The Digital Royal Family

Digital marketing is like a palace occupied by four different key people which make up a royal family – The Digital Royal Family.  I am using the ancient Igbo Kingdom of southeastern Nigeria in this analogy. You need to understand how the members of the royal families interact with one another, and the kingdom, in order to build the architecture of a solid digital marketing engagement. The citizens of the kingdom are the (digital) users.

Content is King: The words of kings rule over kingdoms. Those words are kings. You must invest to develop great contents to have success over the citizens (the users).

Digital advertisement is Queen: Sometimes the message of the king needs to go far. Digital advertisement makes that happen. In the ancient Igbo kingdom (Nigeria), the best “lost” secret is the one the queen has heard. (Do not be too hard on me for this one; men also  speak with reckless abandon, but in the ancient Igbo tradition, women were not allowed in the Obi especially as men decide to wage wars or make important decisions. Obi is the heart of the palace where the king receives the most important dignitaries. The most important tradition, the breaking of the kola nut, happens therein.  The hardest decisions are usually made there after libations to the gods and ancestors for direction. The chief priest, the seer of the community, in direct communication with the gods, by tradition consecrates kings there. Of course, the king does share news with the queen.)

Mobile is Prince:  Unpredictable and wild and always on the move. That is the prince, processing and utilizing the messages that come across. Picking those messages, he moves with agility to other kingdoms building partnerships for his future kingdom when the king  joins the ancestors.  The words of kings are promises of the princes because they inherit those words. He goes far, freer than the king who is tethered by tradition to his kingdom. The prince takes the contents far, amplifying the message, on behalf of the kingdom.

Social is Princess: She makes everything glow, amplifying the message, unbounded and unconstrained. Because sooner or later, she departs to another kingdom as a bride to another prince, she makes the messages stick. By her ability to move from one kingdom to another, she knows a lot. She makes great impacts in any kingdom because she is born for two kingdoms. She unites traditions and becomes a symbol to make peace because her children are named Nneka (the mother is mightier). And when her son returns to the father’s palace, on visit, and during public occasions, he would be served wine specially because he is a son to the daughter (nwa Ada).  In the breaking of kola nut, the zenith of traditions, the kids are also honored as elders beckon “anyi nwere nwa ada ebe a” [Do we have a son of a daughter here?]. This makes sense because if war should break out, the young man, who is a prince in her mother’s new kingdom could in future come to defend the land of her mother. Also, if his own kingdom falls to wars, he can run to his mother’s place and be accorded most rights. That symbiotic relationship is possible by the social princess who is the only person that can unite kingdoms by moving from her father’s kingdom to another one. She scales everything and she is vital in kingdoms. In short, without the princess, kingdoms die and tension rises. She makes it possible for most kingdoms to be linked, by marriage, making sure no one fights recklessly.

Of course, when the message is right, got to the citizens, and everyone heard it the right way, there would be celebration in the kingdom because the king spoke and the citizens liked the words, and they took action. That is how digital marketing works.

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