We Are A Big Employer Of Labour- Tade Adekunle Project Consultant, Keskese Limited

What is your cutting edge and values, at Keskese?

We think fresh and strive to bring news ideas to our concept generation. We do not follow routine nor assume, we are guided by research in coming up with fresh and innovative ideas that will endear our clients’ products or services to the consumers. This is our cutting edge and beyond that create that interaction between the brand and the consumer. The value will bring to bear is for concept that we generate to resonate and create that bonding between the client and the consumer.

Thereby creating an experience and immediate discourse, that discussion, that interaction between brands and the consumers. And in keskese, when we talk about our core values, we talk of freshness, we talk of ideas, we talk of innovation. So that it is not a routine, everything becomes fresh. We bring freshness, we bring new focus, we bring new ideas, we bring new direction, that is another dimension entirely.

Do you think there is enough funding for experiential marketers to actually do the best?

One can’t really determine the budget plan any company will allocate for experiential marketing. The only thing I can say is that, various brands and companies know what they want. They know their needs, they know what they intend to do in the whole year or quarter, and they know there is need to connect the brand with the consumers out there beyond the usual routine media of press or electronics they want to connect with their brands. So basically, it’s for them to see to it that, budgets are available for them to achieve the target for the year.

But do companies really engage so much in experiential marketing?

Of course, most companies right now, do it and they can easily see the result. It has a major effect, because it can easily be measured. This is because you are talking specifically, you are interacting directly with that brand, and you are experiencing the brand first hand, not what somebody is saying to you.

You are there, be it a service, be it a product, you know how it, you can experience it. That is why you will see that most brands are devoting substantial amount of money to brand activation and experiential marketing. It gives a greater opportunity for consumers to feel the brands or for brands to really be in the face of consumers.

It will continue to be like that, however, like I said, I am not at the other side, that is, the client side to say, the budget they are allocating is either too much or too big, or too small. They all know what is at stake, competition and consumer needs, and they are professionals in their own right to know that this is what they intend to achieve in the course of the year and therefore make enough financial provision for it.

Can you give a candid assessment of the experiential marketing industry in Nigeria?

I will just talk in general, not make any policy statement about Experiential Marketing Agencies of Nigeria (EXMAN) because I am not in that position to do that. I believe sincerely the individual companies have come a long way. There is the need for us as an association to form a formidable force, just for us to be speaking as professionals.

That is the basic reason why we are coming together, to be able to share ideas together, to be able to say, this industry, we can do it better, irrespective of whether we are competing with each other. We need to be professional about it. We need to be able to know what is right from what is wrong. That is why, first thing that EXMAN launched in the first few months of its birth, was the code of conduct.

The code of conduct that guides the rules and regulations of the association, code of conduct that even guides our relationship while working out there, with either client and consumers, and the government . It gives us a sort of an over view of what is expected of a professional company while executing a project be it experiential or activation.

The Code of Conducts also highlighted different platforms and what should apply while working on different products or services. Beyond that, EXMAN is also giving the issue of training priority. Retraining ourselves, retraining our colleagues from across board and the numerous supervisors and promoters we use for clients activations.

What are your best moments in the last five years?

The Cadbury project for an example was memorable. They gave us a brief. There was a challenge in the eastern region. It was a sensitive brief that getting it wrong could mar our relationship. To the glory of God, client accepted our idea and direction and the rest is history. A market whereby client market share was below 5% before is now above 40%. The Season of Surprises with MTN is also a big success.

What are your challenges and how do you think the government can help the industry?

Basically it is to create a conducive environment for business to strive and survive, especially as regards power. And then part of it also, in our kind of industry specifically, is the issue of multiple taxation, across states, local government, markets, motor parks etc Even in the office, all kinds of demand in form of taxes that you will wonder what is the benefit to you, your organisation or the general public. The government needs to take a look at this tax issue because if you look at experiential marketing agencies in Nigeria, the number of people we employ directly and indirectly are huge.

What are your projections for Keskese in the next five years?

Our projection for Keskese in the next five years, is to continue to grow our clientele base.
We will continue to generate new ideas. When we started this company, we were very clear in our minds that we are not just going to be managing or pitching for businesses, we are going to create marketing properties of our own and right now, we have five.

In actual fact, we set a target that in 2018, we want to have 20 marketing properties that we would be proud of. At least some company that created those marketing properties from Europe or America, they started one day, but we have started too and right now we have five within four years, so it’s something that we continue to create and generate.

Further, we intend to spread to some other countries in the next five years carrying out the job of experiential marketing and brand activation. We have just won a pitch for MTN Benin Republic, it was an international pitch, and therefore we intend to be in key African countries in the next five years.

Source :marketingworldmag