Q & A MATTE BLK
Matte BLK has consistently stood out for its work in influencer, experiential and multilanguage marketing. What unique approach do you think has contributed to this success, particularly in such a competitive landscape?
We have an appreciation for regionalised communication and all our campaigns are born from strategy that is intuitive and leads with brand education. At Matte BLK everything is born in strategy, nurtured in creativity and deployed intuitively into regionalised executions with creative excellence. We are exceptional at creating nuanced campaigns with localised content and creative that decodes complex challenges into authentic campaigns, articulated to local communities for lasting impact.
You’ ve made significant strides in reaching the township market. What challenges did you face in breaking into this segment, and what strategies have been most effective?
We are the very target market we are selling and most of our team either come from a village or township, therefore being authentic to this background enables us to bring richer insights into every project. By virtue of this fact, we also understand the solutionist mindset needed to tap into the communities and possess an inherent culture based on agile ways of collaborating for the efficient delivery of work. We first connect and then sell, therefore producing resonant communications is central to localising content to better appeal to township and rural consumers whether it be through influencers who are close to the community, activations campaigns that have local sentiment or translated material that delivers our message effectively.
Authenticity seems to be a central theme in your leadership and the agency’ s work. How do you ensure this value is integrated into both your team culture and client campaigns?
Authenticity is our superpower! We lead with the story of who we are as individuals because this is what has uniquely shaped the culture of our organisation and fostered the community that keeps us connected to each other and the work we do.
Given the rapid changes in the digital marketing space, how does Matte BLK maintain its creative edge while staying true to its core values?
Our team is culturally connected and entrenched in our client’ s industries; our work is human-conscious born from adaptable creative thinkers who see brand challenges as opportunities. Our relationships with our clients transcend supplier-service provider roles, we partner with them to deliver beyond-thebrief campaigns that serve business objectives and obsess over what their brand obsesses about. We have therefore embraced digital developments and emerging technologies, but lead with education as our approach to ensure that we even the vulnerable populations within townships and rural communities are able to understand the implications of these on them and explore how they can benefit their daily lives.
As a full-time entrepreneur, what’ s been your driving force through the ups and downs of building and scaling Matte BLK?
We have been on a four-year long journey of redefining our purpose for being in business, a challenge presented to us by the advent of the pandemic which like many other businesses almost brought us to the brink of collapse. This is the most recent challenge we’ ve had to overcome from which we found meaning beyond the commercial value of being in business, our clients fought with us to stay operating because of their belief in the impact of the work that we do for them.
A key milestone for us has been our client partnership with Standard Bank that highlights the importance and impact of big business supporting small-to-medium businesses like ours, a crucial stimulus for our economic activity and demonstrative of the value of collaboration in delivering impactful campaigns that drive social change and deliver impactful business results. This was also a significant win because it cemented a seven-year long relationship and enabled us to bolster our in-house capabilities, attract key industry talent and grow our business twofold in the last two years.
You’ ve mentioned learning from a variety of people rather than having a single mentor. Can you share how this approach has shaped your leadership and business decisions?
Being able to tap into leaders from across different fields and varying experience has enriched my insights on how to grow my business sustainably the benefit of having corporate mind with greater strategic exposure has brought sound guidance to me, making an otherwise mid-sized business conduct itself as a big business.
Looking ahead, what’ s next for Matte BLK? Are there any new markets or innovations you’ re particularly excited about?
Right now, we are focused on our Africa expansion plans and aiming to attract global clients looking to enter or grow in Africa and appeal to the same target audience. We’ ve already serviced the likes of internation donor agencies such as USAID, therefore gaining experience working in different currencies and other markets beyond SA. ■
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