CEO BBDO West Africa Quits, Keeps mum on Next Move

Managing Director of BBDO West Africa, Mr. Demola Olusunmade has called it quits with his former employers and his exalted position. He resigned his top job precisely a month ago. However, he gave two months notice to his employers while putting in his resignation letter.

Cornered over the rationale for his latest action despite the fact that he pioneered the BBDO West Africa in Nigeria, the advertising top gun hinted that the decision was personal.

Probed further, Olusunmade hinted that he is parting ways with the agency with a view to pursuing his own personal endeavours. He however refused to disclose further details about his next move. Authoritative industry sources however confided in MARKETING EDGE that the suave adman is poised to float his own shop soon.

An allusion to this parting of ways was tactically made last week in an interview chat with MARKETING EDGE team by the Chairman of Casers Group, Mr. Eyinnaya Odigbo, when answering questions on how he has over the years handled challenges of best hands leaving his business.

He said” best hands can always take their leave, not because of any quarrel or misgivings, but because they also want to pursue their personal goals, which nobody can stop.

“However, the way we cope with this type of challenge is that we always ensure we provide the best working environment, best reward system in the industry. And above all, we make our business and work place the best around in line with global standards”.

Speaking further, he said that the circumstance of one employee leaving our business for elsewhere also provides us with needed impetus to inject fresh talents and vibrancy into our business. If you leave us, no matter how good you are, we make sure we replace you with an equally good hand,” Odigbo said.

Olusunmade, whose resignation finally takes effect by end of the month, joined the Casers group in 2006 as the pioneer Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of Capital Media/Space, one of Nigeria’s largest media independent agencies. He was later made one of the Divisional Managing Directors with DDB Lagos.

In March 2012, when BBDO World Wide spread its tentacles to West Africa, he was made CEO of the agency. As the MD of BBDO West Africa, Olusunmade oversaw the agency’s operations in West Africa from its high brow office in Ikeja GRA.

Before he fully settled down as CEO of BBDO West Africa, Olusumade had work attachment with BBDO network agencies in Singapore and the Netherlands. He also attended BBDO regional leaders’ conference in Istanbul Turkey. He has been part of the recent major acquisition deal by Casers group.

In his brief stint as the CEO of the international affiliate agency, he has carried out outstanding assignments for the international affiliation, one of which resulted in BBDO West Africa’s warehousing of the Guinness advertising brief in Nigeria.

The soft spoken adman and his team have been quietly working on warehousing other multinational accounts in the kitty of BBDO at the metropole some of the multinational accounts in the portfolio of BBDO global include: Volkswagen, Samsung, Pepsi, ExxonMobil, Lloyd Electric & Engineering, Toshiba, Mercedes-Benz, Esso LPG and George Weston Food. The agency currently handles Chicken Republic, Visa, Snickers, Evan, Novartis and Wrigley.

Olusunmade started his career as a marketing executive in Cadbury in 1997. He worked there for about five years, rising to become a Brand Manager.He then started his sojourn with the agencies from MediaReach OMD as Director of Buying, he also at a point worked as Director, Research and Innovation.

BBDO West Africa is a member of the Casers group, founded by Enyinnaya Odigbo and an affiliate of BBDO Worldwide.