NEXT #MAVERICKS TO WATCH::: "WE HELP RETHINK HOW NIGERIANS DO MARKETING - ADD MAGIC NOT JUST LOGIC TO MARKETING EFFORTS", Franklin Ozekhome.

BIO

Mr. Franklin Ozekhome is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Trends + Intelligence Network (TINK), a new company that has set the Integrated Marketing Communications sector aglow with its innovative and game-changing offerings. 

A visionary and creative mind with great passion about for the marketing communications industry. Defined in 3s: Strategist. Trendspotter. Storyteller.

PROFILE:

Strategic planner and brand communications specialist with multicultural experience, providing integrated marketing solutions for global brands across diverse industries.

A trusted authority on brand strategy, digital platforms and mobile youth marketing. Written features and articles for publications including Marketing Edge, BrandiQ, Brandfaces, M2, Brand Age, TownCrier Times, Mileage, Biz-Community.com and Brand Communicator.

Dean of Studies (DoS) and Facilitator at the Integrated Brand Experience Programme, Orange Academy. Facilitator at The Knowhouse Brand Strategy Bootcamp.
Founder of TINK Africa. Founder & Chief Story telling Officer. Ideatiture. Head Of Marketing, Insight Grey. Senior Planning Manager, Mc cann Erickson. Director, Cool Brands Africa.

His Latest Conversation:

 



 

He is the Founder of TINK Africa, Trends and Intelligence Network.

TINK is a consumer insights company, a hybrid of trends research, cultural intelligence and consumer anthropology. It’s the first of its type in Africa.

In his interview at the Marketing Edge:

“Let me break it down. A strategist because that is my foundation; everything we do is coming from insight, foresight and applied innovation. We are always analyzing and taking stock, and observing why things happen in a certain way. I am not interested in ‘what is'; but in ‘what will be’.
Storytelling because I love stories. Storytelling has been my favorite way of relating with a consumer. I do not appreciate situations where the messages are one-sided. We live in a world that has embraced a culture of storytelling. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart remains a classic bestseller because of the storytelling nature. When you read the novel, one gets a feeling that you are an integral part of the story. That is where advertising needs to go. When we spot trends, smart brands see it, recognize it and immediately apply it before it becomes a commodity and everybody is jumping into it.”

Tell us more about the TINK offering. Is it filling a gap in the market?

TINK means Trends plus Intelligence Network. Under trends, we do trends research, ethnography, consumer insight analysis, mapping and social monitoring among others. Under intelligence, we carry out consumer anthropology projects and design codes for analyzing consumer cultures, linguistic analytics and strategic content.

The Network is our crowd-sourcing platform that is home to 1,100 youths across Nigeria. These Spotters, as we call them, are the most influential and informed young people from different backgrounds including fashion, games, travel, sports, music and entertainment. Selected trend influencers are trained and taken through our methodology. On a regular basis, we receive dozens of ideas and innovations on our databank – sent from different places across Nigeria on various segments including mobile and telecoms, beauty and health care, technology, luxury, alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. Currently, we have over 10,000 materials, pictures, videos, case studies, research findings, and other forms of insights. And our database is continually expanding

 

What makes TINK different from the traditional media?

In Nigeria today, everyone (agencies, marketers, consultants, investors) digs into the same well for information and insights about Nigeria, the various category-segments, the consumer, and for brand case studies. Little wonder that we all come up with the same kind of product, solutions and communication. No matter how much one tries to decode the information received from this particular source or sources – either the Planner spends days analyzing the data received or the creative director designs a dozen new ideas to communicate this idea – the outcomes are identical.

Why is this, you ask? So far as the pillars for communication is not innovative, and here, I’m referring to the insights used as the yardstick for influencing brand propositions and points of view, the advertising remains indistinguishable and alike in the mind of the consumer who will struggle hard to differentiate the brands saying the same thing in different ways. That is why brands and marketers are still struggling to become lovebrands in the hearts and minds of consumers, and are now content howling product benefits at every opportunity they get to engage and otherwise bond with their target customers.

 As a stakeholder in the Nigerian marketing industry, we bring to bear originality of concept and thinking that will drive innovation across the entire value chain. TINK’s edge is that we are actually entrenched in the local market with a global mindset.

We understand how things work in the Nigerian market. We do not do use generic templates, frameworks or models for our clients. We design and produce customized reports that are skewed to the intricacies faced by clients in their respective markets. If two youth-focused brands targeting the same market subscribe to TINK, they will not receive the same information. And that is the value we are bringing to this market. Integrity and trust are two cardinal values of our company and is central to everything we do.

How is the market responding to your offering?

We have actually not done any major promotional effort to promote TINK. What we have been doing majorly for the past six to eight weeks is more of product launches at major marketing and advertising events where we present emerging consumer trends in certain sectors. At the recently concluded African Outdoor Advertising Conference and Exhibition hosted by LASAA, we presented “The New Outdoors: State of the Union Report on Nigerian Outdoor Advertising”, and at WIMCA (Women in Marketing Conference and Awards) 2014, TINK was invited to share its latest consumer report titled “Trend$$$ Worth Billions: How Brands Can Tap into the Hearts and Minds of Nigerian Female Consumers”. Since then, we have received invitations from Global Outdoor Systems, Social Media Week Johannesburg, Brand Journalist Retreat, StudioMo’s Breakfast with the Creatives and various other organizations looking to understand the Nigerian market and consumer and how their brands can capitalize on pop cultural phenomenon and emerging trends.

