Meet The Team: Tinashe ‘Tin’ Mukarati

“Our vision is to continue to lead data-driven decision making in Africa, ensuring brands understand that they too can be data-fluent – and see significant gains in the process”

What is your role at Fluency and explain the Fluency set up in South Africa?  

I am a Data Analyst at Fluency focused on our South African clients. We have two offices in South Africa. The HQ is in Cape Town, with another office in Johannesburg. In total there are around 350 staff members, across the two cities. 

 What inspired you to get into data? 

I am creative and mathematical. I’ve always enjoyed storytelling and have a passion for micro-economics, as well as the socio-economic issues that influence them. I love learning about why people make the decisions they do. This thirst for knowledge led me to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce: Management Studies degree, majoring in Economics, at the University of Cape Town. As a part of this degree, I also studied Statistics and Marketing. After which I did online courses in Digital Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation; this expanded my expertise and helped me to further understand the digital landscape. 

What is your vision for data in South Africa? 

Being from Zimbabwe, and having lived in Jo’burg and now Cape Town, I have a great understanding of the different cultures of my continent.  

Generally data and insights in Africa are finite, however South Africa and Nigeria lead the way for the continent. To help address these challenges, Fluency is building more local datasets, doing a lot that has not been done before. We do this in order to deliver best-in-class data consultancy and analyses and work with the M&C Saatchi Abel strategists to ensure work for our clients is data-fuelled and led by evidence. 

Our vision is to continue to lead data-driven decision making in Africa, ensuring brands understand that they too can be data-fluent – and see significant gains in the process. 

What clients do you work on? 

Key international clients include Nike, WWE, Amazon, Lexus, Renault, Nando’s and Continental Tyres. But of course, we also work on local South African brands, with a number from the drink and alcohol industry, as well as FMCG brands in general. In addition, we work for some of the biggest online retailers in South Africa. As experts in marketing, we provide local insight which can vary widely from country to country, and even region to region. Of course, as our dataset grows, our insight is finding even more nuances to benefit our clients.

What are you working on currently? 

We are conducting a ‘SA Millennial Thought Piece’, aiming to highlight the key differences between millennials in South Africa, relative to other developing and developed markets. The comparison zooms in on markets such as the UK, Brazil, Australia and Nigeria. These nuances will show the steps for South African brands to optimise their marketing. The average age in SA is 27, so we’re tailoring this piece to the most economically active segment of the South African market.  

I also run ‘Data Dose’ which is currently an internal ‘Did-you-know’ styled newsletter, which will soon be launched to our external audiences too.   

 It can’t all be data! What do you enjoy out of work? 

I am a writer, often blending poetry with music and melody. I also like art, museums, history and anything that helps to expand my knowledge of different cultures and pop-culture alike. My friends at Fluency love the story from a pool party for my birthday; jumping into the pool like an album cover, with a full bottle of champagne in each hand, and of course the perfect slo-mo video for my socials! 

(What they might not know is that I had filled the bottles with water first! Who would want to waste two bottles of bubbles?) 

Guess I just shattered that illusion now, hehe! (-_-)