Professionalism is diluted in the industry at the moment – Tunde Shobanjo

Tunde Shobanjo

By Segun Otulana

Mr. Babatunde Shobanjo is the Group Chief Operating Officer of Insight Redefini, West Africa’s largest marketing communications group. A highly motivated and greatly inspiring creative professional cum business leader, Tunde, as he’s simply called, in this interview with MARKETING EDGE’s team of AMOS OLADELE, OGECHI ODIGBO, OLUWAKOREDE ADEBISI and SEGUN OTULANA, shares very deep insights on his professional odyssey, he also reviews the state of the marketing communications industry in Nigeria, the place of his company, the future of the industry.

How did you finally choose a career in marketing communication given the fact that you spent much time in the US?

It’s really crazy! I was actually born into into this career. I remember that as a kid, I used to play in my dad’s office, especially with all the art directors; I used to run, draw and that was before computer days. Interestingly, it wasn’t like nowadays when someone that has a specific talent can say, you know what, I’m gonna hone in and train on this talent. Back then, our parents were like “No, you have to go to school and learn business, and stuffs like that. As such, rather than just focus on advertising or anything like that, I had to keep going to school; and so I started out, as you know, I did Business Administration. When I graduated, working in the finance industry was a rave of the moment.

So, I started out as a stockbroker, I worked in a couple of big financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs and others. But quite naturally, you can tell when something is actually not your calling, and you’re just doing it for doing sake. I did several jobs in between, and the American economy was not looking so good at the time. Somewhere along the line, as a finance person, I saw a job opening in an ad agency for a finance position and I went there.

What would you say were the specific inspirations you had to come into what you’re doing now?

It goes without saying that the inspiration was there for all to see, I’ll start with our Chairman, my father. The way he’s been able to shape and transform a whole industry.

As you know, he started out, back then, when most of the owners of advertising companies were foreigners and expatriates. In short, the companies were owned by white people. But he (my dad) defied the odds! He and a couple of his friends started setting up their own businesses, and you know, because of the drive he had and the vision he had for what advertising was supposed to be in Nigeria, he helped to transform the entire industry.

You know that when you have people like that around you; a Jimmy Awosika, Sir Steve Omojafor, the great Richard Ibe, who was the creative director and others, you would naturally be inspired.

Again, I grew up with Senator Akin Odunsi’s children. All of us were children and we used to feature in the company’s adverts, even though they never paid us for using us as models for ads. Interestingly, my dad and all of these great men, as you know, are still friends till today.

In essence, I am saying that the industry has always been around me; and I’ve always been surrounded by some of the greatest minds in advertising. As such, the inspiration, for me, has never been too far to seek out.

Now, I’m sure you will not be surprised that we are wondering why you didn’t stay back in the US; what was your attraction to Nigeria?

It’s so crazy! I actually do have this conversation with a lot of my friends who are back in overseas; that somehow you always get to a certain point when you’d opt for home, regardless of how successful you are abroad. This is because home is home; and home will always be home.

I remember when my mom used to come visiting me in my early days, while starting out abroad. I think at that time, I had a one bedroom apartment. I’d tell her to sleep in the room, while l’d stay in the living room; but she’d always say, no, no no, you sleep in the room. I also remember that my mom used to say, back then, “You know here (abroad), you work hard and you can live and survive; but in Nigeria with this same amount of money, you’d live more comfortably. In fact, you’d live like a king”.

But, it never really dawned on me then; I was a young guy, I was still discovering America. However, like I said earlier, everybody gets to a point where they’ll tell themselves, this is not really my land, especially if you grew up here (in Nigeria), you know that your roots are here,

For instance, my primary school was here, Air Force Military School, Jos. After that, I attended Command Day Secondary School here, in Lagos. So, all of my roots are are here; and you know that at the end of the day for whatever I’m doing, if one wants to leave a legacy, and you want your legacy to be impactful, it’s better left where your roots are. This is what most of the people who left legacies behind did. So, it was an easy decision for me to come back to Nigeria.

In retrospect, what has the going been like for you as a professional in your field?

I’ve been opportune to to see the way this industry has progressed. Like I said earlier, back in the days when I used to go to my dad’s office, I used to be with the guys with sketch pads and all they were doing was drawing. It was not like there was one laptop somewhere that they were using. They were hand drawing and creating multiple iterations of every campaign. In most cases, the client would say I want to see three options; and these guys were literally drawing all the options out. Today, it’s a lot different.

