DIVE IN NIGERIA

Building support for diversity and inclusion in the Nigerian insurance market

In 2020 Gong was asked to take on the event running of Dive In Nigeria to build support for diversity and inclusion in the Nigerian insurance market. Due to Covid-19, the event was held virtually, with over 260 people attending. We secured CNBC anchor Esther Awoniyi to chair the event and invited five business leaders from across the sector to discuss gender diversity in the Nigerian insurance market.

Working closely with our local partners Phyllion to action our strategy, generate press coverage and engage insurance professionals in Nigeria, we secured 33 pieces of coverage including five TV interviews. Google ads delivered 421,000 impressions and #DiveInNigeria was trending on Nigerian twitter feeds on the day of the event. A number of senior leaders from Nigerian insurance firms also took part in our curated social media campaign, taking to twitter to share their support.

—

“We selected Gong and their partner agency in Nigeria to work on this project because we loved the concept and approach they presented us with. Their experience of the market, knowledge of D&I and familiarity with the Dive In festival meant they were the obvious partners for the event. In terms of delivery, I couldn’t have asked for more. The event was well attended and proved to be a great discussion on gender diversity in the Nigerian insurance market. The coverage was exceptional, with five of our panellists featured on prime TV show interviews in advance of the event. We were really pleased with the result.”

Mary Alade, Chief Strategy Officer, Aon Reinsurance Solutions (sponsor of Dive In Nigeria)

BRITISH COUNCIL EAST AFRICA ARTS

Strengthening international collaborations for east African creatives

Our brief was to strengthen awareness and increase links between 18 to 35-year-old creatives in East Africa and the UK, in celebration of East Africa Arts (EAA).

Despite the crippling effects of the Covid-19 pandemic stalling the creative sector worldwide, we set about showcasing the efficacy of the British Council’s East Africa Arts programmes and the importance of the creative sector as a career path, through the lens of their direct beneficiaries.

These creative entrepreneurs had incredible stories to tell. To generate engagement and support international partnerships despite the challenges of the pandemic, we crystallised the narratives of their innovations into media-friendly, engaging pitches with which to generate media interest.

Key titles and podcasts in the UK and across East Africa picked up these stories, which included the adversity-transcending power of fashion for a group of female textile producers in Kenya and Ugandan entrepreneurs benefitting from the Creative Hubs Academy.  Publications such as the Evening Standard (UK: circulation 1,780,000) and The East African (circulation: 3,000,000) jointly promoted No Direct Flight – a festival of African film and storytelling streamed live from Nairobi during the period of engagement. The press coverage reached approximately 30 million people in both East African and UK media.

By developing a rigorous content programme for Instagram, we were able to provide a digital platform to encourage international partnerships at a time when physical international movement was no longer permitted. Using powerful video clips alongside the compelling entrepreneur stories, we successfully increased the British Council’s EAA’s Instagram following by 17 per cent.

Despite significant strategic setbacks as a result of Covid-19, the British Council’s EAA engagement programme gained momentum by celebrating creative entrepreneurship as a direct result of the activity secured.

DPO GROUP

Corporate profile raising in Kenya, across Africa, and beyond

DPO Group has developed the technology to allow businesses across Africa to process payments, both online and offline. Headquartered in Kenya and with a presence in 19 African countries, DPO works with businesses of all sizes, supporting the growth of small local businesses, as well as working with large corporations, such as Uber, Booking.com and DHL.

Gong was tasked with supporting DPO in developing its corporate profile and raising awareness of its suite of products to businesses locally, regionally and internationally.

We supported DPO in developing its brand and corporate profile, writing corporate collateral, launching new business lines and products and announcing company milestones. As well as extensive local Kenyan media coverage, further coverage was secured in South Africa, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, the UK (including the Financial Times), the US, China and France, amongst other countries.

With a modest investment we are delivering outsized results, including in top tier international titles such as Forbes and Quartz. The estimated reach of one single announcement was over 1.5 billion readers.

BRITISH COUNCIL: ‘CULTURAL HERITAGE FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH’

Shortlisted for 2020 Sabre Award

The economic and social benefits of cultural heritage aren’t hot topics for Kenya’s young population. But an increase in tourism leading to job creation is an important outcome for a country like Kenya, with a growing young population who need employment. This is the context for our PR campaign dubbed “Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth” by our client, The British Council, as part of its mandate to explore creative responses to global challenges.

Gong Kenya’s brief was to encourage a priority audience of 18 to 35-year-olds to want to learn about, protect, and value Kenya’s cultural heritage in order to engage and benefit from it more fully.

Our digital-first strategy, titled #CultureGrows, called on cultural organisations and creative enterprises to provide input into a long list of names in response to the question, “Who’s your Cultural Hero?”.

The nominees – each leaders in their respective fields that included film, fashion, food and art – starred in a specially commissioned photography exhibition and shared key messages on their social channels to communicate their place on the list.

Mashujaa Day provided the peg on which to announce the winners, who included chef Ali Mandhry, fashion designer Ann McCreath and film director Wanuri Kahiu. Media engagement around the event generated extensive local coverage.

This work was recognised by the PR industry’s most prestigious global awards, The Sabre Awards, for superior achievement in branding and reputation in the educational and cultural institutions category. Gong Kenya subsequently won the pitch to manage communications for the British Council’s East Africa Arts programme across the region.

—

“Gong showed great strategic insight into our challenge, thinking through the elements that make up cultural resonances and build national pride. They interpreted these into a campaign that generated authentic content and gained great traction through fresh, smart use of a solid format – in this case to find the most influential cultural icons in Kenya. The outcomes hit all of the KPIs and the content continues to inspire and delight our audiences in relevant social channels.”

Maureen Anzaye-Kubai, Project Manager, British Council East Africa Arts

SHELTER AFRIQUE

Business communicators in Kenya: honing a brand identity

Pan African housing finance institution, Shelter Afrique, embarked on a new strategy to create a competitive advantage based on its deep and long-standing experience of the African real estate and housing market. However, the firm’s ambitious intentions were out of step with its existing brand and Gong was tasked with rectifying this and improving the firm’s brand identity.

Working with the Shelter Afrique senior management team, we defined the brand’s purpose through a series of workshops. Our in-house design team created a full suite of collateral, including a new logo, brand guidelines, business cards, brochures, folders and product sales flyers (in dual language versions). Our PR team then developed and wrote the content for a new, dual language website (www.shelterafrique.org) and copy for all of the designed collateral, as well as a digital newsletter.

The Gong Kenya PR team launched the new brand to Shelter Afrique’s employees with a clear internal communications strategy, working with the senior management team during deployment. We also created a 12-month strategy plan with clear recommendations for activity to launch the brand externally. We supported Shelter Afrique in the creation of an internal marketing position specifically to carry out ongoing marketing and PR activity on behalf of the organisation.