Unlocking Brand Advocacy: The Untapped Power of Barstaff

In the fast-paced and highly competitive beverage industry, where consumer preferences can shift rapidly, there’s a powerful yet often underutilized asset that can significantly influence brand success—Barstaff.

Barstaff are not just employees serving drinks; they are the frontline ambassadors of your brand. They interact with consumers directly, shaping their experiences and influencing their choices in ways that can be more impactful than even the most well-crafted advertising campaign. The question then becomes: How can brands effectively harness this potential?

Building Relationships with Barstaff

The first step in unlocking the power of Barstaff is building a strong relationship with them. This involves more than just basic training; it requires regular, engaging sessions that include product tastings and brand updates. By keeping Barstaff informed and inspired, they become naturally inclined to advocate for your brand. When they feel a genuine connection to your brand, they’ll share that enthusiasm with customers, creating an authentic brand experience that resonates.

Equipping Barstaff with Brand Stories

Another crucial element is empowering Barstaff with the stories behind your brand. Understanding the brand’s origins, its unique qualities, and the vision behind it gives Barstaff the tools they need to convey your brand’s narrative authentically. This personal touch not only enhances the consumer’s experience but also helps your brand stand out in a crowded market.

Recognition and Rewards

Recognizing and rewarding Barstaff for their contributions is essential in fostering a sense of ownership and pride. Whether through competitions, shoutouts, or other forms of acknowledgment, small gestures of appreciation can significantly boost morale and reinforce their role in driving sales and brand loyalty.

Creating a Community Among Barstaff

Finally, fostering a sense of community among Barstaff can amplify their impact. Using social media, hosting events, and offering exclusive perks can help create a network where Barstaff can share their experiences, tips, and successes. This not only strengthens their connection to your brand but also cultivates a supportive environment that motivates them to excel.

In a market saturated with choices, authentic brand advocacy can be the key differentiator. By investing in Barstaff, brands are not only securing their future but also creating a lasting legacy that will resonate with consumers for years to come.

So, let’s raise a glass to the Barstaff—the unsung heroes behind brand success! 🍸

My team understands this dynamic and consistently sets the pace in the industry.

John Paul Emechebe
Head, On Premise at Red Bull | Leadership & Strategy | Sales

NNMA and African Academy of Sciences Explore Strategic Partnership

The Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA) and the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) are set to forge a strategic partnership aimed at enhancing the recognition and promotion of intellectual and academic excellence across Nigeria and Africa. This was revealed during a recent courtesy visit by a delegation from the AAS to the NNMA in Abuja.

Speaking during the visit, Mrs. Mercy Matilda Musa Moroá, Acting Secretary of the NNMA, expressed her enthusiasm for the proposed collaboration. She emphasized the significance of such a partnership, noting that the NNMA, a multidisciplinary organization, is dedicated to identifying and rewarding outstanding contributions to national development in fields including Science, Medicine, Engineering/Technology, and the Humanities, with a particular focus on Arts and Culture.

Mrs. Moroá highlighted the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) as the nation’s highest honor, conferred on individuals who have demonstrated exceptional academic achievements and contributions to national progress. Since its inception in 1979, the NNMA has awarded the NNOM to 79 distinguished Nigerians, among them the late Prof. A.L. Mabogunje, Prof. Oluwafeyisola S. Adegoke, and Prof. Anya O. Anya.

During the visit, Prof. Hilary Inyang, who represented the AAS Secretary General, underscored the importance of the collaboration between the two prestigious institutions. He invited the NNMA to participate in the upcoming African Academy of Sciences General Assembly Conference, scheduled to take place from December 8th to 11th, 2024, at Nicon Luxury Hotel in Abuja. The event is expected to attract nearly 1,000 dignitaries, including former and current African Heads of State.

Prof. Inyang called on the NNMA to play a leading role in the event and to consider co-hosting the conference with the AAS. He also proposed a collaboration with other stakeholders to establish a framework for the African Continental Research Foundation (ACRF), while noting Nigeria’s ongoing efforts to establish a National Research Foundation.

In addition to discussing the potential partnership, Prof. Inyang emphasized the AAS’s broad scope, which extends beyond the sciences to include the social sciences, humanities, and other innovative ideas for African development. He also advocated for increased government support for the NNMA, particularly in terms of funding, and recommended that members of Nigeria’s Body of Fellows be considered for appointments to the NNMA’s Governing Board.

The proposed partnership between the NNMA and AAS is expected to enhance the recognition and celebration of exceptional contributions to various fields in Nigeria and across Africa, further cementing the NNMA’s role in promoting academic excellence and national development.

