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T
hese three qualities have allowed Alain Yav to position Pygma Group at the forefront of the communication market in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with a turnover of 15 million dollars (11.6 million euros) and around 60 employees. His professional journey was shaped by a detour through South Africa. Nothing initially pointed this 45-year-old Congolese towards a career in communication.
After completing secondary school in Kinshasa, he moved to Johannesburg to study business, with a focus on accounting and marketing, at the University of Witwatersrand.
He quickly joined major companies: Grey Worldwide, a multinational advertising firm, and later Procter & Gamble. His final step was with Cadbury, the global leader in chocolate and confectionery, which he left in 2004
“In everything I undertake, I engage both hemispheres of my brain: I try to combine a logical approach to define strategies with a sense of creativity and management of people.”
Alain Yav
But resting on his laurels was never an option. When the international advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather sought to establish itself in the DRC, Yav jumped at the opportunity.
With the support of Pygma’s four founders, he launched Pygma Ogilvy in 2004. Their partnership lasted seven years; since 2011, the Congolese agency has been flying solo, counting among its clients telecom operators, banks, mining companies, and institutional players such as the Directorate General of Taxes. Beyond the DRC, “a promising market where everything is yet to be done,” this “pure creative,” as his colleagues describe him, aims to expand his agency across the sub-region and give Pygma Group a Pan-African dimension.
