X3M Ideas

In our typical X3M fashion, we went all out as a team showing support to our contestants as they faced their competitors. While it was all fun and games, we came back with the following lessons:

Teamwork:          A team is only as strong as its members. We came together to win as Team X3M and that is what makes us a strong and formidable team.

Attention to detail:        They say the devil is in the details. But for the attention of a fellow X3M team member, we would have lost the precious 9 points we needed to make it to second place.   It is very important to pay attention; you never know what you might learn when you pay attention.

Planning:             During the advertising idols, a contestant asked what song she should sing! This showed the fact that her team failed to plan. We had already practiced 5 songs and we were ready for whatever. That is how to be battle ready.

We went home with four medals: Scrabble, Draft, Video Games and Advertising Idols. Here are a few pictures from the day:  

Whether it is correcting misconceptions, revealing the truth or creating the preferred perception, public relations is about building an image. During his presentation on PR being the mother of advertising, Mr. Ayeni gave us the background on his fledgling but successful media group and shared insightful anecdotes in media and marketing. From Google switching its business model to smoking ladies becoming stylish, we examined how tech start-ups evolved into media giants and marketing campaigns eliminated taboos.

He went on dissect the Nigerian marketing communications landscape where he noted that the bigger and older advertising agencies are doing business below the speed of innovation, while the newer ones are not daring enough to make the impact they desire. References were made to remarkable marketing literature like ‘How Google Works’ and ‘The Rise of PR & the Fall of Advertising’ which made for a very lively session where staff members asked questions and shared their opinions.

As the master class wound down, we took a look at local and global business trends and wondered why smaller agencies seem to innovate more than bigger ones who have the talent, the money and the influence. This led to the concluding question, ‘Does corporate culture significantly affect innovation?’ This last round of discussion brought out a lot of animated responses from the class as we shared our knowledge and experience of different office cultures around the world and across industries.

Self-assessment is a good thing, depending on how you choose to look at it. It’s a different ball game entirely when someone else is critiquing your work. After the hard work of the past year, we eagerly anticipated the 9th edition of the LAIF awards ceremony scheduled to hold at Civic Center in Victoria Island.

LAIF, the Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival, is the Nigerian answer to the Cannes Lions International Festival of creativity. Agency work from the previous year is critiqued by a board of industry experts in terms of creative ideas and execution. The theme for this year was ‘Co-Create. Great Ideas come from everywhere’, we had big expectations for the night.

The night started with a lot of buzz and energy but after several nominations and no wins in the press and outdoor categories, we were getting impatient. Several drinks and selfies later, the party started in every sense of the word. We won several awards in the TV and radio categories and for everyone, we cheered as loudly as we could. At the end of the night, we emerged with 13 awards:

Special Gold Award – Best use of new media.  Etisalat (Can you hear me)

Gold Award – TVC Banking and Investment. Diamond (You need a new bank)

Special Silver Award – Best use of media. Etisalat (Hold yourself)

Special Silver Award – Radio Petroleum Oando (Engine Music)

Special Silver Award – Best use of communication Radio. Etisalat (Easy Cliq Face off)

Silver Award – TVC Miscellaneous. Dangote Cement (Jealous)

Special Bronze Award – Best use of new media online. Project Alert (Seyi Law)

Special Bronze Award – Best use of TV Animation. Etisalat (Hold Yourself)

Special Bronze award – Best use of communication Radio. Etisalat Jingle

Bronze Award – TVC Public, Political and social communication. Malaria no more Music video

Bronze Award – Radio Ads that never ran. Etisalat (Delay)

Bronze Award –  TVC Banking and Investment. Verve (Live, Love and Share).

It was an impressive night and a great way to end the month. While reveling in the euphoria of our wins, we understand the need to roll up our sleeves and get back to work and beat our current 3rd place ranking next time…

The 2014 edition of the Marketing World awards took place at the luxurious Oriental Hotel, to celebrate champions in marketing communications.

The night started off on a calm note, with warm music and industry professionals filling the room.

When our category ”most creative agency” was announced, we were not able to escape the mispronunciation of our name as ‘Ex-Three- M Ideas’ but we were very pumped to be receiving the award.

Compounding our joy was seeing several of our clients win awards, some of which included: Etisalat for Best Impactful Retail Design & Merchandising category Etisalat for Telecom brand of the year category Dangote Cement for Cement Brand of the Year DStv for PayTv Brand of the year.

As always, we cheered along with our clients when they were called for their awards, excited to see them stand tall as winners in their categories.

