David Sempala gestures during an interview. He believes that for one to succeed in life, they need to avoid formal employment. PHOTO BY RACHEL AJWANG
In Summary
He has built a public relations and advertising agency. Jonathan Adengo shares his story.
Marketing is now an integral part of communications driving company growth. As such, new media, especially social media, has transformed the communications and marketing landscape.
David Sempala, the 41-year old chief executive officer of Royalway Media – the brain behind the annual banking, finance and insurance expo – and director of CSR Africa, has understood that concept and built a public relations and advertising agency with a niche in marketing communications.
Sempala employs a range of disciplines that approach the marketing challenge from many different fronts including; branding strategies, print and broadcast advertising, public relations, direct response, promotions, experiential marketing, event planning & management, website development and anything else that helps move their clients’ sales and image curve in the right direction.
This explains why agencies have had to remodel their services to suit the ever-changing media landscape in the face of social media and citizen journalism.
Sempala spent time learning from the best in the industry. He then polished his skills with a Master’s degree in Business Administration majoring in marketing communications from the University of Leicester, UK.
“My entrepreneurship journey started way back in University while I was a student at Makerere University,” he says, adding: “We used to engage ourselves in small businesses, formulate research proposals, and carry out opinion polls.”
Sempala also contributed to the Crusader Newspaper, from which he earned some income to get by at University.
When he left University in 2001, Sempala joined Vantage Communications, a PR firm which was one of the biggest PR firms in the country back in the day.
At Vantage Communications, he was ushered into the whole purpose of PR and management under the guidance of Daniel Musitwa whom he considers his mentor.
“I worked there for some time and left to pursue Masters,” he said.
When he returned from UK in 2006, he registered Royalway Media. But by then it was just on paper with no offices and nothing to show for a company.
It was not until 2008 that he started getting some business from companies. He reminisces about 2008 when the credit crunch hit hard and businesses, especially banks, were affected.
However, rather than join the long list of firms offering PR and advertising, Sempala created a niche integrating marketing and communications offering experiential marketing, promotions and a wide range of services.
But even then, Royalway Media started in a very meager way.
“I opened my first office, a single room at Collin House with a home computer, desk that I got from home and Shs350,000 which was the rent I was paying for the office space,” he says.
He also bought a ruler, a ream of paper and a calculator which he used to start off. With just that and his formal registration, Sempala was able to meet clients and companies.
He says to start a business; one does not need a lot of money but rather guidance and drive.
“You need to have passion and belief in what you want,” he says.
His problem was that his would-be mentor, Musitwa was out of the country pursuing a Master’s Degree. As such, he could not consult.
In spite of all this, he carried on, believing that he wanted to be an entrepreneur.
Sempala, who did not want to work in a structured format, subscribed to the notion that for one to succeed in life, they needed to avoid formal employment. He thought employment kills creativity.
Playing the role of director, HR, accountant and administrator himself, Sempala grew the company that employs more than 16 people on site, 23 on contracts and six consultants who offer the much-needed advice whenever need arises.
To achieve the client objective, he says one has to get in the mindset of the client and know their needs before drawing up a plan.
“With our extensive experience in the market, we focus on understanding our clients’ commercial requirements and business goals then translate those into measurable, marketing solutions that generate a positive difference to our clients,” he says.
Royalway Media works with different clients and organisations such as MTN, UNAID, UN Women and financial institutions such as banks.
What has made Royalway Media tick?
He explains that being successful in this kind of industry happens when you mix the right elements.
“When the right elements come together, then you will not go wrong.” Passion, knowledge, insight, experience, curiosity, and vision are some of the ingredients making each of their brands a success story.
“We have had a very high customer retention rate of more than 95 per cent because we are customer centric; we have lost money in the past but been able to deliver on the project,” Sempala shares.
Achievements
Sempala says growing in profitability and gross turnover is one thing they are proud of. Through this, he has been able to invest in securities and real estate to protect against shocks that they may register in the industry.
Challenges
Like any other industry, Sempala says agencies receive shocks from the industry.
“Some agencies take a lot of work and sometimes fail to execute it,” he says. However, he has learnt not to take on a project which is too big for him.
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