Writer | Creative | Ogilvy Africa

JOB PURPOSE – SUMMARY

The job of a creative writer is one of the most sought-after advertising jobs in the industry. The creative writer crafts and shapes the words in an advertisement. In doing so, he or she defines the success of both the advertisement and the advertiser. The history of advertising has often proven the creative writer's pen to be one of the greatest marketing tools.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Create and execute campaigns and creative work that delivers impact for our clients.
• Work in a team with your Art Director but be comfortable working solo when required.
• Be able to write across a wide range of tones for a variety of brands.
• Work closely with your Creative Lead to ensure a high-quality output.
• Have an eye for detail to be a master of spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
• Thrive in a fast paced, deadline-driven environment and always strive to deliver high standard, market-leading work.
• Develop a deep understanding of your clients' brand across all channels.
• Demonstrate a thorough understanding of writing with the ability to review tone and copy and assess their validity for a brand.
• Confidently guide and supervise production of your ideas.
• Be proactive and productive - utilize time wisely and look for creative and business opportunities whenever possible.

PROFESSION, TECHNICAL SKILL AND PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

• 2-5 years of experience as a writer.
• Attending consultations with account executives to clarify and internalize the brand's requirements and core messages.
• Familiarizing oneself with advertising and promotional material used by competitors.
• Understanding the class of consumers, the advertiser desires to reach and targeting advertising to their tastes.
• Brainstorming ideas with members of the creative team and coming up with new, catchy, and convincing ideas to communicate the advertiser's message.
• Rejecting some ideas and developing others—deciding between alternatives.
• Writing advertising copy.
• Helping to explain concepts to the advertiser and adapting them according to the needs of the advertiser.
• Guarding against producing deceptive copy or advertisements that may lead to consumer confusion.
• A strong understanding of what makes standout creative.
• The ability to engage and demonstrate your ideas effectively.

OGILVY AFRICA – COMPANY OVERVIEW

Ogilvy Africa is the largest network agency on the continent catering to 40 countries with a team of ~900 people across Central, East and West Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi - Kenya, Ogilvy Africa manages a portfolio of over 100 brands for clients such as AB InBev, Airtel, Africa CDC, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Distell, Equity Bank, Exxon Mobil, Kenya Airways, Mondelez, NCBA, Nestle, Philips, PWC, SAB Miller, Sanlam, Total, UNICEF, Unilever, and WWF amongst others.

Ogilvy has a distinctive positioning and proposition that is key for current times, when clients desire a partner to help them realize their growth ambitions or to get back to growth. Simply put our ambition is to be, “The Best Platform and Partner for Growth on the Planet.”

This proposition is anchored on true shared value, what our world needs now, creating human(societal) value; employee value and commercial value. This proposition cuts across our key mega-businesses ABC (Advertising, Branding and Content), Experience (including CRM and e-commerce), PR & Influence and Media (focussed on performance marketing).

In addition, we’ve created proprietary marketing products in areas such as real-time marketing, social intelligence, performance marketing, e-commerce enablement and content hubs. Our unique operating model, One Ogilvy, allows clients and brands to cut the complexity of agency structures and create seamless omni-channel experiences for their consumers, across touchpoints. Fuelled by the holy trinity of content, data, and technology; Ogilvy Africa strives to be the best-practice agency model, for Developing & Emerging markets.

In our 20+ years in Africa, we have won the highest number of regional and global awards for the region including Cannes Lions, Clio awards, Dubai Lynx Festival, SABRE Awards (Global and Africa), WARC Effectiveness; to name a few.

Ogilvy is a leading global network of WPP. Launched by David Ogilvy over 70 years ago, it is referred-to as the Agency of Giants, by several industry experts. 2021 WARC rankings named Ogilvy, the #1 creative network in the world.

OGILVY BELIEFS

• People need regular OS upgrades: Even the best OS will be obsolete tomorrow unless its constantly upgraded. Same is true for people.
• We need more cows than milk men: We are a culture of practitioners, not managers. We contribute before we comment.
• Creative about creativity: Creativity is, and will always be, our differentiator. Creativity now includes holy trinity of Data -Content -Tech.
• Diversity is a competitive advantage: New profiles, new skills, new styles of leadership make us a stronger company.
• Collaborative advantage > Competitive advantage: Find partners who are on top of their game at the skillset we need. It’s the only way to scale at the speed without pretending to have all the answers.
• Team > Individual: You get a lot more done when everyone stops worrying about who gets credit at the end. Teams Succeed, individuals fail.
• Fail often, fail fast: We see entrepreneurs in all our people and encourage a culture of pilots. Test, succeed and scale; or fail-fast learn, learn from the failure, and start something new.