Odugbemi Calls For Cultural Renaissance In Nigerian Advertising As AI, Technology Disrupts Industry
As artificial intelligence and emerging technologies continue to disrupt the advertising industry globally, forever changing how brands communicate with consumers and challenging traditional creative processes, Nigerian media veteran Olufemi Odugbemi has called for a strategic approach that marries technological advancement with deep cultural authenticity.
Speaking at the 3rd Annual Advertising Industry Colloquium (AIC 3.0) organized by the Advertising Reguatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) held yesterday at the Sheba Event Centre in Ikeja, Lagos, the Founder and CEO of Zuri24 Media delivered a keynote address that challenged industry practitioners to reimagine their approach to storytelling in an increasingly digital world.
The colloquium, themed “From Dialogue to Data: Merging Storytelling, Human Engagement & Techs in Marketing Communication,” brought together key stakeholders in Nigeria’s advertising ecosystem, including President of the Out-of-Home Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), Mr. Shola Akinsiku; Mallam Jibril Dace, Director-General of Voice of Nigeria; Mrs. Tolulope Medebem, President, Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria (EXMAN) and various industry professionals, leaders and academic professionals. The forum was also a convergence of town and gown as students from various tertiary institutions across the country were also in attendance.
Odugbemi opened his address by emphasizing the fundamental role of storytelling in human communication, particularly within African contexts. “In the heritage of African communities, stories were not trivial entertainment. They were the heartbeat of communal knowledge, institutional memory, and value system retention,” he stated, drawing parallels between traditional storytelling and modern brand communication.
The media guru who has spent over three decades in the industry, argued that contemporary marketing has lost sight of this foundational truth. “Elders told stories not just to amuse, but to educate. These were stories rich with proverbs, parables, symbols, each one a seed of wisdom. They taught character, resilience, leadership, and collective responsibility,” he explained, suggesting that modern brands must return to this purposeful approach to narrative.
According to Odugbemi, this traditional approach to storytelling was a game-changer because it offered both simulation, providing knowledge of how to act in specific circumstances, and inspiration, supplying the motivation to act. He challenged the industry to embrace this “tradition of intentional culturally curated storytelling” as a response to the current “age of instant content, viral videos, and fleeting attention spans.”
Addressing one of the industry’s most pressing concerns, Odugbemi redefined the concept of engagement, which he described as having “become the holy grail of marketing.” However, he cautioned against superficial interpretations of engagement metrics.
“To engage is not simply to capture attention. To truly engage is to connect with emotion, with meaning, and with identity,” he emphasized. “What drives human engagement is not how often you post, or how many platforms you’re on—but how deeply you are understood.”
The media pioneer stressed the importance of recognizing Nigeria’s diversity and complexity, stating: “Nigeria is not a monolith. Our people are not data points. We are diverse, culturally complex, aspirational, and evolving. We want to be seen, to be heard, to be valued. And so, our marketing communication must reflect this human truth. It must respect cultural nuance. It must celebrate everyday triumphs. It must honour dignity and possibility.”
One of the high points of Odugbemi’s address was his reflection on what he termed the golden age of Nigerian advertising. Drawing from his extensive experience, he recalled a time when brands successfully integrated local culture into their messaging, creating campaigns that resonated deeply with Nigerian audiences.
“When I first joined the advertising industry over 30 years ago, one of the things that left an unforgettable impression on me was the process of crafting some of the country’s most memorable commercials,” he reminisced. “What struck me particularly was the fact that the storytelling and narrative expressions were indigenously sourced, culturally connected, and historically inspired.”
He highlighted how global brands managed to feel authentically Nigerian through culturally connected creative strategies: “Nearly every brand felt indigenous to us even when we knew they were big global brands by multinationals. This was because their ‘stories’ primarily engaged and embraced our community experiences, our cultures, history, hopes and dreams. The brands spoke in our languages and dialects. The brands celebrated our festivals and saluted our heroes. In short, the brands embraced our identity and stood as one of us.”
Paying tribute to the late Ted Mukoro, the legendary Creative Director of Lintas, Odugbemi cited iconic campaigns that defined an era: “Who can forget in a hurry the success of the ‘Weke-Weke’ jingle for Vono foam? or ‘Black thing good o’ for Guinness, or ‘Shine-shine Bobo’ for Star Beer? Who can also easily forget the Peugeot ad that ran with the copy ‘made for Nigerian roads’?”
These campaigns, he argued, were successful because they created “a sense of connection that was vital to placing brands at the centre of the emotional experience of being Nigerian. With the brand personality and promise seamlessly integrated into the nation’s culture and worldview.”
Addressing the elephant in the room which is artificial intelligence’s impact on the industry, Odugbemi took a nuanced stance. Rather than viewing AI as a threat to creativity, he positioned it as a potential amplifier of cultural storytelling when used appropriately. “We are at an inflection point. And the question before us is not whether technologies like artificial intelligence will reshape the future of brand storytelling in Nigeria—it already is. But who will own that story?” he posed to the audience.
