Pamela Adongo speaks the language of marketing at the helm of the chain-like no one else.
Pamela started as a Marketing Manager New Vision. Today, she is the Chief Marketing Officer of Next Media Services with more than a decade of academic and professional achievements. She also doubles as the General Manager, Next Coms, the digital agency for Next Media Services.
To understand what she does, Marketing, in business refers to activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling a product or service. It speaks to customer segmentation, brand positioning, how you set your agenda to build brand equity, setting a vision, and crafting a pathway to achieve that vision. As part of her achievements in the industry, she has groomed and grown with different brands like all the radio and TV stations of Vision Group, Fireworks where she handled Total, UBL’s Johnnie Walker, Bell, Tusker Lite and Guinness, and the biggest being NBS Television.
Pamela says some of the life nuggets that have helped her get to the top and stay there include;
- Social Intelligence is key.
- Adversary Intelligence is key
- Mind-set is everything. If you don’t carry with you the right mind-set, you’re bound to miss many opportunities.
- As you teach, you’re learning. As you impart knowledge to someone else, you’re also learning.
- There’s no real situation in life. When you realize this, you approach and handle things more calmly.
- Execution is King
- The first ten years of your life you work to learn, after the ten years, you drop the L and start earning.
- Sustainability is real. Play your part towards
Pamela loves a challenge; one of her biggest career achievements has been the tremendous growth of NBS Television and now Taasa Obutonde campaign. In the space of six years, NBS TV has scooped a share of 68% from the 34% in 2016. “I like to start with a brand that has potential, grow and groom it. My biggest achievement in my career has been the growth of NBS Television. I’m lucky to be part of organizations that are transitioning. I joined when it was just NBS, and now it’s a group.”
Creating sustainable brands is another of Pamela’s industry achievements; in 2018, NBS Television launched the Tuve Kukaveera campaign focused on sensitizing and creating awareness about the dangers of single-use plastic bags. They later launched the Taasa Obutonde campaign, which educates people about the dangers of plastics, creates awareness about their safe disposal, drives behavioral change on plastics, and suggests co-existing alternatives for daily use. To Pamela, leaving behind a more sustainable environment is a bigger achievement.
Ugandan enterprises urged to explore regional oil and gas opportunitiesBeing at the helm of marketing calls for the utmost leadership skill; Commanding a huge team calls for leadership, and Pamela ably speaks to why it is important to master it. If you do not have leadership, everything gets lost in translation; through leadership, you reach brand goals, get the right people, have a good culture that nurtures growth and profitability. If you have a good vision but have bad leadership, that vision will stagnate.
It’s not to say that it has been a smooth ride. Over the years, Pamela has faced industry challenges. With the state of our economy, it’s hard finding affordable ideas to execute. Most ideas are costly to execute compared to the target market and also the state of our economy. Not to say Pamela hasn’t led the execution of disruptive ideas. The quality of people still lacks when it comes to the workforce. There are few competent people and those you find, majority of them have discipline issues, the challenge arises on how to groom discipline in a competent person. As the General Manager for Next Com, brands find it hard to embrace new media as a disruptive way to take marketing to the next level.
Over the span of her career, she has learned a lot on the job. Some outstanding skills that she has acquired include people management, leadership, performance management, mentorship (mentoring and grooming people), strategic digital marketing, as well as understanding the cost implication of decisions.
Pamela Adongo holds an MBA from the University of South Wales and a Bachelors’ Degree (SS) from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
