We recently had the privilege of interviewing Edwige Dazogbo, CEO of Edgy TV. With an experience of over 20 years in the media field, Edwige Dazogbo has earlier been a cultural community spokesperson for a major African film festival and a content producer for some broadcasters and media in Quebec. Driven by a passion for providing a platform for cultural communities to share their stories and showcase their talents and culture, Edwige founded several ventures in this field.
In this insightful session, Edwige Dazogbo shares her career trajectory, the inspiration behind crafting her visions into businesses, leveraging technology into her services, and shares notable milestones of her ventures.
The Beginning
We started the interview by asking, “Can you share with us your journey in the media industry and what inspired you to pursue a career in this field?”
Edwige Dazogbo shared, “We started with one magazine, now we have in our portfolio Edgy TV, Edgy Mag, Mama Benz Mag, Mama Benz TV, and Edgy Urban, it was born out of the vision in mind and the will to gather every culture through peace on my platforms, and my desire to provide a platform for cultural communities to share their stories and showcase their talents.
Mama Benz is on Roku smart , Amazon Fire smart tv and also on Android TV smart
Before founding my company, I was inspired as a cultural community spokesperson for a major African film festival. In this role, I was responsible for promoting African and Caribbean films and filmmakers to a wider audience and advocating for greater representation of cultural communities in the media.”
Setting The Ventures Apart
Eager to learn what makes Edwige Dazogbo unique and special from the competition, we asked, “What do you believe sets your magazine and television ventures apart from competitors in the industry? What unique value proposition do they offer to audiences?”
Edwige Dazogbo shared, “The network features a diverse range of programming, including documentaries, movies, music, and lifestyle shows, all of which celebrate the richness and complexity of different cultures. Edgy TV is a multicultural television network that aims to showcase the beauty and diversity of cultural communities around the world. My passion for multiculturalism comes from my personal experiences as an immigrant from West Africa who has lived in both Europe and North America.
While Mama Benz is an African lifestyle culture media to empower Afro-women, I understand the challenges that cultural communities face in terms of representation and strongly believe that media can play a crucial role in breaking down barriers and promoting understanding to each other within our cultural communities.”
We aim to become a place where every culture can co-exist in harmony in medias like we normally do in our society lifestyle in Canada.
Worth-Sharing Achievements
To learn more about her triumphs and notable achievements in her ventures, we asked, “Reflecting on your career, what has been the most significant achievement for your media ventures to date?”
Edwige Dazogbo shared, “The most significant achievement for my media ventures to date is to get our 5 licenses of television broadcasting and telecommunications, and to obtain the funds needed for our operations plus to be nominated at the ARISTA-BMO Bank of Montreal contest, which celebrates successful young entrepreneurs and has received numerous awards for her work in promoting cultural diversity and representation. Also to have my concept chosen among hundreds to be broadcast on a national community popular TV station in Quebec and nonetheless to have the support of financial partners and institutions, is what I believe to be my achievements.”
Managing The Business
We further asked, “How would you describe your leadership style within the context of the media industry?”
Edwige Dazogbo shared, “I am a Canadian Entrepreneur from Benin in West Africa and studied Communication, Cinema, and Business administration at HEC and Montreal University. I have traveled and lived in 10 countries. With more than 16 years of experience in the field of Project Management, Sales, Communication, Marketing, and Business administration, I aspire for best results and I am sales and marketing oriented as a dynamic manager in media.”
Retaining Top Talents
To have a successful business demands having the best talents in the team. To learn how Edwige Dazogbo ensures having the right talent in her team, we asked, “In a dynamic industry like media, how do you motivate and develop talent within your organization to stay ahead of the curve and meet evolving audience needs?”
Edwige Dazogbo shared, “In a dynamic industry like media, I stay motivated and develop talent within my organization to stay ahead of the curve and meet evolving audience needs with my passion, doing things differently and being human with the talent in your organization, it makes a lot of things easier to stay ahead and innovative and I’m working only with passionate, original and talented people.”
Impact Of Technology
“Given your background in communication and cinema, what role do you see traditional media outlets playing in an increasingly digital world? How do you leverage technology within your media ventures?”
Edwige shared, “Technology is an important tool to fasten and make things easier the way we communicate, collaborate, store content, and broadcast or stream content in media. A few examples of our work using technologies are: Roku smart tv is live, we are live on Amazon Fire smart tv and Android TV smart tv. Edgy TV – Edgy Urban – MAMA BENZ TV can be watched here. We also have digital magazines and our App Edgy Magazine Web app along with the Android app Mama Benz Web app.
Edgy TV, MAMA BENZ TV and EDGY URBAN have plenty of refreshing content to offer. We have some traditional and original movies available, narrating the kings, the women and the love, from Nollywood, which is the biggest movie and content producer in Africa, a film industry located in Nigeria. Besides, episodes of Kirly-Sue’s Kitchen are also available. This collection of easy-to-make recipes are suitable for vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters, featuring some of Kirly-Sue’s favorite recipes that you will find a delight to try out; and are great to use especially when you are in a hurry or short of ideas on what to cook.”
She added, “The Squirrel Rosenberg Podcast is also available, which is all about educating, entertaining, and encouraging our audience. Knowledge is power, and we passionately believe that the best way to gain knowledge is to learn from others. That’s why our podcast is all about delivering real stories from real people.
Our guests share our passion for knowledge, and when they visit us they share with us their own passions – some are artists, some are business professionals, some are musicians. But more important than what they do is who they are, so we always invite our guests to give us insight into their world. You can tune into the SQR Podcast every week to hear inspiring stories and learn something new. Alongside, we also have Ecowas Wife, Dice Game, and independent urban music videos.”
Envisioning The Future, We asked Edwige Dazogbo
To learn more about the visions Edwige Dazogbo has for the media industry, we asked, “Looking ahead, how do you envision the future of the media industry, particularly in terms of magazines and television?”
Edwige Dazogbo shared, “I would say for the future of the media industry. The best is yet to come! more and more interactive content will be produced, broadcast, and consumed in such innovative new ways! But content will always stay king regardless of the way and the platform where it is consumed.”
Adaptability Amidst Adversities
Every business face challenges. We asked, “What have been some of the most significant hurdles you’ve encountered in your media ventures, and how did you overcome them?”
Edwige Dazogbo replied, “The most difficult obstacles have been sourcing and structure the right funding and I overcame this by finding a great team and true partners, explaining my vision simply by sharing my passion with them.”
A Notable Achievements
We asked, “Could you share an invaluable piece of business advice that has helped shape your approach to running media enterprises?”
She shared, “For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers””
And this shaped my leadership approach for my media business forever.”
Marching Forward with The Community
Balancing innovation with maintaining successful operations is crucial. So, we ended the interview by asking, “How do you ensure that your media ventures stay relevant and up-to-date while continuing to meet the needs of your audience and stakeholders?”
Edwige Dazogbo concluded, “We are not named edgy for nothing, we are different, we are avant-gardism, mix modern and always ahead of future tendencies and close to the flavor of our market because we are ourselves our market, it is done by the communities for the communities. This ensures we always stay relevant and innovative. While we still have the best interest of our stakeholders at heart and ensure we meet the needs of everyone surrounding us.”
Follow Edwige Dazogbo on LinkedIn.
Find Edgy TV on LinkedIn and visit their website http://www.edwigemagazine.com.
Email: edwige@edgytv.ca
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