Practitioners should upskill ahead of Metaverse boom- Jude Odia
By Oghale Mafuru
The rapid evolution of technology is changing the business landscape and the marketing communications hemisphere. The highly volatile environment requires the IMC industry to improve the acquisition of requisite knowledge and skills that will optimise the opportunities in technological penetration.
Jude Odia, Managing Director of Media Perspectives, made this submission during a training program for young IMC professionals where he charged them to develop life-changing skills relevant for the future as core industry skills will become obsolete with increased digital transformation.
He said: “One the greatest problems we have as an industry is what we call depth of knowledge. We do not appreciate human capacity development. We focus on ‘doing’ without knowing that ‘thinking’ is more powerful than ‘doing’. You are consuming the works of people who are thinking. Demand is what drives supply. If there is no demand for the current skill you have, you can’t create value.”
While affirming that upskilling and knowledge will reposition the industry for growth and relevance, Jude Odia said that the value a practitioner brings to the table in terms of skills and knowledge makes him earn the respect of his client.
In his words: “The ability to develop ourselves as practitioners and as an industry is very important. If you meet a medical doctor today, you will meet him in his office. Medical doctors don’t go looking for patients to treat. They sit in their office and patients come. For our industry, we go hopping from one place to the other begging clients. The reason is that we have not put our value on the table.”
According to the IMC expert, the advent of Metaverse should be a wake-up call to practitioners, especially experiential marketers who require physical engagement with brands for marketing. He averred that agencies should start making viable and realistic plans to play in the virtual space.
He said: “Events will no longer be physical events, that is why my colleagues in experiential marketing need to start thinking because the experiences we are talking about now, are not physical. These are virtual. People are paying to buy Nike shirts virtually. Virtual Nike shirts are more expensive than the real shirt now in the US. So, agencies should be thinking of recruiting people who are either developing in these lines or are already in these lines.”
The IMC stalwart stated that Metaverse has enabled brands to have virtual replicas and that agencies must be a step ahead of their clients by understanding the intricacies of that environment.
“We must understand this as practitioners. We must understand the implications and understand it for brands because brands are entities. They are like human beings. Then help our clients navigate. They are no playbook to what is happening now. It is all discovery and rediscovery. If you are one or two steps ahead of your clients then you can lead” he said.
“The thing is that brands will start having virtual replicas. It means you could see a brand on a shelve but it is not real and once you touch it, it means you have purchased it. These things are coming gradually into this place and we must start preparing.” he concluded.
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