Unilever’s Beauty and Personal Care Marketing Director for Ghana, Nana Yaa Owusu-Ansah, has been crowned the Industry Personality of the Year at the 2021 Marketing World Awards (MWA). Unilever’s Geisha and Pepsodent brands also won the Iconic Brand of the Year and the Family Brand of the Year Gold awards respectively, whiles the marketing team took the Silver award in the Marketing Team of the Year category. In its 10th year, MWA recognizes outstanding individuals and businesses that have delivered superior industry leadership and exhibited excellence in the execution of distinctive marketing strategies for their brand’s success.
Under Nana Yaa’s leadership, the beauty and personal care unit of the consumer goods manufacturer has been a key driver of Unilever’s growth over the years, experiencing significant portfolio expansion in the skin care, skin cleanse and oral health subcategories while key products such as Pepsodent and Geisha maintained their market dominance.
As a seasoned marketer with over 18 years’ work experience across Sub-Saharan Africa, she has driven market growth for brands at scale by deploying leading edge consumer focused marketing strategies. The launch of Pepsodent Herbal recently and its Charcoal variant in 2020 along with a diverse range of Geisha Soap products in the Ghanaian market, have been critical to driving the market share growth by these household brands.
In spite of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, preceded by some challenging financial results for the business in 2018 and 2019, Unilever Ghana showed strong leadership by resolving to focus on delivering strong, strategically planned products and outstanding consumer services. The manufacturing giant has, over the years, led the way in driving activities marking the Global Handwashing Day in Ghana and Nigeria. Its World Oral Health Day activations in partnership with the Ghana Dental Association for instance has been winning the topmost recognition globally across Unilever’s markets for four consecutive years since 2017, with its Marketing Director as the anchor.
These purpose-driven responses led by the Lifebuoy and Pepsodent brands helped to ensure that both consumers and trade partners are protected in these challenging times have also contributed to the company’s rebound growth. With a passion for building talent for growth and developing operationally effective and innovative teams, Nana Yaa Owusu-Ansah has successfully set a new ambition and energy for Unilever’s Beauty and Personal Care in West Africa, with strong prospects of consistent market growth and dominance for the household brands.
Prior to being appointed the Brand Building Director at Unilever Ghana in 2016, she was the Head of Marketing for Africa Emerging Markets based out of South Africa with responsibility for 24 markets including Angola, Cameroon, DRC, Mauritius, Gabon and Southern African markets. In 2017, she was appointed the Beauty and Personal Care Director for Unilever Ghana & Nigeria. Nana Yaa holds a Masters’ degree in Marketing and Innovation from the London School of Marketing and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business and Marketing Strategy.
