• Celebrates 10th  anniversary amidst pomps

Nigeria’s premier marketing innovation firm GDM, has launched three bespoke innovative marketing products following its evolution from a brands solutions company, in commemoration of its 10th anniversary.

The products were unveiled at the firm’s Client Appreciation Dinner event which held at the prestigious Radisson Blu Hotel in Ikeja, Lagos, at the weekend. The event had in attendance some clients from over 40 multinational companies and 182 brands the innovation marketing Group has worked /is working for including Nestle, Unilever, Nigerian Breweries, Suntory, Lafarge, Friesland WAMPCO Campina, Diageo, the Lagos State Government, BOI, Mouka among others.

The marketing innovation products launched by the firm are Retailar, a B2B e-commerce platform that enables retailers effortlessly access products at the price of the manufacturer, order for them and have them delivered to them, right from the comfort of their phone, cheaper, faster and more efficiently.

Also unveiled was Retailscope, an audit platform which provides quantitative primary retail data about FMCG products. This is going to be shared with people in the marketing ecosystem for free. The innovation firm explained that having worked for the Federal Government on TraderMoni  as an aggregator, it has acquired the capacity and competence to have had people across all the country. According to the Founder, GDM, Group, Victor Afolabi, “We have people in all local governments, we were in 774 local government areas to get raw primary data clients can rely on. Retailscope is going to be made available free of charge to the ecosystem via Nigeria’s foremost award winning brands and marketing communications centric magazine, Brand Communicator as well as BusinessDay Newspaper.”

Finally, the firm unveiled Alpha Geak, a subscription based solutions platform which the agency has used in the past two years for enumeration, validation and managing point of sales material for salesmen automation like a Sales Force Automation, SFA, developed for big projects. This, it unveiled to help small businesses scale up and compete favourably in the market.

Prior the appreciation dinner, GDM held a series of activities within the week to commemorate its anniversary. Recall that on Monday, GDM empowered students of Gbagada Junior Comprehensive Secondary School with educational materials. The marketing innovation firm also renovated the Junior Secondary School’s multipurpose hall and presented 21 new white marker boards for classrooms, among other educational items.

This, they explained, would enhance the capacity of the students to learn whilst harnessing their creativity and encouraging innovation. Victor Afolabi, while speaking at the event, disclosed that the effort was also driven by the idea of giving back to the society.

According to him, “The wealth of this nation is in its people which is one of the reasons we decided to take our quota of corporate social responsibility to a secondary school where we can directly reach and impact the future of our nation.”

Afolabi added: “This is the beginning of what would be a prosperous partnership between our organisation; the Lagos State Government and the society, as we intend to continue to do more of these development driven initiatives.

This was followed by an impactful marketing Innovation masterclass tagged ‘Raising the Bar’ held on Tuesday as a bid to give back and show its appreciation to the ecosystem that has contributed to its successes.The free event featured foremost and seasoned industry players who drew from their wealth of experience and knowledge to impact participants at the Eko Innovation Centre, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Setting the tone for the well-attended full day programme was the Managing Director of Nitro 121, Lampe Omoyele, respected business leader who has been previously Marketing Director at Cadbury, Airtel, PZCussons and Glaxo SmithKline; Managing Director, Nielsen West Africa. He lectured participants on the topic, “Marketing Innovation and Strategy in 2020.”

This was followed by a session from the Managing Director of Entod Marketing, Mrs Iquo Uko. Mrs Ukoh who by dint of hard work and high level of professionalism at Nestle Nigeria, became the first and only Female  Marketing Director at an Executive Management level till date, took participants through an exciting journey with “Timeless Principles of Effective Marketing.”

Group Chief Executive Officer and Chief Creative Officer of Nigeria’s most creative agency, X3M Ideas, Steve Babaeko who was named among the prestigious Adweek 100 most creative professionals in the world followed Mrs Uko’s presentation with a high-powered inspiring motivational salvo on “The Guts to Win the Innovation Game.”

Other faculty members that impacted participants at the event include Frank Ozekhome, Head, Group Strategy, Insight Redefini who spoke on “Trends to Leverage in Marketing Innovation and Doja Ekeruche, Board Member, Eko Innovation Centre who covered the grounds on “ROI-Focused Marketing.

At the end of the rigorous but rewarding exercise, participants were all issued certificates free of charge. This gesture, according to the Founder and CEO of GDM Group, Victor Afolabi, is part of the Group’s gesture in giving back as well as impacting the ecosystem. He said that beyond the maiden edition, this will be an annual event the GDM Group will be organising.

He added, “Marketing innovation masterclass is an annual GDM platform where the company connects with stakeholders in the marketing and innovation industry for knowledge sharing purpose. The 2020 maiden edition will curate conversations around innovation in marketing, leveraging trends, data, storytelling and technology.”

Earlier in his address, Afolabi shared the decade-long story of GDM Group and how they have been successfully distilling complex marketing problems, how they serviced some of the largest homebred and cosmopolitan brands, how they emerged as an institution leader, and now they are now raising the bar.