One of Nigeria’s leading experiential marketing agency that uses precision, expertise, discipline in order to achieve the desired result, generate the maximum top of the mind awareness and get a credible return on investment for the client is Abelinis Limited.
Led by Abiodun Richard Oshinibosi, Abelinis is on course to achieve its laudable vision – a vision that is being driven by people and performance. Oshinibosi is a professional marketer who began his career as an event coordinator at Laface Incorporated before moving to Tequila Events where he was the Field Manager and later rose to the position of Events Manager and Head, Client Service and Strategy. Oshinibosi eventually became the General Manager of IDCL from where he decided to set up Abelinis.
Bringing these experiences to bear at his agency, Oshinibosi makes Abelinis operates and delivers on clients’ briefs with military precision. The agency also achieves top of mind awareness among top brands seeking bespoke solutions to their marketing challenges.
Abelinis is a project management company with special interest in events, activations and production. Going back memory lane, although Abelinis was incorporated on the 13th day of September 2007, the agency did not start full operations until January 2011. Since the agency commenced operation concerted efforts have been made to deliver on the vision to be the foremost provider of project management solutions in Nigeria’s Integrated Marketing Communications industry.
The name Abelinis is a curious sounding one which is bound to arouse the interest of people who may be coming into contact with the company for the first time. Interestingly, Abelinis stands for Absolute Excellence Lineage of Influence. The plural brings in the‘s’ and that means as a team, we operate ‘Abelinis’.
From the humble beginning, Abelinis has grown in leaps and bounds. Over the year, the agency has become a sough-after experiential marketing expert company with lots of accolades coming its way as a result of creative innovations it has deployed in promoting brands across the length and breadth of the country.
Abelinis proffers and implements cutting edge strategies, capable of profitably achieving clients’ marketing needs without compromising on quality and best practice. Principally, Abelinis specializes in activation for brands including product activation, awareness campaign and merchandising, events; corporate and social and production; radio and television.
The agency remains a unique one among others, basically due to the pedigree of its team that comprises people who have been fortified with skills that are indispensible for successful project management. The agency is also known for its ingenuity and resourcefulness in facilitating the delivery of clients’ brief by paying attention to details.
The agency leverage on excellent environment knowledge and understanding to ensure nationwide presence of clients’ brands just as it never fails to utilize the extensive relationships that it has established with appropriate regulatory authorities. Abelinis also possesses speed and prompt execution of all the projects in its care.
“We stand to be different in the industry as a project intelligent company using the framework of project management to run our operations. That is our strength. Ninety percent of our guys are certified project managers. We understand what it means to handle projects. We obtained our certification from Project Management Institute in the US. We run every project as uniquely as possible. We don’t approach every brief with the same template because we usually see the need to give each project the unique approach it deserves and requires.
“In addition, our team is made up of young guys that are very resourceful and who believe in growth. Because we run an experiential business, we encourage growth from everyone including our field guys. They believe in us and we give them the confidence to be who they want to be. Abelinis is the place to be for young people who may be looking for that platform to move ahead in life. We have a lot of people that are eager to work with us because they appreciate how we value everybody from our field guys to the guys in the office.
Abelinis attaches importance to constant improvement of the standard of available manpower. The company also has programmes in place to motivate members of staff so that they can willingly give their best at every point in time. It will be recalled that the agency acquired plots land form Adron Homes & Properties Limited for members of staff that started with the company from the beginning as a gift from the Staff Housing Scheme initiated over some years ago by the management of the agency.
Oshinibosi, who is fondly referred to as project Marshal by friends and members of staff, says “We have been able to package staff welfare in a way that members of staff are keenly aware that the kind of comfort that they enjoy here will be difficult to get anywhere else. All members of staff have acquired landed properties and we also gave out brand new cars to our top members of staff.
“This is because we recognize the fact people have aspirations and want to be successful. If we don’t help them to grow, they wouldn’t churn out their best and so on. I have been in that system before. I was the GM of an organization before I started this company and I know what it is like to be very ambitious and to want to grow. For us to get the best out of the team, we also sow into their lives.”
In the same vein, this young agency has redefined Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – an otherwise unpopular phenomenon in the business of experiential marketing and brand activation. Abelinis Limited has been very functional with its CSR initiatives since it set sail with the payment of school fees for some undergraduates, donation of Apple laptops to some identified creative youth, visits to Modupe Cole and Ijamido Orphanage Home to support the under-privileged and also the presentation of SM/7G-450VA/watt incubator to a General Hospital in Lagos State to help reduce Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in the hospital and its environs, amongst others.
The ability of the agency to take every project and use unique approach that it deserves remains one of its biggest competitive edge in the industry. According to the project marshal, “We take every project uniquely and treat them uniquely as well. Our brand of services is all about creativity. We are very innovative and we are made up of young guys who are very energetic and want to make their mark. Having the backing of project intelligence coupled with these attributes makes us different.”
Through dedication and hard work, the agency has been executing one project or the others for multinationals like MTN, British American Tobacco (BAT), Haeir Thermocool, Sapp, TCP and PZ Cussons and host of others.
“One of our remarkable achievements was the execution of the ‘Win Back Project’ for MTN. We coordinated over 16 out of 32 locations for MTN. The project was a tactical approach that needed tactical action. We got the brief like two days before commencement and we needed to act fast. They had an issue and needed to win back their customers by putting up experience centres across the country. We were given Lagos and some parts of the eastern beat to run. It was very challenging but the feedback we got after the project was very encouraging and positive and we won back over 60 percent of their core customers within the allotted time. That is an indicator to us that it was a resounding success. It was a project we are all proud of.
“Also we had another project with British America Tobacco where we had to train over a thousand foot soldiers and brand ambassadors in the eastern region. That was huge as well.
At Abelinis, excellence, dedication and professionalism are the watchwords as the agency continues in the business of experiential marketing.