Many years ago, when GBC was the "one and only", it dreamed up a concept that would link Ghanaians abroad with those at home.

It succeeded in linking only soldiers on peace-keeping operations. Years later, a young film teacher broke out of NAFTI to found a TV production outfit.

She also had a dream of linking Ghanaians on both sides of the divide. That programme, "Greetings from Abroad", has become a phenomenon. Going beyond a mere TV show; going beyond mere linking of people, it has become a major marketing tool for an entire nation.

Again, this journalist can tell how many Ghanaians have attempted to rock the world with slick, highly falution magazines of all genres. They all start well, but few have gone beyond their first (at most second) birthday. Why? Marketing becomes an unsumountable challenge.

In 2006, a young television show hostess dreams up a magazine concept. This magazine becomes an instant hit. Not only is it accepted as an in flight magazine on three international airlines, but actually becomes a must read for Ghana’s missions abroad.

You may have heard it whispered in town: Whatever Nana Adwoa Awindor touches, she turns it into gold. What makes the difference? She has perfected the art of making everybody WANT- even need-what she sells. Marketers call it "niche", Nana looks for and finds a need, and then she satisfies that need.

With very few exceptions, many Ghanaians never thought of Nana Adwoa Awindor beyond a face and a voice on television until she was pronounced CIMG Marketing Woman of the Year (2006). Fewer still placed more than mere entertainment value on her hugely popular "Greetings from Abroad".

And, because of the skewed nature of publicity for the awards, there are thousands (perhaps millions) who still do not know what in the "Greetings" programme could have won it a marketing award and for that matter, the presenter, the most prized CIMG honour for females.

But hear Nana Adwoa: "We are marketing Ghana. We market Ghana through ‘Greetings from Abroad’; we market Ghana through our coverage of the Ghanaian trade expos in other countries – we talk to people about Ghana, we get reverse information, and when we bring the information on TV, people get to understand what goes on, what Ghanaians do which hitherto people didn’t know. Until ‘Greetings’ started bringing footage about Ghana expos, people didn’t even know that Ghanaians do participate in international expos to expose Ghanaian products and services. And this is what we have brought to light.

"Our participation has become so recognised that now we collaborate with expo organisers who would even ask us convenient times and other things so we can participate because they know the effect of our presence in the show. And we promote it. Eventually other people attend the next time we promote it because they know that ‘Greetings’ will be there to bring it on TV and people will also have access to it."

Nana owns Premier Productions. That outfit is a multi-media concept. In addition to ‘Greetings’, the company publishes the Premier Ad Magazine, a publication that is targeted at people who live abroad and want to know about Ghana read about Ghana and the kind of services and products in Ghana.

How did that dream pop up? She replies: "It came about because during our travels we noticed that the Ghana missions do not have enough information so when someone wants to travel to Ghana, or when Ghanaians who have been out for a long time go to the reception of our missions, there is hardly anything to read about Ghana. Of course, these days the Internet is helping – but the internet does combine culture, the arts with business in one. The magazine we created is to be able to satisfy that kind of bridge. When His Excellency Mr. Annan Cato saw it, he was so happy. He said ‘We (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) are supposed to do this’. Immediately he instructed that we should send it to the Information Department of the Ministry Foreign Affairs and they should have the responsibility to distribute it to the missions abroad. So we give copies to them every time we publish new editions and it goes through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs".

Nana: CAN 2008.We are now Promoting CAN 2008 so we have started with Cote d’Ivoire. We’ll soon do Nigeria.

Ans: The concept is to go round and talk about CAN 2008. For example in Cote d’Ivoire we went to the Football Association to encourage the people, discuss with them how there are putting structures in place.

And here comes Nana’s marketing magic: "We fly on the airlines and there is not much about Ghana to read, so we approached them and they agreed that they would put it on board their flights as in-flight magazines. Then came the question of one magazine serving three or more airlines without creating a conflict of Antrak.

What we did was to customize it so each edition has three covers – one for North American Airlines, one for Ghana International one for Antrak airlines. We got interested in Antrak because it is for a Ghanaian. For us, one of our social responsibilities is to sell and groom Ghanaian businesses, promote them so that they can market themselves – and we do this with a passion. We are still counting because other airlines are interested."

Spect:How do the airlines benefit apart from the adverts?

Nana: Well, we market them. For the last one year,