Facebook’s Creative Accelerator to Help Brands Connect With Clients in Africa

Facebook’s Creative Accelerator programme is helping brands such as Virgin Mobile in South Africa and Coca-Cola in Kenya to unlock the power of personal storytelling and reach people with stories that are relevant and meaningful in Africa.

Through the programme, the Facebook Creative Shop is working with clients and their agency partners in South Africa, Kenya, India, Indonesia, and Turkey to bring brands’ stories to life. The goal is to help establish best practices for high-growth countries by developing campaigns tailored to the people in each country and the devices they use to experience Facebook.

Says Fergus O’Hare, Creative Strategist, Facebook Creative Shop: “A good story can break through geographic, linguistic, technological and even cultural boundaries. And thanks to the rapid adoption of mobile phones in high-growth countries, brands have unprecedented opportunity to reach people with stories that are personal, relevant and meaningful.

“Since Africa is mobile-first and in many cases mobile-only, we are particularly excited about reaching its massive base of feature and smartphone users with targeted marketing,” says O’Hare. “We are already seeing some exciting developments from this programme as we work with agencies and clients to craft campaigns tailored to the people in each country and the devices they use to experience Facebook.”

Coca Cola, for example, wanted to spread a message of happiness to people across Kenya to create more brand awareness. Facebook partnered with Coca Cola Kenya’s creative agency, McCann Worldgroup in South Africa, to create a campaign across all devices and connection-types in the diverse country – including people with 2G connections and feature phones.

The campaign begins by targeting the local audience on feature phones with beautiful images of local Kenyans smiling and doing the everyday things they love. It includes a hashtag to encourage people to share their own #Kenyanhappiness.

The campaign targets Kenyans in addition to audience segments of Kenyan expats who live outside Kenya, as well as frequent travellers to the country, spreading the message of positivity. As people uploaded their own #Kenyanhappiness stories, Coca Cola spreads those messages of positivity around the world.

McCann Worldgroup and the Facebook Creative Shop are also working with Virgin Mobile in South Africa on a campaign that will launch soon.

Outside Africa, clients in high-growth countries taking part in the Creative Accelerator programme include Durex and Lifebuoy in Indonesia, Nestlé Everyday Whitener and Axe in India and Samsung in Turkey.

Says Fraser Lamb, CEO and Executive Chairman of Africa at McCann Worldgroup: “Our campaigns with the Creative Accelerator programme highlight how Facebook’s tools can reach historically unreachable customers in the world’s key growth markets.

“This is important for global brands in the consumer goods, tech and telecoms market that are looking to emerging high-growth regions like India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa for their future growth. Through Facebook, brands can be where people are on their most intimate, personal devices.”