Insight’s Chima Okenimkpe looks forward to new role as ECD Publicis West Africa
By January 2017, Chima Okenimkpe will no longer be the Executive Creative Director at Insight Publicis. He is moving over to Ghana to take up a much bigger responsibility as the Executive Creative Director of Publicis, West Africa, an office presently manned by an America expert.
Mr. Okenimkpe, who holds a B.A in Agricultural Science, told MARKETING EDGE in an exclusive interview that the challenge awaiting him in Accra is a huge one as he is expected to establish a framework that will raise the creative standard of works done across Publicis agencies in the sub-region.
One of the major issues is the cross cultural challenge that such opportunities bring. “The challenge is huge. The whole point is to basically raise the creative standard across the region for Publicis Groupe, working across different countries. I don’t even speak French and many of these countries are French speaking, which will be the biggest challenge. Thankfully we are all Africans and that is a common denominator,” He said.
Okenimkpe is however confident that he has the wherewithal to deliver according to the expectations of the network, having accumulated about 16 years working experience within the highly competitive Nigerian creative environment, which is reputed to be the largest in West Africa and second largest in Africa after South Africa.
The appointment is a direct fallout of the partnership between Troyka Holdings and one of the world’s biggest agency network Publicis Groupe. And this initiative is part of an effort by the global network to boost its market position and strengthen its competitive edge in the sub-region.
“This is a role that has opened up to us today by virtue of our partnership with Publicis, which is a good things. My hope is that we find more of this opening up for Nigerian creatives to be able to go out to the world and show what we have got. It has started happening in our group and am sure it will happen to other agencies,” he said.
A new Executive Creative Director is expected to be announced at Insight Publicis, in the next few of weeks to take over from Okenimkpe.
In the last 16 years Publicis Africa Group, has experienced a growth trajectory that has seen the network expand from 200 people in 2010 to 3000 in 2015. The group has grown even further with the announcement in 2016 of a partnership with West Africa’s biggest agency network Troyka Holdings, the parent company of Insight Communications.
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