Coca-Cola Central, East and West Africa has started rolling out a three-month countrywide campaign dubbed Billions Reasons to Believe (BRTB) which seeks to inspire Tanzanians especially teens to believe in themselves as they pass through numerous challenges before they can transform their dreams into reality.
Through its new campaign, the soft-drink company, which has invested in the youth of Tanzania through programmes such as Copa Coca-Cola and Coke Studio, calls on the youths to be self-confident and remain focused towards realization of their dreams despite fruitless attempts on a number of times.
“In a world filled with growing uncertainty, Coca- Cola uses this campaign to inspire you, the Tanzanian teen to believe in yourself and your potential”, Coca-Cola Brand Manager Tanzania Maurice Njowoka says.
TP Mazembe lethal striker Thomas Ulimwengu and 2014/2015 national premier league best scorer Simon Msuva are examples of Tanzanian players whose football talents were identified through Copa Coca-Cola.
Copa Coca-Cola has seen an average of 32,000 teens participate in this property annually with good number of them scaling up to the National league clubs.
The programme has also enabled some outstanding youngsters attend international camps and develop their football skills. Coca-Cola has also featured home grown Tanzanian music on its property, Coke Studio.
This has given the artists in Tanzania an opportunity to showcase their music on an international platform and become inspirations to local Tanzanian youths that are looking to achieve their dreams. These are artists that have gone through many hurdles before becoming National and International superstars.
Bongo Fleva music star Diamond Platnumz is a concrete example of this concept. He made more than 20 singles before he could make a breakthrough.
In 2007 Diamond sold second- hand clothes, worked at a filling station and freelancing as a photographer just to raise money for a studio session but never gave up and his neversay- never spirit has elevated him to where he is today – a celebrated music star and one of the few successful musicians to make it in the African continent coming from Tanzania.
“Through this campaign, Coca-Cola will bring up more success stories of people who did not give up despite the number of times they failed.
The reason they never gave up is because they believed they would finally make it, and this is what we would like the Tanzanian teens to emulate”, said Njowoka. During this campaign Coca-Cola will interact closely with the teens in schools and their localities to realize their potential and enable them to tell their real stories and dreams.
The promise of Coca-Cola is that they are with them on this journey. Coca-Cola not only aims to inspire the Tanzanian youth but to empower them as well.
This is why it is keen to invest in the youth and those programmes that elevate the National fabric. 5by20 is one such programmes that is focused on providing women in Tanzania a leg up in starting their local businesses as part of an effort to empower 5 million women by the year 2020.
The Billion Reasons to Believe campaign will run in Tanzania for 3 months and during this period Coca-Cola will engage with Tanzanians on this journey inviting them to ‘najiamini’.