One thing I always tell people is that COVID-19 fast-forwarded the entire world by at least 10 years. Before Covid, if anybody wanted to go for a meeting, you’d travel all the way, even if it was from Lagos to Kano! And even though we had Skype then, nobody really took advantage of it like the way they take advantage of it now.

Today, if I want to have a meeting with any of our Publicis partners, for example, it’ll be a Zoom meeting. It could also be a WhatsApp meeting or a chat. Gone are the days of letters and stuffs like that.

My dad used to tell me that back then, when they first started, the vice chairman would carry a portfolio full of the works they wanted to present to a client in Jos, and jump on a bus from Lagos to Jos to do his presentation. He would spend one night, and join a bus to come back to Lagos. Today, all that has changed.

Again, you’d recall that back then, the agencies were the ones engaged to create things and handle campaigns, generate contents, etc; but today there’s one small boy on the road who has an iPhone who is creating stuffs that a client is very interested in and is contacting him directly!

Look, I have an 11-year old daughter, who, I think, was born with the creative gene in her. By the time she was 8 or 9, she was already doing designs for her grandfather – all the invitation cards for his (grandpa’s) parties or whatever event he’s doing, all the posters that he did, this girl was the one designing them; and she was just 8 years old. She’s 11 now, and you can imagine how her skills have actually improved and increased over the years. What this means is that today, such 8, 10 year olds are actually my competitors! This is because the channels have been opened up for everybody. As you know, we’re in a creator’s economy now. So the industry has changed tremendously. I personally don’t see that as a challenge, but rather as an opportunity. I always say you spot the opportunities and you go for them.

Let’s look at your career trajectory; how would you describe your way up the ladder?

I want to be careful with the way I phrase this: I was in my early 30s when I came back; and even at that time, some of my friends in the same age bracket were already directors in their fathers’ businesses. But you know my father, the way he was trained, the way he is and the way he trains. He is a very principled person with integrity; he does not believe that you should just be handed anything, and that you literally have to understand the business, and, as such, you have to go through all the stages and levels.

So, I joined the business in 2009 as an Account Manager in training, as a Deputy Account Manager. Slowly but surely I kept on moving up. There was never a double promotion for me. It was like, make sure you understand each level before you move to the next level, and crazy well enough, both my vice chairman and my chairman will never be involved in the decision making process for any promotion exercise. It will be your direct boss, whoever

the MD is and the HR department, based on the assessment done on you, based on the feedback given by your colleagues, and even clients. That is what they’d use to judge you and to decide whether or not you’re qualified to move to the next level. Believe you me, I wasn’t exempt. So, for me, it’s been over 16 years of constant grinding to get to where I am.

Obviously, there would have been challenges along the way.

I would say the first challenge that I had was a cultural shift. I had been in the diaspora for a very long time without stepping my foot into Nigeria, for about 15 years. I was so used to a certain ways of living and doing things. Then, coming to Nigeria and trying to understand the nuances of working in the country, talking with people, the way we express ourselves, etc, the cultural shift was not funny at all.

For example, if you’re in the UK and a Nigerian person is talking to you, you’d think they are fighting you. But, no, we are just very expressive people. For me, it was a cultural shock at first. Also, abroad, we work freely together regardless of age and status; but here, you see someone who is older than you, we have that culture where you have to respect that person. Those kinds of things, dealing with the nuances of Nigeria, almost night and day, wasn’t funny to me at the time. You know people would always say that if you can survive in Nigeria, everywhere else would be easy for you.

Any other challenges?

Nigeria, compared to the western world, is younger in terms of technological advancement.

But, I see that as a good challenge. Because of the way our culture is, and the way we consume media and information, sometimes what technology does overseas, you’d think it should be applicable here; but we are two totally different people. So, here everybody is always on their phone and doing stuffs, like it is overseas. But it’s different if you go to the North of Nigeria, I remember when I went to Kano for a meeting, and I went to see a family and there was a whole bunch of people just sitting down together and guess what, they were listening to a radio programme. It’s not as if they didn’t have their phones, they had their phones but those are things that we do differently. Here, we are very communal. We sit down, we listen to this or that together. The question then is how do you talk to those people? Definitely, the way you talk to them is quite different from the way you talk to people in the western world.

Again, if you look at our economy, our middle class is very small, our upper class is smaller while our lower class is huge; and even in the lower class, there are different levels.

Therefore, you have to know how you address all of them, which is quite different from the way the western world is. They have a huge middle class, and a very comfortable upper class as well; but their lower class is not as huge as ours. There, you can do something generic and they’ll all understand. As such, understanding those dynamics is key. It was a challenge to me at the beginning, because I used to come up with the loftiest, craziest ideas that wouldn’t fly in this market.

