#WiMMeets Kamini Redhi - Marketing & Communications VP of Sub-Saharan Africa for Mastercard

Welcome to #WiMMeets - a series of short interviews with marketing leaders from across Africa and around the world. The series will present a different side to senior professionals with the aim to share the things that matter to them and inspire others. 

In this interview, we sat down with Kamini Redhi, Marketing & Communications VP of Sub-Saharan Africa for Mastercard.

She is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Sub-Saharan Africa at Mastercard. Based in Johannesburg, Miss Redhi oversees the strategic direction, development, execution and performance of all marketing and communication activities for the payments’ technology company for the Sub-Saharan Africa division. Her role includes finding new and disruptive ways to communicate with Mastercard consumers and customers – cardholders, banks, fin-techs and merchants to scale digital payments behaviour adoption across Sub-Saharan Africa with the ambition to create a world beyond cash.

Prior to joining Mastercard, Miss Redhi was Marketing Manager at Coca-Cola Africa working across Coca-Cola’s Hydration Portfolio as well as on Brand Coca-Cola for South, Central and East Africa where she was responsible for launching multiple global innovations into the region.

Miss Redhi started her career in research at The Nielsen Company and has also worked in Marketing at Estee Lauder Companies before spending several years at Unilever working across category management, customer marketing, customer operations and brand building.

Over her career she has successfully grown strong iconic global and local brands that engage with consumers and customers and result in increased profit delivery for these respective organizations. She has won multiple Marketing awards, most notably a Loeries Award for a social media marketing campaign which she developed whilst she worked at Unilever.

Miss Redhi holds a bachelor’s degree in business science from the University of Cape Town, with honours in Marketing and a major in Economics.

 

 

WiM Africa: What gives you energy and drives you forward when you are not feeling at the top of your game? 

KR: Knowing that my energy, words and approach has the power to influence other peoples’ days let alone careers. It’s a responsibility I take seriously. 

 

WiM Africa: Which advertising campaign, from any brand, has been the most memorable for you and why?

KR: P&Gs Always Like A Girl has been content that I feel hasn’t dated and is rooted in real purpose. Gender profiling and stereotypes can start at such a young age, and can be so damaging to a little girls confidence levels. Addressing this topic at the preteen level holds us in good stead for creating more female future leaders that are confident and empowered lead.

 

WiM Africa: What three pieces of advice would you give to a woman marketer aspiring to a senior position about getting to and staying at the top of their profession?

KR:

• Remain curious and constantly learning new ideas and trends in your field to ensure you’re evolving as a subject matter expert and can apply these learnings to your work
• Focus more on the experiences you are getting in a role than job titles. I know this is difficult, and it took me a while to realize this but chasing titles will leave you constantly unmotivated when it comes to delivering in the role. Rather focus on the experiences and outcomes you want in your next role, this will you guide you to identifying and landing the best next role for you
• Constantly unpack what’s your personal brand edge, and what sets you apart from your peers. Once you identify your edge, it’s easier to choose roles that aligns to your strengths and ultimately allows you to succeed and shine. Remember your edge can evolve (much like you do), so its important to keep revisiting this to ensure it still represents you

 

WiM Africa: Which one person, dead or alive, would you say inspires you the most and why?

KR: Beyoncé. Her work ethic, ability to build both a business and music empire successfully while constantly reinventing herself to target multiple generations is astounding to witness. Her purpose is also clear and comes out in her albums quite directly.

 

WiM Africa: If you were stuck on a desert island what three things, excluding electronics, could you not do without?

KR: My husband, Nando’s and water!

 

 

Discover more #WiMMeets interviews here!