After a series of presentations by several marketing companies seeking to handle The Calabar Carnival account, the Cross River State carnival commission, the agency responsible for overseeing the annual event have announced Okhma Global Limited – a marketing consulting firm based in Lagos as the Lead Marketing company for the carnival. Their responsibilities include; to increase the fund drive by more than eighty percent of current revenue accruable from marketing and also provide Marketing and PR Consultancy/advisory, strategy implementation, Media Content creation, production, Advertising and Sponsorship/ partnership acquisitions.
Calabar Carnival festival in Nigeria, also tagged ” Africa’s Biggest Street Party”, was created as part of the vision of making Cross River State in Nigeria, the number one tourist destination for Nigerians and tourist all over the world. The carnival, which begins on every 1 December and last till 31 December, has boosted the cultural mosaic of Nigeria people while entertaining the millions of spectators within and outside the State, and boosting industry for all stakeholders.
This year marks the eleventh edition of the multi event carnival that has garnered the reputation and multiple awards of Nigeria’s biggest and best-organized tourism event. The 2015 coincide with the commencement of the new administration of Governor Ben Ayade, who said, “The Carnival is a big brand not only in Nigeria. My biggest wish now is to make it even much bigger. I would like to see the Calabar carnival evoke same depth and passion as the Rio carnival in the international tourism market. We promised our people of our state economic transformation. It will gladden our hearts to have tourists visit our state and witness the good things happening here while they also take time to bask in the abundance of our offerings at the carnival. And that we will surely do.”
Mary Ephraim, the Managing director of Okhma, in her acceptance promised the commission that the marketing team led by her would exceed their expectations. “For me, leading the marketing effort isn’t business. It represents an opportunity for me to contribute my professional bit to improving an event and culture I had been part of as a young girl growing up in Calabar. This is something I had always wanted to do. We are grateful to the commission for the opportunity”.
