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Western advertising and public relations agencies areincreasingly joining with African advertising companies. They are workingtogether to attract international businesses that want to advertise products orservices in Africa. The continent has been considered the last frontier, orundeveloped territory, for consumer markets.

Advertising agencies are now helping international companies become wellknown in Africa.

Western public relations companies in Africa are sometimes known forcleaning up the image of a head of state or a government. Even a companystarted by a former advisor to the president of the United States has beenlinked to Nigerian president-elect Muhammadu Buhari. During the recentelection campaign, Mr. Buhari promised change. American David Axelrodfounded the company, strategy group AKPD Message and Media. He onceserved as a political adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama.

A schoolboy walks beneath a mobile phone advertising billboard in Johannesburg on Sept. 3, 2014. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

Now, the job of advertising agencies in Africa is changing.

Communications and public relations agencies are stilladvising African leaders. But many are also looking forinternational businesses that want to do business inAfrica. After all, the continent is home to six of the 10fastest growing economies in the world.

Keri-Ann Stanton is managing director of Engage JoePublic, a public relations agency. She says globalcommunication companies have bought or partneredwith many African agencies over the last two years.

The growing number of mobile devices has helped the growth of locally-owned digital agencies in sub-Saharan Africa, countries south of the Equator.Keri-Ann Stanton says these agencies are creating their own niche, orspecialized market, and winning plenty of praise.

“We are an emerging market so we know that a lot of people are trying to getinto Africa and a lot of people have failed terribly. So, it’s very much likethere’s a shift - the first world is watching Africa for innovation.”

Africa claims to be the “mobile continent” because so many people usewireless technology there. There are predictions that the ability to connect tohigh-speed Internet will increase 20 times over the next five years. Studieshave found there will be an estimated 930 million mobile users in Africa by theend of 2019.

The American public relations agency Grey opened an office inJohannesburg, South Africa. From there, the company will work with clientsin Nigeria, Mozambique, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Botswana. These arefast growing markets, says Paul Jackson, managing director at Grey SouthAfrica.

"We have seen a lot of multinationals not getting the returns in first worldeconomies and looking to the third world markets and emerging markets foradditional returns. Obviously it is lot riskier…obviously these are markets thatthey don’t understand. But they know that Africa is the place they have got to be."

Many overseas companies have little experience dealing with Africa. They donot know much about the culture or the way things are done on the continent.Also, there is a lack of information to help with the marketing. So havingemployees who are experts in the area and culture is helpful for companies.

"So it’s really important any client and/or agency understands the variousmarkets that they are targeting, those various nuances, the different cultures, the key insights that is going to make a product move in a very toughlandscape. You have got to have on the ground representation; you can’t flyby remote control."

In October, a London-based company, Weber Shandwick, announced it wascombining with its South African sister agency, McCann PR. This will give thecompany a big increase in its number of South African business clients.

Fraser Lamb is chief executive officer and Africa Chairman of McCannWorldgroup. He says poorly informed advertising campaigns can be costly. He says a MasterCard campaign designed for Africa but developed in Dubaidid not work.

"The work we found was a ‘disconnect’ from the reality. For instance, in ourtruth about Africa we put a slide there that talks about a number of countrieswho actually have safari versus the perceived number of countries. So, theartwork that came from abroad was largely about safari and we said ‘well, youknow if this is for Kenya, it works, whereas in Nigeria - it’s (safari) scarce’. It was a campaign that had to be adapted.”

Mr. Lamb says better research showed that Nigeria’s MasterCard holdersknew more about Harrods, London’s store for high-priced goods, thanelephants and lions.

I’m Anne Ball.

Johannesburg reporter Gillian Parker prepared this story for VOANews.com.Anne Ball wrote it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

attract — v. to cause someone or something to want to do or be involved insomething

global — adj. involving the whole world

mobile — adj. something that can move from one place to another

digital — adj. using or involving computer technology

client — n. a person who pays a person or organization for services