If you work in marketing anywhere on the continent, you already know the truth WhatsApp is not just a channel in Africa, it is a lifestyle.
Author: Megan du Toit, AdTech Lead and Solutions Design, Dentsu Performance SSA
It is the group chat. It is the newsfeed. It is the marketplace. It is the customer-care desk and on some days, it is the entire internet.
With South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria all sitting comfortably at 95%+ penetration, WhatsApp is not where people go it is where people live. So, when brands ask me, “Should we be on WhatsApp?” I usually ask a better question:
“Why on earth aren’t you already?”
The missed opportunity: Brands are still stuck in 2017
For years, brands treated WhatsApp like a digital switchboard. Press-1-for-this. Press-2-for-that. A sterile call centre with emojis tacked on for ‘flair'. Africa has evolved. Our audiences have evolved. But brand behaviour has not kept up.
We do not build for African behaviour. We copy global templates and paste them onto markets that deserve better. And that is exactly the mindset I am here to challenge.
We design Africa-first. We innovate Africa-first.
If the solution does not exist, we build it.
Turning WhatsApp into an intelligent cultural engine
At dentsu, we have reimagined WhatsApp from a static bot into something far more dynamic, an AI-powered cultural guide, a personal curator, a hype agent, and most importantly, a connector between conversation and commerce.
This is not a bot pressing buttons. It is an assistant with genuine personality; one that listens, learns, adjusts, and suggests. No funnels. No rigid menus. No copy-paste journeys. Just natural, personalised conversations that feel like they are specifically for the individual on the other end of the chat.
Why WhatsApp is Africa’s most powerful brand touchpoint
- Data-light, impact-heavy: Low consumption. High adoption. Perfect for markets where every megabyte matters.
- Community is the heartbeat: Football tribes. Beauty collectives. Hustlers. Music fans. WhatsApp is where communities argue, unite, influence, and buy.
- It is the continent’s customer-care HQ: If someone needs to talk to a brand, they are doing it here not on email.
- Commerce already lives here: People negotiate via voice note, share payment links, and close deals mid-chat. Brands do not need to create behaviour just shape it intelligently.
Conversation, culture, commerce: The African model
Our approach mirrors how people really navigate digital spaces here.
- We start with culture: a music moment, a creator collab, a football highlight, a drop.
- We read the signals: what you like, what you ignore, what you react to.
- We guide with meaning: content, recommendations, community.
- And we bridge to commerce naturally, no pushy sales taps.
This is Africa’s first WhatsApp model built around actual African digital behaviour, not a Western playbook that has been awkwardly localised.
Why brands should act now
Your consumer is already:
- Talking about you
- Sharing your products
- Reviewing your service
- Influencing their groups
All inside WhatsApp. You can let those conversations happen without you or you can show up with an experience that elevates them. And here is the truth: Africa rewards brands that show up right.
The future of WhatsApp for business in Africa
It is cultural. It is conversational. It is intelligent. It is playful.
It is personal. And in this future, the one we are building, no market gets left behind.