I remember when Insight did for Mirinda the 3-Orange Men advert; it wasn’t about using technology to do this, it was just about these three men, being spotted in different parts of Lagos; and it was creating conversations. Would that work overseas? I don’t know. Even though we also are moving forward, technologically, but as you know, our nuances are very different and I think understanding that very, very quickly was one of the shocks for me.

How were you able to surmount those challenges?

Having the network of people around me and being in an organisation like this, where we’re about 400 staff strong, you’d always have support from different people. I had support from the people I was reporting to and my colleagues back then who are all doing amazing things in different places now. They all helped me to settle in and understand the nuances and the market, the challenges and how to navigate through them.

So far, what would you consider to be the high points and the low points of your career?

Wow! For high points, I will tell you some. A couple of years ago while I was heading Leo Burnett Lagos, we won a Grand Prix for Golden Terra. It was a campaign I was directly involved in. I remember sitting in the client’s office from morning till night, the client was there with us; we were coming up with the scripts, tearing this up and up until we got it right. We did this for days.

You know that when a client allows you to express your creative freedom and the client is also just as bold in terms of what they want to see, the rest is creative magic. And that was the history that led to the Grand Prix. I would say that that was one of my high points. Also, getting to where I am today, if I look back to how I started in Nigeria, yes it’s a high point.

For low points, I think that the COVID period was one. As we all know, the entire world had to adjust; everywhere was shut down but you still had to maintain a living, you still had your bills to be paid. All businesses had to take drastic measures, just to make sure everyone survived; and I think during those months as tough as it was, it was a low point though, but you know, looking back now, that point propelled the world, propelled Nigeria, into a different kind of technological beast like we have right now.

How would you assess the Nigerian marketing communications ecosystem being a part of it for so long, and a major player for that matter?

I like what is coming out of the industry at the moment. I gave an example, a couple of minutes ago, that back then my competitors would be the well-known marketing communications companies.

Today, people are shooting from anywhere and everywhere. If you look at the way James Bond movies used to be, how he used to order his drink, Martini, shaken, not stirred, and stuffs like that. We all used to love it. But, nowadays, even movies have changed. What does he (James Bond) order in the movie now? He orders for an Heineken, because Heineken is part of the franchise now.

Simply speaking, Advertising has so evolved from what it used to be to what it is now.

Looking at what the opportunities are going to be in the future, with the presence of AI and what it’s doing, it’s extremely exciting what the future holds for the industry. There are many new players in the industry who are doing amazing things.

An example is one of my colleagues, who used to be a creative director at Leo Burnett, and he’s gone to set up his own company called Poke Media. His name is Ralph Idu. He’s doing amazing things; and he’s also diversified into content creation. Really, people are doing so many new things now, bringing in tech.

As for us at Publicis, you know we are literally the No. 1 marketing group in the world, as far as market capital goes. And, you’d be surprised that Publicis’s revenue is now split between advertising and technology.

Whereas its revenue used to come mainly from advertising; now, revenue from advertising and, “I’ve been opportune to see the way this industry has progressed. Like I said earlier, back in the days when I used to go to my dad’s office, I used to be with the guys with sketch pads and all they were doing was drawing. It was not like there was one laptop somewhere that they were using. They were hand drawing and creating multiple iterations of every campaign. In most cases, the client would say I want to see three options; and these guys were literally drawing all the options out. Today and in this age, it’s a lot different.” media is shrinking while tech is growing. This is something we are replicating here in Nigeria.

As you may know, we’re developing AI specifics for clients, to help solve marketing challenges, and we are also developing for ourselves to make work easier for everybody. So, a lot of things are changing, and we are actually very excited about the future. I can say, emphatically, that the industry is exciting in Nigeria, today.

How do you see Nigerian Marcom industry competing with the rest of the world?

Honestly, in the way we tell our stories, I always compare the Nigerian market to India. India and Nigeria are the most similar markets and that’s why we also have a lot of Indians here, a lot of Nigerians also go to India.

In terms of culture, even demographic spread, macroeconomic spread, and what have you, we’re very similar. Of course, they’re a little more advanced than us. I look at the way India tells its stories, and what not, I say we’re not far from it, we can actually achieve it.

