Can you briefly introduce your agency?
Emmanuelle Keinde, CEO, McCANN Dakar: We are part of an independent group operating in French-speaking Central and West Africa, with a McCANN franchise covering 14 countries. Our group owns four agencies: in Cameroon, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Guinea Conakry, and operates through partner agencies in other countries. The group is owned by three African shareholders: Annie Barla, CEO of McCANN Douala; Maurice Touré, CEO of McCANN Abidjan; and myself, CEO of McCANN Dakar.
The first communications consulting agency to open in Senegal in 1991, McCANN Dakar's scope of activity includes consulting, strategy, creation, digital, and media.
We provide solutions to a variety of issues such as transformation, innovation, customer experience, brand launch or rebranding, brand content, e-reputation, and influence. All our thinking is guided by consumer knowledge, enabling us to respond strategically and creatively at every touchpoint.
Our approach is to place customer knowledge at the heart of our thinking. To do this, we use listening and monitoring tools that leverage artificial intelligence to analyze consumer behavior as effectively as possible. Our cross-functional vision of all points of consumer experience allows us to best advise our clients in order to refine their audience strategy and build communication that consumers can relate to. At our agency, we like to break down the distance between a brand and its consumers in order to break with the codes of traditional top-down communication.
Who are your main clients?
Emmanuelle Keinde –
We support several brands such as Free for its launch in Senegal, Fintech players such as YUP, financial institutions such as CBAO & Attijari, pure players such as Coin Afrique and 4YOU, and beauty brands looking to grow their business in Africa such as Bioderma. We work with brands that want to communicate in Senegal but also throughout the sub-region.
Our motto, "Truth well told," reflects our ambition: to reveal profound truths through transformative creative ideas. Our goal is to create lasting value for the brands entrusted to us.
You supported Free in its launch in Senegal. Can you tell us about the campaign? (Petra Cvitkovic – Strategic Planner McCANN Dakar)
Petra Cvitkovic, Strategic Planner – The aim of the campaign was to rebrand Tigo and establish the Free brand by immediately generating appeal and engagement among consumers.
The "Li Mooy Free" ("That's what it means to be Free"
) campaign was rolled out in several stages:
- Infiltration: message delivered through street marketing and digital teasing
- Trigger: revelation of the brand and its offers with a keynote speech by the CEO of Free in Senegal, Mamadou Mbengue
- Amplification: spreading the "Li Mooy Free" movement on social media
- Acceleration: popularization of the offer in traditional media
Digital technology is disrupting consumption and communication codes, and we took on the challenge of reflecting this change in the campaign we created for Free. To do this, we designed a campaign that was in line with Senegalese and digital cultural codes. We also innovated in terms of the campaign's deployment strategy in terms of phasing and formats.
In terms of artistic direction, we also offered something different, featuring never-before-seen figures such as the woman embodying strength, "Li Mooy Doolé," and ambition, "Li Mooy Boss."
The campaign generated real enthusiasm by creatively ensuring the immediate connection of a strong brand promise with a Senegalese market waiting for such an initiative.
Between French, the official language, and Wolof, the spoken language, how do you approach advertising copywriting? (Arthur Jacq – Digital Manager, McCANN Dakar)
Arthur Jacq, Digital Manager –
It's true that for a long time, advertising copy in Senegal was written in French. At McCann Dakar, we never start with a concept in French that we then translate into Wolof; we create everything in Wolof from the outset. Beyond language, which is fundamental for addressing our targets, we seek above all to be part of the cultural "discourse" of the moment and are therefore constantly monitoring emerging trends in digital technology. Creatively, we always seek the most direct writing to touch the hearts of consumers in order to "embark" them on a distinctive brand universe.
