Year 2021 - The Topsy-Turvy

 2021 !!! It’s been a dramatic year. I’ve been broken, disappointed, strong and flying all in 1 year. 

Last year I decided to rock my corporate comfort and leave my role as Digital Manager with one of the topmost agencies, PHD Media, in a quest to explore my potential , build more skill sets broader beyond media agency to media partner.

Became the 1st Head of Digital at a new media house , Mx24 TV which promised to revolutionize the content business. 

Yes, all the content  you experienced from MX in the first 6months was generated by a small, constrained but dynamic team I had the honor of leading. Exciting times it was.

6months into the journey the business was struggling in revenue generation and asked I join the Sales and Marketing Team given my agency background. 

That was tough  and challenging times to my mental fortitude and motivation to work not because I couldn’t do S&M but amongst other things it wasn’t my personal career plan for the now and also it was a step lower from HOD to Manager . 

After few weeks  of seeking external and internal counsel I decided to put on my shield of faith and soldier on. Over the next few weeks i had found a new love , I felt like a bird which had been let loose. Sales in a Covid era was  freedom, freedom from the shackles of long sleeve and tie , 8-5pm bound to a desk , long hours running campaigns and staring at dashboards to optimize, generating reports and defending  results. 

Rather it had opened me up to meet amazing clients, given me enough time for my personal development and within 11 months I had generated  revenue in excess of 360K for the business. 

Lesson: Never doubt your abilities, The God of all grace is all you need. 

In November this same year I dropped my MX tools and went Out-there, literally. 

Meet my new family, Out There Media.

Headquartered in Austria, it is a leading mobile advertising and data monetization firm that uniquely links mobile operators with the advertising world via its proprietary, award-winning technology Mobucks™.

Let me not bore you but basically I’m back in the digital marketing game as a Sales Manager and Country Rep for a global mobile advertising company.

Leveraging on our partner, MTNs rich telco deterministic data we serve Ads to the right audience , at the right place and time via display , sms and rcs.

Get in-touch let’s do magic;

ka@out-there-media.com 

+233 557809041

PHD GHANA PLACE 9th

The Ghana office of PHD Media, a global media agency came 9th on the media planning/strategy game 'SOURCE'.

The young and innovative team under the dynamic leadership of their coach Mr. Bright Ladzekpo played the media planning and strategy game – SOURCE ; competing against the likes of PHD USA, PHD Dubai, PHD China, PHD Canada and over 300+ offices in the PHD Media Network.
From the 200th position the previous year the team restrategized and came to the party this year with their coach inspired winning strategies that saw them in the top 10 at the end of the year.
Mr. Wassim Nasir, Manager Operations, came tops globally with a core skill of Producing the most outstanding media campaigns in the year under review. His achievement was unprecedented to say the least as he stood tall amongst PHD Media network’s over 4000+ media specialist all around the globe.

The Coach

Mr. Bright Ladzekpo is currently PHD Media CEO for West & Central Africa, Ag. Managing Director, Nigeria. Bright started PHD Ghana in 2011. For over 18 years, he has provided consultancy services in media and marketing communications to both global and local brand managers, managing marketing communications for brands from global and local clients such as Soft Sheen-Carson, SABMiller, GSK, Vodafone, Virgin Atlantic, Indomie Noodles, SC Johnson, CEIBS Africa, GraceKennedy Foods, La Casera, Stanford SEED West Africa, Millicom Ghana and Huawei Technologies, among others.

He is a thought leader in the media communications industry.

SOURCE

“SOURCE” is PHD Media’s global strategy and planning tool which brings the global workforce together to collaborate on assignments using the massively multi-player online role playing and gaming platform. Players are awarded ‘pings’ (points) for contributing thoughtleader, core and channel ideas. These pings are accumulated to rank players on the global leader board. SOURCE is cloud-based and has been constructed based on cutting edge marketing theory and the latest insights from recent studies into Behavioural Economics as well as the most commercially applicable insights that have emerged from cognitive neuroscience – particularly studies into Neuro-marketing.

