A splash of Ankara, a familiar proverb, traditional music or a carefully selected cultural symbol can instantly make an advertisement look Nigerian. Yet, beneath the surface, a more difficult question remains: does the brand itself understand, reflect and serve the culture it is borrowing from?

That question took centre stage at the 2026 EDGE National Marketing Stakeholders’ Summit as Adekoyejo Abiola, Chief Executive Officer of Imaginarium Marketing Communications and Vice President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN, challenged marketers to move cultural authenticity beyond campaign decoration and into the heart of brand and product development.

Abiola spoke as one of the panellists at the virtual summit today, Thursday, September 24, where industry stakeholders examined the theme, “Cultural Authenticity as Currency: Turning Heritage into Modern Branding & Marketing.”

The summit, organised by MARKETING EDGE, also features a second session focused on “The Credibility Mandate: Navigating Trust, Truth and Transience in Marketing Communications,” with discussions designed to examine changing expectations around marketing, trust and brand communication.

Rather than revisit the broader currency analogy established by keynote speaker Steve Babaeko, Abiola approached cultural authenticity from an operational standpoint, focusing on where meaningful insights come from, who is responsible for finding them and how they should shape the work that eventually reaches consumers.

He observed that culture is frequently introduced towards the end of strategy, design or campaign development, creating a situation where cultural elements are added to an idea that was already conceived without them.

For Abiola, the deeper challenge is therefore not simply whether brands use culture, but whether they understand the people, realities and communities behind the cultural expressions they use.

Again, he drew a distinction between heritage and living culture. Heritage, he explained, encompasses the visible and recognisable expressions associated with communities, including clothing, patterns, songs, poetry and other traditional forms. Also, he averred that such elements can easily be reproduced, reused or incorporated into advertising.

“Living culture, by contrast, is found in the everyday realities of people, including how they behave, interact, consume products and experience services within particular locations.”

That distinction, he suggested, is critical for marketers seeking to achieve relevance in a country where cultural experiences can vary significantly from one location to another.

Significantly, he observed that, the social realities of Lagos, for instance, cannot automatically be assumed to mirror those of Abuja, just as consumer expectations and service experiences can differ across regions.

However, beyond the visual appeal of cultural heritage, Abiola also raised questions about recognition, ownership and economic value. He noted that brands invest heavily in cultural aesthetics, from Nigerian jerseys and traditional patterns to other heritage-inspired elements, but marketers must also consider the communities from which those expressions originate and whether their custodians receive appropriate recognition and financial benefit.

He illustrated the importance of deeper cultural understanding with a campaign developed by Imaginarium around the acquisition involving Access Bank and Diamond Bank.

The creative expert said at the beginning, the communication challenge appeared relatively straightforward. Furthermore, he added that, the larger institution had the financial strength, scale and business metrics that could form the basis of a conventional corporate communication strategy.

However, Abiola said the agency recognised that financial figures alone did not address what the transaction meant to people who had a strong relationship with Diamond Bank.

Interestingly, he disclosed that the  agency therefore went into the eastern part of Nigeria to investigate the cultural context surrounding the bank and the potential response to the acquisition.

Therefore, he confirmed that, what emerged was a strong sense of attachment to Diamond Bank among many people in the region. The bank was regarded by some as a familiar institution with strong regional ties, while its founder, legacy and association with business progress also contributed to the emotional connection surrounding the brand.

At the same time, the research revealed concerns about what the acquisition could mean for businesses and individual customers, including apprehension about the possibility of customers moving their accounts elsewhere.

The communication strategy consequently shifted from presenting the development primarily as one institution taking over another to portraying it as the coming together of two established entities.

The campaign was subsequently developed around a marriage narrative, allowing the two brands to communicate the coming together while Diamond Bank retained its own identity and language during the period before the unified brand identity emerged.

The campaign was also adapted to different situations, including communication around the Lagos State Marathon, helping the narrative extend beyond a single announcement into other consumer touchpoints.

Abiola said the cultural understanding of marriage in the eastern context proved particularly useful because marriage was viewed not simply as one side overpowering another, but as the coming together of two established families.

According to him, that insight gave the campaign a cultural foundation that went beyond the visual deployment of traditional symbols. So, for Abiola, the experience demonstrates why cultural intelligence needs to enter the marketing process much earlier.

In addition,he outlined four considerations that marketers should build into campaign planning if they want cultural authenticity to have substance. The first, he said, is the product itself.

Culture, in his view, should not exist only in advertising, but  should also be evident in the product or service being offered to consumers.

Also, he noted that a  campaign can contain extensive cultural references, but if the product has no meaningful cultural connection to the locality or consumers it seeks to serve, the communication can become disconnected from reality.

The second consideration is the proper recognition of insights within the planning process.

Abiola argued that insights should be accounted for before campaign briefing and communication development, rather than being treated as an incidental discovery along the way.

He also called for people with genuine knowledge of the relevant culture to have a place in the room when important communication decisions are being made.

For him, cultural nuance cannot always be acquired from a distance. Marketers need to enter the markets where their products are used, observed, tested and considered, allowing them to understand what consumers actually experience.

Moreover, he said that direct exposure,  can then inform communication that reflects real consumer behaviour rather than assumptions created from outside the market.

Beyond that, he added that, the fourth consideration is time spent in the market. Against that background, he mentioned that, although technology has transformed the way agencies gather information and communicate with audiences, Abiola maintained that digital tools cannot completely substitute for experiencing a market and its cultural environment directly.

He pointed to regional differences in communication, noting that a campaign for alcohol brands in the eastern part of Nigeria may require a different cultural approach from one targeted at consumers in the Southwest.

When such distinctions are overlooked and campaigns are developed entirely from an office, he warned, marketers risk missing important nuances.

In essence, the AAAN VP stressed that these considerations may appear straightforward, but embedding them into everyday marketing practice requires discipline and repetition.

More importantly, he argued that the process should begin at the planning, initiation and ideation stages rather than when a campaign is already approaching execution.

When that happens, cultural understanding can influence not only advertising but also products, product development and service design. His presentation consequently shifted the conversation from simply making advertising look culturally familiar to understanding how culture can inform the decisions that happen before the advertising itself is created.

As the 2026 EDGE National Marketing Stakeholders’ Summit brings practitioners together around cultural authenticity, trust and credibility, the discussion reinforces a growing industry question: whether brands will continue to use culture mainly as an expression in communication or begin treating cultural understanding as part of the substance of what they build and offer to consumers.