Reported by Anthony Nwosu
Tech and Biz News NG

In a bold move to accelerate Nigeria’s economic prosperity, the Federal Government has placed a renewed focus on improving the nation’s connectivity infrastructure. Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, recently announced the launch of the National Broadband Alliance for Nigeria (NBAN), a strategic initiative aimed at addressing key challenges in the country’s digital landscape.

Speaking at the unveiling, Dr. Tijani highlighted the critical role of robust connectivity in driving national development. “As we work towards accelerating our collective prosperity as a nation, improving our connectivity infrastructure is a critical part of our plans as a government,” he stated. The Minister underscored the government’s recognition that a solid digital infrastructure is foundational to achieving broad-based economic growth and inclusivity.

The National Broadband Alliance for Nigeria (NBAN) is designed to tackle the persistent challenges of low data consumption and the resultant poor return on investment (ROI) in the nationwide fiber network. The alliance will serve as a platform for collaboration between government agencies, private sector stakeholders, and international partners, all working together to advance broadband development and adoption across the country.

Dr. Tijani pointed out that the NBAN aims to position Nigeria at the forefront of the global digital landscape. “To support that investment and tackle the challenge of low and non-consumption of data and its resultant poor ROI in the nationwide fiber network, we launched the National Broadband Alliance for Nigeria (NBAN) to help foster collaboration for broadband development and adoption, as well as position Nigeria at the forefront of the global digital landscape,” he explained.

The Minister also emphasized that while improving the supply and quality of broadband is essential, there is an equally pressing need to stimulate demand. The government is not only focused on enhancing infrastructure but is also creating avenues to increase digital literacy and encourage widespread usage of digital services. “As we improve the quality and quality of supply of broadband, we are also creating ways to increase demand,” Dr. Tijani added.

The NBAN is expected to play a pivotal role in bridging the digital divide, especially in underserved areas, by ensuring that high-speed broadband is accessible to all Nigerians. This initiative is part of a broader strategy to enhance digital inclusion, stimulate economic growth, and empower citizens to participate fully in the digital economy.

As the government continues to roll out this ambitious plan, the success of the National Broadband Alliance will be measured by tangible improvements in broadband accessibility, affordability, and overall digital inclusion. With this initiative, Nigeria is setting the stage to not only catch up with global digital standards but to become a leader in the digital economy.

AI MODELS AND POWER AIOPS FOR BETTER BUSINESS OUTCOMES

New Solution Fuels AI/ML Processes with Actionable Data to Enhance Service Performance

NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC. (NASDAQ: NTCT), a leading provider of performance management, cybersecurity, and DDoS attack protection solutions, today announced a new initiative designed to deliver the valued data needed to secure better outcomes from artificial intelligence (AI) and AIOps solutions. As enterprises increase observability for AIOps, they require high-fidelity, enriched, and curated data mapped to their unique requirements. NETSCOUT is working across its growing partner ecosystem, including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow, Splunk, and others, to integrate its high-quality AI-ready data and deliver the insights needed to drive better business outcomes and elevate user effectiveness.

NETSCOUT generates granular telemetry at scale and curates it into targeted feeds, producing an information-rich dataset designed to address critical use cases. NETSCOUT’s data can be easily ingested into data lakes and other AIOps platforms, where it can be enriched and combined with other datasets for analytics and visualisation, resulting in higher-quality behavioural classifications, predictions, and automation.

“As organisations automate their IT environments to scale operations, they need enterprise-grade intelligence to improve decision-making and optimise the user experience,” said Stephen Elliot, group vice president of I&O, Cloud Operations, and DevOps at IDC. “Technology leaders must consider the value of service reliability and resiliency they can receive by filtering the appropriate metadata, session data, and IP intelligence necessary for critical AIOps and security use cases.”

Delivering Data Insights at AI Scale

To provide high-quality AI-ready data that mitigates the risks IT teams face from an overload of unusable or ineffective data, NETSCOUT has introduced Omnis™ AI Insights. It delivers precise, actionable network telemetry data that feeds customer AI initiatives to enable critical outcomes without requiring data transformations and adaptations, including:

• identifying and correlating observability trends
• streamlining and automating data analysis
• uncovering historical operational patterns
• detecting unforeseen issues and security risks that could lead to future service outages and data breaches

“NETSCOUT is built around deep packet inspection, so we understand the value of transforming raw packet data into actionable intelligence at scale,” stated Bruce Kelley, chief technology officer at NETSCOUT. “As customers accelerate their IT operations using AI, our expanded end-through-end visibility and open data model is critical to assuring better business outcomes and elevating user effectiveness.”

Data intelligence, produced and curated at the source for AI platforms, is imperative for AI use cases across multiple sectors, including healthcare, communication service providers, financial services, insurance, manufacturing, energy and utilities. NETSCOUT’s high-quality AI-ready data allows models to converge and generalise without dealing with extraneous data that blurs or impairs outcomes.