PHD Media

PHD Media is a subsidiary of the Omnicom Media Group which topped the 2016 Major Wins report from the Research Company Evaluating the Media Agency Industry (RECMA), ranking the net new business balance of wins and departures during the past year. Winning 29 percent of the USD 20.1 billion in ad spend that changed hands in 2016 globally, across its three agency networks, Omnicom Media Group ended the year with a net new business balance of USD 4.4 billion.

PHD currently holds the titles for network of the year with Adweek, Campaign and Cristal concurrently. PHD was adjudged the most successful media agency with more new business wins last year.

“PHD Ghana is strongly positioned and prepared to provide world class communications planning services to support the marketing efforts of its local and international clientele in Ghana and across West Africa, using tools that tap into the collective talent pool from our network of offices around the globe” said Coach Bright Ladzekpo.

PHD Ghana CEO talks AI at Tedx Accra

From Right to Left (Emmanuel, Benjamin, Bright, Wassim, Philip)

PHD Ghana Ceo, Bright Ladzekpo  was the guest speaker at the ‘innovation session’ of the just ended TedxAccra 2016 organised at the auspicious Kempinski Hotel, Accra.

TEDxAccra is the largest event of its kind in Ghana with an audience of over 1500 gathering at the National Theatre to share and discuss innovative and creative ideas. A series of events were organized preluding the final event at the National Theatre including the ‘Media, Arts & Entertainment edition on Wednesday, April 20, 2016. 

This year’s event featured visionaries sharing their unique stories and valuable perspectives on the topic ‘Re-Think’.

Mr. Ladzekpo spoke on the theme ‘Rethinking Marketing Ahead of the AI and VR Future’. Speaking at the event, Mr. Ladzekpo stated that “The future of work is play”. He explained that gaming enables multitasking and fast problem solving. Referring to a study by Gartner, “by this year most innovations will be done by gamified approaches”, he alluded to the famous ‘foldit story’ where gamers collaborated to solve the puzzle of the structure of an HIV-like virus, retrovirus enzyme. This was an incredible testimony since it averagely takes scientists 10 years to achieve what the gamers discovered in three weeks. He went on to talk about PHD Media’s gaming platform ‘SOURCE’ which enables collaboration across the entire PHD global network to contribute to campaigns being run from anywhere in the world.

Referring to Gay Kasparov and Fan Hui’s defeat to Deep Blue and Alpha Go respectfully, He stated that man cannot beat computers in the mundane automated things therefore man has to rethink why they were created – Man was created to create and innovate, he said. Marketers would have to rethink the way they undergo their business because they would in the near future have to market to VPA’s as opposed to humans. Moving on to talk about singularity he stated that in the near future computers will be as smart as humans in a lot of ways until they are both on the same level. Man will work with machines on various sectors due to ‘atomation’. Man and Machine working collaboratively is the future of life.

Speaking on Virtual reality, he emphasized that the key areas driving VR is engagement, entertainment and empathy. Using the UN-Ebola documentary, Waves of Grace, which gives viewers a virtual experience as volunteers at the grave yard of Ebola victims as an example, he explained how VR is been used to elicit empathy by organisations and brands. He went to talk about how the Oculus Rift and Gear VR immerse users when watching movies or videos in an exceptional way like never before.

To round up, He encouraged participants to cultivate their soft skills like empathy, storytelling and creativity This brings a paradigm shift to media communication strategy as brand managers and marketers would have to rethink how to transport consumers in terms of brand experience to an immersed point where consumers can relate to brands and life in  a creative manner.

GRA HOLDS MEDIA SOIREE

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) held a media soiree last Friday, 9th January,2015 at Alisa Hotel.

The event which was attended by the editors of the various media houses in Ghana sought to maintain and further enhance the solidarity between the organization and the media.

The event was graced with the presence of the Commissioner General, Mr George Blankson.

In addressing the guest, Mr Blankson took the opportunity to inform participants about the 2014 target set for GRA – GH¢7.01Billion and the revenue collected – GH¢6.86 billion .