So it’s we telling our own genuine stories “I like what is coming out of the industry at the moment. I gave an example, a couple of minutes ago, that back then my competitors would be the well-known marketing communications companies like Noah’s Ark, X3M Ideas, SO&U, etc, etc. Today, I don’t look at them as my only direct competitors anymore. This is because the world has changed so much, that this person recording me (at this interview) with an iPhone is a huge competitor now.” and not try to mimic what the western world is doing because we have amazing stories; and I’ll give you one example:

I remember one of the first commercials I shot for Heritage Bank, back in the days. With my creative director, we were looking for how we’d tie heritage into a financial institution for it to make sense. We then said, let’s use the stories of Africa’s heritage; Nigeria’s heritage. We therefore started telling stories of the likes of Shaka the Zulu, the Pharaoh, Queen Amina of Zaria, etc. We unearthed the stories of Africa, the greatness of Nigeria; the story of King Ovonramwen Nogbaisi of Benin.

Sadly, those stories are not being told again.

If we all come together and find ways to tell our stories, the rest of the western world will be looking at us. That’s my own thinking.

Still on the industry, what do you foresee as being the future of the industry?

Oh! The industry is going to change. You know the world went through the industrial world; we’re now in the digital world; and very quickly, the creative world came and merged with the digital world. The creative world and the digital world have merged with artificial intelligence. All this has taken place in a space of just 5 to 6 years. So, the world is moving at a very fast speed right now; even the way we respond to clients, the way we respond to ads or the way we create ads back then compared to now.

Before now, a client would send a brief and you would address it in 20 days; but now we have to move at the speed of digital, and the speed of digital is seconds! So, the industry will continue to evolve. I can’t wait to see what else is going to join AI to take this industry to the next level.

What future do you foresee for your own Group? What should we expect?

Without trying to brag, I want to see us remaining the leader in this industry in Nigeria, West Africa and even grow our presence across Africa. Like I said, we’re exploring a lot of things with AI now, and I think the partnership with Publicis Group is actually helping us unearth a lot of this even a lot faster. As such, we want to be one step ahead of everybody.

My former Group CEO, Dr. Ken Ikpe, used to say: Don’t go to the road travelled by everybody; look for your blue ocean where nobody is going, because that’s where you’re going to create your own path. So it is for us, we want to continue to create paths for people to follow.

How soon should the industry expect to welcome your tech?

Oh! This year. We’ve already started. It was something we started strategising maybe a

year and a half ago; last year, we even started firming it up a little bit more; but as soon as we entered 2025, it’s already ongoing.

Want to talk a bit about it?

No!

Why not?

We’d rather you people see it at the end of the day; and then be like how did you do it?

When are we likely to see it?

Fourth quarter of this year; towards the end of the fourth quarter.

And thank God, we’ll be part of it.

Yes, definitely! MARKETING EDGE would be one of the first people out there to tell our story.

Back to professionalism, which is actually our main focus for this interview, we’ll like you to do a SWOT analysis of that word, “Professionalism” in Nigeria’s IMC today?

Let’s try and do this without stepping on toes. I think the industry has changed a lot. The clients who used to rely on us to be the experts to solve their problems; at a point in time, started poaching our people to work for them. Our (agency) people working for them know all the tricks and limits from ad agencies and and what not. As such, I think that professionalism has somehow been diluted a little bit.

I’m trying to be careful here, because these days, a lot of people are looking for fast and quick ways to success. Like I mentioned in my own story, I joined in 2009, there was no fast way, I had to learn quickly, through hard work for 15 years before I got to where I am.

I wouldn’t call it a Generation Z or Millennials’ problem, but a lot of people are looking for fast routes. It may be that I’m old fashioned, and maybe because I was trained and groomed by somebody who was old school and old fashioned. Some of the nuances of today are hard for me to understand. I’m like, is that really a professional way to go about things? But I will still stick to my old fashionedness. You know that at the end of the day, the old fashioned way still works. It’s like you ask any woman, would you still appreciate it if a man opens the door for you, or give you flowers and stuffs like that. The asnwer, of course, would be Yes.

What then would be your advice for upcoming professionals in the industry?

To the upcoming professionals I’d say, learn as much as you can, open your mind, don’t just stick to one direction, open your mind and look at what’s going on worldwide; but also remember the culture, especially in Nigeria and African markets. I think there are more opportunities that we are not taking advantage of; but we’re looking to the western world to get inspiration from, whereas all the inspiration is here. So, I always tell them let’s try and find a way to tell our story a little bit more and do it with a lot of pride and integrity. That word, integrity, is something that has been drummed into my ears since I was a child. For the new ones coming, there are so many

opportunities for them to take advantage of, leverage technology, etc. You know that they have the agility that someone like me will not have. But even I am learning to be a little bit more agile. You can see the way I dress now,

I dress like them because I have to; I have to know them, and be able to relate with them.

