Teamwork certainly does make the dream work, if the recent collaboration between Vega, an educational brand of The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE), and Orange Academy Nigeria is anything to go by.
While many organisations consider it counter-intuitive to work with ‘competitors’, Vega and Orange Academy proved that collaboration is vital for business and industry growth, particularly when it comes to building meaningful brands.
With a shared vision of making creative problem-solving a core principle in businesses across Africa, the two institutions teamed up at the beginning of June 2017 to deliver a strategic brand-building workshop in Lagos – one of the continent’s main business hubs – in what both schools have dubbed the first of many collaborations to come.
“The workshop was a celebration of what can be achieved when people come together to make a positive impact on the industry at large,” says Dr Carla Enslin, Academic Head of Vega. “The collaboration between our two schools offered a unique platform for people to come together to gain insight into strategic brand-building, and to discuss and exchange important ideas.”
Dr Enslin was joined by Orange Academy’s resident marketing guru, Lampe Omoyele along with writer and designer, Colin Morris, to present a hands-on workshop delving into the importance of identity design, brand and marketing strategy, contact planning as well as content marketing in building a brand.
“What I appreciated most was that it wasn’t one of those ‘sit down and listen’ type of workshops,” says Chisom Ohuaka, CEO/Registrar Orange Academy. “It was an open forum for sharing ideas with breakaway sessions, pitches and a series of presentations delivered by world-class facilitators.”
Delegates included marketing and communications professionals from some of Nigeria’s biggest brands, including Tecno Mobile, Tiger Brands, Citibank and Nielsen Nigeria. The workshop also attracted a diverse set of entrepreneurs, brand activation companies and digital media strategists hoping to empower themselves and their organisations with the latest industry insights.
Following the success of the event, both schools hope to offer more workshops of this nature, with plans to create an extended workshop series focusing on design thinking, concept development and creative writing too. Future offerings will showcase strategic models and creative methods implemented by innovative brand leaders across Africa, with the aim of creating mutually beneficial partnerships to leverage existing creativity, experience and resources in the industry.
ABOUT VEGA
Vega is an educational brand of The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE), providing students access to higher certificates and undergrad and post grad degrees in design, brand communication and management at campuses across South Africa.
Vega’s approach to learning focuses on creating an academic environment that is based on experiential learning, and consists of interactive lectures, small lecture groups, the use of technology to enhance the educational space and ‘navigators’ who are passionate about their work and industries.
