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Belief in Africa Doesn’t Always Translate into African Brand Preference · The Lead Creative

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: They say I'm not interested in all these things you're trying to persuade me.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: I want to trust you.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: Say, if I don't trust you, more than 60% say I don't have to take a brand.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, these days, the choices they made are not based on brands.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: The choices they made is how does this fit into my life?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lead Creative.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: For the second year in a row, we are at the NetBank IMC conference to find out what shifts marketers are experiencing from AI to digital marketing to how the consumer is interacting and engaging with brands in times of really, really great constraints.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: This conversation is brought to you in collaboration with our production partners, Switch Media, as well as Africa's largest B-COP certified marketing agency, Roger Wilkie.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the conversation.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: We are now joined by the chairman of Brand Africa, the Chancellor of the Salt Lake University, and the author of this amazing book that I have right here, The Traveler, which you should absolutely read.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Tebra, thanks so much for joining us once again on the show.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: So Brand Africa found that 68% of respondents express belief in the continent, and yet only 11% of African brands are in the top 100.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: From your conversations with CMOs, where does this shortfall happen between belief in the continent and choosing African brands?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's historical.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's historical because if you look at the legacy of the history of us as Africans, uh for 400 plus years, uh we were told that we only exist for extraction and we don't exist for creation.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and for so after all those years, we are starting the race from really far behind uh as a continent.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, where we can't build a car because it takes a lot of money to build a car.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: Well, there's a couple of uh a couple of them around now, uh Katanga and um in uh in in Nigeria, uh I think it's Nigeria Ghana, and uh and you've got uh Kira in Uganda.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so we've got a couple of them, but not enough.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: We can't build a phone because we can't, we don't have the money to spend behind the technology to do that.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we can't put medicine on the table because it takes a lot of money uh to put to put medicine.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: So we are starting really on the back end.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: And uh not only on the back end, but we also have a second thing, uh, which I think in academic language they call it uh xenocentricism.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a xenophobia of brands, if you will.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh where we we don't like anything that's African.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: We don't like anything that's African because we we we have that thing called um if it's African, it can be good.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and we've been told that foreign is best.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you think as well, for years we've been told that our culture, our choices, none of them are good.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: We want validation from outside of the continent.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: And when anybody outside of the continent, whether we so it's better to wear a fake Louis Vuitton than a real Matosa.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's how we are.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's how we've been told.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: We've been conditioned to feel that anything from us is less than even the worst from outside.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you've traveled the continent.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is this something that is more prevalent in some parts of the continent, or is it something that is prevalent across the board?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's a pan-African uh challenge.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's a pan-African challenge.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: So um, and one, you know, you asked earlier about what the CMO say, and uh uh in my academic work now, in my doctoral work, um, I'm focusing on that, trying to close, trying to understand what it will take for us to have the next MTN that is the best brands across the continent.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: What will it take to have the best Dangote?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: What will it take to have the next Ethiopian airlines?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: What will it take to have the next MBESA?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got pockets of excellence.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: So the work that I'm trying to do now is to try and understand what is their secret ingredient.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm speaking to CMOs, I'm speaking to consumers, bring it all together to try and understand so we can have that secret potion that we can give to uh to uh uh to African brands coming up uh and African brands established in little corners to catapult their success.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Are some of these pockets of success transferable across industry?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So so by so I would say telecoms is one of those pockets of excellence where we see Africans choosing African brands, financial financial financial services, we choose African brands, but a whole lot of airlines obviously uh we choose uh generally well airlines are mixed.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: I think airlines are mixed.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: So what are the is the skill is is the uh is the magic uh uh is it is it transferable?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, what I'm trying to establish now is what is that portion so that we can spread it so that we have a lot more Africans buying African brands?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So your research also found that African brands recovered by 15% in 2026 in comparison to 2025.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: What drove that improvement?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And would you think that, for instance, there are some structural barriers, or is it a one-year rebound, or is it something that we can expect leading into the future?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh a lot of things have happened in the continent, in the world, rather.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, there's a lot of shifts in the geopolitics.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we've been told to stay in our countries.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: We've been kicked out of other countries.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so there's uh we are we are finding our way back home.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: And when we come back home, uh and they're making it difficult for us to uh to access their goods and services.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: So what are we doing now?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: Now we are coming back home and say, if I'm not welcome elsewhere, then my money shouldn't be welcome either.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that shift is happening now.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: We're also shifting friends.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: We're finding new friends, uh finding new friends as the politics are shifting, and our money is finding new places.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: And there's also a growth of African brands in local areas.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we've spoken, let's just speak about South Africa for once.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh South Africa, you've got the Batus of the world, you've got the McClosas, you've got Tebemagugu, you've got the Tepo Jeans, uh, you have so many young brands which are growing.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: So our choices locally are multiplying and amplifying.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: So this finding new friends, finding new opportunities, finding new home and new home for ourselves and our money, is this localized to is it country local?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Is it continental?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: Is it everything is continental?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I I wear a continental lens.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh as much as I'm from South Africa, uh, I wear continental lens and I have a feel for the country different countries.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because of the Bran Africa study goes in 30 countries, uh 31 countries.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um so uh as I can probably say with confidence that it is not a localized trend, that it is happening everywhere.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because remember, we can still travel to the US and the UK, for example.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but the Nigerians uh they can't easily.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: The uh North Africans, so it's a so so all the so sets so all these shifts are affecting all of us.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then of course, then there's many other ways which are called, you know, um, there's some barriers for us to move.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: And to move our money.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: And some of them are not so obvious.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and some of them are brand related.