We never authorised Ghana Tourism Authority to use Kirani Ayat’s video – Creative Agency SamSal

The creative agency, Samsal, named by the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) in the midst of the controversy regarding an alleged copyright infringement between Kirani Ayat and Government of Ghana, has spoken.

According to the agency, the video it created for the Ghana Tourism Authority is not what has been put out.

Earlier, the GTA came out saying Samsal legitimately gave out the video that was posted on the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s Twitter page, but Samsal has denied.

The agency explained that, it entered into a memorandum of understanding with GTA concerning a Discovery Wristband they wanted to implement for those in the diaspora, but unfortunately GTA never got back to them.

The statement further confirmed that, a video reel (mood board) was sent to GTA by the Samsal agency, but it denied giving GTA the authority to publish it publicly since it was only a proposal.

We put together a video reel (mood board) which we showed to the GTA as inspiration and creative direction for the videos we intended to produce during the campaign. The mood board was a mash-up of scenes from different videos, including the video for Ayat’s song GUDA, and other videos shot by David Nicol-Sey, a fellow creative who we have worked on several campaigns with (and who directed the campaign video for Discovery Bands).

For the avoidance of doubt, the video which the President and the GTA have put in circulation is not the mood board we created. It contains snippets from the mood board. However, we never authorised the GTA to publish the mood board or any scenes from it. The signed MoU was explicit that our delivery obligations related to new content, which would be financed by the GTA.

Read the full statement below:

SAMSAL

Our attention has been drawn to the ongoing discussion regarding the unauthorised use of creative work by the Ghana Tourism Authority. Our response is as follows:

1. We entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Ghana Tourism Authority for their endorsement and support regarding the rollout and distribution of the Discovery Wrist Band™, to tourists and the general public in Ghana. The Discovery Wrist Band, one of our innovative solutions, is a wristband which functions as an all access pass to an extensive and well-curated line up of all the highly sought after events scheduled to take place during the Christmas season in Ghana. The value proposition of the Discovery Wristband is that it provides our patrons with peace of mind, knowing that they can easily and conveniently show up at the most highly sought after events and experiences in Ghana without the hustle of searching for tickets or the headaches that come with gaining admission to these events.
2. For the furtherance of our mutual interest, we agreed that GTA would support us with logistics for the production of creative content which the GTA could use to market Ghana, thereby attracting more potential clients for us. As already stated, we are a creative agency with expertise in video production and the creation of marketing material.
3. The core obligations of GTA were to support the roll out of Discovery Bands and to “pro-vide logistic support in the form of bus, hotel accommodation and free access to tourist sites for the purpose of filming creative content” to market Ghana.
4. We put together a video reel (“mood board”) which we showed to the GTA as inspiration and creative direction for the videos we intended to produce during the campaign. The mood board was a mash up of scenes from different videos, including the video for Ayat’s song ‘GUDA’, and other videos shot by David Nicol-Sey, a fellow creative who we have worked on several campaigns with (and who directed the campaign video for Discovery Bands).
5. For the avoidance of doubt, the video which the President and the GTA have put in circulation is not the mood board we created. It contains snippets from the mood board. However, we never authorised the GTA to publish the mood board or any scenes from it. The signed MoU was explicit that our delivery obligations related to new content which would be financed by the GTA.
6. Unfortunately, the GTA did not finance the creation of any new work as agreed. Using our own funds, we created our own video (see enclosed) to promote Discovery Bands and submitted same to GTA. The GTA has not posted the Discovery Bands video (which also depicts lovely scenes from Ghana and which we worked with David Nicol-Sey to shoot) nor has it fulfilled any of its content financing obligations under our MoU.
7. It therefore came as a surprise to us when we noticed that content from the mood board has been repurposed and put into circulation instead of the GTA fulfilling its obligations under the Mou by providing us with logistic and budgetary support for the creation of similar content to market Ghana.
8. Based on the above, it is therefore untrue that our agency authorised the GTA to use Ayat’s video. The mood board was never part of our delivery obligations under the MoU, which all parties knew at all material times was for demonstrative purposes only.
9. We have contacted the GTA regarding the damage the ongoing narrative is doing to our brand as creatives. All our legal rights are reserved.

Check out the original release below:

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