Mr Blankson stated that amidst the economic hardship the country faced in the year under review coupled with the energy crisis, foreign exchange fluctuations, fall in the prices of minerals, deferment of VAT on fee based financial services the outfit was able to collect less 3% shy the sett target.

He went on to state the 2015 target - GH¢21.98Billion and outlined a number of strategies being laid-out to ensure 100% attainment of target.

"Amongst other things, the experience drawn from the tax self assessment system and the gradual understanding of the system and acceptance of the system by the public will make over 100% revenue generation in 2015 a reality". He therefore entreated the media to sensitize the public on TAX self assessment.

In ensuring compliance in 2015, he stated that mystery shoppers will be sent to monitor and track shop owners who do not issue tax receipts.

He also mentioned that the strategic plan of the organization is near completion with implementation to begin by February 2015.

Rounding up his speech he stated that GRA has a client oriented system which is committed to ‘serving tax payers well’. With the introduction of TRIPS clients can file their tax returns more easily and conveniently.

Commissioner for the Customs Service, Mr. Wallace Akondor mounted the podium and expressed his gratitude about the commencement of the trainee center in Kpeto and the government’s approval of the employment of fresh limbs to patrol the boarders of the country.

It was all joy as the commissioner, top management and staff interacted with the media men and women after the speeches.

Social Media in Today Ghana

Ghana, like many other African countries, is gradually appreciating the need for social media integration in corporate business. Few years ago, most brands saw it as a waste of time and money investing in social media advertising and campaigns but in recent times the trend has changed tremendously.

Today, there are award events for corporate organisations that use social media most effectively. The telecommunication industry has really blazed the trail on social media use. Political parties, the Media and other organisations are doing great as well.

Blogging Ghana, an organisation of Ghanaian bloggers organised their annual event ‘blogcamp’. The event was under the theme ‘The new phase of social media’ and this blogpost is my reflection and assertion on maximizing social media by corporate brands.

 I hope this post will serve as good motivation and guide to using social media for your brand.

COMPETITION ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The competition for attention on social media  is soo intense the audiences become very fragmented. Brands do not only compete amongst themselves but against producers, distributers and consumers.

Yes, Consumers. This is because they can produce their own contents and it may be better than your brand. No wonder a consumer who posts good contents on their facebook or twitter page could have more and quality followers than an old brand.

Also because they can talk about your product and might do it better than u do. Be it a good or bad opinion.

WHAT DISTINGUISHES SOCIAL MEDIA FROM TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING MEDIA ?

When advertising in social media, ads should not only talk about the product but the whole brand. Therefore on social media u consider your brand values not product values.  Consumers interact with the brand not the product hence the brand image directly affects the product or service being promoted.

  

RUNNING A GOOD SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE 

Opening a Social Media page is not enough - A dormant page is as good as an empty shop. As long as no activity is going-on on the page, consumers begin to form negative perceptions about the brand. A dormant page may make consumers conclude that the brand is either unserious or do not have any good products worth promoting.

Promote consistent messages - What you are advertising on the traditional media should be in sync with social media. A brand’s ads on traditional media should be similar if not same as on social media. If you are promoting a new function of your product or service on traditional media you do same on social media with a digital twist.  

Listen to their needs, wants and interest - The beauty of social media is that it allows for interactivity and prompt feedback. On social media, communication is not a 1 way flow as is the case of the traditional media. As a brand is promoting their product, service or idea, consumers in turn analyze and comment on their forecast and experience about/with the brand.

Stay interactive - Real time response is the name of the game in social media. Prompt response reassures consumers that you take them seriously. Your office may not run 24/7 but your social media office should run 24/7. Good thing is, social media management can be done from anywhere ie.  2 administrators can be put on a shift to monitor and respond to post at any time.

Schedule posts where necessary.

