Microvest's Media & Comms Head, Seun Odegbami: 'People always want everything about marketing to move at the speed of light'
You probably know a little about marketing professionals in Africa and that's not your fault. That is the gap Noticing is filling.
It feels so good to be dropping a new edition. Hope you have had a great week!
Welcome to the third edition of Noticing newsletter. Each week, we feature a different African marketer and ask them questions about their journey. You could just learn a thing or two.
This week, we interviewed Seun Odegbami — Media & Comms Head at Microvest.
Seun has carved a unique career in the business and creative sphere that effortlessly pivots between sales, marketing, and a bit of design (with Canva).
Seun Odegbami — Media & Comms Head at Microvest
As someone who is mostly seen telling stories for brands, he has a way of delivering the backstory and then the punchline of the story perfectly. Seun functions by drawing materials from his experiences and other people's experiences because he believes that everything one will ever create is a sum of everything one has experienced and everything one knows.
Here, he tells Noticing how Newspaper Ads spurred an interest in a Marketing career despite having a degree in Marketing, and how your experience can help you tell a better and more authentic stories.
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This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
So let’s kick off with you telling us what it is you do.
The short answer is ‘Growth Marketing (with a strong storytelling and experimenting aspect)’. And I currently work at Microvest as the Head of Media & Communications.
Compelling stories, empathy, and a passion to bring people together to help them be the best they can be are just a few things I bring to the brands I work on and the organization and teams I work with.
I can see we won’t be doing this the easy way. Next question, What got you interested in a marketing career?
I’ve always been aware of marketing as a career from my secondary school days. And I've a degree in Marketing from Covenant University. But I didn’t plan to practice. I was totally directionless and terrified of ending up in a soulless cubicle farm.
Then I started seeing cool and fancy advertisements made by BBDO for MTN in printed newspapers and billboards. I used to read newspapers and get more out of the ads than the articles. Social media wasn't popular. It was then I decided to pursue a career in marketing & advertising. I loved those ads. My whole life I was like “wtf this is cool but I can make a better ad than this”. It was these cool ads the agencies were putting out that got me fully interested in a marketing career. And I specifically loved the ads for the telcos that I wanted to work in their marketing department.
Then I started applying to these organizations and I got a couple of responses. But I couldn't land a job. It has always been hard getting an advertising job. So I started helping friends and family with their marketing. And everything good followed.
Cool. How did you land your first Marketing job?
The effort spent on volunteering landed me what I’d call my first major role. I volunteered for an event and I did marketing and writing for them. And a year after the event had passed, he called and offered me a big marketing role but the pay was low compared to what I was earning at the time. I jumped on it because I saw an opportunity to learn and grow.
What was your career path to get to where you are now?
I started as a customer service representative at the then Etisalat (Now 9mobile). During my time there, I made sure I use my marketing skills to deliver superior customer support. Then Etisalat ran a competition where participants were to create ads that promote Etisalat products and services. I entered the competition, and I created an ad. This still remains the best copy I've written.
And out of all the participants across Nigeria, I won. As the winner of the competition, I got to meet with the then Group head of marketing, Etisalat. And we got to talk about how he works and everything in-between. This further validated the fact that I could just do more than what I was doing. Then I later got a volunteering job with SalesRuby. There, I met my former boss. And she gave me the opportunity to switch to marketing and I went on to head the brand and marketing comms department. I spent 2 years at SalesRuby. Then I left to start my private business. And I’ve been helping businesses with their marketing needs.
I also went into event planning and I got to host a LinkedIn Local event in Lagos and it was done on a very large scale. During this event, I met someone recruiting for a marketing role, he offered me the job and that’s where I’m working now as the Head of Media & Communications. So I’ve switched from my private business, which I’ve been doing actively for 2 years, to a regular 9 - 5.
Tell me about the best and worst projects you’ve been on.
I worked on a project where everyone involved was tasked to get people to register on a platform and we were compelled to sell to people in our immediate environment. For 2 weeks, I walked, walked, talked and talked but I was only able to get two people to register. It was so frustrating. And even the two people that registered didn’t take the actions we desired. So it was really hard and I was under a lot of pressure. I knew this wasn’t my forte. But everyone on the project must go out to get people. We were not even allowed to use social media. I’d say this is the worst project I’d been on.
And I’d say the best project I’ve been on remains an event I was supposed to do just marketing for. It was the second event of the same kind. Let me paint a scenario. If you had a version A of a product and you wanted to sell that same product next year as a version B to the people who had bought the product, the people who wanted to buy the product next time would most likely ask you what you’re selling again - “last year, you sold this product at N50K, nothing has changed and you’re still here to sell this same product to me at a higher price.” This is one of the questions people are already asking silently.
We were in this situation. We wanted people to pay the same amount they would already pay for the same event. To make it special, we needed something to spice things up and differentiate it from the previous event. So I came up with the idea of adding dinner and the team bought it. And it came out well. We sold out in a few days. And most people who attended were people that attended the first event. Till date, people are still copying the strategy.
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So what’s the best thing about your job?
I get to meet and work with a lot of people. As a marketer, I work with people from diverse backgrounds totally different from mine, fields, geographies, agencies etc, to execute marketing projects. Just like working with a journalist to publish an article for you and working with Influencers to talk and amplify your work. It’s always exciting. I get to learn and share.
What’s the worst?
Waiting. I don’t like it. Everyone doesn’t. And as a marketer, It makes you look like you don’t know your onions when you tell clients it would take time to get results. The waiting period can be very tiring and frustrating.
People want everything about marketing to move at the speed of light. This is why people would hire a marketer today and would magically want a trillion dollars in revenue to come in the door on day 1, and if possible, to become a household brand in the next few weeks. I have yet to find the rocket ship emoji that hides the secret hack. Will you let me know if you find it?