His vision for AI in Nigerian advertising is rooted in cultural authenticity: “Brand storytelling in this new age of emergent technologies cannot be just about reaching more people — it’s about doing so with depth and authenticity. The most successful brands won’t be those that adopt AI the quickest, but those that root it most deeply in our local cultures. It will be brands using AI to tell stories in regional dialects, infused with native nuances, history and rhythms.”
This approach, he suggested, requires significant investment in cultural infrastructure: “To prepare for this future, we must invest in cultural data, heritage literature, oral histories and languages. We must retrain our creatives to be both AI-literate and culturally grounded. The creative leaders of tomorrow will be both data curators, and cultural custodians.”
Perhaps the most philosophical aspect of Odugbemi’s address was his introduction of the concept of “imagination engineering”—a deliberate approach to storytelling that shapes aspirational futures rather than merely reflecting current realities.
“If we are to build tomorrow, we must recognize the role of immersive storytelling not just as a mirror to society—but as a blueprint for what is possible,” he declared. “All human progress has always begun with one person’s capacity to imagine. The cure for a disease, the inventions that have changed everything, the bridge that connected two impossible points — all of it starts first in the mind of someone who dared to believe that what is not yet, can, in fact, be.”
He criticized contemporary Nigerian media for being “saturated with cynicism, recycled despair, and a narrow bandwidth of possibility,” arguing that “we have accepted our worst stories as the only stories worth telling.”
His call to action was clear: “Our nation today doesn’t just need stories. It needs imagination engineering, visionary storytelling with narratives that showcase heroes and cultivate role models in diverse fields. From groundbreaking entrepreneurs to compassionate political leadership, from scientific innovators to tech disruptors, these are the images our audiences and consumers need to see and engage in the recesses of their minds.”
While acknowledging the power of data and technology in modern marketing, Odugbemi issued a crucial warning about the potential dehumanization of communication. “Data without empathy is noise. Technology without humanity is cold. We must not become so obsessed with metrics that we forget meaning,” he cautioned.
He emphasized that while algorithms can provide behavioral insights, they cannot capture the deeper human motivations that drive belief and action: “The algorithms can show us what people do, but they cannot tell us why they believe or why they don’t. If we are not careful, our industry risks becoming efficient, but irrelevant.”
The solution, according to Odugbemi, lies in integration rather than replacement: “So the real challenge is not choosing between storytelling and data—but learning how to merge them. Data should inform our creativity, not replace it. Let us use technology to amplify our narratives, not standardize them.”
Recognizing that positive disruption requires systemic change, Odugbemi called for comprehensive educational reform in communication studies. He praised ARCON’s efforts in promoting collaboration between academia and industry but called for deeper integration.
“The responsibility to build this future cannot fall on creatives alone. Our schools, our regulators, and our industry bodies must rise to the occasion together,” he stated. “Education must evolve. We must teach not just skills, but vision. We must equip our students to not only execute campaigns, but to imagine impact.”
His vision for educational reform included “a communication curriculum co-designed by brand managers and academic instructors,” “internship pathways that don’t just expose students, but immerse them,” and “regulatory frameworks that do not stifle innovation but guides it with clarity.”
The most urgent aspect of Odugbemi’s address was his warning about the potential misuse of AI technologies, particularly in the context of Nigeria’s social and political landscape. He highlighted the dangers of deepfakes, audio clones, and synthetic media being used to deceive and manipulate public opinion.
“Already, we have witnessed deepfakes used to impersonate leaders, audio clones that mimic real voices to sow panic, and synthetic media created not to inform, but to deceive,” he warned. “These are not theoretical concerns; they are present dangers.”
Given Nigeria’s existing challenges with trust deficits and social cohesion, Odugbemi issued a direct challenge to ARCON: “The challenge before the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria today is not simply to regulate advertising, it is to protect the very soul of our public discourse.”
His call to action was unambiguous: “So this is the clarion call to the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria – Please Be aggressive. Now is the time to Strengthen your frameworks. Now is the time to build capacity to monitor and sanction. Collaborate with tech platforms, security agencies, and civic bodies to ensure AI tools are not weaponized against the public good.”
However, he balanced this urgent call for regulation with a plea for innovation protection: “Yet in doing so, let us not strangle innovation. The path forward is not to politicize technologies like AI, but to protect its legitimate promise.”
Concluding his address, Odugbemi painted a vision for the future of brand marketing that transcends traditional sales-focused approaches. “The power to shape our future lies not just in our data, but in our narratives. Brand stories are our stories,” he declared.
“It is not enough for brands to position itself for sales with a tale of what it can do for us. Brand stories must also provoke and incite reflections and conversations around community, around service and around national development. The future of brand marketing will be by innovation that is rooted in identity.”
