John Ajayi attains another milestone

It is another great and special landmark for the Publisher of MARKETING EDGE MAGAZINE, Mr. John Ajayi, as he attains his 52^nd birthday today.

The visionary and a highly focused journalist, communicator and businessman was born on June 12, 1963 in Ijan-Ekiti town, Ekiti State, South west Nigeria. He graduated from the prestigious University of Lagos with a degree in English Language. In his quest for more knowledge and to prepare for future endeavours, he obtained a postgraduate diploma in Journalism and later Master’s degree in Political Science, all from the same university.

A consummate professional, Ajayi worked with prominent media firms in Nigeria particularly the print media, distinguishing himself as a sought after journalist, covering the wide spectrum of business news and briefly the political desk at The News magazine and Thisday newspaper amongst others.

Renowned as an investigate journalist, Ajayi is known for delivering breaking news and top exclusives that have positively lifted the profession. In his drive to move beyond the established mark and do something extraordinaire, Mr. Ajayi took a very bold and surprising decision in 2003 that stunned industry watchers and even his family, he left his appointment at Thisday and established Marketing Edge.

The focused publication’s objective as moulded by Ajayi was simply “building the brand idea”, affording practitioners in the integrated communications sector (IMC) the opportunity to embrace and identify with a publication that solely deals with the industry happenings.

Twelve years down the line, the Fellow of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, FNIMN, has truly developed the publication as a likable brand and is reputed as the authoritative source of news, events, and happenings in the IMC sector. Ajayi has led his team to achieve historical and remarkable feats in the industry including the annual National Marketing Stakeholders Summit, an event which attracts top personalities to dialogue issues in the industry as well as the Brands & Advertising Excellence Awards which honours outstanding individuals and corporate organisations for their brilliance.

Speaking on attaining a new age, Ajayi said that he is grateful to God for granting him the grace to be part of humanity and to him, his special day is reminiscent of every other day he lives on earth.

In his words, “For me, first and foremost, I want to give God the glory for His mercy and grace, so it’s just like every other day to me.

“For me, it is another opportunity to give God the glory for making someone to be part of humanity and I will always do everything that will promote humanity”, he disclosed.

On the relevance and positioning of the publication which he berthed in 2003, Ajayi said, “This vision remains very great, as great as the water lily by the river bank. The vision remains crystal clear, undiluted and unpolluted and that is to continue to promote the brand idea.

“The Marketing Edge idea which we used to say is the cutting edge of business has been that to promote businesses generally. We’ve set a standard in the industry; we have set a benchmark, showing the way business is done.

“Looking back today, the magazine has achieved 70-75 per cent of its set-out objective. We have become an industry leader and we’ve gotten the weight, we’re renowned. We came into this industry 12 years ago to be a long distance runner. Looking back, 12 years down the line, it looks like a race we started yesterday”, Mr Ajayi concluded.