Last week, Miss Rwanda 2020 Naomie Nishimwe, signed a contract that will see her become the brand ambassador for Itel Mobile Rwanda in the next twelve months.

She joins a number of local celebrities helping different companies grow their sales by tapping into the presence on social media of different celebrities including musicians Bruce Melodie and The Ben, socialite Shadia Mbabazi a.k.a Shaddyboo, footballer Yves Kimenyi, media personality Luckman Nzeyimana and Miss Rwanda 2018 finalist Claudine Uwase Muyango, among many others.

Nishimwe, who has been an avid social media user since 2014, says that social media can be a piece of business marketing strategy that companies are sticking to because they have realized the influence they play in promoting their products and services to a bigger number of the population.

"Let’s start with one simple fact. Your business needs a social media presence no matter what. It doesn’t matter if you run a small shop or a big company. It helps to connect with your customers and increase awareness about your brand in any way possible and boost your sales,” said Nishimwe, who has 130,000 Instagram followers.

She also boasts of over 6,500 followers on Twitter.

"Companies should learn that social media marketing will make it easy to spread the word about their products and mission. And this will benefit the two parties; the celebrity and the company owner. Basically it’s a win-win situation,” she added.

About a decade ago, using social media was not an option for celebrities to become brand ambassadors who would sign big money deals to appear on company promotional billboards.

However, as the world goes digital, companies’ marketing strategies have changed as they are increasingly working with local celebrities targeting these celebrities by tapping into their fans following them on social media platforms.

Tecno Mobile Rwanda signed music star Benjamin ‘The Ben’ Mugisha (left) for a whooping Rwf42 million deal to become its brand ambassador.

With their social media, celebrities use their voice to create a connection between the companies that signed them and their followers on social media.

When Tecno Mobile Rwanda last week signed Rwanda’s music star Benjamin Mugisha, commonly known as The Ben, for a whooping Rwf42 million deal to become its brand ambassador for the next twelve months, the mobile phone retailer was banking on the R&B’s influence to hook his 459,000 Instagram followers and over 15 000 Twitters followers to join the Tecno mobile family.

The Ben will every month bag Rwf3.5 million from the deal.

The deal with Tecno makes a list of the contracts so far signed by the R&B singer following previous agreements to become Bel Air Wine and Onomo Hotel’s brand ambassador in Rwanda.

Tecno Mobile Rwanda is now working with a number of local celebrities targeting to boost sales of its phones through their influence on social media where around

$100,000 of the total $120,000 budget allocated on social media advertising was invested on signing brand ambassadors.

Some wonder whether companies make any returns from the deals signed with its brand ambassadors.

However, Joseph Nshimye, Marketing Manager at Tecno Mobile Rwanda, insists that the investment in these deals will not necessarily result into direct immediate sales for the company.

It is about the value of the brand they can help build in the future, he said.

"We don’t expect to make returns from how much we signed The Ben in the next twelve months as a brand ambassador because we don’t look at direct numbers he would help us make. We rather see him as a celebrity who can help us build a valuable brand we want Tecno to be in the future,” Ishimwe toldThe New Times.

He added: "When choosing brand ambassadors to work with, we look at diversity and the influence a celebrity may have on his/her followers. With The Ben as a musician, Muyango as a Miss Rwanda finalist, Shaddyboo as a socialite and Luckman Nzeyimana as a TV personality, I am sure all these figures have vibrant social media platforms that can help our business achieve its marketing objectives”.

The Covid-19 fact

Following the outbreak of the coronavirus early this year, budgets that companies used to allocate in advertising campaigns was rechanneled to digital marketing.

This is because campaigns like roadshows are no longer likely to happen any time soon due to the temporary ban on large gatherings as one of precautionary decisions to avoid the spread of coronavirus.

Since then, several deals were signed between celebrities and companies so they can help them promote their services and products.

Social media influencer Patrick Rukundo, commonly known on social media as Patycope signed contracts with four big companies including Canal+ and Airtel among others to promote their products on his social media, as a result.

Rukundo, who counts 270,000 Instagram followers and 14,200 followers on Twitter, says that companies had no choice other than look for celebrities who can become their brand ambassadors and help them spread the message to their target customers who were at their homes when the virus broke into the country.

"All the companies that I am doing promotions for started to work with me after the coronavirus arrived in Rwanda and I am also negotiating more contracts with other companies,” he added.