By MOSES NOSIKE

Greg Oni is the Chief Activation Officer/CEO, Connect 2 Consumers Limited. He is an icon in the Nigerian brand world. Oni was Director Development at Towncriers.

His 16 years of working experience with multinationals in experiential marketing has put him in a good position to connect consumers to brand. In this interview with Saturday Vanguard Business, he reveals how his company has created jobs for a lot of youths. Excerpts:

Can you explain the focus and vision of your company?

Connect 2 Consumers is an experiential marketing agency. The basic thing is connecting consumers to brand and connecting the brands to consumers – creating a connection between them.

Taking the brand to where the core target audience is by creating unforgettable experience. Based on our experience, our business is to bring brands to life.

All over the world now, the position of brand managers has not really changed from managing brands only, but has been extended to the frontiers of being called or recognized globally as activation managers because the major thing they do is to bring brands to life.

Our vision is to build our clients’ businesses through tested, proven experiential marketingtechniques using Cutting-edge innovations in both conventionaland unconventionaltactics in modern day brands activation.

You see, traditional marketing theories and practices are rapidly changing, becoming less relevant, moving forward experiential marketing is a fundamental basis for the future of                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         marketing strategy.

How were you able to create jobs for youths in your company?

The kind of jobs and business we do is one that involves third party. In the area of creating jobs, we have engaged the youths successfully. For instance, we engage them in the area of job employment on various projects at different occasions depending on the magnitude and scope.

By engaging them constructively it helps to reduce youth restiveness in the society because it is said that “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”. So, in our own field of operation, we do create both temporary and permanent employment for our youths.

At the same time, while we employ them to work on specific projects, they are adding value to their lives by acquiring experiences and skill that would enhance them in the future.

How do you see brand activation world today compared to five years ago when you started working with multinationals here and outside the country?

There is tremendous improvement compared to what we had then. Those days brand activation had been in existence but it has not been in the forefront, because if we go by what Ogilvy said that a time would come when all advertising agencies would become direct marketing agencies.

It’s happening now because if you look at managing brand itself, it’s not managing brand alone but to ensure that you reach your core target audience and how do you reach your core target audience? It is by creating the necessary experience and engagement.

It’s like when you say, “I hear, I see, I remember and I don’t forget” it’s experience and you spread that interaction. Now, it has moved on from the conservative system of managing brand to a global approach, going back to what Ogilvy said, it’s happening right now. Globally in terms of project spread for brand management, there is a global shift.

Every brand manager which I prefer to call activation manager because apart from managing brands they bring brands to life. Everybody is looking out for return on investment; I need immediate result. How do I get immediate result? By creating direct marketing communication platform to reach your consumers wherever they are at the right time.

Your company is proposing an empowerment skills for secondary schools, tell us how it will work?

We discovered that many children or students have lost interest in going to school as they feel or think what do I benefit from going to school? So, we found out that secondary schools are more affected.

Because of this lack of interest among them, we are coming up with a programme that says, if I go to school early and meet up with the attendance, at the end of that term I get rewarded. If you take a look around Lagos sometimes, secondary school students don’t get to school early. So the programme is a way of encouraging promptness among them. As I speak now plans are in top gear to work with some multinationals that have similar plans towards this direction.

A lot of them have been doing a lot of activities in schools but they have not looked at this motivational aspect of it that would serve as motivation and encouragement to attend schools.

Moreso, we are going to use the print media – social media and it would be driven via activation to create the experience and engagement across those selected secondary schools from JSS1-SS3. However it is first of its kind in the country.

What do you think our youths should be engaging themselves in even outside the school curriculum to equip themselves for the future?

I can say here that time has really changed because I remember then as a young man, the basic thing back then for us was to acquire experience and how do we improve ourselves with it? We were not looking at the immediate gratification or reward of money or fantastic office.

But experience! We were all looking out to learn new things and acquire experience and become a professional. But today, many youths are not ready to study and learn new things that would improve the quality of their lives. They are not ready to acquire skills and experience.

You don’t wait for government or anybody to push or establish you. If you acquire the skills, you can be an entrepreneur and also be employer of labour in the country.