Zimpapers Logo

Bulawayo Arts Awards bin

Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
WITH just a week left, the Bulawayo Arts Awards (BAA) organisers have gone all out to market the ceremony with the latest addition to the campaign trail being branded bins dotted around the city.

The BAAs will be taking place at the Large City Hall next Friday to celebrate arts personalities.

While promoting the awards ceremony and helping to keep Bulawayo clean, Boom City Advertising, one of the partners of the awards, have branded bins around the city with faces of some of the nominees.

Boom City Advertising secured a deal with the Bulawayo City Council in 2015 to supply the city with 1 000 refuse bins for free and they have been creative with the placement of the bins as they are always attractive, enticing people to get closer to them.

The company’s managing director, Reason “Rizzla” Sibanda, said they decided to brand the bins with the arts personalities and details of the awards as a way to market both the awards and the personalities.

“Branding the bins is part of the marketing partnership with the BAAs as I’m part of the committee. We’re promoting the arts and also keeping the city clean as Boom City is the biggest supporter of the arts,” said Sibanda.

He said they had placed 16 bins around the city along busy roads such as Robert Mugabe, Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and 9th Avenue adding that their aim was to get people talking.

“We want people to know more about the awards and the nominees’ faces.”

The names of the nominees were not put against their images, something the advertising company may want to look into as most of their faces are not known by the public.

In response, Rizzla said: “We couldn’t put their names because we didn’t want to squash words and pictures making the whole banner clumsy. What we put instead is the date and times of the awards with the human faces.”

Reacting to the poster on the bin, one of the nominees, comedian Oliver Keith — who had his cousins excited after they saw his face on one of the bins — applauded Boom City for that initiative saying it was boosting his popularity.