After kick starting their education campaign late last year 2010, Brand Botswana, the nation building machine, hosted a workshop for a largely media audience at Tlotlo Conference Centre on Friday January 28th.
With all the excitement the BEDIA managed department has been causing amongst its citizens, deputy director of Brand Botswana, Ludo Mokotedi, highlighted on how the younger adults fit into building a ‘proud’ nation.
“The younger generation, like any target group, is important because we see them as an extension of the brand. Everything that you do, your behavior, your tone of voice, is an extension of us,” Mokotedi said.
With the vision of 2016 in mind, the workshop also worked for Brand Botswana to encourage citizens to make Botswana the best place in Africa to live, visit and invest.
Alongside cheering for a nation unified on respect, hope and ambition based on goals that benefit the nation. Mokotedi shared more on the brand’s awareness of the youth’s part in the drive.
“Youth are early adopters of mostly everything. Early adopters are people who are eager to learn things. Use new technology. Understand concepts, interrogate them, etcetera. They’re always keen to learn these new skills, and to learn new concepts,” she said. “Now because you’re early adopters, you’re very critical. To the fact that once the youth understand nation branding, what it means and how they contribute, you know that you can get other people to rally behind you.”
Mokotedi went to point out Brand Botswana’s recent successful projects within the community, one which included assisting the World Universities Debate Championships held between December 27th 2010 and January 4 2011, to sign up what she said was over 100 students from university level and lower to volunteer for the event.
She said that feedback from the youth during the branding process was collected as they did with other population sectors, by targeting bodies dealing directly with the focus group.
“We hand-picked organizations we felt represented the groups re direleng to form part of a brand leadership program and brand development program.” Mokotedi said. “You had youth organizations, CBOs, NGOs, that were working with the target group of the youth. Then you had councellors, you had MPs. The private sector. Different governmental departments, department tsa bo Youth, Sports and Culture e ne bale part of that.”
Reflecting on the national research conducted, she said, “It’s interesting because from the findings, most people said the same thing- ba batla unity. Which is why now that thing of galvanizing the community around a single identity was born.”
Mokotedi said there was a largely positive response from the nation. However from feedback on Twitter and Facebook, Phodiso Mpotokwane, 21, a university student based in Malaysia had some criticisms to voice.
“I saw the Brand Botswana exhibition at the World Universities Debate Championships and I really didn’t catch what they were trying to do. I mean they had some cultural shows and distributed our fine local brew and so forth, but one got the sense that the cultural aspect of (nation) branding isn’t quite there yet.”
He added, “When it comes to Brand Botswana, I really wonder what the aim is. Is it tourism? Or business? Or as a place to settle? Being too all encompassing has its own inherent harms that being the tendency to try and do too much with it.”
On what more Brand Botswana could do now to make more of an intimate impact for the near future, Mpotokwane said, “What they need to do is have a fan page. Social media has a way of making people feel stuff is more alive and relevant versus a distant program. That they can relate to. Not the long policy on BEDIA’s website. It really needs to be more in-your-face.”
Currently, Brand Botswana has not put up their detailed workshop presentation online, which one could say may hinder the ongoing education and inspiration process of “galvanizing” the nation in time for the brand’s next phase of campaigns.