Social media should not talk to people but talks with People

TIPS TO NOTE

Strive to fulfill the expectation of your audience

Provide relevant information for you people

Touching their emotions makes the difference

Put people’s stories first

Get people to love your product
  

 HOW CONSUMERS BEHAVE TOWARDS BOTH PLATFORMS

Show me                             TRADITIONAL MARKETING                               Sell to me

Help me                            SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING                                Entertain me

NOTE: Add value to the audience before they do it for your brand

QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN DOING SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNES

1.      Am i thinking about the people first?

2.      Am i connecting those people’s stories to my brand in a relevant way?

3.      Am i creating compelling content that impact human change

SOCIAL MEDIA IS ALREADY TOO BIG TO IGNORE !

FLOOD COURTS WITH CASES AGAINST BoG



On the currency track

Upon reading the story of Mr. John Ephraim Baiden, a lawyer and banking lecturer who has filed a petition against the Bank of Ghana (B&FT, 'BoG ordered to respond to Cedi case', 24 July, 2014), I think the BoG should brace itself for more lawsuits. Mr. Baiden has taken on the BoG on their inability to perform their duty of stabilizing the Cedi as mandated by law.

 Article 183(2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana says:

“The Bank of Ghana shall promote and maintain the stability of the currency of Ghana and direct and regulate the currency system in the interest of the economic progress of Ghana” and section 4(b) of the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002, provides that the central bank “shall promote by monetary measures the stabilization of the value of the currency within and outside Ghana.”

Like a wounded lion, the BoG requested that the case be thrown out of the court because the Supreme Court where the case was filed was not the best forum. They had wanted to rule out the case on this technical ground however, Lawyer Baiden’s petition was upheld as he established the fact that his case primarily involves a constitutional provision – Article 183(2) (a) - which requires interpretation as to what a stable currency is, and what is meant by maintaining a stable currency.  This interpretation could mean a profound impact on economic management given the invitation to the Supreme Court to define a stable currency.

If the same cedi can buy 27% less dollars than it could buy in January (B&FT, 2014). I wonder what else could be the interpretation of an unstable currency.  Mr. Baiden’s reason for filing the case was that the falling cedi has caused him to loose wealth through exchange rate losses.

Have you lost wealth because of the harsh economy? I have. Every time I make a purchase, I feel the harsh strain it puts on my budget as the increase is always attributed to the dollar rise. On a lighter note, I thought this era was supposed to be Africa Rising not Dollar Rising. BoG and the attorney should either ensure that policies implemented results positively on economic growth or hire legal practitioners to battle their lawsuits.

#author #usiancedi #cedibolt #motherghana

HAVE YOU TRIED THE FACEBOOK LOOKBACK VIDEO ???

The undisputed strong, excellent, up and running Facebook team have done it again. Upon attaining 10years of being arguably the most successful social media platform in recent times, facebook launched the FACEBOOK LOOK BACK movie feature to thank it’s users. The company thanks its 1.23 billion members with a product that celebrates their social-networking past.

The Look Back feature is explained to be an experience that compiles your highlights since joining Facebook. Depending on how long you’ve been on Facebook and how much you’ve shared, you’ll see a movie, a collection of photos or a thank you card. It is a video that contains 20 of the most prominent Facebook moments of each user. This may contain photos, statuses and life events. The video even comes with a nice tune to add to the cinematic effect.

“It’s been amazing to see how all of you have used our tools to build a real community. You’ve shared the happy moments and the painful ones,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said.

He furthermore said in a statement shared with CNET.

  "It's been an incredible journey so far, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. It's been amazing to see how people have used Facebook to build a real community and help each other in so many ways," "In the next decade, we have the opportunity and responsibility to connect everyone and to keep serving the community as best we can."

“This is a small gesture to thank the over one billion people who are on Facebook by providing a unique way to look back at some of their biggest moments.”

This company has always been on its toes to remain the no.1 in their line of business and this new feature adds up to their numerous successes. I hope Ghanaian based companies become more innovative and bring up products and services that appreciate and sustain the customers more.

I tried it and i loved it.

Click here to see how your FACEBOOK LOOKBACK looks like.

www.facebook.com/lookback/

#facebook #technews #lookback #fblookback #emmbilloniare