Algorithm Media Marks A Decade At The Top Of Nigeria’s Media Landscape, Signals Expansion At Lagos Gala

WPP affiliate celebrates ten years of survival through two recessions and a pandemic; Seni Adetu declares the agency now ranks among Nigeria’s top three. Keynote speaker Tom Ilube CBE argues AI will define the next decade.

Algorithm Media, the WPP-affiliated media agency founded by former Guinness Nigeria chief executive Seni Adetu, marked its 10th anniversary on Friday evening at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, in an event that drew politicians, traditional rulers, and key notable stakeholders across subsectors of Nigeria’s advertising industry.

The celebration, themed “Beyond the Rise,” doubled as a platform for the agency to lay out its ambitions for the next decade, including a pivot toward AI-driven media solutions. Guests arrived in crisp white shirts and denim, the evening’s dress code, and were received in a ballroom dressed in the agency’s signature red and white.

The the event had in attendance former Ogun State Governor Olusegun Osoba, serving deputy governor of Ogun State, Engr. Noimot Salako-Oyedele; captains of industries including Flour Mills of Nigeria’s MD/CEO (Food Division), Devlin Hainsworth and prominent Yoruba monarchs including the Akarigbo of Remo, Oba Babatunde Adewale Ajayi; the Ebi of Idena, Oba Lukman Adebambo Salami; the Elemure of Emure, Oba Adesegun Alowonle; and the Onipara of Ipara, Oba Taiwo Taiwo. Industry stakeholders in attendance included Dr. Biodun Shobanjo, Sir Steve Omojafor, Alhaji Kankarufi, former ARCON Registrar Bunmi Oke, Lady Bird Advertising CEO Bunmi Oke, MIPAN Vice President Brenda Nwangu, and SO&U’s Udeme Ufot.

The keynote address was delivered by Tom Ilube CBE, a British-Nigerian technology entrepreneur who serves as a non-executive director of WPP plc and was named chairman of the UK’s LINK cash-access network just days before the event. Ilube told the audience they were “standing at a mountaintop,” and that the question for Algorithm Media was no longer how to rise, but how to go further than ever before.

Drawing on his TEDx talk, “From Artificial Intelligence to Intelligent Algorithm,” Ilube argued that Nigeria’s moment to lead in intelligent systems has arrived. The AI revolution, he said, does not reward perfect infrastructure but rewards adaptability, and it thrives in complexity and human intuition. The next decade, he predicted, will belong to businesses that use AI to sharpen judgment, expand creativity, and accelerate decision-making.

Group CEO Seni Adetu then reflected on a decade defined, in his words, by survival. Algorithm Media launched in February 2017 during a national recession, after an earlier plan to merge with or acquire an existing local agency fell through. The company was incorporated in 2015 and concluded its GroupM affiliation deal in 2016, with WPP taking a 24.9 percent stake in the parent group, First Primus West Africa, in compliance with ARCON regulations on foreign investment.

Adetu said the agency weathered two major economic downturns and the COVID-19 pandemic without missing a single salary payment. Client relationships, he said, were built on speed, trust, and direct leadership involvement. Governance standards (shaped by his own decades at Coca-Cola and Guinness) ensured transparency and audit readiness throughout. The agency, he stated, now ranks among Nigeria’s top three media agencies, and for multinational clients operating in the country, it likely sits at the very top.

He hinted at new technology-driven solutions and innovations to be unveiled in coming months, though no specifics were disclosed on the night. The “Beyond the Rise” theme, he said, signals a deliberate shift from establishment and survival toward deeper industry influence in the agency’s second decade.

Algorithm Media was formally launched on 9 February 2017 at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Lagos. The launch comprised a morning media briefing and an evening gala built around a panel discussion titled “Connecting with the Nigerian Consumer in a Recession.” The panel was chaired by Ernest Ebi, then chairman of Fidelity Bank, and included Peter Njonjo, President of Coca-Cola West Africa, Mo Abudu, CEO of Ebony Life TV, former MTN Nigeria CEO Michael Ikpoki, and Juliet Anammah, then CEO of Jumia. Its early client list included Facebook, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Nokia Mobile, P&G, Shell, Colgate-Palmolive, British Airways, and Flour Mills of Nigeria. Through its GroupM affiliation the agency also began servicing global accounts in Nigeria for brands including Rolex, Volkswagen, LG, and Sony.

In late 2021, the agency won the multi-billion naira Coca-Cola media buying account in Nigeria after a contested pitch, taking over from Dentsu’s bespoke Coca-Cola Community unit. The win was part of a global realignment in which WPP secured the majority of Coca-Cola’s $4 billion worldwide marketing business through a unit called OpenX.

Algorithm Media operates alongside Ogilvy Nigeria under First Primus West Africa. The group also houses the Nigerian operations of GroupM brands Mindshare and MediaCom. Ogilvy Nigeria, which opened in September 2018 at the Landmark Event Centre in Lagos, handles advertising, brand strategy, digital services, and PR for clients across the WPP network. Together, the two agencies offer a full suite of marketing communications capabilities from media planning and buying to creative strategy and below-the-line activations.

The agency’s data capabilities are built around a proprietary research tool called Audience Origin, used by WPP agencies in 75 countries. The platform is refreshed twice a year and provides consumer insight on motivations, media preferences, and retail behaviour, enabling Algorithm Media to localise global campaigns for the Nigerian market.

In the days before the celebration, Algorithm Media received a string of formal tributes from across the media sector. Brila Media, one of Nigeria’s largest sports media organisations, published a statement on 30 January praising the agency’s thoughtful leadership and innovative thinking. Brila Media CEO Debbie Izamoje Okolie said reaching ten years in the industry speaks to resilience, adaptability, and the ability to consistently deliver value. She added that Brila Media’s own engagements with Algorithm Media had been defined by shared professional standards and mutual respect, and framed the anniversary as a reflection of what is possible when vision, consistency, and strong partnerships come together.

Algorithm Media was also inducted into the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN) earlier in its life, a marker of professional credibility within the industry. MIPAN, registered in 1999, is the body that represents independent media agencies in Nigeria. The induction placed Algorithm Media alongside a handful of other agencies recognised for meeting the association’s standards of practice and governance.

Before founding Algorithm Media, Adetu spent over 30 years in multinational management. He was CEO of Coca-Cola English West Africa, Group MD of East African Breweries, and MD/CEO of Guinness Nigeria from 2011 to 2014. He was a runner-up for the Forbes/CNBC East Africa CEO of the Year award in 2012 and received the Marketing Edge Lifetime Achievement Award in Advertising and Marketing.

Ilube, who delivered the keynote, topped the UK Powerlist of the most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in 2017. He was awarded his CBE in 2018 for services to technology and philanthropy, chaired the Rugby Football Union from 2021 to 2024, served as a non-executive director of the BBC, and joined the WPP board in October 2020. He is also the founder of the African Science Academy, Africa’s first all-girls science and mathematics school.

After the speeches concluded, twenty guests found gift cards under their seats with prizes included spa vouchers, kitchen appliances, electronics, and cash.