The Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF) has announced November 27 and 28, 2026, as the dates for this year’s Awards, as preparations are in top gear to mark 21 years of celebrating creativity in Nigeria’s advertising and marketing communications industry.
The announcement came during a press briefing held last Thursday at Amber Residence, GRA, Ikeja, to introduce LAIF’s newly constituted board and outline plans for the milestone edition, themed “Glitch to Great.” Industry leaders used the occasion to reflect on the festival’s growth and to lay out an ambitious vision for its future.
Lanre Adisa, President of the Advertising Association of Nigeria (AAAN), opened the briefing by congratulating the industry on reaching its 21st anniversary. “We’ve done 21 years this year of LAIF awards,” he said, calling on the room to give the creative community “a big round of applause” for its sustained contribution over two decades.
Adisa tied the anniversary to a larger ambition for the festival, stating that LAIF’s task is no longer simply to run a successful local awards show but to become a genuine global reference point. “The world is not waiting for another good awards show, it is waiting to discover the next global standard. Our task is to ensure that the standard comes from here in Lagos,” he said. He further stressed that reaching that goal will require more originality, craft, and courage from agencies and creatives across the industry, and pointed to Nigeria’s underrepresentation in continental competitions as a gap the industry must close first.
Funke Adekola, Managing Director of Dentsu Creative and newly appointed Chair of the LAIF board, echoed that sense of occasion, describing the new season as more than a routine awards cycle. “We are not here merely to announce an award show,” she said. “We are here to announce an evolution.” Adekola said the board’s structure, combining agency leaders, media executives and client-side representatives, was designed specifically to carry the festival’s legacy into its third decade with what she called “absolute integrity in our process, commercial relevance in our categories, and mutual value for every stakeholder involved.”
Vice Chairman Jumoke Akinyemi, addressing questions on LAIF’s growth beyond Nigeria, said the anniversary also marks a point of expansion, noting that the board has spent recent years building jury and entry networks with agencies in Ghana and other African markets. She said past LAIF winners with campaigns originating outside Nigeria, including a Grand Prix tied to a South African client, showed the awards already carry regional weight worth building on.
Organizers confirmed that the Young LAIFers and UniLAIFers competitions, aimed at early-career professionals and university students, will run during awards week alongside the main ceremony. The entry portal for the 21st edition is expected to open in August, once technical preparations are complete.
With the anniversary weekend now set, industry leaders framed the milestone less as a celebration of history and more as a launching point, with Adisa telling attendees the festival’s next chapter is only just beginning.
