The World Is Evolving, And So Are We – Fikayo Ogundairo, CEO, Webcoupers Consulting
Webcoupers Consultancy appoints Fikayo Ogundairo to the role of Chief Executive Officer. Prior to his appointment, Fikayo was the Director of Brand Management and Strategy at X3M Ideas, bringing over 17 years of experience to his new role. We sat with him to discuss his thoughts on the move, and plans for the future as he works towards driving innovation and growth at Webcoupers.
The journey so far
Webcoupers is a technology and integrated marketing communication consultancy that has been in operation for over 9 years, focused on driving innovation and growth for forward-thinking brands. Our work fundamentally changes the way businesses and industries operate, creating measurable value for our clients, end-users and community.
Over the last 7 years, Webcoupers has fulfilled its mission to grow businesses with locally relevant solutions. Since then, we’ve managed over 50+ clients and projects in Nigeria, delivered successful campaigns, built digital products and grown our revenue.
My move to Webcoupers was inevitable as I was sold on what the organization is trying to achieve. More importantly, I saw the opportunity to further leverage the tech space where Webcoupers has proven itself as a key player and also use this opportunity to expand Webcoupers Consulting into a full-scale Integrated Marketing Communications Agency, bringing the best of both worlds to tech and integrated marketing communications, developing strategies and building products that will help businesses grow and make people’s lives better – helping them unlock new levels of growth and value.
Aside from our transitioning into full IMC, I would like to see Webcoupers continually at the forefront of innovation, while we have seen how quickly things can change and how unpredictable the future can be. Rather than chasing the next trend we strive to be the pioneers leading new innovation in advertising and technology.
The switch
Webcoupers has always referred to itself as a solutions-oriented company. We see ourselves, not just as an agency, but as a company that partners with brands to create solutions with humans at the core and brand growth as the outcome. So this pivot to a full IMC agency comes from the same ethos of providing solutions that can grow brands.
Over the years, we found that we could provide the distinct results that our clients needed in sectors that were not necessarily what we were known for. As a result, while we may have started out as a tech company, we leveraged opportunities to provide solutions which led to our expansion into marketing (digital, content, strategy etc.) and now, into a full-on tech and IMC agency.
The next wave of innovation is upon us and the future of IMC is in our ability to usher in norm-changing strategies that align with our client’s needs and produce results. I believe the future of advertising will be driven by Agencies that can offer more. In order to succeed, Agencies will inevitably have to become a one-stop-shop with a variety of services that are not only efficient but can help brands and service providers achieve their business objectives no matter the size of the business.
Development of marketing communications in Nigeria
While marketing communication has come a long way, with the development of new technologies, the pandemic is perhaps the biggest factor that has accelerated and affected development in the sector. This has forced most companies to rethink their business strategy and even work structure. Therefore, it is important to leverage available data that properly represent and give insights into consumers, as they are ever-evolving. This then pushes the need for IMC agencies to evolve along with these consumers and use these data and insights to provide real solutions to address real issues, as opposed to the way things were done in the past.
The world is evolving, and so are we
The innovation of technology has changed the way we work, play, connect and live. We believe the predictors of the future are those that build it. So much has been built in the last two decades and as we are approaching the new age, we believe the winners of the next decade will be innovators that figure out how to make people’s lives better and help businesses leverage their core objectives, target the right audience with relevant content.
Challenges and what to expect
The challenges in the sector are not specific to Africa alone, businesses are looking for better justification for advertising spend and as the pandemic has shown, things can change rather quickly. So I would say the major challenge for the sector is showing how much more we can impact the bottom line for business which is often revenue. Also, the region has such diverse cultures and socioeconomic realities that it is difficult to paint the African advertising sector in broad strokes. However, if I had to generalise it would be that digital marketing is still in its infancy in the region yet and for agencies in the sector, there is still the challenge of getting clear messaging and clearly defining their target audience because of how diverse cultures and even languages are across different countries. It’s never one size fits all.
What sets us apart
We are a team of brilliant, vibrant and passionate digital natives combining creativity and tech to drive measurable growth for businesses – small and large. Despite our diverse backgrounds, we all have a common love for tinkering and creating. Our work fundamentally changes the way businesses and industries operate and more importantly improves the lives of its diverse end-users and community. We are also very nimble, young and daring with diverse experience from multiple fields of expertise.
Expertise
In our zeal to grow businesses with culturally relevant world-class solutions our expertise cuts across Strategy, Digital Transformation, Product/Service Design (Software Development), Marketing, Radio/TV production and Activation. In recent times, Webcoupers has made a move into the integrated marketing space, with plans to further create innovative human-centred solutions for brands across Nigeria and Africa. We have worked with brands across various sectors, including; tech, telecommunications, finance, e-commerce, FMCG, Aviation and more.
Webcoupers as I mentioned earlier, is a technology and IMC agency, as a result, we have diverse talents, products and platforms that enable us take on projects that cut across software development, website development, app building and more, we also have our marketing arm that cuts across strategy, digital, creative, content, radio & TV Production to name a few.
We have a sister company called Sprout LMS, formerly Haptics, which recently transitioned from an offline/hybrid learning platform to a cloud-based e-learning management solution that makes it easy for educators, training academies and universities to create, deliver and manage online courses. Furthermore, Using cloud technology and scalable infrastructure, we’ve built a lightweight mobile compatible online learning platform so educators can focus on what matters the most whilst delivering quality education.
As a company we pride ourselves on being able to deliver quality and meaningful innovative tools that will leave an impact on our society, hence our drive to create more digital products and services that can help businesses become more competitive, drive deeper connections, grow their business and achieve their objectives.
In line with this, our latest product currently in development aims to do just that. I won’t say too much on it right now, but be sure to watch out and check it out when we launch later this year.
Our core values and operational philosophies
At Webcoupers, we value innovation, creativity and results – We have a keen interest in what it takes to be an innovative company, so lately we have observed what are the game-changers for brands. The insight from this is that legacy brands are finding it hard to navigate the digital space in an agile way and also lack the resources to make use of their marketing data in an effective way.
This is why we are hugely invested in marketing technology and data analytics. We have built a multi-disciplinary team of strategists, engineers, designers, and data scientists that can help brands make sense of a dynamic market and help them go to market the right way. This kind of introspection about how we can do things differently and constantly stay at the forefront of innovation is at the core of our operations..
Regulatory compliance
In line with the laws of our distinguished profession as mandated by the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), plans have commenced in essence to ensure we are duly registered (as an entity and practitioners) with the relevant bodies as we make this transition.