By Princewill Ekwujuru
Quite recently, questions were being asked as to the true background story of how ‘Today is a Good Day” became a contested ad campaign line between Oceanic Bank and MTN.

Caught in the middle of it all, is DDB Lagos, which is leveraging on its pedigree as one of the most awarded creative houses in Nigeria, providing advertising services to both MTN and until October 2009, Oceanic Bank.

Several issues amongst which plagiarism is one, has been brought to the fore and the agency has been accused of duplicating, and using one campaign idea for two of its clients; The Agency had explained that both campaigns have absolutely nothing to do with one another and were each developed on their own merit by two different agencies.

According to Ikechi Odigbo, Managing Director, DDB Lagos, said that the campaign for Oceanic Bank was created in January 2009, as part of the agency’s pitch for the account of which several top-line advertising agencies were involved.

“The “Today is a good day” campaign was the pitch_winning idea that propelled DDB to the top of the pack and enabled the creative powerhouse walk away with the account.’, he said.

A key falsehood which has been asserted is that the agency was contracted to aid in the bank’s repositioning efforts; when in fact, the agency picked up the account in January 2009, a full seven months prior to the banks crisis, shake-up and assumption of oceanic’s current management in August 2009. DDB Lagos said the campaign idea for Oceanic Bank was approved under the previous management.
In the case of MTN, The Managing Director explained that the Africa United FIFA 2010 campaign was created by Johannesburg based advertising agency Ireland/Davenport, in partnership with Switch Branding and Design Agency also based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The copy in contention, “Today is a good day to be African” is one line out of a fully integrated campaign, through the line, multi_phased campaign which was flighted locally and on satellite across MTN Group’s operating markets and across the Middle East and Africa.

Explaining further, he said, “other ad lines used in the campaign include “We can’t wait, let’s Go 2010!,” ‘Let’s get behind African football,’ “United we score.” According to Ireland/Davenport, inherent in creating the Africa United campaign was the necessity to intertwine the cultural nuances and human truths that exist in the different countries across the region and that is what the campaign brought to bear.

The fact that we are African and we are making history not only by hosting the World Cup for the first time on African soil but also by MTN, the first and only Global African organisation, sponsoring the event.

The concept created by the Johannesburg based agencies was vetted and fully approved by the MTN Group in South Africa and then deployed worldwide to all of its operating countries.

By virtue of being a Title Sponsor, the Africa United FIFA 2010 campaign ran in all of MTN Group’s operating countries. He however advised Oceanic bank to cross check records, so that will not range.

Nonye Ugwujide, Group Head, Corporate Communication, Oceanic Bank could not be reached to explain their side of the story.