In 1995, Jennifer Barassa quit her job to start her own business. Full of drive, ambition, and a burning desire to succeed, she started operating from her living room – today, that company, Top Image Africa, is the leading BTL Marketing Consultancy Firm in Kenya with their presence in 12 African companies with some of the largest companies in the continent as their clients.
One of those clients is Safaricom, who are celebrating 20 years of their existence and Top Image Africa has been walking the journey closely with them – for 16 years now.
Top Image Africa is a family-owned consultancy firm that started with direct marketing and advertising activities. Through the years, the firm has grown into a lot of consultancies especially after they got into a contract with Safaricom’s M-PESA. They have since become experts in Mobile Financial Services (MFS). Through the launch and success of M-PESA, they have had so many clients getting in touch with them wanting them to replica the same success in other markets.
Apart from Safaricom, Top Image has worked with big brands that are keen on Mobile Financial Services including MTN, Orange, and Airtel, and our offices are spread across 16 African countries.
While their main focus is Mobile Financial Service, they still do a lot of below the line (BTL) activities. They also still support their clients in terms of source management and agent management where clients want them to handle their sales teams. Under the BTL advertisement, we work with Total, Samsung, ShowMax, MultiChoice among others.
Bidanya Barassa, the Managing Director of the family-owned business says that above all, it’s the unending dedication of the team, their commitment to professionalism, and the vision that her mother started – which has so far been greatly upheld that has seen the company grow to where it is today.
“Back then, our major focus as a company was activations so we’d do activations for different companies including Safaricom. So 4 years into doing activations, Safaricom launched M-PESA. During the launch, three agencies were approached and Top Image Africa was one of them.
Safaricom wanted to do a pilot project on M-PESA so they needed our ideas on how they should be able to successfully do it. My mum, at that time, was able to submit a really nice proposal and a winning preposition whereby she told Safaricom about the need to find and train agents. The concept was finally approved by Michael Joseph and through that, we got to work with Safaricom.
We were the first agency to work with M-PESA and we have been with them throughout by working closely and delivering results that exceed expectations. I would equate our partnership with Safaricom as a marriage where we’ve seen each other grow through good and rough times.
One thing for sure is that Safaricom put us on the map especially with the Mobile Financial Service MFS and with, that my mum has been able to travel and offer consultancy services across different markets.”
A beautiful journey of growth
Bidanya explains how every successful partnership in business is like a wonderfully-working marriage and without effective communication and understanding, they wouldn’t be where they are today.
“It’s been an interesting journey. I mean working with the biggest telecommunications company in Kenya is no joke, but we are where we are today because we understood and continue to understand our value propositions and work every day to achieve them.
At Top Image Africa, we are helping Safaricom grow through managing their agents. It’s important to note that agents are a major ecosystem for Safaricom. There is no M-PESA without agents. Therefore, at the end of the day, the agents have to be happy as they work.
We support them through our team on the ground to talk to, recruit, train, and drive any new concepts to the agents. All this is to ensure that the agents on the ground are switched on, motivated, know the value proposition, and have adequate knowledge of M-PESA.
On the other hand, Safaricom helped us by giving us business, and by that, we can employ agents and other many people under our wings. Besides that, we have such a good relationship in terms of the business relationship.”
What is Below The Line Advertising and what makes clients go for it?
“Below the Line advertising really focuses on activations, direct marketing activities, and direct consumer contact points. BTL advertising means we are going directly to the customer because at the end of the day the company will only track if they have customers so, going directly to the customers, is very important because you get the pulse on issues on the ground,” she says.
“An example is when you are doing activations or roadshows, you are actually there motivating and changing behavior and brand switch because you are telling the consumer directly why they should select this kind of brand over the other ones or selling the benefits of the brand. Therefore, you can interact directly with and change the perception of the customer directly by giving them information. It is one of the most effective advertising strategies as you can see and record sales immediately.
We might be sitting in a boardroom making decisions but we don’t know what’s happening on the ground. Therefore through having a team on the ground getting us all the information about the brand we can strategize and implement activities that can add value to the company.”
Advertising is a cutthroat field especially here in Kenya. How has Top Image Africa managed to stay at the top while also delivering top-notch services to its clients?
“It all comes down to the clients. Most people have zero regards for their clients hence they deliver against the targets and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Top Image Africa has, by God’s grace, been able to meet results through several key pillars. First, we uphold professionalism hence our teams both in the office and on the ground are professional. We also have highly motivated workers. You can have the same company with the same technology but it’s the team that you have that makes the difference so we tend to support and motivate our workers and teams. As a family business, there are few to no bureaucracies therefore workers and clients are free to communicate and air out issues affecting them directly to me.
There is also the ad hoc element where clients would need something and we can approve efficiently and timely, unlike other firms where you have to go through several steps and processes that take so much time. Top Image is also good at cash flow management so clients know when they come to us and need something done we do not complicate the process so we can deliver the results according to the agreement made between us and the client. Those are the key elements that have enabled us to stay on top of the game.
What are the future expectations you have as Top Image Africa in such an interesting advertising space?
We are looking to diversify into other areas of the business. As I keep saying if we keep doing the same things and just working on the same things you are likely to see competition coming in and you never know. Also, clients, as well as consumers, need a changing so we have to move with the times.
We aim to diversify based on what we can actually offer in a better and faster and efficient way or maybe we can offer a completely different service. We strive to maintain our current clients especially Safaricom and also improve and grow business in other markets such as South Africa. We are also looking at efforts in which to make sure we are exceeding the expectations and quick to action in any issues and adding value at the end of the day
