In love with Digital Marketing
Since setting up shop in 2013, Flume has made it its mission to make people aware of its clients’ brands, build their reputations, and bring business to their business. A full-service marketing and PR agency, the agency has grown to include more than 70 passionate employees in two cities, working on some of South Africa’s largest brand names as well as exciting up-and-coming start-ups.
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Flume Digital Marketing and PR hails from the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. Here he speaks to The Life Magazine about the pathway to his company’s success.
- What is your field of business? – Marketing Communication and Brand Strategy
- What where your childhood dreams about your career? I dreamt of a career in advertising, following on from my grandfather and uncle.
- When you decided you wanted to go to university, how did you make it happen? I applied to study law at TUKS and also applied to study marketing at what was then RAU (today UJ). I ended up going for the law option but soon realised I wasn’t cut out for it. I backtracked to do what I knew in my heart I should have done from the start and enrolled at RAU (UJ) in 2005 and completed a degree in marketing.
- What degrees do you have? I graduated with a BA Marketing Communication from UJ in 2007 and then continued with a post-graduate in Brand Strategy at Vega which I completed in 2008.
- What have the highlights at UJ been? I graduated from UJ a while back, but I loved the student life, how easy it was to find the lecture halls, the friendliness of the admin staff.
- What did you do after you graduated? In 2008 the world recession hit. I struggled to find work but eventually was employed as sales person for Apple Computers at Digicape, however, after a year I was retrenched and found myself job hunting again. A friend introduced me to a small advertising agency in Fourways called Brandbar. I went for an interview and got the job on the spot. There I learnt more about the world of traditional advertising, but fell in love with digital marketing and moved on to a business called Cerebra. In 2013 I decided to take a leap of faith and start my own digital marketing agency. I chose the right business partner and today, just over 7 years later, we have over 70 staff, offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town and London and service roughly 80 clients per year.
- If you look at your life critically, what makes you different and unique (in either experiences, or personality)? Having the ability to take a risk and start a business. Very few people actually end up starting a business, and very few end up making it a success.
- When you’re facing difficulty, what strengths do you rely on to turn it around? Optimism – I always see the opportunity in adversity.
- What are your plans for the future? To expand Flume into further countries around the world.