This week on Comms Spotlight, Beatrice Miangogo-Eneje, a creative PR professional shares her career story with us. Beatrice is passionate about telling African stories. In the early stages of her career, she was focused on impact storytelling as a Feature Writer for a women-focused social impact organisation. Currently, Beatrice is a PR Consultant and the Founder of Kora & Hive PR, a budding PR agency in Lagos, Nigeria.
We’d love to know the story of how you started your career in Communications.
I started off as a Feature Writer for a women-focused social impact organization in Lagos, Nigeria. This experience helped me to gain valuable experience in writing impactful stories, conducting interviews, research, and content planning. I moved on to a role as a Community & Brand Manager at one of Nigeria’s first companies focused on promoting made-in-Nigeria and non-oil export goods. My experience in this role helped me to build strong skills in networking and fostering strategic partnerships, coordinating and managing industry-focused events, and media relations.
I later decided to specialize in Public Relations and landed a role at a reputable PR and Communications agency, which I held for over two years, and I am currently leading the team and building the business at Kora and Hive PR.
What is a typical day for you as a Public Relations and Communications Consultant at Kora and Hive PR?
A typical day involves planning, research, meetings, and a lot of data analysis. As Lead Consultant, I am responsible for overseeing the bulk of our client’s plans and guiding the team toward executing these plans with a focus on achieving results.
Can you share about a campaign or project you’ve previously worked on that still stands out to you?
One of our most exciting projects as a team at Kora and Hive PR was the task of introducing the ‘Legends of Alkebulan’ animation to the public before its release. The animation scene in Nigeria is still in its early phase of growth, and we needed to attract the attention of mainstream viewers, as well as potential investors.
Our strategy involved key tactics like compelling storytelling, strategic events, media relations, and team profiling. We focused on amplifying the uniqueness of the animation, highlighting key areas that stood out like; its potential to amplify authentic African stories of heroes, gods & deities, the contagious passion of the team behind the project, the ability to expand the story of this project into games, merchandise, etc. As a result of our intentional PR tactics, the pilot episode of this project hit over 8,000 views and 1.3k subscribers on YouTube within its first month of launch.
What is a challenge you constantly face in your line of work and how do you deal with it?
One challenge I face is the constant need to explain the value of bringing on PR talent, especially with small businesses. Not many business owners understand the value of Public Relations, or even what it means. So we find ourselves having to educate and re-educate clients and potential clients on the importance of our services, and how it can impact their business positively when done right.
Tell us about some key career lessons that you’ve learned over the years.
One of my mentors always said, “Under-promise and over-deliver.” This particular lesson helped me a lot with managing client expectations. Another lesson I learned is the importance of strategically showing up for yourself. While working as an employee, this usually meant taking up responsibilities on projects “outside” my routine tasks, and obviously my comfort zone. As an agency owner, this means sharing about the impact of our work, and our expertise even when it feels uncomfortable to do so. In other words, I learned the importance of tooting my own horn.
What advice would you give to your younger professional self?
Believe in yourself! You have what it takes to achieve your dreams and desires. Build expertise and lean into your creativity more. Don’t take yourself too seriously, enjoy what you do and LIVE while at it.
