Technology Makes You More Effective,marketers tipped

Renowned Marketing scholar, Professor Robert Ebo Hinson, has advised marketers to take advantage of the latest technological trends to ensure effective marketing, to expand the success of Pan-African brands.

“We need to create systems where from brand birth to brand peak we are able to accurately measure the marketing spend and tech can help. So these are the things we need you to start doing for us”, said Prof. Ebo

“Because these days CEO’s are not interested in expenditure that cannot be accounted for, they do not even want to know, so we need to be aggressive about pursing such things, so issues about identity graphs, should be created to show how we are delivering on the spend, including individual level transaction data,” he added, while explaining how strategy and technology work to boost brands.

This was while he was delivering a keynote address to over 500 Marketers and IT experts from across the continent during the 2nd Annual  Africa Marketers Conference under the theme, “Africa’s $3.4 Trillion Economy: Opportunities for Marketers,” at the Imperial Botanical Gardens, Entebbe.

 ''Marketers in Africa have had accountability issues for over 20 years. The new marketer needs real-time insights and analytics, to create real sizzle and relevance. Leverage data across all interactions,'' Prof. Ebo  highlighted.

The Marketing experts also have expressed concern over the poor African narrative that has negatively shaped the way in which African brands are viewed internationally following the absence of indigenous African brands on the list of the top 100 in the world.

“I agree that every single part of growth, development, business transaction must have a marketing element and we must task ourselves with changing that narrative because there has been injustices of the story being told about business in Africa even about consumers and brands”, says the Head of Consumer Marketing and Public Relations Multichoice Africa Holdings, Nondumiso Ngobese Mabece.

On how to harness Artificial Intelligence(AI), and the threat it possess to job security, delegates have been advised to utilize it to support their work to be better and not ignore it.

''AI is like any other technology, scary because it's new. It is not here to replace you. However, it is here to assist us as marketers. Use AI to assist and guide you.''

“Most people do not understand what AI is. AI has existed in one form or another for many years. The only difference now is that we are seeing a greater impact of its existence on things that impact our lives on a daily basis,'' according to Mr. Binimbi J. Chellah, a business systems development expert at Sybrin Systems.

President of the Uganda Marketers Society, David Balikudembe has hailed the conference and hailed the various ideas exchanged and expressed optimisms that the fruits of the event will be realised and called for government support to entrepreneurs with enough funds to shift the country from a ‘gig’ economy to a major continental powerhouse.