Enyi Odigbo wins Innovators Award

Recently an elite group of advertising agency executives and marketing leaders gathered at New York’s Trump Soho Hotel, for the 2011 global Innovators Summit. Organized by The Internationalist Magazine and sponsored by Sky News and Financial Times of London, this year’s summit, the 5^th in the series,  sought to underscore that innovation is alive and well in the global advertising, media and marketing industry. It also celebrated a stellar group of the world’s top agency innovators and breakthrough thinkers from such diverse locations as Singapore, Lagos, Mumbai, Beijing, London, Montreal, Chicago, Miami and Rogers Arkansas.

Africa’s flag was flown by Nigeria’s Enyi Odigbo, one of 30 winners of the Agency Innovator Award, said to clearly demonstrate how innovation can take many forms, and is not limited by geography, age, company size, or one’s position in the organization. Candidates for the award, largely made up of  expansive individuals who think about advertising in new ways, and are today’s breakthrough communicators, champions of multinational strategy and advocates of international brand-building,  were polled from nominations from their local industry and readers of The Internationalist Magazine worldwide. A final selection was made by the Innovators Committee and The Internationalist’s editorial team.

This year’s award spotlighted people from fast-growing markets and from old-world cities. New York and London retained their primacy as homes to a strong contingent of talented individuals; however, Innovators were found in Rogers, Arkansas; Montreal, Canada; Emaar Square in Dubai and Lagos, Nigeria. Plus cities like Mumbai, Shanghai, Chicago and Singapore, considered hot spots for innovation today. They were recognized for helping their clients to better navigate in a digital world; for finding new ways to build solutions for brands; and for leading with new culturally-sensitive initiatives as campaigns cross more borders and more boundaries.

Nigeria’s Enyi Odigbo falls under the latter category, and used the occasion of the Summit to discuss the misconceptions associated with Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest and fastest-growing regions. He also shared how his agency, DDB Lagos, won the South African telecom giant MTN, for the entire African continent, and has continued to champion the company’s communications and strategy well beyond its Nigeria operations.

During a breakout session with a team of The Internationalist editors, Mr. Odigbo said winning the MTN business demonstrated how an agency group that starts with integrated strategic thinking can make all the difference to an international client – even if the agency was based in Lagos Nigeria. According to him, MTN has adopted products and strategies developed in Nigeria by DDB Lagos  and implemented them across markets in West and Southern Africa.

Asked what were some of the biggest challenges in practicing advertising in Nigeria, he highlighted diversity, underdeveloped IT infrastructure and a dearth of manpower. “Few people recognize that Nigeria has 279 languages and nearly as many ethnic tongues…. It is certainly a challenge to plan a truly national campaign…”

Enyi Odigbo is chairman and chief integration officer of Casers Group, one of Nigeria’s leading marketing communications holding companies comprising a number of strong individual firms like DDB Lagos, member of the DDB global network of advertising agencies; Capital Media, one of Africa’s largest independent media buying companies; Magenta Consulting, a digital and branding company, and Fin Lagos, an affiliate of Fin London, specialists in financial industry marketing and Superbrands Nigeria, a global brand rating company. He is a Fellow of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria and former President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN.