mediaReach OMD has once again positioned itself at the centre of Nigeria’s marketing and business intelligence conversation with the successful hosting of TopTrends 2026, an industry forum that brought together senior business leaders, marketers and decision makers to interrogate the forces shaping growth in the year ahead.

The hybrid forum, which held on January 29, 2026,  combined physical participation in Lagos with virtual attendance via Zoom, reinforcing its growing reputation as a meeting point for ideas, insight and forward planning across the integrated marketing communications ecosystem.

Now in its fifth year, TopTrends has steadily evolved from a thought leadership initiative into a reference platform for navigating shifts in consumer behaviour, media fragmentation, technology adoption and economic uncertainty across Nigeria and beyond.

A Platform That Has Become an Industry Tradition

Since its launch in 2022, TopTrends has consistently delivered practical intelligence designed to help organisations stay ahead of change.

Over the years, it has drawn C suite executives, senior marketers, business strategists and agency leaders, gradually cementing its place as an annual industry tradition.

The 2026 edition continued that trajectory, offering participants a data informed lens into how brands can compete more intelligently in an increasingly complex marketplace where consumer expectations, technology and culture intersect at speed.

The forum was delivered through strategic collaboration with Lagos Business School, the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN) and GeoPoll, with additional support from ARCON, Alpha & Jam, Tolaram Group, Light Inc, and powered by What Media Group.

TopTrends as a Movement, Not Just a Conference

According to Stephen Onaivi, Managing Director of mediaReach OMD, the ambition behind TopTrends goes far beyond hosting an annual conference.

He explained that the platform functions as a movement that challenges businesses to rethink how they respond to uncertainty, intensifying competition and changing growth models.

He noted that the forum is designed to bring together leaders and innovators who are ready to convert insight into strategic advantage, describing the experience as transformative rather than transactional.

Onaivi added that as markets become more volatile and consumer behaviour more fluid, organisations that win will be those that understand signals early and act decisively on them.

Keynote Focus: Using Insight to Disrupt Marketing in 2026

The keynote address was delivered by Juliet Ehimuan, Founder of Beyond Limits Africa, who spoke on the theme “Insight Driven Decisions to Disrupt the Marketing Industry in 2026.”

Drawing from decades of experience across technology, digital transformation and leadership, Ehimuan framed disruption not as novelty, but as the disciplined ability to read signals, extract meaning and move ahead of the market.

The business growth and innovation expert pointed to influencer marketing as a modern expression of an age old truth: people place the highest value on recommendations from sources they trust.

According to the technology enabled marketing and growth thinker, communities, shared experiences and trusted voices have always shaped decision making, long before digital platforms gave them scale.

Why Mobile First Is No Longer Optional

The technology policy and innovation advocate also revisited the evolution of mobile first thinking, recalling the early push for mobile optimisation during her time leading Google in Nigeria.

The former Google Nigeria chief explained that the signals pointing to mobile dominance had been clear for decades, driven by the telecommunications revolution and reinforced by how people transact, communicate and consume today.

She described Nigeria as a mobile first market, noting that for many consumers it is effectively a mobile only market. In that context, she stressed that brands that fail to design products, content and experiences for mobile reality risk disconnecting from their audience entirely.

From Data Overload to Actionable Insight

A central pillar of the keynote focused on the explosion of data and the danger of mistaking access for advantage.

Ehimuan noted that 90 percent of the world’s data has been created in the last two years, driven by transactions, mobile activity, social platforms and connected devices.

However, she cautioned that data on its own does not create value. According to her, real differentiation begins when organisations apply context to data, convert information into knowledge and then distil that knowledge into insights that can guide decision making.

The founder of Beyond Limits Africa warned that many organisations are overwhelmed by dashboards and reports without clarity on what actions those numbers should drive.

How AI Is Changing the Rules of Competition

The veteran of Africa’s technology and digital economy highlighted artificial intelligence as a critical enabler in the shift from data accumulation to insight generation.

As a leading voice in Africa’s digital and innovation ecosystem, she explained that AI systems now allow organisations to move beyond basic questions about who their customers are, towards deeper questions around why behaviour is changing, how value is being redefined and where unmet needs are emerging.

The technology and business leader argued that brands that fail to adopt AI driven insight generation will be outperformed by competitors who do, echoing the widely cited view that while AI may not replace people, people who use AI will outperform those who do not.

First Party Data as a Strategic Advantage

One of the strongest messages from the keynote centred on the growing importance of first party data. While access to third party insights has become more democratised, the digital transformation strategist stressed that the true competitive edge lies in how organisations analyse their own customer data.

She explained that advances in AI now make it possible to extract deep intelligence from CRM systems, transaction histories and consumer touchpoints, enabling brands to identify patterns and opportunities that competitors cannot see.

According to her, organisations that layer these insights on top of broader market and competitive analysis position themselves for sustained differentiation.

Hyper Localisation at Scale

Speaking from decades of experience across technology and business, the seasoned technology executive with deep market experience also addressed the power of AI driven hyper localisation, noting that technology has significantly reduced the cost and time required to personalise campaigns by geography, language and culture.

She pointed to examples such as Netflix, which uses behavioural insights and geo-targeting to tailor recommendations, localise content and invest confidently in original productions based on audience demand across different markets.

She added that in Nigeria, cultural signals such as music, film, football and language provide powerful entry points for building relevance when brands apply insights thoughtfully.

Predictive Insight and the Informal Economy

In addressing economic volatility, Ehimuan highlighted predictive analytics as a tool for navigating uncertainty. She explained that AI platforms now enable organisations to anticipate shifts in inflation, consumer spending and market dynamics within seconds, allowing for more agile planning.

She also drew attention to the opportunity within Nigeria’s vast informal economy, noting that technology, fintech adoption and mobile usage are gradually creating data trails that can be analysed to unlock growth opportunities previously hidden from formal systems.

Examples cited included language trends, seasonality, micro pricing strategies, cultural affinity marketing and purchasing patterns such as sachetisation, all of which have already shaped successful campaigns across telecoms, financial services, mobility and retail.

Leadership and Integration as the New Imperative

In concluding her address, Ehimuan emphasised that insight driven marketing requires strong leadership signals and deeper integration across organisations.

She noted that marketing, data, finance and technology teams must work together, with insights placed at the centre of strategy rather than treated as an afterthought.

The renowned tech enthusiast  challenged leaders to focus less on activity and more on outcomes, arguing that in a level playing field where information is widely available, advantage comes from interpretation, speed and execution.

According to her, the future of marketing belongs to organisations that can learn faster, adapt quicker and turn insight into action ahead of the market.