NDA’s Marketing the Marketers series talks to the marketing and comms leaders behind the success of our leading companies. Next up is Michael Kiggundu, Marketing & Content Lead at the7stars.
Prior to the7stars, Michael worked across the worlds of music and fitness. During his time at ukactive, the UK’s leading not-for-profit health body for the physical activity, Michael delivered one of the organisation’s biggest-ever National Fitness Day’s and helped to grow ukactive’s combined following by 36.78%.
What exactly does your job entail?
In my role, I primarily work with three leadership teams to grow the agency’s online marketing channels and deliver valuable content to our audience. From collaborative TikTok videos, to our monthly What’s Hot releases that deliver expert takes on trending conversations within the industry, direct to our clients’ inbox.
I have the privilege of tapping into the media expertise of everyone at the agency to find fun ways to deliver value to our audience and grow our channels.
What campaign or piece of marketing/communications are you most proud of in your career and why?
Introducing the career journey carousels to the7stars’ socials has been such a fun experience! We set out to show young aspiring marketers that there are so many different avenues and ways to enter the industry, and the response across our LinkedIn and Instagram channels has been phenomenal.
It’s been equally inspirational for me seeing the stories of my colleagues and what has led them to creating the great work that they create today. Imposter syndrome is something that many of us deal with, but content like this is a great reminder that we are all figuring it out.
Who has been your biggest inspiration in your career to date and why?
I haven’t really looked up to one particular person or entity in my career. Most of my inspiration comes from seeing brands of all sizes pushing the needle when it comes to their campaigns and challenging the norm to deliver content that is engaging and fearless. That is what stands out and resonates with me the most.
What is the biggest challenge in your sector and how is your company helping to address it?
One challenge that I have seen across the media industry is the lack of trust between advertisers and their agencies. Whether that is with their charging models, their TV procurement deals, or undisclosed programmatic trading models, there seems to be few entities that go against the grain.
I genuinely believe that the7stars are one of the entities that are doing so. From their ethos of full transparency, their media neutrality, to literally defeating the “bad and the boring”, I feel privileged to work at an agency that isn’t afraid to do things differently to create better results across the board.
What is the biggest opportunity in your sector and how is your company helping to make the most of it?
AI is presenting a lot of opportunities across the board, and I know many of us at the7stars are exploring how it can be used effectively in our day-to-day work and are receiving a lot of support in doing so. For me, personally, I’m exploring how it can be used to increase productivity, creativity and quality, as well as finding different ways to experiment with it to create new ideas for content.
How important, and why, are the following in helping you promote your own company?
• The press – Press is extremely important as it helps us with positioning the agency as experts in the field, as well as growing our awareness. We’re lucky to work with an amazing PR team who help us with this positioning and are always seeking to find new ways to push the innovative things happening at the agency.
• Events – Our events are essential in shouting about the latest discoveries and boundary-pushing tools that are birthed at the7stars. With these, we welcome people from across the industry into our office to experience the latest innovations in a way that only the7stars could!
• Your company’s owned media – Our owned media provides us with a unique opportunity to directly connect with people across the industry, as well as people seeking to enter the industry too. We have introduced a lot of content streams in the past two years and are gearing up to introduce more but the core aim is always the same: provide value wherever possible and do it in an engaging way.
