Hassan Bashir, Brian Mogeni and Mike Otieno are the founders of Wowzi, a platform designed to help brands automate creator marketing workflows and programs.
With their platform, brands can find the perfect creators with in-depth profile information, or even compare creators and pick the best for their brand.
Additionally, anyone with a phone and internet can earn money from brands in just a few steps by signing up on the platform.
Here is the story of how Wowzi became to be as told by WoK.
Wowzi was set up in 2018 when Hassan, Brian and Mike were brought together with the idea of revolutionising Kenya’s advertising industry.
Armed with experiences from different fields, the trio were confident that the idea would work and so they hit the ground running.
For instance, Brian had seven years experience in developing and scaling internet companies having worked with Opera Mini, Jumia and Mondo Ride, a taxi hailing app.
Mike on the other hand boasts a rich experience having worked with Uber as an ambassador, McKinsey and the Palladium Group.
While Hassan is described as a serial investor, he has served in key positions in the insurance and technology sectors.
“I met the two young men when they were evaluating innovative startups for funding. I had a business idea that required a similar advisory
“They looked at it and told me not to invest in the idea. But I saw something else. I saw innovation from their young, educated and globalist thinking,” he recalled their first encounter.
Hassan noted that he challenged Brian and Mike to come up with a business idea that was inclusive of his interests.
“I challenged them to create an idea that we could work on together. By February 2019, this idea became Wowzi. They became my friends and co-founders,” he added.
This how Wowzi, which helps brands automate creator marketing workflows and programs, was born and introduced into the Kenyan market.
With Wowzi, a brand only needs to set parameters of their advertising campaign with Wowzi does the rest, ensuring maximum conversions.
It also offers a tool where brands can easily create and track campaigns, view analytics and make a few changes to the campaign.
Additionally, while choosing a creator to work with, brands can filter by demographic, location, influencer and type of content to ensure the best results.
Brands can also compare creators and create a list of various brands and future use.
Once the campaigns are set up, tasks are dispatched to creators automatically with the brand only tracking the execution of the campaign.
With Wowzi, anyone can become a creator, “Provided you meet certain requirements. For example, you must have a minimum of 250 followers on any of your social media accounts. The accounts must also be clean – no nude posts, drug promotion or such vices
“We do background checks and verify the quality of an influencer’s output before he or she gets the job. So far we have 10,000 influencers on the platform. We have 60 local brands and about 12 international brands,” Brian explained.
On how the company generates revenue, Brian explained that they keep a fraction of funds that go through their platform.
“It is to our interest that more brands and influencers come on board and create a win-win situation,” he said.
