Nigerian brands are significantly underutilizing strategic sponsorship opportunities compared to their international counterparts, a situation that is stifling ecosystem growth and limiting valuable returns.

Adeyinka Agunloye, Senior Business Director at Connect Marketing Services, made this observation during an exclusive interview with MARKETING EDGE in Lagos.

Agunloye criticized the prevailing culture of isolation among Nigerian companies, explaining that the lack of collaboration and co-creation continues to hinder the development of stronger and more impactful initiatives.

“I think that Nigerian brands are not leveraging as much as [they] should be as compared to our counterparts probably in other African countries, Europe and America. I think that brands should be leveraging a lot on sponsorship. There have been opportunities for brands to build co-creates, right? But that’s not actually happening. Brands are actually working in isolations, which collaboration would have helped in building a stronger ecosystem for all the brands.”

The Power of Direct Visibility

The business director highlighted a clear contrast between the few dominant players, whom he said are mainly big telecom and technology brands, that can afford major sponsorships, particularly in popular spaces like football, and the smaller brands across FMCG and niche tech sectors that continue to miss out on targeted opportunities.

Using football as an example, he described the immense and measurable visibility that sponsorship offers. “You have over 100,000 people watching a match in a stadium.

It means that you have visibility, direct visibility to 100,000 people,” he noted. Beyond the stadium, he added, “over a million people are watching the match,” which gives sponsors extensive exposure and direct visibility.

He further pointed out that this engagement often runs deep. “I can tell you that if you ask a very strong fan of any of these football club who sponsors their club, they can clearly tell you. So it means that there’s space in sponsorship,” he emphasized.

Connect Marketing Driving Strategic Sponsorships

He explained that Connect Marketing Services has been instrumental in helping brands navigate this dynamic space by developing tailored sponsorship strategies across football, tennis, swimming, and other sports. “We understand sponsorship and how to help brands thrive in it. We assess the content, audience, and value proposition before execution to ensure measurable results,” he said.

ROI and the Need for Strategic Leverage

The core challenge, according to Agunloye, lies in the perceived difficulty of measuring return on investment (ROI). “Brands are actually really not leveraging because they have not been able to create opportunities for return on investment. So I think that that’s one of the challenges that the brands are currently facing. It’s not been measurable,” he explained.

To address this, he emphasized that effective sponsorship extends beyond simply signing a deal. The real value lies in the leveraging plan and thorough due diligence. “It goes beyond just sponsoring a particular organization or event or activity. What is the plan to actually leverage that sponsorship?”

First, critical for us within Connect Marketing is to look at what the sponsorship entails. We look at what the past records of that activity is and we also look at what the types of people that have come for that event last year? What are the things that we now need to create based on the audience that you’re looking at?”

Beyond Influencers: Multi-Asset Reach

The experiential marketing expert also shared his perspective on the growing trend of influencer marketing, acknowledging its relevance while underscoring its limitations compared to holistic sponsorship.

“Influencer can always and only just push beyond what their reach is and it is within a niche space, which is on social media. That is what the influencer marketing site would be able to get for you.  But when we are speaking about sponsorship,  you’re talking different assets from radio to TV to social media and the likes of that, so it gives more reach and you get more value or return on investment.”

Content, Ethics, and Co-Creation

Finally, Agunloye addressed the importance of content alignment and ethics in sponsorship decisions, emphasizing that brands must consider compatibility when choosing sponsorship platforms.

He illustrated this with an example: “Let’s say I am a technology brand which is against the movement of cash, and you are asking me to sponsor an event where people are going to be using cash in payment. It’s already against my own ethics, and I don’t think that I’ll be able to sponsor that.”

He concluded by calling for co-creation among brands, urging them to work together, align their values, and leverage shared opportunities to create mutual value in the sponsorship ecosystem.