An underdog is considered small and not ready to rub shoulders with big players in any industry. Verdant Zeal Ghana Limited, a marketing communications company, is such an example in the advertising industry of this country.
Formerly known as Brands and Products, Verdant Zeal Ghana is just under a year old after the takeover by Verdant Zeal Group, which recently won two awards at the revived Advertising Association Ghana (AAG) - organised 8th Gong Gong Awards.
The awards are for the Best Press Advert and Best Outdoor Advert in Alcoholic and Non Alcoholic Beverage category.
On the night, while the big names were expected to pick up all the awards — as indeed one of them did by going home with 22 awards, including the platinum one — Verdant Zeal, against all odds, went home with two awards out of three nominations.
CEO explains
The Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr Charles Ampofo, said the feeling was humbling for a relatively young company like Verdant Zeal to win these awards.
“It is a wonderful achievement for us. This means the little work we have been doing is appreciated and measures up to standards of the industry,” he said.
“It is humbling when while you are seeing all of these old players pick up awards your name is called, not once but twice, to pick up an award. We see ourselves as underdogs, and so rubbing shoulders with the big players is really humbling and also challenging,” he added.
What makes the feat more laudable, according to him, is that the award winners are determined by the industry players: “So, if your own peers and colleagues acknowledge the work you do it means a lot and we can only get better.”
He sees the awards as by-products from a lot of thinking, hard work and diligence by the company’s dedicated staff.
His ultimate objective is being enabled to provide creative solutions for the numerous clients Verdant Zeal has gathered along the way, and add to their (clients) bottom line in a meaningful and tangible way.
“The awards are not our primary objective, it only makes it better to get some acknowledgement for the efforts we put into our work. Hopefully, we will get a few more as we go along the line.”
Talking about plans for next year and how the year fared for Verdant Zeal in spite of the torrid economic conditions, Mr Ampofo said: “We have done our bit this year, but we feel we can still do a lot more. Next year holds a lot of promise, and despite the uncertainties about the economy we still have our own targets to achieve next year.”
As a believer in seeing challenges as opportunities, Mr Ampofo noted that Verdant Zeal would be looking at tapping into the opportunities that would come along and would not hold on to negative aspects of the industry and economy.
“We are hoping to grow and expand our scope to cover clients in different industries that we have not previously worked with before. We are yet to tap into some other Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs). Those are some areas we would be happy to play a part in. It would be good to have some experience over there,” he added.
Delivery strategy
Mr Ampofo believes that what made the company stand out from the rest was a system he called OTOBOS -- On Time, On Budget, On Strategy.
“We operate a system called OTOBOS. It is very rare to find an agency that deliver on all three virtues. You either find people that are cheaper and therefore will not be able to give you the kind of strategy direction that you want; or you find somebody who is very strong on strategy but is very expensive; and then you find people that cannot deliver on time,” he explained.
The company believes that the old saying of ‘Jack of all trade but master of none’ does not hold water anymore.
“You need to balance your act very well, so that you are able to deliver the best strategy at the best possible time and it’s still affordable or at a reasonable price that doesn’t break the client’s back. This is what we set out to do.”
Services and parent company
As a member of the Verdant Zeal Group in Nigeria and The Gambia, Verdant Zeal Ghana contributes meaningfully to a network designed to provide richer consumer insight, increase economies of scale while offering quick and effective solutions to its clients.
With a vision to deliver exceptional results by continuously and consistently anticipating and fulfilling the needs of its clients, Verdant Zeal is on a mission to reach its target publics in the most effective and efficient way by becoming the benchmark business partner to key corporate sectors, using new efficiencies to gain leverage.
Some of the services Verdant Zeal offers include business service and brand development; production specialist services; finance; creative (copy and art studio); radio and film production; media and PR services; consumer insight and planning; experiential and channel engagement; and web and digital marketing.
Mr Ampofo added that as consumers assume more sophisticated lifestyles, brands will get more desperate and intrude into each other’s space and eventually create clutter.
He opined that in order to rise above the fray, digital means of communication must be considered as this has become the standard in developed markets and is rapidly being adopted in emerging markets.
“Verdant Zeal also provides digital marketing solutions by exploring and exploiting existing and emerging media for communication in order to communicate effectively. Some of our range of solutions includes digital advertising, mobile marketing, website design and development, social media marketing, interactive and digital media, boxPay and data management,” he said.