On the eve of this momentous day, everyone from the chef to our favourite OAP was talking about ”Lagos horn free day”. Most of the comments were from skeptics who didn’t believe it possible for Lagosians to adhere to this ”foreign concept” but many people were curious and excited to see how it would unfold.

We, at X3M Ideas, believed that it was not enough to share creative material to boost the awareness for this day. So, led by CCO Mr Steve Babaeko and armed with flyers, stickers and placards; we donned our “Lagos Horn Free Day” T-Shirts and set out to the busy Opebi/Allen intersection and sensitized the general public and passing motorists on Horn Free Day and the nuisance of noise pollution.

The exercise was fun and members of the public took the message warmly, a lot of people asked questions concerning the significance of the exercise and it’s benefits, while some others just took fliers and zoomed off (we hope they read them).

We are happy to invest our time, energy and creativity in the hope of a better, noise-free Lagos.

Eko o ni baje!

Enjoy additional images below.

Festivities kicked off near enough the scheduled time, with a warm reception from the hosts. With little ceremony, we went straight into the first category: Telecom and allied products.

The first award of interest to us in this category was the Best Brand campaign, whichEtisalat won for ‘’Easyflex’’, a campaign we were very happy to have developed with our client.

One of the highlights of the evening was listening to Orezi’s rendition of the chorus of his hit song You Garrit which goes:

”…mo ri alert pe awon client mi ti sanwo… won ti sanwo”

while having enjoying a laugh with said client.

The evening went on with nods to popular banks, radio stations and mobile phone manufacturers.

Then our moment… the announcement of the Telecom Marketing Company Of The Year. We were very proud to receive this recognition and we all shared a knowing smile when ”Ex-Three-M Ideas” was announced as the winner. Like the new kid in class who has heard 20 pronunciations of her name, we had been jesting about which iteration of X3M Ideas would be announced.

Our clients went on to take two more awards home; Interswitch as Switching Company of The Year and Etisalat for being the Youth Empowerment Telecom Operator of the year for the Nigerian Idol campaign.

Every win for our clients is a win for us, so, we were very stoked on a highly successful night.

Noise pollution is a major issue in Lagos State due to the fact that a lot of motorists use their horns excessively. Horn use should be limited to emergency situations just like hazard lights and fire extinguishers.

To drive this message home, the Lagos state government has set aside Wednesday, October 15th 2014 as the first Lagos Horn Free Day.

Other cities have deployed similar strategies and recorded improvements on their road traffic systems. One such city is Koramangala, India which adopted a ‘No Horn Mondays’ initiative in association with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board in Koramangala.

The launch of this initiative was the 1st Lagos Drivers’ Appreciation Day on October 9th. Guests included the commissioner for Transport – Comrade Kayode Opeifa and his excellency Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, Governor of Lagos State. Both stated their aim to reduce noise in Lagos to the barest minimum, reinforcing Lagos’ position as the Centre of Excellence.

Lagos Horn Free Day should help reduce noise pollution and increase motorist courtesy. The commissioner also noted that the exercise will create a paradigm and gradually a horn free consciousness would start, the commissioner urged transporters, private car owners and Okada riders to support the government in ensuring a reduction in noise pollution through strict adherence to the exercise.

X3M Ideas is proud to partner with the state on this campaign by providing communication material for TV, Radio, Press and Online.

In conjunction with Camara Studios, celebrities, professionals and online personalities, we launched a campaign that gender-swapped the victims of domestic abuse to bring home the brutality of this evil. By using high-level photography and a unique concept, the #speakup campaign went beyond advertising to become a relevant discussion both online and in the real world.

The School Block Before Renovation

Classroom Before Renovation.

The School Block After Renovation

Members of The X3M Ideas Team Of Work.

Members of The X3M After The Renovation Work

The award, which is the first ever pan-African prize, is aimed at celebrating African fiction, specifically new writers of African citizenship whose first fiction novel (over 30,000 words) was published in the last 24 months. All entries for the fiction category will be reviewed by a panel of four judges: Pumla Gqola, Billy Kahora, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, and Zakes Mda.

Call to entry begun on the 5th of June and will close on August 30th 2013. The winner will be announced on February 2014.

The event had in attendance the Chief Executive Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Steven Evans, established writers and academics such as Pumla Gqola (associate professor in the Department of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa), Margaret Busby (the UK’s youngest and first Black woman publisher), Kole Omotoso (writer and intellectual); Dele Olojede (first African born winner of the Pulitzer prize and creator of 234NEXT in Nigeria) and Ellah Wakatama (deputy editor of Granta Magazine), to name a few.