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, uh in my new book um that I'm working that's coming out in the new year, um, I'm looking at the I'm looking at brands actually as being the new colonial borders, the neocolonial borders.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Because brands also now are telling us we can't go elsewhere.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: So young man was telling me that he started a beverage brand, a cold drink brand.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: And he says he tried to get it into a a shop, one of the not spawn shops, not the shops.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and when he got there, the fridge was branded, of course.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: Coke, Pepsi, or maybe are you with me?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: So and they're like, sorry, my friend, you are not welcome here.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's how brands have created barriers as well.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: They've created barriers by creating these um invisible ways on how they kick us out, yes, and that's why it slows down the growth of African brands.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, what we ought to be doing now is not worrying about somebody's fridge, sure, but creating our own fridge.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: What we ought to be worried about is not worrying about taking a piece of the pie, yes, but starting a whole new meal.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't have to be a pie.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's something that I've been seeing, I've been following um over time, and another piece of research actually that I do, which you make me think about now with this whole fridge situation, right?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the Township CX report.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the things we're finding is that on young entrepreneurs who are starting eateries, who are starting stores, who are starting spazes, are almost pushing back against these branded fridges, these branded experiences, these experiences that come into townships and into spaces and only want to kind of splash brand.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: How do you think that that will influence emerging brands and brands, African brands of the future, when we are seeing ourselves as two-branded and wanting to brand ourselves?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: But it's changing, no?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, because now, uh, if you look at the advent of the artificial intelligence, uh uh just technology in general, is we are now co-creators.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: We have a say in what we consume.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: We also have a say in how you speak to each.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: I have a say in whether I trust you.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: So now we are trying to move, consumers are moving from persuasion to trust.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: They say, I'm not interested in all these things you're trying to persuade me.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: I want to trust you.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: If I don't trust you, more than 60% say, I don't have to take a brand.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, these days, the choices they made are not based on brands.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: The choices they made is how does this fit into my life?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: As brands move across the continent, what must they preserve and what must they adapt?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: What must they preserve?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think what they must preserve in in my talk now, I was just talking about it that what brands now need to do now, they need to go so far into the future.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: So that when the customer arrives, find them ready.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: So the brands need to preserve the relationship with the customer to understand where the customer is headed so that they can anticipate them.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: So now remember, before we used to have a Sony Walkman and it did just okay.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: Then Apple says iPod.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: While we're still trying to adjust to iPod, Apple says, but I can also use your phone as a camera, as a music, and as a phone.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: So you can see what Apple is doing.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: Apple is constantly anticipating where we ought to be going.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: Or rather, dictating where we ought to be going.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what brands need to do.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: Brands need to preserve the ability to be able to predict the future.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: So now coming back to the theme of this year's conference about the shift, what's the most important shift that you are navigating in your work?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And how will it shape how brands build relevance over the next five years?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: The biggest shift has to be tech AI.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we're reading now these weeks and all this last few weeks that 10% of us are going to be dead due to AI.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: So this AI that we're so obsessed about.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: The one that writes uh articles for us, it writes uh briefs for us, it writes copy for us, it pretty much is now our lives.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Apparently, it's also a mass murderer.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: Which in 10 years' time they say we'll be gone.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: So the biggest shift now is how do we work with this thing?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: There's the policy side, how do governments work from a policy perspective?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: Then there's um as the creators, how do we work with this thing?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: Because now if you look at a country which has got 30% unemployed on paper, and maybe more than 50% youth unemployed, the last thing we need is a machine or a piece of software taking the last bit of dignity that we have left.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you paint uh you paint a bleak picture.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: How will it shape brands?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: Well, shape brands is because um it will perhaps help brands to anticipate the future better.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: Because you know, this thing, you know, the technologies, the AIs and all those things, they're able to process information faster and further than we can.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: So it's about how we work with it to help us do that.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Because remember, we are still going to be required as human beings.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because we bring in the human side to uh to relationships with brands.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: But we also bring what you call critical thinking.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: We're all able to assess all this information and make sense of it all.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Tabby, we ask our guests to pass the mic to our next guest by leaving them a question about their thoughts on the industry, creativity, sometimes even life.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Who's your next guest?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Our previous guest, rather, was uh Dale Heffer, CEO of Course.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: What did Dale ask me?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the question she left was: what is the one skill or part of your work that is too critical for you to hand over to AI?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: The ability, and I think I mentioned the critical thinking, the ability to make sense of the volumes of work, the volumes of technology coming at us at such a fast rate to survive, to thrive, rather.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna have to be able to retain the one important thing: ability to make sense of it all.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Tem it, thank you so much.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, now it's your turn to pass the mic to our next guest by the next question about creativity, marketing, or sometimes the industry andor life.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we sometimes use the questions with different guests, but our immediate next guest is Don Rowlers, the CEO of uh Denso Africa.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: Advertising.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh just um pass my condolences to Denzu, to uh to Dawn.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: May her agency, particularly the creative department, rest in peace.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Because technology is here.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: Ask her when we should come to eat Maguena and to bid farewell to that department.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because technology is here to do the job.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: But then I can't ask anyone else that question.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: So do you have another one perhaps not to pass that?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you can ask if the next person is a creative person, please, my condolences.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because um their jobs have been taken.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: The question is how are they gonna reinvent themselves in the state that we're in now?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Dr.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Tebalafe, thank you so much.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Pleasure with us.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is the lead creative.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like and subscribe.