TECNO appoints Avatar Cape Town as its global brand campaign agency in 2021

South African born Avatar Cape Town, a subsidiary of the Avatar Agency Group, triumphed in a hotly contested TECNO global pitch by demonstrating its mantra of ideas that move people against international network agencies in the Europe and APAC.

TECNO is one of the top 10 largest smartphone brands in the world and one of the largest and most admired on the African continent.

As lead brand agency, Avatar will be spearheading TECNO’s global brand campaign in several countries in South America, Africa, central-Europe, and Asia. The scope of their appointment includes Creative, Digital, Social, Public Relations and Media.

Zibusiso Mkhwanazi, Group CEO of Avatar Agency Group: “World-class people and ideas wins the day. As an agency, we’ve had significant experience developing work for countries outside of our borders, and to be appointed as a global lead agency for TECNO is a giant leap in achieving our vision of building an African-owned agency network. As this is not our first rodeo for work of this magnitude, I believe it opens up significant opportunities to expand our scope of influence with prospective clients and brands around the globe.”

Right team with the right experience

In a category dominated by functional promotion and vanilla messaging, Avatar’s challenge would be to show meaningful differentiation, seeded in brand purpose. Its multi-market campaign will seek to “liberate customers in the pursuit of their limitless potential.”

“After much internal deliberations between very compelling proposals, Avatar’s strategy and creative and logical approach are the reasons why we appointed Avatar in a critical time for TECNO in the midst of a global pandemic. Their holistic multi-channel approach in redefining how the TECNO brand will show up was impressive. We are thrilled to have them on board and help us with our brand campaigns.” explains Danni Xu, Chief Marketing Officer for TECNO.

“Having the right team with the right experience was key to the win. It was important to understand the human truth behind the data when looking at the matrix of TECNO customers and this became the foundation of our strategic thinking. We then discovered the target market rituals and connected fused the brand so we could tell the new story of TECNO in a meaningful and compelling way,” adds Mkhwanazi.

World-class capability + local expertise = Global campaign

Following a trail of recent wins like Edgars, Old Mutual, and KFC Add Hope, Avatar is no stranger to managing global accounts. Previously, it was the global agency for South African Airways supporting the Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, Europe and Asia markets, as well as regional agency for Fox Africa Channels.

“Avatar Agency Group is only the largest fully black-owned marketing agency group in South Africa. But there’s still the rest of Africa and the world – that’s why we improve and try harder, every day,” adds Mkhwanazi. “This win is not only a win for Avatar, but also for every South African-born agency that is looking to break the barriers and vie for a spot on the global stage.”