By Adedoyin Jaiyesimi (Nigeria)
Co-Founder, The Comms Avenue
When I started my career in communications over a decade ago, I knew little about the African PR & Communications industry. In fact, I knew little about the field of Communications in general. I started as a Writer, then an assistant editor, and finally, as a Brand Communications Manager. This was when I realised there was a bigger space than the world of writing I was mostly familiar with.
While landing a career in Communications brought me into that sweet spot where I could fully express my creative skills, I had to find my way. I remember being saddled with a brief one day, and I wasn’t sure how to approach execution or even how to charge for my services. Special thanks to my professional colleagues who helped to demystify that brief!
As I run the day-to-day activities at The Comms Avenue, a capacity-building platform for communications professionals across Africa, I realise there is still a need for demystification in the African PR and communications industry. One thing running The Comms Avenue has opened me up to is just how vast the industry is. Before starting the community in 2020, my ‘professional worldview’ was very Nigerian. While learning the nuances of media relations and how to put together an effective communications campaign in Nigeria, I began to yearn for more. The campaigns were great, and the visibility created for clients was also exciting, but I knew there had to be more work to be done as a Communications consultant.
I discovered what that ‘more’ was as I began interacting with colleagues from across the continent.
As with everything else relating to Africa and how we tend to lump Africa erroneously into one basket, we make similar mistakes as regards PR and Communications.
The way Africa as a continent is diverse and nuanced is the same way the practice of PR and Communications is different. Yes, the principles are the same, but their application varies from region to region and from country to country. It was interesting for me to learn how colleagues in other African countries handled media relations; it was also interesting to note that the practice of Communications in certain parts of Africa is more advanced than in others. However, I think the most valuable discovery for me was learning the importance of contextualising campaigns and plans across the continent. For instance, insights used for Nigeria cannot be directly applied to Angola; the people are different, the language is different, and the approach must be different.
And therein lies the complexity of the practice of PR and Communications in Africa. It is multidimensional, and it is also diverse. One thing that unites us as Africans is our ability to tell stories. It is deeply ingrained in our culture, yet, I have found that this asset hasn’t been properly maximised by African PR and Communications professionals, especially in relation to taking control of shaping the continent’s narrative. Many have spoken about how the Western media continues to showcase negative stories about the continent, but who will tell the stories we want – true and balanced? More specifically, what is the story that we want to tell?
This is where there is room for cohesion amongst those who practise PR and Communications across the continent. We need an avenue where we can share learnings and experiences. We need to be united in the story we want to tell and leverage PR tools to amplify this story. During a roundtable session at the 2022 Africa Communications Week, I listened to a colleague from Rwanda talk about a campaign by a corporate brand that leveraged the power of storytelling, which resulted in significant behavioural change across the country. I was left in awe of the campaign’s details and wondered how we could do something similar in Nigeria. The issue, however, is that after that conversation, the campaign details will probably be lost because it hasn’t been documented as a case study. As media consumption trends continue to shift across the continent, the type of stories we tell and how we tell them will become highly crucial. Also, the work we do across the continent needs to be adequately documented.
To a large extent, media relations and tactical activities have defined the African PR and Communications industry.
It has been looked at as a nice-to-have instead of a must-have that is critical to the strategic development of any organisation. A Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) report indicated that “67% of African PR professionals feel that the perception of PR has improved since the start of the pandemic.” While this is an encouraging figure, there is still more to do to ensure that the African PR and Communications industry is where it needs to be.
The use of research, data, and the ability to measure our results are still areas that need to be worked on, and dare I say urgently. There is also a need for us to shift from tactical thinking to strategic thinking. We have exceptional PR and Communications professionals across the continent, but until we begin to show how crucial our work is to the strategic objectives of the organisations we work with and our countries, the industry will continue to be sidelined.
I, however, see a ray of hope in the fire that the younger professionals across the continent carry. They are eager to learn, eager to make a difference and are asking the right questions. In addition, they are doing more collaborations across the continent; this will go a long way in ensuring that the practice of PR and Communications in the continent becomes truly cohesive and impactful in its results. The multidimensionality of the industry is undoubtedly a blessing, but we need to steward it through strategic collaboration among practitioners within the continent to make sure it doesn’t go the other way.