 TINK is a consumer insights company, a hybrid of trends research, cultural intelligence and consumer anthropology. It’s the first of its type in Africa. It’s neither an ad agency nor your typical research company. Rather, we see ourselves as partners; from the advertising agency, to experiential, research and public relations firms. We are currently doing a tour of agencies and consumer-focused organizations, sharing insights on their industry and establishing our credentials within the business community. We have received lots of feedback and support from some future-thinking marketing communication companies who want to win in this market because they understand they need to do things differently. We are working with them to decode consumer trends in selected business segments by leveraging our technology and tools.

What would you say is the problem of the research agencies such that they are not able to do what you are doing now?

I wouldn’t say there is a problem with them. The research agencies have their own way of working. Like I had mentioned earlier, we are not a research company. Research agencies provide market data, analytics, segmentation and strategies that helps inform how a brand should navigate the market. They are doing a good job of that already and we are not competing with them on that level. In fact, we leverage their competencies by subscribing to some of their services.

 TINK, on the other hand, brings “heart” to research and provide “meaning” on market trends. We look at the consumer from the cultural perspective. A lot of what we do is based on logical and functional points of view, forgetting sometimes that the consumer makes irrational and emotional decisions that we cannot put a plug to. At TINK, we marry logic with emotion by turning intelligence into magic. We are bringing to bear ideas, insights and innovations that will actually inspire creativity in communication. We infuse ourselves into the mind of consumers and share their own idea of a brand from their perspective and not what brands or agencies want to see. We do not ask a consumer what their idea of a brand is.

Rather, we observe, analyze, experiment and put prototypes into testing and strategy analyses. It is the results of this information that we interpret for clients. Our working module includes mapping out the future of the consumer: what they really want to achieve beyond consumption moments; we map the brand from their current positioning to where we envisage they should be playing; we map the future of the organization and the brand they are pushing in the market; we map the environment: cultural codes, language, societal norms – and infuse all of these elements into developing consumer insights. This outcome is presented to our client which then becomes a basis for the strategy planners to develop a creative brief, the marketing team to design, develop and launch a new product, or to inspire a brand activation program.

What were the challenges you encountered in setting up TINK?

Entrepreneurs with vision will always face certain challenges. One is, getting people to buy into your idea and vision, especially when it does not conform to the standard of things they are used to. Anytime, I am privileged to meet with a new client, I give reasons on why TINK is their go-to innovation partner because we are add value beyond their primary objective of connecting with their target customer, but to understanding the different ways they can connect better with the society where they reside and do business. I love it because it makes us better and reinforces why we came into the market in the first place.

 Secondly, start-ups require access to important resources required to successfully operate in this market. What we have done to minimize challenges faced in doing business is by collaborating with likeminds and building partnerships with local and international firms. We are proud to note that in less than six months of operation, we already have established terms of reference with six multinational companies. We are continually investing by building platforms and systems customized for this market. I don’t believe in buying into an already existing franchise imported from other markets whether or not it has worked successfully.

There is this concern about the level of creativity in the IMC industry, to the extent that some brand owners go outside the shores of this country to get people to work for them. What do you think can be done to raise the bar to world class standards?

Having worked with some of the top creative minds in the industry, one reason I will give for where we are currently is that we are used to templates – our thinking and mindset is to “copy and paste”. Once something is successful in Nigeria and this cuts across industries, we tend to jump on the bandwagon thereby killing and stifling originality and creativity within these sectors. Very few organizations are bringing new thinking to bear on already established models. The same is applicable to the marketing communications sector.

The results of what we experience annually at the Cannes Festival is mostly driven by passionate, future-thinking, creative people looking to win and succeed at all cost. How many marketing practitioners in Nigeria are truly passionate about what they are doing right now? To some of them, it is simply a job; a form of work that generates income. Look at the turnover rate of people within the industry as compared to to other creative sectors; it currently stands averagely at between 8 to 18 months. How many of us really take time out to understudy their clients, their clients’ businesses, the brands they work on and the marketing communications industry in general? Our guys are not even looking to being developed as thought leaders. If this is the case today, what will happen tomorrow? Where are the champions for the development of marcomms? We are all partly at fault. We have not developed and encouraged a sustainable culture that encourages talents within and outside the industry.

How many brand centers or marketing institution do we have that can teach us one or two thing in addition to what is being learned at universities and at agencies? We only have Orange Academy, Miami Ad School (through Chini) and O2 catering to over 70 registered and unregistered agencies and their employees. Where will our people go to build their skills and get inspiration beyond the four walls of the agency? We need a lot more participation from brands, people and organizations that we admire. APCON and AAAN have done quite a lot in this regard but private companies and individuals need to support them. As long as we support the growth and development of our talents, creativity will shoot up.




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