to grab and speak to those who they wanted to. Also, the stars were equally happy to connect with the press in attendance.
After a night of partying at Cirque du Lagos, I had to ensure that Mercy Aigbe-Gentry & Padita Agu of Single Ladies and Bola Ninalowo & Jennifer Eliogu of Husbands of Lagos were up and ready for their interviews with Ben Television. Whilst this was going on, Jess took Mofe Duncan and Desmond Elliot to London Live where they spoke about the role Nollywood is playing in the Capital.
Working on the Rok launch has definitely been one of the highlights of my career. I was in the same room as 30+ Nollywood stars and some of them knew me by name. Indeed, I was living the Nollywood dream. My only regret is that I only have 7 selfies to show for it – I guess I was working really hard.
