Ghanaian gospel musician, Nana Yaw Boakye but better known by his stage name, MOG Music has revealed that he struggles to get sponsorship from corporate bodies as a Gospel musician.
On Thursday, August 10, 2023, on TV3’s Twitter space, the Gospel artiste shared that his first experience asking for sponsorship was declined as his sponsor said that he is “not a credible brand”.
“My quest for sponsorship has been a very very interesting one. The first time I went to an office to get sponsorship, I was told I’m not a credible brand so they cannot put their weight behind me. This kind of broke me but it pushed me to work harder to diffuse whatever that officer told me,” he shared.
He further highlights that the struggles he faces are because he operates in the Gospel space and asks that these companies that offer sponsorship focus on the numbers and not the genre.
“One of the major challenges I normally face in the sponsorship space is because of the genre I do, which is Gospel music. Most of the corporate bodies do not want to identify with a Gospel brand which I find very difficult to understand because for some of them, we have to make them understand that it is a numbers game as that’s what they are looking for; Can we talk about the numbers and take away the religious side?,” he told Helen Appiah-Ampofo, the host.
He goes ahead to talk about how some brands have the notion that supporting Gospel artistes does not fit what they stand for and how some would rather prefer supporting circular musicians.
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According to him, “If there is any area of struggle, that would be the main one but the corporate world needs to understand that Gospel musicians equally have the numbers and they can do business with it.”
Speaking on the type of organizations he approaches for sponsorship, the singer-songwriter mentioned how his beliefs come to play in the choice in question.
“I would not go for anything my beliefs do not support. Taking that out of the way, I go to everybody in corporate Ghana to seek sponsorship for an event. We go to every door that we can; banks, telcos, beverages, private entities, everywhere. We get about 30-40% answering our call. Mostly, people turn us down mainly because we are Gospel crew trying to get sponsorship for something,” he disclosed.
Wrapping up on the topic, the 2020/2021 VGMA Male Vocalist of the year winner advocates for relationship building for institutions that want to seek sponsorship from companies. He is of the view that if properly done, it will be very difficult for the latter to deny offering help.
“One of the things that has helped me get sponsorship from some of these companies is the relationship I was able to build with some people in the company. That’s one area anyone looking for sponsorship should really look at; you need to build a relationship with people that work in the company at key positions. When that relationship is created, it’s difficult for people to say no. That’s one thing I’ve learnt when it comes to sponsorship,” he concluded.
By Esther Aryee|3news.com|Ghana