work creating posters and doing
little visuals with paint brushes.
This really caught my imagination
and I thought that this is what I
would like to do in life.
colleague I was with gave up and
so I had to singlehandedly tabulate
the data which involved brands like
Cafenol and Caspro and why, when
and how often they used it.
My father’s vision for me, like all
fathers in those days, was that I
become a doctor or accountant.
So I studied mathematics, physics,
biology and chemistry so as to
become a doctor. After the A-level
exams there was a year’s gap before
proceeding to university so I
convinced my dad to let me work
in an agency.
I didn’t realize it then that this
was going to change my life but
after tabulating the results I gave
them to the Account Director who
was going to the meeting room to
present to the client. After looking
through them briefly the client
started asking questions and since
they couldn’t answer these, as they
had just simply taken my report,
they came looking for me.
He called up the MD of Ogilvy
which like today was a very strong
agency both locally and globally.
The guy conducting the interview
wasn’t impressed with me and I
didn’t get the job which is how
I ended up going to Skyland
Advertising where my father had
been working.
He wasn’t there anymore but he
knew the people there and so he
called them up and they put me
to work making photocopies and
doing other general office errands.
The second job I got assigned to
at Skyland was to go round the
country interviewing wholesalers
of analgesic medical products.
Along with me was a colleague
who was interviewing the
consumers of the said analgesics.
It was my first trip around the
whole country and we had to visit
every town and trading centre
and got about 1200 questionnaires
in total. When we came back and
were tabulating the data manually as there were
no computers in
those
days - the
Looking back, this was a key
turning point in my life. In the
conference room around the large
table were many people and I took
a chair at the end of the table.
He was seated at the middle and
after a few questions realized that
I knew a lot more about the issue.
As he had to keep turning to talk
to me he invited me to a seat in the
middle of the table opposite his.
And so for the next 45 minutes
here I was, a young man of 22
years, talking about industry
insights and other on ground
research based issues about the
pharmaceuticals business to the
then CEO of Aspro-Nicholas
Pharmaceuticals, Mike Barker.
My CEO was sitting there
looking on in wonderment about
how I knew so much about these
issues and this is really where
my immense passion for the
advertising industry was ignited
and I followed the calling.
At the agency I started looking
after Colgate Palmolive, and got
promoted fairly quickly. After a
few years the agency was bought
out and we became a part of
McCann Ericsson Worldwide.
In this new setup I was assigned
the Unilever account, which
in those days was called East
Africa Industries, with Roger
Steadman, here in the house
tonight, later to become
the research guru of
Kenya, as my client.