Grabbing each opportunity

Ashton Dube is a digital marketer at heart, and has been for the past eight years.
Yanna Smith
Octavia Tsibes

Dube studied Computer Science and currently holds an Honour’s degree in the field. Early in his career he fell in love with the marketing aspects and woke to the opportunities availed by technology in the communications field.

“My journey into digital marketing began when I asked myself the question, ‘How do I get people to know about the websites that I have developed’?” Dube said.

“As my journey continued I was hired into a very forward-thinking organisation, Alpha Media Holdings in Zimbabwe which to my delight, operated on a digital first ideology. Within three months of working there as digital marketing officer, I was promoted to manager, working with a young and dynamic team to develop, grow and monetise digital products.

Dube’s desire was to explore other African markets and that drew him to Namibia and found a home in Adforce as the digital media strategist.

His current position at Adforce is centred on bringing clients value for their brands, products and services through effective, innovative strategies.

Dube’s challenge thus far and perhaps the challenge for many digital marketers out there has been convincing clients of the necessity effectiveness of digital media.

“There has been a slight hesitation to fully embrace digital, but through persistence, we have seen a growth in confidence and therefore, spend in the digital sphere,” he says.

“I am inspired by great work. I constantly look at what other industry leaders are getting up to the world over and see what I can learn from them. I also love traveling to new places and experiencing different ways of doing things. I find that the more open one is to different ways of doing things, the more open they are to continuous development and learning. This is key, especially in the digital space.”

Dube goes on to advise young people to never stop learning. “I am not saying you must live the rest of your life as an academic scholar, rather always seek out opportunities to sharpen your skills and find new and better ways of doing things. That way, you will always be ahead of the game,” he adds.

He further says that he would also recommend young and upcoming professional in whatever field, to find someone to mentor them. “I learnt a great deal from them not only about the industry but about life in general. Their input has been more than valuable to me both professionally and personally,” he says.