For the best part of my career in advertising I’ve been doing what I do best: communicate through audio and visual means. Receiving unfair judgment and criticism was not my strongest side and I was always choosing to work with people who needed my advice to effect real change, rather than with people who needed my advice to complete the formality.
Working with brands in Uganda may be an uphill task because of the state of the maturity of people running the brands as custodians and managers. Lack of exposure to the real advertising world that contains measurements from the inception throughout brand development and management, is one of the reasons. We do not know how to plan and manage executions for our brands. Efficiency and effectiveness of spend is not established at the start and not evaluated at the end. Tapping in the dark.
Sad is the marketplace where brands depend on egos of brand managers and capability of ad agencies to shock-absorb the whims and unrealistic expectations. We are heading towards the very first advertising awards in Uganda (yes, I’m involved in organising this) and I wonder what work we will present and judge – I’m looking for and – even more – hoping for some blissful moments.
What inspired this depressing post – I remembered this morning the four and a half years of handling Orange account in Uganda, actually inspired to write a book about all the fails and shortcomings of our relationship. A tribute to the tragedy of a great brand, greatly mismanaged from the market positioning to all the rest.
Coffee, then what I love doing – book layout. InDesign – here I come!
