Monday 18 June 2018

In

BUSINESS DAY

association with

ODINAKA ANUDU

Steve Babaeko happens to be in this group. Steve founded X3M Ideas five years ago, but this firm has grown so fast that it now has an office in Johannesburg, South Africa. X3M Ideas is a digital advertising / marketing / branding company that has handled a number of creative jobs in Nigeria and Africa.

He is the group chief executive officer of X3M Group, made up of X3M Ideas, X3M Music, and Zero Degrees, among others.

Having conquered the industry in Nigeria, Steve now feels that his company must leave its footprints on the sand of Africa.

He set up an office in South Africa one year ago to serve South- Central African countries. He has been in advertising since 1994, working in a couple of places in the country.

Steve’ s South-Central Africa Project covers South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

“ The vision is quite clear. I have always felt that there are just so many people on this continent, and we need to do business with each other. There are over one billion people or about 1.3 billion people on the continent. If you look at other regions like the Americas, the South-East Asians and the North-East Asia or Europe, the level of intra-continental trade is high. Sometimes it is even more expensive to travel from one African country to another than to travel to Europe. If we can bridge the gap in intra-African trade, there will be prosperity. It is a no-brainer.

“ Nigeria and South Africa are the biggest economies in Africa. These two continents can change the story of Africa,” he says.

His experience in South Africa has been unique as the country has its rules that must be obeyed, including prompt payment of taxes.

But why did he choose South Africa?

According to Steve, some of the firms he works for already have roots in South Africa and Southern Africa.

“ I was in Lusaka two weeks ago and the billboard read,‘ Dangote Cement: Creating Value’. These were the stuffs developed in this shop. If they are already there, what about other clients? Access Bank

Steve Babaeko

is already in Zambia. One of the reasons why we had to take this decision is that our clients are moving in there. We are already providing quality service for them here in Nigeria and we can transport the services there. We are comfortable doing business in Africa. We just have to pursue this African agenda more,” he explains.

“ There are certain best practices in Nigeria in terms of marketing communications and we know we will be useful in other parts of Africa. I just consider this as the beginning because the vision is to leave indelible marks on the footprints across the continent. We are going to take it region by region,” he states.

Steve is not afraid of competition as he believes his firm is already a major player.

“ You will remember that recently we were in Morocco at Crystal Award and everybody came asking me the global agency I was affiliated with. I told them we are an independent agency. We are only one of the few independent agencies that won 15 awards at this scale. Major players from South Africa came for the award and not many of them won up to this level. So, we are already competitive. We are going there as a major player that have done something substantial at this scale. For an agency that started five years ago to be ranking the way we are, is not a tea party. We have left our mark on this market,” he says, confidently.

The entrepreneur is looking at East Africa, especially Kigali, Rwanda. He believes the economy of the country is growing and has been so for the past five years.

He met some of the country’ s officials in a conference in Dubai

few months ago, and was reassured that his investment would be safe.

Steve believes that the Nigerian market is big enough, but wants the country to get its acts right to attract more investors.

“ First and foremost, I am a Nigerian. This is still a wonderful market. We have our challenges, we have our issues. We need to get governance and infrastructure right; we need to get many things right. I was in Accra the other day and the airport there was way smaller than ours but very organised. If we can get infrastructure right in Nigeria, the sky is the limit. We are going to build more entrepreneurs and take over this continent. Some of the places you go to, like South Africa, have very good infrastructure. But there are also other places where infrastructure is not as good as Nigeria.”

The creative entrepreneur believes that the tendency for Africa to leapfrog is very high. He says technology makes it easier for people of the continent to scale up.

One big discussion in the advertising / branding industry in Nigeria today is mergers and acquisitions. Steve believes that some agencies in the country will die if they do not merge or get acquired. He tells Start-Up Digest that he is talking to people that want to merge with his firm.

“ In Nigeria, it is still the inevitable. In the next five years, when you mention names of some agencies, people will tell you they used to remember them. We have no choice, we have to merge. People have to acquire them. The old school way of saying,‘ I am a big fish in one bathtub’ is gone. Nothing is wrong with being a small fish in a big pond. That is what mergers

and acquisition will do for you. If not, agencies will die. It is just the inevitable. Commonsense will prevail,” he explains.

Five years after, Steve’ s firm is a success story, but the entrepreneur believes he should still be seen as a start-up.

“ We are still operating with the mentality of a start-up. Even Amazon, I am sure, still thinks like a start-up. The size is a matter of the mind. We started with nothing and, to be honest, we still think we are very much work in progress. We started with seven people. Today, across our group in Nigeria, we are over 100 people. You can just measure that scale,” he says.

There are opportunities in Africa, he says, adding that the level of creativity in Nigeria’ s advertising / branding industry is going up.“ Before now, Nigeria hardly ever got some of those continental awards. But these days, Nigeria is like the next emerging powerhouse to watch on the continent. I was a jury at an award event last year and the story was the same. Nigeria is another country to watch.”

According to him, it is wrong for ad agencies to sacrifice building brands for winning awards, stating that this is a wrong approach in the industry.

“ We are not going to say we will not build brands in the name of winning awards. Our first passion is moving that brand from point A to point B. The obsession for winning awards cannot overtake the work we do,” he assures.

“ Agencies all over the world sometimes create what is called‘ scam ads’. These are ads clients did not commission. Some people will run their ads at 4am on TV stations. The agencies will pay for

those ads even when nobody saw them, and they will enter them for awards,” he discloses.

He says as a thoroughbred professional, one must draw a line between obsession for winning awards and obsession for building brands.

Steve adds that there is a mentality that brought his firm to where it is today.

“ From day one, when we started this agency, I told my staff that we were not competing with agencies in Nigeria. Our sights have always been on that global level, to be a global player. We want to be a local player with the best global practice. I told my staff from day one that anybody that calls X3M a new agency or a start-up agency would be fired on the spot. Anybody that worked with us from day one had that mindset,” he discloses.

Steve’ s firm prides itself as an ad agency that is expanding without raising money from anywhere.

He points out that his obsession is to spread or export the concept of black excellence, African excellence, across the continent, especially in the field of advertising.

He, however, explains that raising funds is still a major problem.

“ Infrastructure is a problem, including regulation. Apart from West African sub-region, where you can go in easily, in other places you have to talk about visa, work permit, and other things. Those are challenges, but challenges are part of the game. Ability to surmount those challenges is what distinguishes you from others. If it was easy, everybody would have offices across the world,” he states.

What did Steve bring into the industry?

His answer is very clear:“ We brought a bit of fresh air. Most agencies have existed for 20 years but cannot count how many brands they have touched. But I can count how many brands we have touched positively. As a person, I am not driven by money, but the passion and love for what I do.”

ODINAKA ANUDU Editor

odinaka. anudu @ businessdayonline. com 08067478413

Reporters Josephine Okojie Angel James

Joel Samson Graphics