To celebrate its tenth year as an impactful contributor to Nigeria’s marketing ecosystem, First Katalyst Marketing, a leading Below-the-line agency, is set to mark the milestone with a thought leadership session tagged “The Marketing Conclave” holding on June 2, 2022.
The event would take place at D’Podium Event Centre Aromire, Ikeja, Lagos by 9:00 am.
As part of the celebration, the organisation is also embarking on a charity project in its decision to give back to the society. It has also secured the permission of the relevant authorities to renovate the sickbay of the Adeniyi Jones Pry School at Akora, Lagos as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
The Managing Director of the agency, Soji Odedina, disclosed these to journalists at a press briefing held Tuesday, May 24 at its Lagos office.
He said the initiatives are aimed at giving back to society and the marketing landscape. He added that it will honour its staff at its award and party slated to hold June 3.
Odedina explained that the 2022 Marketing Conclave has “Marketing into the Future” as its theme, and Professor Chris Ogbechie, Dean of Lagos Business School is billed as the speaker to deliver the keynote address. Top executives from both client and agency sides in the integrated marketing communications industry will also speak at the event on two different subthemes; “Advertising Regulations in The Age Of New Media”, and “Below The Line, Above The Line, Where Is The Line?”
He emphasized that The Marketing Conclave is part of his agency’s contributions to the growth of the marketing industry and plans are in the pipeline to make the event an annual memorable event.
Odedina explain further: “The Marketing Conclave is our 10th-anniversary gift to the marketing community in Africa. As a platform, it is designed to bring practitioners together to discuss matters arising with respect to theory and practice.
“Professor Chris Ogbechie, Dean Lagos Business School will deliver the 2022 keynote address and be inducted into Nigeria’s Marketing Hall of Fame as the man who pioneered BTL/Experiential Marketing practice in West Africa with his Contact Marketing Services Ltd set up in 1991.,” he said.
He added, “The event will kick off with an exciting exhibition of our Clients’ Brands before we kick off with The Conclave. A long list of distinguished panelists has been assembled to include Tunji Olugbodi, Steve Babaeko, Emmanuel Agu, Kenny Salami, Tunji Adeyinka, and a host of others. Of course, Brand Communicator is our media partner. We promise an unforgettable experience.”
At present, First Katalyst Marketing had also evolved into a Group over the years, with subsidiaries such as FK Digital, Image Target – Outdoor, SSB Africa, and FK Foods. Meanwhile, each sister company has its management team and runs on its own steam.
Currently, the agency has a presence in Ghana and plans to expand to other African countries soon. “But today I am Happy to announce that our Ghana office is fully operational with Akosa Agbu, a Nigerian with 21 years of experience working in Ghana as an expatriate, as our Country Director. We are going to continue our expansion along that corridor with a focus on Cote D’Ivoire and Cameroon. Our Clients need our services in those markets.”
It also has manage some of the leading brands in the country and the continent such as Guinness/Diageo, MTN, Fan Milk/Danone, Kimberly Clarke, PZ, Lafarge, Godrej, Saro Africa, Chi Limited – A Coca-Cola Company among others.
Going back to memory lane when and how the agency started a decade ago, Odedina said “We opened a shop on 1st of June, 2012 and we were at ground zero. By that I mean no client, no business at all. And then we started building up from scratch. There were sleepless nights for me, my partner, Sunday Awoyomi, who is unavoidably absent at today’s press conference. Our humble beginning didn’t deter us. We remained focused on being the best version of ourselves, on professionalism. We persisted and persevered despite all the challenges.”
In ten years, the agency has evolved into a respected player in the industry, winning many notable local and international awards for its contribution to the growth of the marketing landscape. Recently, it emerged as the Most outstanding Experiential Marketing Agency at Marketing Edge Awards in 2021 and Best BTL Agency 2021 at Brandcom Awards 2021 while Odedina was awarded the Most Outstanding Experiential Marketing Personality in 2021 amongst many others.