How do you fill the gaps when you’re not doing the various day and night jobs?
I watch anime. I generally have a stronger connection to anime. Maybe I would be doing stuff in the anime industry with Disney or Pixar if I wasn’t in the marketing industry. Anime is a medium for storytelling that I just find beautiful. It has the potential to be more creative than other types of media, because you can mess around with the art-style and the style of the anime in general in an anime way more than in live action. I don’t watch the bloody ones, though. I only love the cool ones.
And to relax, I grab a beer and Springles.
Who's your favorite cartoon character?
Tasmanian devil.
Tell me one important thing you’ve learned that you’d like to pass to other marketers.
Always be testing. For me I think it's just 'assume nothing, test everything' and this applies both ways. These experiments always give you good data.
There's always the chance that a particular change you're testing will deliver those magical 20-30% uplifts, but there's also the chance that there's absolutely no significance to them at all - even on the big changes.
What’s your go-to starting point to get the storytelling process moving?
I draw materials from my experiences and other people's experiences. That is how I function.
Because everything one will ever create is a sum of everything one has experienced and everything one knows. I remembered watching a video of Pixar Animation’s creators. And he said most of the movies that they make are a reflection of who they’re on the inside. That’s what makes storytelling interesting.
I also remembered watching an interview of a movie director. He talked about a movie, I can’t remember the title. But it was about a little girl that had 3 different emotions. And the director said the story was a story of one of the director’s daughters. It was how they felt about their child growing up. So basically they’re turning their experiences and other people's experiences into movies. They’re identifying existing truths and experiences and playing with them.
This is how I also function.
Name two products you can’t do without and tell me why.
Sticky Notes and Canva.
I’ve a bad habit of noting things down when they drop in my head. Can't do without it.
And I’ve grown to love Canva. It is one of the freemium online graphics tools that's extremely simple to use.Loads of templates. A quick and easy way to create visuals and help those unskilled in the magic of graphic design. I’ve the ability to make handy designs from the comfort of my phone.
I just love it.
I love Canva too. Very easy to use for non-designers. Next question, what’s the hardest part of a marketing storyteller’s job today?
Being able to move people with your story. Everybody thinks they can tell stories. These days, everybody slaps “I’m a storyteller” in their bio. It’s one of the most used 2021 buzzwords. Everywhere you go, you see stories with a call-to-action (CTA) and a body of story that’s totally different. Many people are just telling it for telling sake. Then add totally unrelated CTA. This is a problem. For me, storytelling is using your story (which is definitely sharing an experience) to help people who are (or might be) experiencing the same thing you’ve gone through. This is why I love the guys at Airtel. They use relatable stories to move people.
What’s the last thing that made you laugh so hard?
A comedy by Taaooma. She recently introduced a new character. Which was the younger sister. She is troublesome. There was this episode I saw recently. It made me laugh hysterically.
If you were to pick between a community or a mentor, which would you pick and why?
I’d pick a community. I’m not too driven by the whole mentorship thing. I’m not a fan.
Community helps you grow better. You get real help and support. Yeah, mentors are good. You could learn from their mistakes and they can help you make better career decisions.
But I still think nothing can be near being an active member of a community.
What is something you're proud of but don't get to* brag about much?
Lol! That will be my growth. This is something that usually takes people about 8 years to achieve. But here I am doing it in just a short period of time.
Awesome. Everyone has a favorite food, it's innocent but very personal and there's usually a story or insight into their background/culture behind it. Tell me what your favorite food is.
Fried rice. Most of the time, I derive joy in cooking it, especially cutting the ingredients. And it reminds me about my mom. She was a baker. And she loved cooking a lot. So I adopted cooking to always remember her.
What question should I be asking you or do you feel is missing from this interview that you really feel obliged to answer?
What do you think about positioning?
I think if people want to really grow in their career, they need to know how to position themselves. Because if you don’t position yourself first you might not get the desired results. It’s the same thing for businesses - choose the right position before advertising. This is why people that are well positioned are even getting the recognition more than people that actually know the job more than them but not well positioned.
Before I remove the shackles, tell me where people can find you online.
I am on LinkedIn as Seun Odegbami
Thank you Seun, it’s always fun talking with fellow marketing professionals.
Please leave a comment and feedback as we get this thing moving.
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Past interviews:
Read the last interview with FTX-Africa’s Marketing Manager here:
Read the last interview with Selar’s Marketing Manager here:
Important thing to note…
The newsletter is very much a work in progress. The interview questions haven't been nailed down, the logo might change, and I'm still trying to figure out the voice and length. But I believe there’s more opportunity to experiment and move toward what works as time goes on.
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Something anything
The Fifth Alley, a digital marketing and creative agency has announced the 2nd edition of the marketing experience summit.
This is a gathering of marketing professionals sharing best practices in marketing. And it would be held ‘virtually’ on the 19th of November 2021.
So much to look forward to at the Marketing Experience Summit.
I hope you'd join Temitope, CEO at Printivo, Co-founder & Head of Growth at Get—equity; Bukayo—Key Account Manager, West & Central Africa, Eskimi DSP and other panelists as they share useful growth marketing strategies and tactics for StartUps, SMEs, Solopreneurs etc.
Behold the deets:
1. Go to https://diginextsummit.com/register/
2. Scroll down a little bit and enter your first and last name
3. Enter and verify your email address
4. Enter other required information
5. Once you have submitted your info, you'd receive a confirmation email almost immediately.
That's it.
Oh, last thing!
Thank you. We really do appreciate people reading and sharing.
Interview by Lolade Abimbola