 |
BREAKING: Daniel Ogong has resigned
as Nile Breweries Marketing Director |
If
ever there were any doubts about the sustainability (to employ an NGO-ism that
I utterly abhor) of the Big Agency model, then recent developments at Nile
Breweries alongside the devastating happenings in the Ugandan advertising scene
we are currently bearing witness to should open all eyes and put paid to any
reservations. As Michael Stipe famously crooned in R.E.M.’s eponymous runaway
multiplatinum hit, “It’s the end of the world as we know it!”
It
was only a week or so ago that we watched the spectacular implosion of the almighty
MetropolitanRepublic—they who famously exploded into the market in fine fashion
and much pomp and ceremony—after losing the coveted MTN account. Dare I say
that I have it on high authority that they are seriously contemplating shutting
down the Uganda operation and exiting the market altogether? Which instantaneously
brings to question the guile of gambling an agency’s entire expansion strategy
on just one account.
We witnessed
it with ZK Advertising circa 2008 and we’re now seeing it again with latter day
upstarts. Apparently no lessons were learned, because ZK’s ambitious and at
once simultaneous expansion to more than a dozen countries was anchored solely
on Celtel; I will not gainsay the pyrotechnics that pursued their losing that
account. Similarly, Fideli, having just freshly launched with Obulamu, futilely
attempted to expand first to Rwanda and then Zambia. The Rwanda outfit is visibly
struggling, what with salaries not disbursed at all for the last couple of
months, and the Zambia office never did take off – the Fideli website still
lists it as ‘coming soon’.
Meanwhile
back at the ranch, Fideli Uganda is enduring a protracted, bitter winter since
August (yes, winter did finally come)
when Obulamu suddenly entered a rigorous general audit, necessitating a freeze
in procurement which in turn meant that all income projected from this cash cow
went fully cold. In the meantime, employees have been receiving half salaries
since, often delayed by more than a month at a time, and the December (read big,
shiny, fluorescent Christmas) salaries were only just disbursed in mid-January;
rent arrears have ballooned exponentially to vulgar amounts and the last time
Fideli could realistically afford to pay NSSF was in early 2015. At the end of
January, employees were shepherded into the boardroom where they were held at
gunpoint to accept a 40% pay cut for those earning northwards of 1 million shillings
and 20% for the rest. As if URA. I am yet to find out if the pay cut will
affect the Fat Cats.
To
illustrate that zero learnings have been actioned, we now see Dagon Media, the
new kids on the block, wildly proliferating across Africa fully on the back of
Vodafone. Their expansion strategy is informed by opening an office inside the Vodafone office of the host
country, which essentially implies that they will not be bothering to solicit
for any other clients. Down the road at ScanAd, they have been steadily
shedding employees, and their sister agency in ScanGroup, JWT, unceremoniously
lost the Vodafone account to Dagon and with it any realistic hope for future existence.
Moringa/TBH are haemorrhaging clients faster than a dripping faucet in the
still of night, and all indications point to every traditional agency in Uganda
bracing for a Long December with no reason to believe that this year will be
better than the last. Meanwhile, specialised agencies like Seanice Kacungira’s
Blu Flamingo are somehow managing to stem the tide.
So
what exactly is going on in the Uganda advertising scene?
******
On
Wednesday 1st of February 2017 at around 10.00pm, I stumbled upon
this curious article announcing to the world that Daniel Ogong, that
renowned marketing god under whom Nile Breweries has progressively risen from
40% to 60% market share, was calling it day after 15 years on the job. I
quickly got in touch and he patently confirmed that he indeed is leaving. “New
beginnings,” he called it. Be that as it may, this high profile exit at once signals
a sharp shift and an uncertain future not only in the beer industry, but in
marketing and particularly, advertising. I will explain.
The immediate
and manifest casualty of Daniel Ogong’s exit is The Brand House, formerly
Moringa Oglivy. As I revealed in the last post, Moringa Ogilvy’s rise to
prominence was fully built on the back of DStv, that account being their first
ever acquisition. But enter Nile Breweries, and it grew to be by far their singular
key account, the feather in their cap. Their rapid and unprecedented rise to be
inside the top 2 agencies in Uganda (via billing) would hardly have occurred
were it not for their association with Nile Breweries. It is instructive to
note that Moringa had always handled the entire NBL portfolio right out of the
gate, save for a couple of years ago when Nile Gold left for greener pastures and
has been struggling to find a permanent home since. And this is where Moringa’s
troubles begin.
There
has always been a school of thought at the brewery not inclined to the peculiar
decision to hire just one agency to handle the entire NBL stable. This group,
it turns out, carries considerable influence while enjoying significant support
all the way up to the top echelons of SABMiller in South Africa. And so a
tug-of-war has been going on behind the scenes, pitting on the one hand
proponents of the ‘one agency’ approach and on the other their opponents,
acutely keen on seeing the different brands disseminated to several different agencies.
