One question that seems to be bothering many Akwa Ibom citizens is if star actress, Ini Edo has abandoned her ambassadorial deal with the state for Dubai, a more lucrative brand?
Imagine what happens when you see a brand ambassador supporting another brand.
We all know that screen goddess, Ini Edo, is a Special Assistant to the Akwa-Ibom State Governor on Tourism. However, she has been caught supporting another city; Dubai, instead of flaunting hers.
Ini Edo didn’t waste time when she hit the ground running after she was announced as a brand ambassador of tourism for her state. She had announced the hosting of the first ever Ibom Heritage Festival before the end of the 2016. Let’s take away the imagination of how a brand will feel if it sees its trusted ambassador supporting another brand. In this case, Ini Edo has crossed the line when she travelled to Dubai and was seen proudly showing off the beauty of Dubai on her social media handlers.
Maybe, you will say it is no big deal because everyone does it when they travel. Everyone may do it but it is not every trusted brand ambassador that can openly support another brand. Ini Edo is a tourist ambassador of a state.
She once stated that her Ibom Heritage festival would simultaneously showcase the tourism potentials of the state to visitor, a festival with the Theme “Our Culture Beyond Borders.” She said that she was showcasing the wealth of the state in terms of historical sites, sculptural landscapes, topography, cuisines, to arts and crafts that abound in the state.
Does this mean showing off the tourism and hospitality of another city instead of Akwa Ibom? A lot of us have seen the lovely pictures that Ini Edo has displayed about Dubai and we must confess that they are cool.
However, Nigeriafilms.com expected more from Ini Edo. We thought we would have seen Akwa Ibom in Dubai in all her pictures but that was not the result. We must emphasis on what it means to be a brand ambassador.
A brand ambassador sole purpose is to be a cheerleader for a business, talk about a brand positively in front of a lot of people and promote a business through credible, repeated visibility. Brand is not a product, that’s for sure; it’s not one item. It’s an idea; it’s a theory; it’s a meaning; it’s how you carry yourself. It’s aspirational, it’s inspirational.
Where does Ini Edo fail in this definition after displaying another city’s tourism? She is not the only one who is a defaulter of this. We hope that other brand state ambassador showcase their states when they travel to other countries. With this mindset, Nigeria tourism will do better than it is doing today.
