Waithera Kabiru had the pleasure of hosting Lenny Nganga, the Saracen Media Group MD and CEO on the latest iMarket Podcast episode. She affectionately and respectfully dubbed him ‘The Grandfather of Media in Kenya’ due to his 20-year experience in the field. Nganga has seen a drastic change in the industry having started at the bottom and rising to his current status.
Nganga’s first job was at a travel agency; when he received news that Ogilvy and Mather was hiring a ‘Media Planner’. He had no clue what that job title entailed, but he knew that the job offered triple his salary so he went for it! Paying his dues and rising up the ladder gave Nganga the push to start the first local agency; Saracen Media Group. Here are powerful lessons learned in Nganga’s two-decade journey:
Platforms
The first and most important thing to do to grow a brand is reach. You have to reach new customers or reinforce your message against existing customers – the key is how best to do so on what specific platform. In the early 90s there were less than ten radio stations and only two TV channels in Kenya. In the digital age, we have to understand how and why consumers use the many different mediums and platforms to create better targeted content. We need to create seamless communication patterns across all platforms with which consumers can engage because the consumers’ needs and point of view are important.
Planning
All marketers should have an understanding of the media planning principles; the principles don’t change, but the platforms do. Proper planning allows you to create custom content for a specific audience and drive sales. It’s imperative that you understand what content you place on what platform to get peak performance; a 30 second TV ad may not work on Facebook, as Nganga shared. On average, a person looks at a billboard in 5 to 8 seconds so have less text, great visuals and a catchy headline that communicates quickly otherwise you risk spending money on a billboard that doesn’t share its intended message. That is the essence of proper planning.
Agency Push-Back
Clients and agencies need to establish good partnerships in order to create impactful and meaningful content for consumers. This ensures that your brand is at the top of their minds. Nganga notes that there’s a declining respect for the craft of creating ads in the digital era because everything is “urgent”. Urgency diminishes the creative value that the agency can add and the clients get what they deserve, which is less than what the agency would have delivered if given ample time to respond to already planned projects.
The key thing that helps with agent and client relationships is establishing good timelines. Something that needs to be normalized is the agency pushing back when the client changes the already agreed upon timelines that were set earlier, because a lot of the times the agency gets in trouble for holding on to a concrete timeline. If more agencies would remind clients that great work won’t come fast, there would be better creative work developed within the established timeline.
Lastly, when hiring media planners, a skill Nganga looks for is attitude. This industry can be draining and time consuming so people need to be naturally curious and emotionally resilient to keep up with client demands and the ever-changing platforms. The ability to handle tough and really good situations while keeping a level head will see you far.
