Crossing Oceans, Connecting Peoples: Caribbean Marketing Mix, Sept 24

The Caribbean has been the crossroads of world history for 500 years. In this roundup of last week’s marketing news from around the region, we see Caribbean people and brands continuing to make connections around the globe. Our stories link Trinidad to Jamaica to Ghana to England to Barbados to Panama. Follow along.

Brand Bravo. Trinidadian cricketer Dwayne Bravo is seizing the future and shaping what happens next for him after West Indies cricket. Taking his cue from sport celebrities in other parts of the world, he’s about to monetize his appeal beyond the cricket field and develop “Brand Bravo”. He has just released a music video collaboration with Jamaican dancehall artist Beenie Man (and featuring Guyana’s Timeka Mashall), called “Beenie Man & Bravo”. Soon to follow will be his official website and the Dwayne Bravo Cricket Star Search.

[via caribpr.com]

Bravo has certainly been versatile on the cricket pitch, as both a batsman and medium-fast bowler.  He also has been blessed, in my view, with real charisma and star power even from his professional debut. He always exudes a joy and passion on the field, regardless of the team’s fortunes, with a smile nearly as wide as the cricket sightscreen. Recent injuries seem to have sidelined his West Indies team career but he’s bounced back to find favour in the IPL and other Twenty20 leagues elsewhere.

I’d love to—and expect to—see those values of versatility, resilience and passion demonstrated in whatever Brand Bravo ultimately becomes. After watching the music video for “Beenie Man & Bravo”, I predict that Dwayne will most likely focus his brand building efforts in non-musical directions in the future. Anyway, we sincerely wish you tons of success, DB.

[via SFLCN.com]

Jamaica Links. Jamaica is now helping to maintain the connection between the country of Ghana and the Ghanaian expatriate community in Great Britain.

JN Money Services, the remittance arm of the Jamaica National Building Society, has launched a new Ghana Money Transfer brand in the UK, in partnership with the Merchant Bank of Ghana.

Remittances from its Diaspora population remain an important source of foreign currency inflows into Ghana and this service targets the 90,000 Ghanaians living in Britain. National football star and English Premier League striker, Asamoah Gyan, has come on board as the brand ambassador.

JN Money Services has been operating in the UK for over 25 years is said to be the second largest remitter of funds to Jamaica, with branch offices and agents in 12 major cities across England.

[via ChelseaFC.com]

Sporting Barbados. Barbados has just signed a three-year promotional deal with the English football club Chelsea. 

The partnership will give the Barbados brand valuable exposure to Chelsea’s fans in the UK as well as in North America and the Caribbean. There is also a social component to the deal as Chelsea FC and the Barbados Tourism Authority plan to work together on various community projects in the two countries, including coaching programmes.

ECB

Barbados tourism planners have been keeping busy on the field: this football deal follows on from Barbados’ name sponsorship of the national T20 club cricket tournament in England this past summer. The Barbados Cockspur Rum Club Twenty20 competition brought exposure to 750 clubs across England and Wales. Ealing Cricket Club won the competition final on September 19 (beating Chester-Le-Street) and the match was broadcast live on Sky Sports.

Barbados Tourism Authority says that its promotional theme for 2012 will be The Year of Sport: From Grass Roots to World Class, as it plans to leverage Barbados’ impressive reputation for hosting world-class sporting events. So, stay tuned.

Barbados Telecoms. TeleBarbados, a voice and data telecommunications services provider, has launched a premium voice & internet service package for residential users, branded “VIP 4G Broadband”. Bandwidth up to 10 Mbps is available, with unlimited local and long-distance calls to the USA, United Kingdom and Canada.

Panama Silver Men. We couldn’t end this post without mentioning another cross-Caribbean connection—one that also goes across history. Barbadian filmmaker Alison Saunders is preparing to make a documentary telling the story of the thousands of Bajans and other West Indians who migrated to Panama at the beginning of the 20^th century to help construct the Panama Canal.

Panama Fever: A Caribbean Journey is currently in fund-raising and pre-production. It was one of the regional projects selected for participation in the CaribbeanTales incubator held at last month’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Nearly 60,000 “silver men” are thought to have traveled from Barbados to Panama to help build the Canal. Their motivation was economic and the flow of remittances to families back at home helped to stave off poverty and enable a measure of social advancement for tens of thousands of Barbadians.

Alison Saunders made her debut as a feature film writer and director in 2007 with Hit for Six!, a Caribbean drama about, of course, cricket.