The rationale is to divide the portfolio along the lines of premium, mainstream
and mass brands, for purposes of specialisation, because they obviously have
not seen any value in TBH handling everything. Coming to think of it: the same
accounts people, the same strategists (if any), the same media people, the same
Creative Director, the same Creatives ... a sure recipe for lethargy, and we
can see it in NBL brand communications across the board. It is completely
understandable that they would want to see a fresh lease of life.
Now
this movement got a shot in the arm with the appointment of Greg Metcalf as MD,
taking over from Nick Jenkinson in 2014 and fresh from a tour of duty in Ghana
where he was posted after a short spell as NBL Sales Director. As SD, he met
opposition from both the pro ‘one agency’ grouping in the brewery and,
significantly, the agency; which possibly explains why he did not last in the role.
When Greg resurfaced in Uganda a few years later, a rumour suggesting that NBL was
going to pitch also started, a pitch that everybody and their dog have been
waiting for with bated breath for a while now because all agencies without
exception—including upstarts—have been trying to get their paws on NBL. TBH has
so far managed to successfully hedge them all. But I suspect the infighting
persisted and the moving of Nile Gold to Aggrey & Clifford and subsequently
to wherever it eventually landed was at once a compromise and an experiment, a
sort of test to see how brands would fare outside Moringa’s clutches.
As
fate would have it, Aggrey’s completely botched Nile Gold, and I’m not sure
whether they still hold the account or if it has since moved to another agency,
but what is clear is that the brand’s fortunes have somewhat dipped since
leaving The Brand House; and this probably played into Moringa’s hands. I’m
thinking that the failure of this Nile Gold experiment empowered the pro ‘one
agency’ argument because we have not seen the exodus of any other brand since,
and the opponents have no doubt been back at the drawing board. Until this new
development presented a golden opportunity. Daniel’s exit, I suspect, will once
again reinvigorate the debate and my prediction is that Nile Breweries will eventually
walk out of The Brand House; at the very least, they will be left with just one
mainstream brand, either Nile Special or Club, and likely for historical
reasons because their work has been lacklustre for a while now. But as always,
we wait to see.
******
So
the Damaging Director is finally absconding town.
After
a startling career, some of whose highlights comprise of systematically dismantling
and then completely obliterating her own agency (and subsequently spending more
than a couple of months scrounging on a friend’s couch), physically assaulting
a subordinate on account of mere parking space, and then being summarily and
dishonourably discharged from Fideli Management Company Branding, Printworks &
Advertising Agency Limited—formerly a vendor of zea mays and assorted grain—Nicola Brown has resolved to bid adieu to her adopted home for the last
21 years.
Now
my acquaintance and contact with this crone are limited to the six months she
worked at Fideli during which time I saw a character wholly dissimilar to and
far removed from the ‘self-disciplined’ personality with ‘body and mind
harmony’ that she professes to be, a pale silhouette of the acutely competent, broad-minded,
well spoken and well organised far-sighted luminary some in the industry claim
she is. Instead I saw a conflicted, boorish individual, often unhinged and frequently
prone to dangerous mood swings, but not averse to cliquing and petty office
politics. Whatever dignity and/or goodwill she had left by the time she wormed
her way into Fideli as Managing Director (whence she instead turned out to be a
superlative Damaging Director) fresh from a bizarrely brief stint as Marketing
Director at Mukwano Industries, was quickly squandered almost from the moment
she wandered through the door; she was instantaneously conscripted into the ‘management
clique’ and right away commenced to utilise her newfound clout to further harass,
denigrate, intimidate and browbeat lesser mortals—at the total expense of her
impossible KPAs which curiously included UGX. 100,000,000 in new retainer
clients inside the second half of the
year; in replacement of which she walked away with the easiest UGX. 90,000,000
she has ever made—as her handlers manipulated her to settle scores in the
agency.
But
the writing materialised on the wall the moment her vanity suggested that she
could supplant the ‘Executive’ Creative Director, Fideli’s blue-eyed boy, with her
own ‘boy’; whereupon her erstwhile factotums conspired against her when it
became apparent that she was stepping on royal toes. In the end the entire
agency turned on her, up from CEO down to tea girl, and she was completely
isolated during her last days. The news of her humiliating exit was broken via
WhatsApp in three pithy words: Olympus has fallen. I recall the CEO publicly
confessing that he was yet to recover from the shock that was Nicola Brown
three months after he sacked her. Her crime? ‘Sowing discord’ and ‘division’ in
the agency.
So
as Nicola Brown repatriates back to the UK, my singular recollection of her is
a stroppy, insolent, vindictive, petty, highfaluting, entitled and very unstable
human being. One can only hope that she will find there the peace that so
eluded her in Uganda, even as she exorcises the demons that pushed her to leave
in the first place.
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