GHANA HAS SEEN BETTER DAYS IN THE AD INDUSTRY. LET'S MAKE GHANA GREAT AGAIN.

I got into the industry just when the decline had started. It was my first time in a brainstorming session to come up with a campaign for Vodafone. Everyone sat quietly in the conference room as I went on and on with ideas, it almost felt like I had a gun to my head to crack the brief and this excited me. As exciting as the journey was at Scanad, the meltdown had begun. I was however fortunate to work with some of the industry's all-time bests at Scanad and for this I am grateful. In this piece, I look at the journey so far.

Advertising at its peak gave us some of the best campaigns up to date and I will start with the Vodafone 3030 campaign; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kX2CK8Bdpw This campaign brought us storytelling at its best, it was broken into a four-part series that captivated the audience. We couldn't bear the suspense and looked forward to the next episodes with glee. What makes this one of the greats was the awkward love story it told, this was something we could all relate to at the time when smartphones weren't as popular, and blind dating actually meant blind dating.

Next up is the keysoap medofo pa (keysoap my good love) campaign; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C7vXEpmXj0 This campaign brought humor to many homes with the popular phrase in response to the comment in the image here which was, "s3 wo maame, onp3 m'asem oo" (but your mum doesn't like me oo).

Finally, let me share some Pomo rice ads; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvlw7zSQ344, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLJPypagllI. These two campaigns introduced the next two elements to make your ad great, plugging into an existing culture or creating a new one, and a big idea based on insights. "My mummy is the beeest cook in the world" stuck with us after we watched this ad, it celebrated mothers and their meals as well as couched a phrase that resonated with everyone who watched it. The other Pomo campaign highlighted the cultural nature of kids to ask questions and tied it back to their product, and this was seamlessly done. There are many more elements to make your ad great and that starts from your willingness to learn about these elements.

Unfortunately, we have lost the spark in our ads because we have lost our mentors in the industry. One major reason for this is the lack of a proper celebration of our mavericks in the industry and where there is no honor, there is no continuity. This has cost us greatly, I believe it's about time we hailed the people who create great ads in our industry and also take up mentoring opportunities to help the younger ones get up to speed. It is my desire to see many more great campaigns back on our screens but most importantly, a celebration of the agencies and individuals who come up with these works like the Cannes Lions and the Loeries do. This will help draw more talent into the industry as well as make advertising in Ghana great again.

Advertising has evolved so much and it is about time we did too in Ghana, this starts with going back to the roots and understanding the basic tenets of advertising/creativity. We have too many armchair "creatives" who are unwilling to read, work hard, think, and create insightful campaigns. Many would rather remake a campaign done in another country and sell it to clients as their own campaign which is quite unfortunate.

Dear industry players, let's make advertising great again in Ghana by going back to the beginning. In the beginning, God created!!!