The Grey Group operates in the region as the Grey Africa Network, led by Peter Jackson, CEO of Grey Group SSA, and Kamil Kuran, CEO of Grey Group MENA.

As members of the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) region, both executives aim to foster intimate cross-country partnerships, eliminating silos and fast-tracking interaction and business growth.

The ongoing development of the Grey Africa Network in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is championed by Dele Odugbemi, who oversees multi-market outputs that are vital to the maintenance of Grey’s quality and value standards.

Odugbemi visits and works across the 32 SSA partner markets as Grey Africa’s executive regional network coordinator and is well suited to this role having lived and worked throughout the region in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Ghana, successfully managing brands like Coca-Cola, Multichoice, MTN, SA Tourism and Diageo.

A unique African solution

Grey is ambitious about its Africa drive with a goal to be the best agency network on the continent by scale, geography, talent and client and award recognition by 2020.

Jackson adds, "Unlike most advertising agencies, we present working solutions to clients, not a laundry list of services. We don’t just offer them a template extracted from a far-flung unconnected market."

"Instead, we look at relevant customers’ needs along with local market insights, and customise our offering to the specific needs they have in each market, understanding that in Africa one size certainly doesn’t fit all," Jackson says.

Geography

Each regional market grouping is led by one of four regional hubs in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos and Dubai, all working closely with the Grey Africa Network leadership, aiming to ensure ongoing connectivity between individual disciplines and agency offices to produce Grey’s 'Famously Effective' brand of work.

Grey now has coverage in 39 markets between Africa and the Middle East, with majority equity ownership in the top nine markets.

A ‘networked agency’, not an agency network

"The definition of a ‘networked agency’ has evolved, and Grey Africa, operating as a network of independent agencies, has progressed by being strongly connected through a shared open culture with a belief that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts," says Odugbemi.

An agency in constant beta

Grey Africa, is a quintessential 21st-century agency network. “Like today’s high-tech companies, agencies need to be open to a process of continual mutation and transformation. We must be much more adaptive and not be paralysed by the methods of the past," says Jackson.

Expanded offering

Grey is fostering partnerships with other WPP companies, expanding relationships with agency partners such as GroupM Media and Kantar Research and Consulting.

Grey Africa has also established joint ventures with several specialists such as Coppertable, TrendER and Horizon Theory in an aim to drive its digital evolution and effectiveness further.

"We have a formidable digital orientation today, and we’re not waiting for anyone else to give us the answers and that’s proved by positively impacting on the creative work for key clients like Nokia, Uber, AkzoNobel, Procter & Gamble, Bosch, Volvo and GSK in the region," adds  Jackson.

The agency says it is looking forward to many more years of delivering for clients in Africa by means of an unrelenting strategic climb to being recognised as the best on the continent.

For more information, visit www.grey.com. You can also follow Grey Africa on Facebook or on Twitter.