Larry Annetts is Chief Consumer Officer of telecommunications giant, MTN Irancell, but he wasn’t always there. In 1998, MTN launched commercial services in Uganda, just six months after the company acquired its license to operate in the country. Soon after, Larry was shipped out of the MTN South Africa office to Uganda to get things running. That would mark the beginning of his cross country expedition.
Larry arrived in Nigeria in 2001 and spent five years before heading to Iran for a three-week posting that became permanent.
Next time Larry was in Nigeria was in 2012, and this time he had his work cut out for him, as MTN was losing a price war. Larry and his team would employ creative strategies and roll out offerings specifically targeted at young Nigerians.
Under his leadership, the company introduced Caller Tunez, where for a small amount, a user’s dial tone could be customized to music from any artiste of their choice. To achieve this, MTN signed up ten Nigerian artistes as ambassadors.
Caller Tunez was a huge success, gaining 30 million new users in its first year and making MTN the largest distributor of music in Nigeria. They had cornered the youth market because of their cool factor, and the artistes themselves were making a killing off it. A win win for all involved.
Larry will be speaking at the MTN Business of the Arts series on Friday, August 28, 2020, alongside the CEO of Music Time (a subsidiary of MTN) Oye Akideinde, at 3:00 pm.
The Business of the Arts Series is an initiative launched by the MTN Foundation in partnership with the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON), to educate music scholars about the intricacies of the music industry, the art, the culture, the people and most importantly, the business. You can register to attend now.
