Ized Uanikhehi is the CEO of Loose Media Limited, an experiential 360° marketing, and technology company agency in Lagos, Nigeria.
With over 13 years of experience, Ized has led and served variously as Director of Marketing, PR, and growth at Metro Africa Xpress (MAX), Social producer at CNN Africa bureau, and Head of digital at Indigo Arya. She has worked for and with multi-billion naira brands, international and local, developing and working on a number of creative digital and offline marketing strategies to propel their brands forward. In 2019 she co-founded TORA Africa, to recruit, train, verify vehicle drivers for businesses. TORA was short-lived, as government policy changes and the pandemic effectively upended the TORA business model and market.
In this interview, Ized shares her thoughts about the digital revolution in marketing, and why marketing professionals need to embrace both the tools and leverage professional networks to grow. Here’s the full interview with Ized
BB BUZZ: Everyone talks about how COVID-19 changed something or extended something. In advertising and communications, what is the pandemic’s lasting impact? Is there a widespread new ordinary for entrepreneurs?
Ized: Digital transformation is the brand new normal, Digital transformation is the usage of generation in all aspects of your commercial enterprise accordingly converting the manner the enterprise is administered, whether it is advertising or operations, this calls for a lifestyle shift and this is the gift the pandemic has given us, multiplied virtual transformation and this is the brand new normal.
BB BUZZ: One final query. After your “stumble upon with Binomo funding men” have you ever met comparable attempts? And how did you spend the “flipped cash?”
Ized: LOOOOL, I have no concept what you are talking approximately oh, BBbuzz, you men want them to conquer me in this Obasanjo’s internet. It became a one-time occasion, numerous human beings didn’t agree with it till I showed them the chats and alert, technically it turned into my cash, no longer flipped coins, those men have been cost-driven and delivered on promised KPIs. I am nonetheless grateful, LOOOL. It has been a while although I can't recall how I spent the cash.
BB BUZZ: Ized, you’ve had the opportunity to work in one of a kind roles with different groups and exclusive settings. Which role changed into your most tough experience?
Ized: Every function has its personal units of challenges, to be very sincere, I am now not certain now which one became most difficult because, at each point in each position, each venture seemed like lots. But if I had to select, I might clearly choose being CMO of TORA, the casual quarter is a royal mess though, the challenges were new to me and special from what you will discover in a ordinary corporate surroundings and it didn’t count how plenty you prepared after which fixed it, possibilities are the next day came with a completely special set of demanding situations, I still get panic assaults considering continuously dealing with Okada men.
BB BUZZ: What does it suggest to be a values-driven marketer?
Ized: To be a value-driven marketer means which you have a fixed of values which are definitely vital to you specially in how you supply for your task, a number of that is ensuring which you give significant cost to clients, as agreed with them, above and beyond in some instances, it method that it's far critical to you to make sure the clients’ pride, make your customers’ money, save their time and for that reason make them unswerving ambassadors of your logo.
BB BUZZ: You’re a large evangelist for networking and you’ve defined it as “critical”. Is the advertising and marketing enterprise doing sufficient sharing and networking?
Ized: No, the advertising and marketing enterprise isn't doing almost enough networking, however the reality is it maintains getting better with each passing length, so that’s a very good issue, we may not be doing as right as we have to be doing however we're clearly improving inside the networking efforts with each passing yr. Communities like DigiClan are making this an clean-to-do issue and I am actually excited and happy about that.
BB BUZZ: When or wherein have to a line be drawn in “networking” within the advertising and communications area? When need to entrepreneurs preserve their cards close, or is it unnecessary?
Ized: I don’t think it's miles vital to “tight some thing to your chest,” sure, being a sole (or one of the very few) expert(s) at a positive role offers you leverage due to the fact you're the only every is going to for that venture ensuring which you are making extra cash however the fact is there might be other things or talents you don’t have however that can help you force cost in your customers and you need different people with those competencies to assist give that fee. Any way you take a look at it, Networking is and will always be necessary.
BB BUZZ: Marketing, specifically virtual marketing has attracted a whole lot of interest and is being disrupted each day with new advertising tech tools. What are your mind about this?
Ized: Digital transformation is getting vital, advertising shouldn’t be as manual as it presently is, in particular in Nigeria and those tech gear are a welcome development, I assume that the fear for maximum humans is that those tech equipment will replace their jobs and their roles will now not be wanted, however those equipment have without a doubt opened the marketplace extra and those gear require skills and strategy to be applied, advertising becomes very cost-pushed, and statistics-driven, and less complicated to reap with these gear but that still method that there is a need to constantly stay knowledgeable and abreast such that you continue to be relevant.
BB BUZZ: You’re our first function on CMO Digest, and we’ll like to set the tone and in all likelihood make this first question a subculture. So, how did you get your job?
Ized: I love the query! But I can simplest provide you with the summarised model due to the fact it's miles a simply lengthy story- It all commenced after I went to pitch for every other project for any other organisation I had co-based that was death out and I became seeking a lifeline, I didn’t get the lifeline however I discern that I made a good impression because it then became a conversation that brought about multiple different conversations that brought about me being CEO/CMO of Loose Media.
BB BUZZ: I recognize you studied Biochemistry, but right here you're, killing advertising. I also realize you get this query plenty, so right here’s the twist. Why didn’t pursue a career in Biochemistry?
Ized: The honest to God cause? I was by no means going to simply pursue a profession in Biochemistry inside the first area, I wanted to study Medicine, I were given admission to take a look at Biochemistry as an alternative, so I figured- finish biochemistry after which move returned to look at remedy, so I surpassed my guides very well and got the admission to look at Medicine but then I met a boy and fell in love and started to rethink the entire medication component. LOL, I commenced to invite myself whether or not, at my age, I certainly had to study medicine additionally then I had already gotten bitten through the Marketing worm, and anyone used to mention I become this kind of terrific sales-man or woman / marketer, so it felt just like the course to pursue. I simply started with conventional marketing and developed to Digital.
BB BUZZ: You were CMO and co-founder for TORA, what instructions did you study which you assume is crucial for CMOs and founders in Nigeria’s bustling startup space?
Ized: When I co-based TORA we were given a whole lot of top notch startup recommendation that we worked with but that didn’t forestall a policy change from crushing our enterprise. We have become records, 3 out of four corporations die in their first yr, all of sudden we had been inside the majority, It did not count number that we had done the exceptional we may want to given what we needed to paintings with, a simple shift in government policy changed into sufficient to give up the business. So lately my new recommendation to founders and CEOs gambling inside the zone along with I was gambling is to continuously engage the authorities, understand these regulations, have insights before it happens so that you can pivot fast and save your startup. Collaboration is wonderful too, that’s my steady recommendation, leverage collaborations and partnerships with startups which can be doing great, that helps lots.
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