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28 November 2008 |  
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Image & Brand Consultancy No Zain, no gain  |
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With its eyes set on expanding its footprint in Africa, 8 Image & Brand Consultancy is strengthening its core "currency" - creative excellence. The agency has been on a drive to recruit and retain some of the best talent in the country. "We have some of the top industrial designers in the country working for us here," says CEO Laine Barnard.
Barnard says his creative team constantly strives to stay abreast of local and international trends that relate to the various disciplines across which 8 Image & Brand operates. The firm is renowned for its expertise in the fields of corporate branding, product branding, leverage branding, brand campaigns, industrial branding and digital branding. It has successfully launched, developed and promoted major brands, among them Unilever, MTN, Vodacom, Coca-Cola, British American Tobacco, Virgin Mobile and Stats SA. Counting in its favour has been its natural flair for integrating strategic business thinking with creative execution. Added to this is the agency's reputation for excellent service, innovation, reliability, quick turnaround and consistent quality. George Katendeigwa, group segmentation manager at Payphones Zain Group, says 8 Image & Brand's experience in the pan-African market has been key to the success of the mobile company's rebranding initiative. "Their turnkey retail and presence solutions are unique, innovative and perfectly suited to our markets. We consider the agency to be a strategic partner in our African roll-out," he says. 8 Image & Brand says it strives to ensure that whatever solution it offers clients will lead to long-term sustainable growth and profitability. Launch director of Botswana's Be Mobile, Scott Grimley, says: "It has been a pleasure to work with 8 Image & Brand on the creation and launch of Be Mobile. The agency provided us with a complete solution in record-breaking time. They have exceeded our expectations and proved integral to the successful launch of our brand in Botswana." The ultimate goal is to become a world-class global player. The agency - which used to be called 8 Seconds - is on its way to making this goal a reality. It possesses a wealth of insight drawn from its insistence on hiring staff, in the case of its foreign branches, who originate from the markets it serves. It has also successfully evolved from being solely a strategic branding agency to one that has grown its core competences to include a full range of marketing and advertising services. Barnard describes it as a through-the-line Africa specialist. It plans to open other offices in Angola, Mozambique and Dubai. Its partnership with UK-based mobile specialist Fjord is also a potential springboard into the European market. Some of its milestones are:
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In one year, 8 Image & Brand Consultancy has increased staff numbers by 50% to 51. This not only indicates that its days of being referred to as a small player in the market are over but it's also a reflection of the growing portfolio of clients.
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