Phoenix crowned top Mauritian brand at 2nd Brand Magic Summit 2016

Phoenix Beverages was crowned as the top brand in Mauritius at the 2nd Brand Magic Summit 2016, closely followed by Sunny in second position and Mine Apollo in third place. The findings were revealed in a survey by TNS Analysis, which conducted 750 face-to-face interviews with a representative sample between mid-February and mid-March 2016.
Phoenix Beverages was crowned as the top brand in Mauritius at the 2nd Brand Magic Summit 2016, closely followed by Sunny in second position and Mine Apollo in third place. Phoenix came out top based on its good taste, local production, good quality and good reputation, according to respondents.
The findings were revealed in a survey by TNS Analysis, which conducted 750 face-to-face interviews with a representative sample between mid-February and mid-March 2016. The top five brands also featured Mayil and Chantecler, while the top ten also included Body & Soul, Bois Cheri, Eski, Subanna and Vital.
The 2nd Brand Magic Summit 2016, hosted by Mind Initiatives at the Sofitel Mauritius L’Imperial Resort & Spa on 7 April, brought together leading international experts on branding and marketing to share their insights with representatives of the Mauritian communications industry.
Philip Thomas, CEO of Lions Festivals, stressed that ‘creativity matters’ and provides genuine return on investment, while the buzzwords of the latest festival had been ‘product’, ‘culture’ and ‘disruption’, highlighting the need to ‘disrupt the media’ to get the message out.
On social media, Anand Tilak, Global Brand Partner at Facebook, continued with the theme that ‘the next disruption is already happening’ and stressed that ads need to be better than those that friends are watching, not better than those of a company’s competitors.
He said that 8 billion videos were now being watched on Facebook every day, but that only 65% of people who watch the first 3 seconds of a video will watch for at least 10 seconds, which shows that advertisers have a very short time to capture a person’s attention. He explained how Facebook was helping advertisers to reformulate their videos, as it had been found that 76% of users watch videos without sound, so the visual message had to be upfront.
The country branding of Mauritius was discussed at at the Summit, with Felix Kessel, CEO of OwenKessel Leo Burnett of South Africa, suggesting that ‘not being digitally oriented would be insane’ and warned that ‘just having a website is not enough’, as there was a need to see how and when people were searching for the country.
Carla Enslin, National Academic Head of the Vega School of Brand Leadership, South Africa, commented that in a digital universe the interaction is still ‘human to human’ and it is a challenge for country branding. She saw that finding why it is that a country matters, and creating an environment that people connect with, is vital. Justine Page, International Marketing and Branding Coach, suggested that ‘digital is the only real way to connect internationally’ and that ‘Mauritius is paradise so sell it’.
-By Samantha Seewoosurrun