Founded in 2008, MEST Africa is a Pan-African training program, seed fund, and incubator with a mission to equip the continent's most promising tech entrepreneurs with the skills to launch and scale globally successful companies. Its flagship program, the MEST: Africa Challenge (MAC), is Africa's premier pitch competition for emerging tech entrepreneurs, bringing together innovators, investors, and stakeholders from across the continent and globe. The grand prize: $50,000 in equity investment, access to MEST Portfolio resources, strategic partnerships, and one year of professional business coaching — all designed to help founders build businesses that add real value to African economies and livelihoods.
MEST: Africa Challenge
Campaign: Find Your Soil
Problem: MEST Africa needed to grow awareness and applicant volume for MAC 2024 — an AgriTech-focused pitch competition targeting founders across 14 West African markets. The constraints were real: a ~$16K digital-only budget, a six-month runway, and messaging that had to travel across languages, cultures, and contexts without losing its punch.
Insight: "One-size-fits-all" innovation messaging wouldn't convert across 14 markets with distinct languages and cultural contexts. And beneath the recruitment challenge was a bigger one: many West African innovators have historically lacked consistent access to ecosystem support — visibility, mentorship, and a credible path to scale. The campaign needed to position MEST Africa not just as a pitch competition, but as the right environment to grow.
That's how Find Your Soil was born.
Task: As the strategist + copywriter on the creative strategy team, I was responsible for developing a campaign direction and messaging system that could move founders from awareness to application — across a full six-month funnel, across an entire region.
Move audiences from awareness → conversion (applications)
Support a full-funnel rollout plan and recruitment timeline
Help the program reach its target of ~1,200 applicants across the region
Results:
Landed the core campaign theme: "Find Your Soil" — a roots and growth metaphor aligned to both entrepreneurship and AgriTech
Built the end-to-end messaging framework: value proposition, proof points, tone guidelines, and CTAs
Wrote conversion-focused copy across paid social, landing pages, email, and organic content
Designed a phased six-month rollout tied to recruitment milestones — awareness, education, urgency
Recommended a community-led amplification strategy activating alumni as ambassadors and testimonial voices
Contributed to momentum toward the 1,200 applicant recruitment goal with narrative consistency from first touch to conversion
Role:
Title: Strategist + Copywriter
Scope: Campaign concept, messaging framework, copy system, rollout strategy
Deliverables: Paid social copy · Landing page language · Email copy · Social content themes · Phased recruitment plan
Graphics (Pitch Day 1, Applications Closing, Grow AgriTech, Support You Need, Find Your Soil CTA, Semi-Finalists, MAC banner, MAC logo, FAQ)
Campaign assets from the MEST Africa Challenge 2024, built around #FindYourSoil — a campaign theme and tagline conceptualized by Tai. From eligibility copy to urgency CTAs, every asset was part of a phased six-month recruitment system designed to move AgriTech founders across 14 West African markets from awareness to application.
Semi-finalists from across West Africa pitch virtually during MAC 2024 — a milestone made possible by the recruitment campaign Tai helped build from the ground up.