Creative Brand Strategist
DDB South Africa | Johannesburg, South Africa (with campaigns across AMEA region) | 2012 – 2019
Executed creative for Fortune 500 brands and national institutions across Africa, Middle East, and Asia markets. Led multidisciplinary creative teams developing award-winning, multi-channel campaigns spanning packaging design, brand guidelines, TV commercials, outdoor advertising, point-of-sale materials, and print campaigns. Collaborated with high-value clients across 35+ brand portfolios including Nigerian Breweries (4 brands), Edcon Group (11 retail brands), McDonald's, Unilever, Volkswagen, and national institutions.
Design and Innovation Specialist, Health Technology & Innovation
PATH | Zambia (with regional programs across Africa) | 2019 – Present
Lead human-centered design initiatives addressing complex healthcare challenges across immunization, maternal health, and health informatics systems throughout Africa and many more. Partnered with Ministries of Health from frontline Health Care Workers all the way up to national stakeholder & multinational, international donors (Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, CDC, Hewlett Foundation, FIND), frontline healthcare workers, and community stakeholders. Published author and innovation facilitator recognized for co-creating scalable health solutions.
Curious about being on the marketing end of something like this.
This is a communications/systems question.
Communications considerations
1) Are you an individual or a firm? It needs to be clear if they are hiring you or your company
2) What evidence do you have that this is a workable alternative to what they have? Have you serviced clients of a similar nature before? Do you have the same knowledge as other advocates?
2) What are the trade-offs against the benefit of working with you? reduced labor cost or higher value for money, etc.
Systems
1) How do you work across time zones
2) Do you have the knowledge required/expertise for the regions you are interested in?
3) What channels are you using to engage these companies? Sales, HR, executives, etc.
Happy to assist
I'll answer this as someone who works in UX as to what the benefits are. It's either guess your assumptions are right and possibly lose everything on bad UI/UX or, at a fraction of said everything, give your final product a fighting chance with user/professional input
From my experience in communications, the key for your problem is what we call a 'unique selling proposition' (USP). For you the key lies in (a) packaging the distinction between carpentry and "high-end" carpentry. (b) Have you effectively targeted homeowners, architectural firms, or others? and (c) Have you curated the value proposition in a way that makes your services either essential or beneficial over generic high-end products? I would assume you are going for custom pieces.
Don't be afraid to lose it.... just for a bit, then you need to get yourself back together. The older you get, the less you will need to lose it altogether. good luck