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What do you see in the immediate future of the advertising business globally?
The Advertising business as it is will cease to exist – the consumer decision journey as we know it has changed. Advertising is now competing with ‘User Generated Content’ (UGC) and brand communication is being controlled by user. All this because of the format of content consumption is now the mobile phone. So the brand needs to take advantage of this reality and for advertising to work it has to disappear. We have to instead create content that is cause-worthy, useful and entertaining. We have to use powerful storytelling to break the traditional dichotomy between thematic and tactical advertising. Today consumer brand interactions happen across multiple touch points and we have to leverage technology to create seamless and contextual brand messaging.
What has been your most memorable/successful advertising campaign till date?
Several, in the early days of SCANAD (late 80’s and 90’s), Rally Gum, Fiat Uno, Princess Patra, Knorr Soup, National Bank – Bank of the Vision, Trade Bank – (around mid to late 2000) for Tusker Milleli, Kenya Airways – Premier World (early 2010) Niko Na Safaricom, and most recently, ‘Stori ibambe’, ‘Never miss a moment’ and ‘This is my Kenya’ campaigns for Safaricom and several other campaigns produced for Coca-Cola, Unilever and Airtel for the region.
How do you unwind?
I am a happily married family man with two adult children. I focus on my family and professional lives conducting each with utmost privacy. I chose to minimize my involvement with unnecessary activities and refrain from attending many high-profile functions. I believe in humility because we should never make ourselves larger than life. When we lack wisdom our ego may get inflated which is a grievous mistake. We should strive to remain grounded.
We should use any free-time to ‘recharge our batteries’ because business the amount of attention required may drain you. The core qualities for success include, focusing on one venture, Sincerity and Honesty to everyone including yourself, Humility and Respect, Hard-Work and passion for what your work.
How would you characterize your management style?