Our summit is about providing compass for brand builders, says Ajayi

The Lead consultant of Marketing Edge Magazine and Media Edge, a Public Relations outfit, Mr. John Ajayi has said that its 2016 national marketing summit is aimed at encouraging brand owners to find their compass in brand building especially in the digital age.

This no doubt formed the choice of the theme, ‘Positioning brands in a Digital age; Challenges In the developing Market’. He noted that the world is becoming digitalized and as a result, brands are moving up to new level of interactions with the consumers using the social media.

“The conventional media has given way to a new social order through the revolution of the new media. In the past, ten newspapers could reach a population that would look important to the average brand owners, but today a single social media platform could reach more than 200% audience that 15 newspapers can reach.

“In other words, the consumer is at advantage to access messages almost at regular intervals. Based on this, it calls for real action on the part of brand owners to see the significance of digital platforms to optimize their visibility and boost the profitability of their business. Therefore, brand owners cannot afford to be lethargic or depend on the old ways of interacting with the consumers. In fact, the new thinking about the consumer is that there has been a paradigm shift in the communication of marketing business. This paradigm shift now comes in form of interaction. The digital age has thrown up a lot of dynamics which brand owners need to be aware of so that it can help them in a number of ways to achieve profitability both in the short and the long term.”

The target audience for the conference, he disclosed are stakeholders in the brand management business; advertisers, agency owners, and the entire gamut of practitioners in the integrated marketing communications including students.

Since this is the fifth edition, what feedback has he got from past editions? He said the feedback has been wonderful because at the end of every summit, a communiqué is issued which serves as a reference point to brand owners and other relevant stakeholders.

“And when they see it, it guides them in their projection and planning. We are happy because the industry has shown acceptance of our initiative. It is more or less a CSR initiative.

“Of course, we are aware that both the micro and macro-economic situation in the country is very challenging, but we cannot shy away from thought leadership project. As a leader in the industry, we are looked upon to provide the right compass by initiating exciting conversation that will take the industry to the desired height.”

“This is about the fifth edition of the MARKETING EDGE national marketing summit and excellence awards. We introduced the idea five years ago as a way of promoting industry conversation on contemporary industry issues with the aim of serving the interest of brands and brand owners. MARKETING EDGE, being a leading marketing magazine, has onerous task of promoting the brand idea. This, we have consistently done through the publication of MARKETING EDGE, in the last 13 years.”

Ajayi maintained that the whole idea behind the summit is to expand the frontiers of marketing knowledge. “After publishing this magazine for some years now, we have now taken a step further by generating discourse to ensure that we provide robust knowledge for the people involved in the management of brand business and the business of brand management.”

Providing insight on the award categories, he said the most interesting aspect this year is that different generations of practitioners in marketing and advertising business would be rewarded.

“We are recognizing the icons; the first and second generation practitioners. One of them is Mr. Ayo Awoborode, one of the brains behind the formation of APCON, a very renowned advertising practitioner.

“We are also rewarding the former creative director of Lowe Lintas, Mr. Ted Mukoro. He is quite an old man now and was known to have created the most creative concepts in the industry that had helped to push some alcoholic brands to stardom in the Nigerian market.”

He also disclosed that former Managing Director of Lowe Lintas and founder of ZUUS Bureau, Mr. Chris Awusa Doghuje, Publisher of Ad news and former Chairman of APCON is not left out. “He has contributed immensely to the industry by producing different generations of advertising practitioners. All these personalities are to be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.