I remember a few years ago before my current CEO started, the way we used to come to work, everybody wore suit. You’d go to

the client’s office in suit. But now, even the client has started evolving, like you guys in advertising. I don’t understand why bankers are still wearing suits; but bankers nowadays also don’t wear ties compulsorily. If I go to Nigerian Breweries today, the marketing director may

be wearing something like I’m wearing as we speak, and Ankara or Adire trousers with a white shirt. I am simply saying that the industry has definitely changed and it’s just for us to embrace it.

How much has the japa syndrome affected the industry and, in the light of all you’ve just said, how can it be curtailed?

Unfortunately, where the industry can proffer a solution is in terms of marketing the excellence and the opportunities of Nigeria; but we need that opportunity from the Federal Government to come to us and say help us do this. The

Japa syndrome is not just in this industry; it’s everywhere. It needs to be confronted from somewhere, which is right from the top. The top has to be accountable to the people; and create a good environment for us to be able to work in. I think that will reduce the japa syndrome.

At Insight Redefini, we create an amazing environment for our people to want to work. It’s such that a lot of the times, even when we’re supposed to close at 5:30pm, people just stay

to hang out. What we have is an open culture, whereby any staff can walk into my office, walk into the Group CEO’s office to sit down with him, just to gist with him or to have a drink. I also do sit down with them to have a drink and stuffs like that. It’s not like, that person is the CEO, there’s no way I can go and talk to him. The fact that I dress and look like them as well idicates to them that I’m approachable. Here, everybody is approachable, everyone is free to talk to anybody. It’s about creating a perfect culture for them not to want to leave.

Mind you, I’m not saying that we will have 100%, success rate in keeping everybody, but in the last two years, our attrition rate has dropped significantly, and I’ll give the kudos for that to my current Group CEO, Dr. Tayo Oyedeji. He created a culture shift which is reminiscent of what Insight was, back in the 80s. We have social gatherings here; on everybody’s birthday, you get a birthday card and you get a shout out email from everyone in the entire Troyka Group because everyone knows it’s your birthday, and this may even make you feel obliged to take care of all the 400 people here! Our culture is very very strong. I think everybody also has to create the environment where especially these young minds who are a lot more curious than I was back then, who are being exposed to a lot more because of the social media, especially YouTube and the like. I think all companies have to create a perfect working environment; but national drive has to start from the very top.

Is there anything the industry could do to make the government look more in its direction and do more with it?

I personally thank God for AAAN. If you look at Steve Babaeko’s tenure and now Lanre Adisa’s tenure, part of what they’ve done, especially in Adisa’s current tenure, is that AAAN is actively engaging the Local, State and Federal Governments to let them know that they need to involve us in telling Nigerian stories; hearing the pains and happiness of Nigerians.

You know a lot of times when you sit on the top of the hill, you don’t hear what’s going on at the bottom. So, AAAN is actually helping us to do that.

For us, at Insight Redefini, because we’ve been around for a long time, it has given us the opportunity, and the leverage or the exposure to Governments at all levels. If you look at

the people back then in the 80s, when this business was started, a lot of them are actually in government offices right now. So, being

in government offices, because they’ve been involved with us one way or the other over the years, and they know of this great institution, they find a way to reach out to us, even if they don’t do so directly. Quite naturally, the legacy that the chairman and vice chairman have created for this industry will always come top of the mind for them. So, they do reach out occasionally.

But I like the fact that the industry as whole is taking that step; to actually start communicating with the federal and state governments.

Finally, what would you like our readers to know about you?

I was going to just say the best is yet to come; but, I’m enjoying being involved in the transformation of this business. I am looking forward to when the industry will get to

see more of me in the transformation of the marketing communication in Nigeria. This is not just from our perspective as a company, but also being more involved in AAAN; and then, giving us even more of an African presence, which I want to be much involved in.

That’s my own vision: they know us, but now they’re really going to know Nigeria and Insight Redefini. I’m trying not to sound

arrogant about things, but the industry is doing fantastically well, and if you look at our business which has lasted over time, it’s been able to transform and is ready for what the future is about to offer.

I am working with my CEO right now and I’m very much involved in what the

transformation of this business is going to be. Hopefully, eventually, I’ll have some time to rest. But, I’m looking forward to what this new generation of people are going to be doing and how I’m going to help impact their lives and contribute to what they look forward to achieving.

And, like I was going to say, the best is yet to come.

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