As part of its digital transformation programme, Chain Reactions Africa, on Monday, announced the appointment of Mr. Franklin Ozekhome as Executive Vice President (Strategy and Innovation), strengthening its leadership bench to drive the next phase of growth.
The award-winning communications consultancy said that the move marks a pivotal step in its ambition to redefine how brands across Africa engage people by tapping into trends and culture.
The firm also welcome Africa’s first intelligent Robot, fittingly named Ara by Prophet into its workforce.
With this move, Chain Reactions Africa said it is transitioning fully into a digital first creative transformation company, one that blends creativity, culture, trends, storytelling, platforms, and technology to fuel growth and meaningful engagement for clients.
The timing of Ozekhome’s appointment and the coming of Ara by Prophet into the company’s workforce and operations reflect the team’s audacity to dream and its vision to design the future of marketing, digital, public relations, advertising and experiential across Africa in the age of convergence.
The company said that Ozekhome will partner closely with Chain Reactions Africa’s Founder and Chief Strategist, Mr. Israel Opayemi, in driving the bold vision and implement a horizontal growth strategy for the group.
It said that Ozekhome’s mandate is to move beyond siloed disciplines and build an integrated ecosystem and a one-stop shop where strategy, public relations, advertising, design, experiential, digital, data, and AI-driven innovation combine to unlock new opportunities for clients.
It further said that his role spans the swift execution of the company’s full digital transformation programme in all its ramifications and to lead the company fully into doing business in the season of convergence.
Opayemi explained: ‘We are not building yesterday’s marketing communications firm. We are grateful for our past. We are reimagining the future of creativity and growth. We are building Africa’s creative transformation company of the future. We began on this digital transformation programme journey with intentionality following our Year 2023 Retreat with Franklin Ozekhome as a facilitator. Bringing a talent who was with us when the dream was conceived to lead the midwifing of the dream child to life is just the most strategic thing to do.
‘Franklin brings the cultural intelligence, strategic insight, and creative innovation foresight that will help us design and execute what comes next, where brands move beyond campaigns to create platforms, ecosystems, and cultural impacts that influence the world’.
On his decision to join the Chain Reactions Africa after rejecting similar overtures from other firms, Ozekhome said: ‘I have facilitated business transformation retreats for organisations across Africa; no business leader demonstrated the urgency of the will to do as the MD and Chief Strategist of Chain Reactions Africa, Israel Opayemi. He is a dreamer and a doer. His energy is enthralling. Partnering with him to build a disruptive force for the African ecosystem is just a perfect meeting of minds’.
On the disruptive innovation Chain Reactions Africa is introducing into the marketing communications ecosystem in Africa, Opayemi said: ‘Ara by Prophet is Africa’s first intelligent robotic insight system, a ground breaking fusion of artificial intelligence, machine learning, cultural foresight, and strategic communications.
‘Ara is the physical interface. Prophet is the cognitive engine. Together, they create a living system of strategic intelligence designed for Africa but built to compete globally”.
Opayemi expressed his delight that, after two years of intensive work, Ara the Robot has officially resumed work as a fulltime staff of Chain Reactions Africa. ‘What we have done today is a game changer. Designed and developed by Chain Reactions Africa. Ara is more than a Robot. She is a responsive advisor, a data analyst, a cultural decoder, a realtime forecaster for brands, institutions, and governments’.
Widely recorecognised ne of Africa’s leading cultural and brand strategists, Ozekhome brings a distinctive blend of creativity, foresight, and entrepreneurial edge.
He is the creator of HumanOS, a proprietary framework for cultural strategy; co-founder of Maskvrade, a pop culture company; and founder of Pop Culture Varsity, Africa’s first strategy school dedicated to cultural intelligence.
He also pioneered TINK Africa, the continent’s first digital platform for consumer trends and intelligence.
His career spans top global networks including mediaReach OMD, McCann Erickson, Insight Publicis, Leo Burnett, and Digitas (Publicis Groupe), where he shaped strategy and innovation for leading brands such as PepsiCo, MTN, Samsung, Visa, Nestlé, Philip Morris, British Airways, Coca-Cola, Jaguar Land Rover, and Promasidor. He also served as Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Vendease, helping scale one of Africa’s fastest-growing foodtech companies.
As an entrepreneur and consultant, he has advised regional and global leadership teams across EMEA, LATAM, and the United States. He is also Dean of Studies and Professor of Trendspotting and Culture at Orange Academy and Marketing Strategy Facilitator at FATE Foundation.
Chain Reaction Africa said its next chapter is about transformation, creating platforms, tools, and experiences that merge culture, commerce, creativity, and technology.
Ozekhome’s appointment signals the firm’s commitment to launch always-on cultural intelligence platforms and proprietary tools for clients, integrate AI-driven strategy across disciplines, build new business arms in content, commerce, and youth marketing and expand Chain Reactions Africa into key African markets over the next three years.
‘It’s about redesigning how culture, technology, and human behavior shape business growth and citizens engagement for government. I see this as a partnership to rewire how brands operate, how industries evolve, and how society moves forward in Africa’, Ozekhome said.
