December 01, (THEWILL) – One of the veterans of Nigeria’s Marketing communications industry, Dr Biodun Shobanjo is 80 years-old. To celebrate the legend who gave many their head start in the marketing communications industry, many activities have been lined up in celebration of his landmark age. The epoch-making celebrations began late last month with Brand Communicator, Nigeria’s most consistent brand and marketing communications magazine opening the floodgates with an event held at the Alliance Francaise in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The event, themed ‘Tech Driven Marketing Communications: Bridging Minds and Machines,’ had a fireside chat with Shobanjo who shared his wealth of experience with participants, while also fielding questions.
Every industry player made it a point of duty to attend as it was an eye-opening session with the guru. Other smaller events have been held as a prelude to the grand finale in the coming week. In a career that spans over 50 years,
Shobanjo has managed with top-notch creativity, his organization, Troyka Holdings, seen by most as the largest and most innovative integrated marketing communications group in sub-Saharan Africa with subsidiaries in creative advertising, public relations, experiential marketing, outdoor advertising, security among others.
In 2015, Shobanjo’s ultimate dream of turning Troyka into a global player was fulfilled, when he went into an equity partnership with Publicis Groupe, the world’s 3rd largest marketing communications group, to scale up Insight Redefini, the communications arm of Troyka Holdings, that has two advertising agencies – Insight Publicis and Leo Burnett; two media buying companies – All Seasons Zenith and Starcom Media Perspectives; and Quadrant MSL, a reputation management outfit. That Shobanjo has contributed remarkably to human capacity development, is seen as a mentor to many successful marketing communications practitioners and business owners in the country and beyond would be simply stating the obvious.
He started his career as a Studio Manager in the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) now Radio Nigeria before transiting to Grant Advertising Ltd, an American Nigerian agency. His foray into entrepreneurship began when he co-founded Insight Communications in 1980 with staff members and only one client. Armed with tenacity and the quest for excellence, Biodun proved himself a daring creative innovator in the marketing communications industry.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
