Udeme Ufot: Advertising Icon at 60
At 60, Udeme Ufot stands tall as one of the icons of the Nigerian advertising industry. He belongs to a generation of pioneers and pathfinders, responsible for some of the great moments in Nigerian advertising history, and whose exploits have provided the lever for what the industry has become.
One of the major ingredients of Udeme Ufot’s success in advertising has been his love for the profession. That love bug stung him in the mid-seventies when he stumbled on a journal on advertising and marketing in his father’s library. While studying the journal, he came across the illustration of an impressive looking fellow, and the caption under that illustration read: “A Trendy Art Director”. Immediately, Udeme fell in love with the art director and his work and began dreaming and working towards becoming one someday.
“When I sat back and analysed myself, I saw that I had the relevant skills. That’s why I always tell people that it is easier to succeed when you’re doing what you enjoy doing,” Mr. Ufot said in an earlier interview.
As soon as he completed his first degree at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he studied Industrial Design, young Udeme could not wait to get his hands on an advertising job. That opportunity came with Desmark Advertising, Calabar. Desmark was a good experience in terms of providing the basics for advertising, but Calabar was far from the real ‘theatre’ of Nigerian advertising. That title belongs to Lagos, the economic nerve centre of Nigeria and the home base to the country’s biggest agencies.
Mr. Ufot, didn’t just relocate to Lagos, he got a job at Insight Communications, which was and still is one of the leading advertising agencies in Nigeria. It was while at Insight that Udeme’s talent was properly horned and situated for exploits. He found fame and success at the agency and within a short period of five years, he had risen to become Deputy Creative Director.
But Ufot wanted more! His achievements at Insight gave him the confidence to explore deeper and persuaded him to experiment with establishing his own agency. Along with other like minds – Gbemi Sagay and Julia Oku – Udeme Ufot set out in 1990 to establish what is now known as SO&U.
But the road to success was full of pot-holes. “Getting started was not easy. We had a bunch of very green, naïve young people. We used to be among the backroom guys who got things done in the advertising industry. I have a creative background, Sagay was an art director and Oku was a copywriter. So, in the first instance, setting out to establish such business was an anomaly in the industry. This made people laugh at us. But what have seen us through are resilience, determination and focus. We said to ourselves that we would go by a very simple strategy – nobody can deny seeing a good thing when he or she has seen it. What was important to us was to ensure that we very quickly made a mark in our calling”, Udeme reveals.
The determination to be outstanding and passion for advertising saw Udeme and his friends through. And within two years, SO&U was already established as a force to be reckoned with. These trios have gone on to harness the incredibly talented human resource around them, building SO&U Group into a world class organisation.
At the height of its success SO&U was courted by Saatchi & Saatchi. The relationship lasted until a few years ago.
The agency has over the years been identified with some of the most iconic advertising works of the last three decades. Some of those works are still a reference point for practitioners, even till date. One of them is Guinness’ My Friend, Udeme advert, which is one of the most popular adverts of the last decade.
Another one is Mama na Boy. Launched in 2014, it was considered a ‘creative disruption,’ because it was a departure from what was going as advertisement at the time.
It is also imperative to note that SO&U wrote GTB’s payoff “wouldn’t you rather bank with us” which the bank has not replaced till date, almost three decades after!
At a personal level, Udeme has achieved all that could possibly be achieved in an industry which he has bestridden like a colossus. He is a past President of the then Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria AAPN, now Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN).
Udeme served on the media sub-committee of the Celebration Planning Committee for Nigeria’s 40th Independence Anniversary in 2000, managing publicity for the committee. He distinguished himself so well that he was invited by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) to serve as chairman of its media sub-committee for three summits. And, in 2009, for the 12th edition of the annual event, he was made co-chairman of the main organising committee.
The icing on the cake for Udeme’s personal professional achievement was his appointment as chairman of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), by former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, in March, 2015. It was an appointment many saw as a befitting and the ultimate reward for an individual who has given so much to the development of the industry.
Before then, in 2014, he had received the national honour of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR).
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