ZAAPA: Building better Zimbabwean storytelling

Barry Manandi, ZAAPA past President

If you have ever laughed at a local TV commercial, hummed a jingle on the radio, paused at a clever billboard on your commute, or been persuaded by a well-crafted social media campaign, you have experienced the work of the industry that Zimbabwe Association of Accredited Practitioners in Advertising (ZAAPA) exists to serve.

ZAAPA is the representative body for advertising and marketing communications professionals in Zimbabwe.
It brings together agencies, individual practitioners and the businesses in the advertising industry under one roof, with a single purpose: to build an advertising industry that is credible, ethical and capable of competing anywhere in the world.

Membership of ZAAPA is open to anyone with a stake in the industry, structured across four categories: accredited advertising and communications Agencies; qualified Professional Practitioners; Associate Practitioners working in the industry without formal qualifications but endorsed by a member agency or practitioner; and Affiliates.
The latter being largely suppliers to the industry, such as, printers, production houses, technology partners and other businesses that support the sector.
This structure means ZAAPA speaks for the full value chain of the industry, not just the boardrooms of the big agencies.

There are a few pillars that the industry rests on, chief among them, standards and ethics, professional development, advocacy and recognition, under which the relaunched Ngoma Awards are the centrepiece.

Under the standards and ethics, pillar, together with the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe (MAZ) and the Advertising Media Association (ADMA), ZAAPA is a founding partner of the Advertising Standards Authority of Zimbabwe (ASA), which exists to make sure advertising in this country is legal, decent, honest and truthful.
When a member of the public has a complaint about a misleading advert, this is the machinery that quietly holds the industry accountable.

When it comes to professional development, our Creative Directors Forum, Media Directors Forum, Financial Directors Forum, Digital Directors Forum and Outdoor Media Forum, ZAAPA has given specialists across every discipline in the industry room to compare notes, solve shared problems and raise the bar on craft. Workshops are also run regularly, with certification programmes available, while the upcoming Annual Advertising Summit brings the industry together to confront the issues shaping the trade, from the economics of media buying to the disruption of digital and AI-driven creative tools.

Advocacy is a key pillar as it is appreciated that advertising does not operate in a vacuum.
Currency volatility, media regulation, data and consumer protection laws, and the cost of doing business all shape what agencies and brands can achieve. ZAAPA represents the industry’s interests in these conversations, so that the people making the work also have a say in the environment inn which they operate.

When it is all said and done, good work deserves recognition. An industry that does not celebrate its own best work has no way of setting a standard for the rest to reach.
That is the role the Ngoma Awards play, and now, in partnership with the Loeries, the Awards a poised for even greater heights.

Every business in Zimbabwe, from the bank down the road to the smallest tuckshop at the corner depends on advertising and marketing communication to reach its customers, tell its story and grow.
A stronger, more credible advertising industry means Zimbabwean brands get sharper, more effective, more ethical communication. It means young creative talent has a real career path instead of leaving for opportunities elsewhere. And it means the work being produced in Zimbabwe can hold its own against anything coming out of Johannesburg, Nairobi or Lagos.

That is what ZAAPA has been quietly building towards, and will continue to do for many years to come.