Brands Optimal: Optimizing Brand Building Initiatives
By AzeezDisu
By Azeez Disu
In today’s competitive world, brands battle to take dominance of the market share, earn favourably Return on Investment (ROI) and ultimately remain at the heart of their target market. To achieve these objectives, most brands have had to turn to experiential marketing agency like Brands Optimal, an agency that prides itself as a solution provider.
Brands Optimal is one of Africa’s leading experiential marketing agency which optimizes value for clients through the use of strategic, reliable and measurable methods in consumer engagement, loyalty seeding and sales generation.
Founded in 2010 on the principle of doing ordinary things in extraordinary ways, Brands Optimal has become an extraordinary agency at the forefront of experiential marketing excellence with creative and innovative solutions that have helped brands in their marketing business and brand building activities.
Led by suave Otis Ojeikhoa as Managing Director /Chief Executive Officer, the agency works with the mission “To build an army of relentless value givers who live to optimize stakeholders (self & partners) benefit, rich consumer experience, endearing growth for its clients and meaning for the agency”
Operational Philosophy
With a vision “To build an Afro-centric agency that will become a benchmark for “global” reference in passion, creativity, in-out-execution excellence” the agency operates in Nigeria and Ghana, offering services which include strategy, social marketing, brand activation, sales promotion and sponsorship.
According to Ojeikhoa, “Brands Optimal is an experiential marketing agency. We work with our clients who are mostly brands and product manufacturers to link up with their customers in ways that use human experiences to tell brand stories. So, beyond the traditional order of TV or Radio to express brands. We rather use human being or the experience of a human being to create education and affinity for brands. That is why it is called experiential marketing. We market using what you can physically see, smell, touch, taste and feel. We then take that to a level where we don’t just do but also challenge everything that we do for the best results. We optimize that service and take it to another level. All the time what we bring to the table is the optimisation of that experience, engagement and stakeholders’ relationship.
Competitive Edge
According to Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn founder “Sometimes freedom from normal rules is what gives you the competitive advantage.”
In reference to the above quote, Brands Optimal with its innovative and creative works and prompt delivery on clients’ project has become a frontline in the Experiential Marketing industry.
Speaking on the agency’s competitive edge, Ojeikhoa emphasizes, “Our value is self-discipline. We believe if you are not disciplined, you cannot be time conscious, and if you are not, you cannot work in this industry because there is an enormous pressure which requires one to be disciplined. Another one is attention to detail and to correct information. There is a need for one to be very observant and be detailed. Apart from that, we also respect and value ourselves mutually. There are no bosses as we don’t celebrate hierarchy. Adding to that is our extreme creativity which has placed us in the vantage position in the industry.
“Our level of commitment here is great and cannot be compared with that of anybody anywhere else. What one person here can do will take three to four people elsewhere to do. As we grow we will continue to build on our commitment and passion.”
With a robust clientele base, Ojeikhoa says, “We have done great works that have become pacesetters in the industry, thanks to our clients who are the reason we are in operation, and through their supports and collaborations we have received awards and accolades fit for kings and queens. The creative ingenuity we have deployed in the industry over the years is second to none. For instance, the bus rig which has become what everyone uses now was my idea.
“We have handled series of activations, event management, product launches and other experiential marketing businesses for all our clients including;The Lighting Africa Programme for World Bank/IFC, The Martell Porsche Promo, Jameson Connects Nigeria, World Cup Programme for Coca Hellenic Company, Instore Promoters Programs for Reckitt Benckiser, Hayat Kimya Factory Launch etc.
By dint of hard work and tireless dedication, some of the accounts Brands Optimal currently handles are NBC, Coca-Cola, World Bank, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, Airtel, Olam, Hayat Kimya, Huawei Technologies, Flour Mill, Godrej and others.
Digital Revolution
In the words of Julie Sweet, Chief Executive Officer, North America at Accenture Plc; “Innovation is the new competitive advantage,” This means that individuals or organisations either innovate or die prematurely.
Brands Optimal shares the same belief with the above quote and is the reason it has gone digital in all its operations. Ojeikhoa explains thus, “Firstly, we need to understand that it’s now “digital or die” just like they say; “go big or go home”. If you do not go digital, in some years to come you will lose your followers or customers as the case may be and you can imagine what that portends. The traditional advertising is showing a lot of limitations. Currently, many brands and manufacturers are putting many more budgets behind advert across all social media platforms. Many more people including old and young are spending more time on digital/social media, so that is where advertisers are now going to by default.
“If you do not go digital it can actually make your business go into extinction or into the oblivion of irrelevance. We have seen in the last 15 to 20 years how many big brands have ran into irrelevance because they failed to adapt to changing consumer dynamics. We are constantly making efforts to be more relevant in that space, and our operations are very digital. We are on social media. We also have dedicated Apps to help monitor and share information on our projects real time with our clients. We have also created digital offering for our current and existing business. This was launched last year December with dedicated digital teams that are working on respective offerings.
A Deep Look At The Future
Explaining the agency future plans, Ojeikhoa revealed that the agency is making concerted effort to invest in capacity building that will enable it dictates the pace in the digital landscape.
“We actually have Brands Optimal Ghana that we started three years ago at about the same time we started off in Nigeria. So, our projection is to make it a digitally retail business not selling online but position the business for the future and help the people within to grow. This year, we’ have sent some people to Cleveland, and next year we will also do same. We will also grow the internal capacity of our stakeholders and position the business for the future and ensure that it is profitable and sustainable,” he disclosed.
[…] Ojeikhoa, managing director and chief executive officer of Brands Optimal Limited has been named as the winner of the Outstanding Experiential Marketing Personality of the decade at […]
[…] Ojeikhoa, managing director and chief executive officer of Brands Optimal Limited has been named as the winner of the Outstanding Experiential Marketing Personality of the decade at […]