Marketing in Africa poses its own set of challenges, as those who have experience working on the continent will attest. The key to creating a successful product is understanding the uniqueness and cultural nuance of each market, says Cobus van Zyl, COO of Aggrey & Clifford, an East Africa-based full-service advertising agency. It’s an approach that has served Aggrey & Clifford well – the agency was recently recognised as one of the world’s leading independent agencies for 2017 by thenetworkzone, in association with Campaign magazine in London. “International brands tend to believe that world trends apply similarly across all markets, and this lack of adaptation can hamper effectiveness,” says Van Zyl. He cites the example of Internet penetration to illustrate his point: “In June 2016, Tanzania had 14.5% Internet penetration, while neighbouring Kenya had 68.4% penetration – the highest in Africa and above the world average.” With connectivity comes strong media savvy, so a campaign w...
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