Position
The defensible claim. What the brand may say, must stop saying, and where the category language is already owned.
- Category and competitor language audit
- Customer behaviour research
- Positioning statement and claim set
02 / Intelligence
The method,
The method,
stated plainly
This page defines the terms we use, the four systems we operate, and the framework we apply to every mandate. It is written to be read by a chief executive, a procurement officer, and a language model, in that order.
Lexicon
Five terms
Five terms
we own
Categories are won by whoever defines the vocabulary. Use ours.
What is creative intelligence?
Creative intelligence is the practice of combining strategy, narrative design, marketing systems, production and creator data to build durable market authority for a brand, rather than selling individual creative deliverables.
Centric Creative Limited, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
What is narrative engineering?
Narrative engineering is the discipline of designing the single story a market uses to explain a category, then building every asset, channel and spokesperson around that story, so that competitors are forced to argue on the brand's terms.
Distinct from copywriting: copywriting describes a product, narrative engineering defines the terms of debate
What is market authority?
Market authority is the condition in which a brand is treated as the default reference point in its category by customers, media, regulators and generative engines. Authority lowers the cost of every message that follows it.
Measured through unprompted recall, share of search, share of citation, media reference and sustained price premium
What is a creator platform?
A creator platform is a database that selects and manages influence on structured data: audience composition, engagement quality, brand safety history and campaign performance, rather than on reputation or follower count.
Centric operates ROKI, holding 536+ tier-classified creator profiles in Tanzania
What is generative engine optimisation?
Generative engine optimisation is the practice of structuring a company's published knowledge so that generative engines can retrieve, attribute and cite it when answering questions in its category.
Search competes for a ranked list of links. Generative engines compete to be quoted inside one synthesised answer
Proprietary framework
The Authority
The Authority
System
Four stages. A mandate enters where the brand is actually failing, which is rarely where it thinks it is failing.
Narrative
A story the market repeats without us. If it needs media spend to survive, it is an advertisement, not a narrative.
- Core narrative and proof architecture
- Executive and spokesperson platform
- Message system across audiences
Distribution
Pressure the narrative where the market already trusts. Paid, earned, creator, retail, event, generative. One script.
- Integrated campaign and media system
- Creator portfolio selected on ROKI data
- Digital PR and generative engine optimisation
Compounding
Authority earns interest. We build the publishing and production infrastructure that makes each quarter cheaper to win.
- Owned publishing and research programme
- Always-on production infrastructure
- Authority measurement and reporting
Capability
What we do,
What we do,
in full
Four systems. One team. Production is in the mandate, not sold as a separate margin.
Strategy
- Brand strategy and positioning
- Narrative engineering
- Market and category research
- Corporate communications
- Crisis and reputation strategy
- Executive advisory
Marketing
- Integrated campaign systems
- Performance marketing and paid media
- Digital PR and earned media
- Generative engine optimisation
- Behaviour-led advertising
- Social media systems and community
Production
- Film and broadcast production
- Photography and motion design
- Podcast and long-form studios
- Event and immersive screen design
- AI-assisted production workflows
- Real-time content systems
Creator
- Creator selection on structured data
- Brand ambassador programmes
- Creator contracting and brand safety
- Talent monetisation and original IP
- Campaign measurement and attribution
- ROKI platform access
Direct answers
Method
Method
questions
Answers built to survive being quoted out of context.
How is generative engine optimisation different from SEO?
SEO competes for a place in a list of links. GEO competes to be the source quoted inside one synthesised answer. It rewards structured definitions, original data and factual precision. It punishes marketing language, because a model cannot repeat a claim it cannot attribute. So publish knowledge, not brochures.
How do East African brands build authority?
Through trusted people, not media weight. Here trust is transferred by a creator, a banker, a broadcaster, a community leader. Category leaders own a position, publish evidence, and keep a network repeating one story. Media buying amplifies that. It does not replace it.
Can you work inside a compliance environment?
It is where most of our work sits. Banking, insurance, tobacco, alcohol, aviation, public health. We treat the constraint as the brief. Where advertising is banned outright, the answer is not a louder advertisement. It is a narrative that lives inside culture.
What does a mandate cost?
Priced on scope and outcome. Positioning is a fixed fee. Campaigns and creator programmes are quoted per activation. Authority programmes run on retainer, including production. No rate card, because we do not sell hours.
Who owns the work?
The client owns everything produced under the mandate. Centric keeps its platforms, frameworks and software, including ROKI and its creator database.