Kagiso Musi named managing director of Wunderman SA

Less than a year after she joined Wunderman South Africa as chief client officer, Kagiso Musi has been promoted to managing director.

It’s a new role for the digital marketing agency and one that requires Musi to manage the business across operations, finance, talent and its entire service offering.

“Musi brings an abundance of aptitude and two decades’ worth of business, marketing and communications experience. She also recently completed her MBA. This multifaceted combination affords her the ability to solve business problems and challenges more holistically in a digitial-first era,” says group CEO, Haydn Townsend.

Apart from her ambition to look beyond advertising and ensure consistent delivery of creative work that propels Wunderman into the next frontier, Musi outlined some strategic challenges she believes she will encounter.

“There’s no question that the industry is in a state of flux and many organisations are still trying to figure out where to next. There’s growing pressure for the industry to run more like holistic and integrated businesses underpinned by the relentless pressure to demonstrate return on investment.

“Amongst the biggest challenges facing our industry, I believe that finding the balance between the digital future and the ongoing power of traditional ATL to be the most significant.

“Added to this, our biggest opportunity lies in continuing the migration from digital marketing to large-scale digital transformation. This is the core of our business and indeed the area which will require our main emphasis.

“Finally, talent is an industry-wide concern, not only in terms of the shortage of digitally skilled individuals but also the slow pace at which talent is trained,” shared Musi.

Ultimately, Musi intends to continue the building of the agency of the future, one that is leading in tech solutions that are rooted in customer experience (CX), one that sincerely cares about work that works, does right by consumers and has the ability to attract the right talent, and then take care of that talent by putting them first.

She added, “I want to make Wunderman synonymous with innovation, digital creative work that has the ability to positively impact the communities in which it operates.”

Townsend sang Musi’s praises, “Having worked with Kagi both here and previously, she has the leadership style that will enable the growth and transformation that we need to be future fit.”

Musi will oversee both the Wunderman business, previously Aqua Online, Base 2 and Wunderman Marketing, and the bespoke integrated agency, WPP Fluid, which was launched off the back of the Telkom win in June last year.