Tell us about your digital marketing agency, Pamoja Media.

“Pamoja” is a Swahili word for “together.” I started Pamoja Media in the U.S. with my business partner, Benin Brown. Our initial idea was to create an African ad network for marketers who were thinking to reach out to Africans in the Diaspora and on the continent. We thought that if we could monetize more of the African inventory that exists out there, maybe we could improve the African economy by increasing the value of trading online.

But when I came back home to Kenya, I ended up discovering how the web is treated differently than in the U.S. Over here, most people start and end their web experiences on social platforms like Facebook and hi5. Corporations and government are not really using the web effectively. For example, we don’t have an automated payment system in most of Africa. We don’t have ways that people can actually use the web so they can leverage the functions of government — public services and things like that. So the original Pamoja Media model did not work out. We found that we could not market a website when people can’t do anything on those sites. That’s not a sustainable business model.

So the thing that we needed to start addressing was building the capacity for corporations, organizations, and maybe government to be able to look at the web a little differently. The web should be a platform where they can move processes, reduce costs, and serve a greater number of people efficiently. We ended up incorporating online strategy, creative development of some of the solutions we offer, online PR, social media marketing, media buying and placement.

I think Pamoja has the best of both worlds: Benin and I have seen how the web works in the U.S. I’d say the web here in Africa is about how it was in the West in 2002 or 2003. So we’ve actually seen the process of what’s happened in the West in terms of automation, efficiency, web 2.0 and all those things. With that in hindsight, we’re able to advise our clients a little better.

Read more of this interview with Joshua Wanyama on the TEDBlog.

African Collages for VC4Africa used as branding and design inspiration

Pamoja Media worked with a team of different designers and programmers spanning three continents to put together the new VC4Africa website. This was a wonderful collaborative effort that had the whole team pulling together over a period of around 7 months to put together the new refreshing brand, inspirational images, collateral material, website and online strategy.

Ben White of VC4Africa interviewed Joshua Wanyama of Pamoja Media to talk about the project and how it came to fruition. Below is an excerpt of the interview. The new site launches on November 1st, 2010.

What was the draw for you to help VC4Africa launch?

I first encountered the VC4Africa website in 2008 as it started out on the Ning platform. When the opportunity to work on it arose, I took it as we share similar visions for Africa. So hopefully my involvement in the development also translates in a small way to helping the organization achieve its vision.

How did the process work for you, what made it different and how was it working with a design from Rotterdam?
The process was great. I was part of the design team with a wonderful designer Gaudi Hoedaya. It was my first full co-creation project spanning two continents. At first I was tentative on whether success was possible. But once we begun work, I knew we had a great process in hand and a good chance of bringing this site to fruition.

Can you talk a bit about the creative process and exchange with Gaudi?

We divided work along clear lines. Gaudi would work on the logo for VC4Africa and also develop the stationery material for the organization. Gaudi also designed the homepage and two internal pages of the site. I worked on the visual elements that would be considered for the brand including logo, images, colors and word play. This was to be the source of inspiration for Gaudi. I also finalized the site design and flow for each section within the site.

How did you come with those collages of images for example?

I started out by first exploring the words that kept coming up as we talked about the project. From these words, I picked 8 themes to explore. Once they were selected, I then found images and illustrations that would reflect these themes. I then explained the research and some key thoughts that Gaudi should consider while working on the logo. Once I forwarded him the collages, the rest was history.

What are the main ideas behind the design and the new site from your side?

We needed to highlight that a project of this magnitude can produce great results from combining varied geographic regions and experiences to deliver a project that was both dynamic and an embodiment of Africa

An African and European designer can actually work together while never having met and still be able to come up with an appropriate solution.

The whole existence of VC4Africa is to be able to give entrepreneurs and wonderful ideas in Africa a chance to grow to become something bigger. This site attempts to make this easier for both people seeking funding, those looking for opportunities to fund and the community to engage and have the best ideas rise to the top. It is my hope that we have achieved this goal.

How do you look at the results?

I think the site is successful from the development standpoint. It is now important the get the community to use it. This will be the final measure to let us know if it is successful or not.

What is for you the strength in this collaborative process?

Different thoughts from different people ensured a wonderful mix of ideas. These ideas in turn gave us a chance to build a good solution that has a really good chance to be great depending on how the community and its use of the different features. Without the various experiences being brought into one melting pot, we might have gotten a more cookie-cutter solution which the new VC4Africa site clearly isn’t.

Anything else you think is interesting to add?

I would love to see more collaborative projects in the future and see how many are successful. Maybe this might encourage technologists within the continent to develop more continental solutions.

Reader at Kabarole Information Center in Fort Portal, Uganda browses a newspaper.

How do you bring change to the rural areas in Africa that need information the most?

This is a question that a number of organizations in the Rwenzori region of Western Uganda seek to answer. Pamoja Media has been working with the Dutch firm TNO and the Nailab on a Hivos funded project to come up with the Information, Communication and Marketing strategy for six partner organizations in East Africa.

In the Rwenzori Region, two organizations namely Rwenzori Information Centers Network (RIC-NET) and Kabarole Research and Resource Centers (KRC) are working with local communities in building their capacities and knowledge in tackling some of the issues affecting them daily.

