Rodrigue Mboumba
Bissawou

The real turning point in my career came when I took up the role of head of communications at the Coordination Office for the Emerging Gabon Strategic Plan (BCPSGE), the body responsible for steering and evaluating the country’s main development projects.

That experience led me to unlearn three major assumptions. The first concerned the idea of an audience. In public communication, citizens are not targets. They are participants in public action in their own right. It therefore becomes essential to understand the expectations, concerns and realities of each part of society in order to adapt messages and mechanisms for dialogue.

The second lesson concerned the relationship between words and action. Unlike certain settings where communication can precede or accompany an offering, in government, actions often precede words. Citizens care above all about what is done and the tangible impact that decisions have on their daily lives. Communication then derives its legitimacy from its ability to explain, contextualise and make government action understandable.

Finally, I came to understand that aesthetics and creativity, while useful, are not the ultimate purpose of institutional communication. They take second place to providing perspective, coherence and a clear record of action. Where a company may manage several relatively independent products or services, government action forms an indivisible whole. Every decision, every project and every public statement is part of a broader process that must follow an identifiable course and remain understandable.

At the heart of government, I also learned to measure the effectiveness of communication differently. The aim is not constant exposure, but rather the ability to support decision-making, respond appropriately to the sometimes urgent requests of both the public and development partners, and strengthen understanding of, and trust in, the action being taken.

I firmly believe that no communications method can be mechanically transferred from one setting to another. Whether in the private or public sector, any approach that fails to take account of the context, the organisation’s remit and stakeholders’ expectations risks producing the opposite of the intended effect.

It is also essential to distinguish political communication from public communication. The former generally serves the objectives of a party, a candidate or a political project. The latter, as an institutional function of the state, is directed first and foremost at citizens and aims to make public action clearer, more understandable and more accessible. This distinction is fundamental.

A dissatisfied customer can decide to change brands or suppliers. Citizens, however, cannot change their state. Public statements therefore carry a particular responsibility, because they engage not only the credibility of the institution speaking, but also that of the state as a whole.

I also believe that effective communication depends on maintaining a constant balance. You must satisfy the client when serving a company, effectively support the authority you work for within institutions, and provide citizens with useful information when contributing to public action. Beyond tools and methods, it is this ability to adapt to the context that makes a communications professional relevant and valuable.

Indeed, more and more communications professionals across the continent are striving to design strategies that take local realities into account and in which audiences can recognise themselves. Of course, certain principles remain universal: clarity of message, evidence, consistency, the credibility of the source and stakeholder mapping.

However, in our African ecosystems, conventional approaches are not always enough. I experienced this during a vaccination campaign for children under five. It was a huge operation: television spots, radio programmes, outdoor advertising, leaflets distributed in health centres and extensive media coverage. Despite this substantial investment, participation rates remained low.

By speaking directly with families, we discovered a reality in certain communities or peri-urban areas: many mothers were convinced of the vaccine’s benefits, but could not decide on their own to have their children vaccinated. In several households, that decision rested with the father or required approval from the wider family.

Based on that finding, rather than focusing our efforts on mothers, we organised discussions with community chiefs and religious leaders. The message was no longer focused solely on vaccinating children, but also on the father’s role in protecting his family’s health. Social codes, circles of community influence, customary practices, local opinion leaders and semantic nuances are all variables that go into designing a communications strategy.

What fundamentally changes is not the objective being pursued, but the ability to understand that the same communications objective can conceal different social, cultural, linguistic and institutional realities. These realities influence how a message is received, interpreted, passed on or challenged.

A detailed understanding of the contexts, actors, dynamics of influence and mechanisms of trust specific to each environment determines the outcome of a communications campaign.

EKO Agence’s areas of work are not six separate professions placed side by side. They are, instead, the different stages of a single value chain: diagnosis, positioning, identifying intermediaries who can carry influence, preparing public statements, amplifying messages and transferring skills.

To ensure that each of our clients receives support that matches the challenges they face, we have developed a network of partners specialising in complementary fields such as audiovisual production, legal expertise and media contacts across several African countries and internationally.

In-house, we retain the expertise that forms the core of our added value: strategic communications, crisis communications management, public affairs advice and media training.

Our approach is therefore not about selling a catalogue of services. Above all, we seek to resolve a specific problem by bringing together the most relevant combination of skills. Every situation is unique, and so is our response.

That is why it is difficult for us to define in advance which assignments we might refuse. It all depends on the context, the issues at stake and the objectives being pursued. Our responsibility is to analyse each situation rigorously and make the most suitable solutions available to our clients, so that we can provide the most relevant support possible.

I am honoured to see that my posts have caught your attention.

However, that statement needs some qualification. The idea is not to speak bluntly or disrespectfully, but rather to invite organisations to take an honest look at themselves before joining the race for visibility.

A few questions seem essential to me: does the promise being made genuinely match people’s actual experience? Is the organisation ready to withstand public scrutiny? Does it have the capacity to correct a situation quickly if its communication has unexpected effects?

When in doubt, it is often preferable to make the necessary adjustments before communicating.

No organisation is perfect, and Eko Agence is no exception. Our ambition is simply to build responsible communication that sheds light rather than conceals, and that neither helps to mislead stakeholders nor aggravates existing harm.

Visibility matters. Credibility matters even more.

When implementing a public relations strategy, many factors, both internal and external to the organisation, can significantly influence whether the objectives are met. Some variables are sometimes beyond communications professionals’ control: the economic context, current events, the competitive environment, social changes or unforeseen opportunities.

Sometimes, circumstances are also particularly favourable. At such times, modesty in success remains a valuable quality, because results are never exclusively the product of our own actions.

That is why, at Eko Agence, we favour a nuanced assessment of performance. Beyond the volume of visibility achieved, we attach particular importance to the quality of media coverage, its relevance to the objectives being pursued, and how the perceptions of key stakeholders evolve over time.

For us, the true measure of success lies not only in what can be seen, but in what changes in a lasting way for our client.

A leader who produces some of their own content and invests in their digital presence often provides an excellent starting point for a communications consultancy. It signals a willingness to speak publicly, take control of their image and engage in dialogue with their audience.

It is worth remembering, however, that artificial intelligence remains a tool to assist production. It can speed up research, writing or the structuring of ideas, but it bears no responsibility for the consequences of what it produces or suggests.

A consultancy, by contrast, takes on professional responsibility towards its client. Its role is not limited to producing content. It supports the leader in developing an editorial direction that is consistent with their positioning, objectives and environment. It also brings the ability to analyse sensitive situations by taking into account variables that the tool cannot grasp on its own, such as human relationships, institutional dynamics, cultural realities, political balances and the specific conditions on the ground.

An agency also brings an often underestimated form of value: its ability to take a critical view. Where a tool carries out an instruction, an experienced adviser knows how to question, qualify, raise concerns and, when necessary, intelligently challenge a leader to protect their interests, reputation or the credibility of their statements.

It is true that the deliverables most easily automated are increasingly being produced directly by clients. Many consultancies now recognise this shift and are adapting their business models. Value no longer lies solely in production, but in the ability to bring discernment, strategy, foresight and support suited to the growing complexity of the environments in which organisations operate.