Bernard Matlhaga has been appointed managing director of Brand Activation at Ogilvy & Mather South Africa. Matlhaga is a specialist in his field with 20 years of multinational marketing experience, spanning trade, channel, category, customer, consumer and shopper.
“We are thrilled to have someone of Bernard’s experience and calibre at the helm of our activation and shopper marketing company,’ says Abey Mokgwatsane, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather South Africa. “The team aims to continue striving to be the brand activation agency with the most complete capability to influence consumer and shopper behavior at every point along the path to purchase.’
Matlhaga comments: “I’m thrilled to be joining Ogilvy – an agency that has such heritage, while at the same time being so future-oriented, cutting-edge and innovative. With two decades of experience working on some of the country’s best brands, I feel I can leverage the latest opportunities in the retail environment to achieve maximum business results and take Activation to the next level.
“I’m excited to be driving this dynamic area of communications, and look forward to bringing original creative ideas to the table that make a tangible difference in the marketplace.’
Matlhaga holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh in Scotland, and launched his career at Unilever in 1992. Here he held several managerial positions over his 11 years with the company. He also worked for Nestle as a Product Manager and for Coca-Cola South Africa, where he spent eight years in a number of senior roles as a Channel Marketing and Shopper Marketing Manager. During his tenure at Coca-Cola, Matlhaga worked extensively across many pan-African markets, as well as the Philippines as business development manager. Upon leaving Coke, he joined Brandhouse as head of Category and Shopper Insights. Prior to joining Ogilvy & Mather, Matlhaga worked at South African Breweries (SAB).
