Posters, bill boards, hand bills and other forms of print advertising have for long remained the way to go for business advertisers in Uganda until Matthew Kabonero and Daniel Ndahiro took the stage.
The duo first met in High school and built an interesting friendship that soon metamorphosed into a thriving business partnership.
Their advertising company, Camouflage Media supplies digital advertising screens across Uganda’s corporate organisations. Their products can be seen in Kampala’s top supermarkets, lobbies, shops and other facilities.
What’s more? They have also expanded their business to include social media services by managing companies’ online businesses and helping them maintain an enviable online presence.
Even though Kabonero and Ndahiro both studied business administration; they share a growing interest in advertising. In the system, they found several lapses which for them was a huge opportunity to create something different and more rewarding. And so with the financial support from friends and family, they launched their venture.
“Advertising in general was an area of interest” Matthew Kabonero tells CNN African Startup. “The idea to make it digital was because of the missed opportunity we saw in areas where static adverts were not effective enough to gather interest, for example at waiting areas of an office reception.”
Like most startups, they have encountered and overcome several challenges; from lack of funds to coordinating marketing teams across Uganda. But in all, they remain steadfast to their vision; discovering and enjoying its peculiarities.
“With print, you have to print newspapers every day, but with digital advertising it’s just a matter of changing the content that you have and distributing it online, so the expense of having to go through the printing is minimized,” says Kabonero. So this is farewell to print advertising.
But beyond advertising, Camouflage Media also creates content for their clients; which has given them an edge over their competitors.
“What sets us apart from our competitors in the market is that we also create content for them. So we’ve gone a step further” Ndahiro explains.
As a reward for good work, the partners have now gained patronage from large establishments in Uganda, including one of Uganda’s most successful banks, Standard Chartered and MTN, a huge telecom company. And they currently have a team of more than seven workers. That’s progress for a start-up right?
It probably is, but for Kabonero and Ndahiro, it just means more work, especially since they have a target of mounting the flag of Camouflage media not just in every part of Uganda but also across Africa.
And that’s not all, the team also has plans of revolutionizing the country’s education sector by providing interactive digital solutions for teachers, to enhance their interactions with their students.
It sure only gets better……………………
Indeed Africa is rising.
