The hoax that has been Digital Marketing in Uganda

Disclaimer: This article is not indicative of any individual or company, but merely a collection of my observations, deductions, and assumptions in a field that I love, over the years that I have served in it. If you feel in anyway attacked, it is merely a symptom of your own guilt, and not of my malice. 

That said, let's begin.

Knowing the full scope of digital marketing today, I can clearly say that my curiosity and passion for it was sparked a whole 19 years ago in an internet cafe along Wilson street. Fresh out of O' Level and an eager enthusiast of computer programming, my thirst knowledge was tempered by a cafe attendant, and then campus student, called Felix (never did know his last name) who blew my mind away with what HTML code could do.

As I fiddled with colors and marquees, my predecessors like Kin Kariisa, NBS TV's CEO, were developing our country's 1st websites like that of New Vision (or so the story is told), which was the pioneer information portal, while others sojourned into the burgeoning SMS/USSD content market. And like that Digital marketing in Uganda was birthed.

First forward to an age where SMS & USSD are dying, social media has made the smartphone the 1st screen of choice for urban Ugandans, and companies are falling over themselves to get a share of the action.

Trend-jacking, digital agencies, Facebook advertising, and influencers have become a norm as top executives, seeing how their own decisions are dominated by what they see on their phones, are increasingly demanding that their marketing teams show how they are embracing the "new medium".

There is no denying that digital marketing is the present and future of mass marketing, with 6.5 million internet devices, yet so many companies are still failing miserably at it, in spite of their conviction of its merits.

The failure of these companies on Digital marketing, in my humble opinion, remains a symptom of the following handicaps.

1. The "mufere" Digital Marketer - Let's face it, we still have little in the way of formal training institutions for digital Marketing in Uganda. While every other professions have seemingly endless options in an era of God knows how many Universities, only 2 tertiary institutions (that I know of) have anything remotely to a course on digital Marketing (Victoria University through some sort of partnership with Blu Flamingo) and UMI, including a CIM certification. This, alongside private initiatives like Blu Flamingo's DigiCon, The Digital Marketing Centre, Kahill Insights et al are attempting to fill a void that is glaring. The consequence has been the several "digital experts", "growth hackers" and "digital strategists" that litter Twitter and LinkedIn on account of their Twitter followings born from posting sexual innuendo, vulgarities, and the unending narcissistic selfies. Brands and agencies hungry to tap into the millions of weekly engagements online, and ignorant of what skillsets real digital marketers require, often fall victim to these very "experts" and leave them to their devices choosing to retreat to the traditional media that they have always known.
2. The green brand manager (I will most definitely pay for this) - Let's face it, most brand managers are extremely brilliant at managing what they have always done. Billboards, TV, radio and all. And while they know that digital is a key driver in their profession, they are not equipped with the knowledge and authority to make firm decisions for it, or the confidence to adequately invest in it. And with this in mind, they rely on the digital "experts" but reserve the budgets and attention for mediums they are familiar with. They will gladly pay 25 million shillings for research from 100 random strangers but are skeptical of online polls, even those targeting the very same demographics. They gladly spend on Newspaper ads in a dying medium while penny-pinching for digital advertising. And still, demand the same results from Digital as they get from "their" channels. Invest and harvest… Garbage in, garbage out. 
3. The skeptical business manager - let's also acknowledge that we have switched on brand managers who report to switched off (and I dare say ancient) business managers and owners, unwilling to invest in "noise-makers" and "lugambo". The "In my day" talk is always preceded by a plain "NO" for investment in digital. So the beleaguered brand manager is left to give the scraps to digital Marketing, in a market that is increasingly being dominated by digital.

And all this has happened over the past ten or so years that have seen Social media explode in Uganda. For a full decade, digital marketing has shown untapped potential and immense promise. And for a full decade, we have seen half-hearted investments and continued skepticism about how to tackle it. For all those years, we have lauded it as the "in-thing for tomorrow, not today", yet switched-on companies like the telecoms and media houses have fully exploited it to great lengths, garnering millions of followers each. Bobi Wine has exploded on it to become the most talked-about individual in a 6-million strong community, as politicians who have failed to embrace it continue to fade from memory. 

Digital media has grown and blossomed into a powerful force, yet Digital Marketing continues to be an orphan within its own family, silently watching it's older traditional siblings gobble up its share of the cake.

OK, so digital marketing isn't dead entirely. A small community of professionals have taken the time to perfect their art through online tutorials, trial and error, as well as those who have had the privilege to afford online courses. 

But until we tackle the aforementioned bottlenecks, the promise and potential of my beloved field will continue to be a hoax to brands seeking to invest pennies and reap big.

I end by saying that I write this knowing full well that I will most likely pay for it in one way or another. If not in jeers of "whom does he think he is" (Answer: A gleeful veteran in this struggle), or some randomly lost opportunity. I, however, feel compelled to post this, by my conviction that the digital marketing fraternity needs a firm kick in the ball sack.

We need to end the mediocrity of merely creating content for social media and take on the entirety of our field. It is, after all, we who have the onus to prove the value of our profession. Let's leave the kafunda in time to read online, share our experiences for others eager to learn what works, and what doesn't, and most of all take on whatever opportunity we get to certify with the vast number of online certifications, both free and premium. Let us stop being those bu-guys of digital and prove ourselves with measurable ROI.

End of rant. 

Normal programming will continue with a weekend piece on the landscape of Uganda's Digital marketing in 2019. (For those whose sense of humor was surgically removed, this line is both a joke and not.)