RIC-NET has a very powerful yet local method of sourcing and distributing information. The organization has formed a collection of small information centers into one powerful network within Western Uganda. So if a farmer in a parish seeks better methods to grow his matoke or find out a better price for his harvest, RIC-NET can provide him with all the necessary information. They are the source of the internet for this local farmer. Farmers can ask questions which RIC-NET researches online or by talking to experts in universities and the like and get back to the farmer with answers. They also connect successful farmers to the rest of their communities by highlighting these success stories.

John Silco of Rwenzori Information Centers Network (RIC-NET) describes how the Bwera Information Center connects within the RIC-NET structure and the value it provides local farmers.

The project is of great interest to me as it begins to highlight ways in which we can improve the lives of African farmers. There are great parallels to the Rockefeller Foundation funded project which Pamoja Media is working on. The key here is in finding effective ways to get information from the hands of those who are knowledgeable to those who seek it. If I am an expert in growing cassava, I can be of great assistance to another farmer seeking this information while I can learn from a farmer with better market access knowledge.

A successful farmer in Busaiga within the Rwenzori Region describes how Kabarole Research and Resource Center (KRC) helped him scale his operations.

On the other hand, KRC is looking at researching issue pertinent to the daily lives of communities in the Rwezori region. The organization collects data and also finds great ways to impact the lives of different people. Some key projects include building a savings culture amongst the rural community, getting access to credit through micro finance facilities, improving the lives of women, youth and the under served in community through lobbying, knowledge dissemination and social work.

Ultimately, the Rwenzori region of Western Uganda is a much richer place due to the work of these two organizations. If Africa can build a network of such community led initiatives that are wired across the continent through information centers, just how much information and knowledge can we share amongst each other? I think it is the work of Pamoja Media to look at how this is possible and therefore create value through technology in rural Africa.

Display and search are directly correlated, judging by a Specific Media study of comScore data. Brand- and segment-related searches (for cars, automakers and vehicle classes) jumped by more than 100% in several categories after consumers were exposed to display ads for those brands.

“Display advertising significantly impacts search, site visitation and engagement,” said Chris Vanderhook, COO at Specific Media, in a statement.

Search clickers exposed to display advertising were 22% more likely to produce a sale than those who were not exposed, according to a September 2008 study of Microsoft’s Engagement Mapping system by Atlas Solutions.

In a ClickZ article, Microsoft’s Young-Bean Song said the study results suggested that search alone was not a cure-all for customer acquisition.

“The issue we have with navigational search is that it completely obliterates the value we’re creating from other digital marketing we’re doing,” Mr. Song told ClickZ. “The idea that search is this magical fountain of customer acquisition—in many cases it’s not.”

David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, agreed that display can boost search.

“There is a connection between display and search ads,” he said. “Marketers know this intuitively. Often it’s not the search ad alone that gets consumers to act, but the context of all the marketing that preceded it.”

eMarketer predicts that search and display ads will retain the highest share of online ad spending formats through 2013, and will be the only formats to maintain double-digit share through that period.

Pamoja Media: An African Ad Network

Erik Hersman of White African has just published an article on a new vertical ad network geared towards the African market. Pamoja Media makes it easier for marketers to reach the highly fragmented African market within the continent and in the Diaspora. This is achieved by partnering with the largest African media houses and premium niche sites that carry unique content and a faithful audience. By advertising on these online properties, advertisers access highly appropriate and targeted consumers for their products within any geographic region in the world.

Started by Joshua Wanyama and Benin “Mwangi” Brown of African Path, the network will serve African publishers by offering their inventory to marketers world wide. This will include large global brands and smaller companies within specific geographic regions.

White African writes:

Publishers

Pamoja is brand new, and just starting to get going. That hasn’t stopped them from gathering an impressive list of publishers with a total of 10 million impressions dedicated and another 10 million more confirmed impressions if ad inventory is filled. That’s impressive, but more interesting is to see some of the names on their list of publishers, including: Mail & Guardian (South Africa), the Daily Nation (Kenya), Modern Ghana and Stock Market Nigeria.

Other publishers are welcome to apply, as long as they meet the following requirements:

· Be focused on Africa, or the African diaspora

· An Alexa ranking of 250,000 or better

· Have a minimum of 2000 pageviews per day

· Be aesthetically pleasing (or at least not embarassing)

Advertisers

as whoever has been involved in this knows, getting publishers on board is the easy part. Everyone of them is happy to go with the media outfit that will provide them with a solid amount of advertising income. Getting advertisers is the hard part, and that’s where Pamoja Media is focusing their work now that they have the initial 20 million impressions. Current advertisers include Pingo, PoaPay, Accents Telecom and Zain.

Advertisers joining so far have come in because they’ve seen the brand name portals available through the network. Pamoja can get them on board at a better rate for a smaller advertiser than if they go to the Nation or M&G themselves, because they do a bulk buy with multiple advertisers. As the network grows with other large portals giving up excess inventory, Pamoja will become even more attractive than it already is.

A qualifying publisher can join the network from here

An advertiser can inquire and place ads on the network through this link