On the afternoon of Friday the 18th of September 2026, the Strathmore Marketing and Communication Excellence Hub, known as SMaCE, put a question to a room at Strathmore Business School full of the people who actually commission, conduct and act on consumer research in Kenya: Can synthetic consumers replace real

It’s very important to understand the defining differences between running digital campaigns with influencers versus Key Opinion Leaders, or ‘KOLs’, as they are also known. Bundling them together is not ideal and would lead to diminished impact if approached in the same manner. Influencers are all about building brand love

According to Adam Sarner, an analyst with market research firm Gartner, over half of social media campaigns will flop at a time when everyone is scrambling to get on board the social networking bandwagon. This may come as a surprise since lots of companies are planning and executing social marketing