Nigeria and some rest of Africa have been facing various socio-economic challenges ranging from , untapped natural resources, low GDP, poor infrastructure, health, education issues and poverty. These have remained daunting for decades but organisers of ‘Creativity Week’ in Nigeria believed that Africa can change the status quo by embracing the power of creativity to produce positive change.
Drawing from examples how scientists have come up with solutions to enhance lives and tackle human challenges, Nnamdi Ndu, managing director of Chini Africa, chief organiser of the Creativity Week, challenged brands, government and non-governmental organisations to unite in the resolve to provide solution for Africa’s many challenges.
Focusing on brands, Nnamdi told 789marketing.com.ng that the idea of Creativity Week is to encourage the private sector to more in developing the society across Africa.
“Though people rely on government for development as they pay taxes and believe that development is squarely on the shoulders of the government, but we know that if certain activities are left to the government, in the face of dwindling incomes in, government would not be able to make the expected changes.
He told the private sector that creativity is not only about producing Adverts to sell products, but the “consumer of today wants the brands to identify with them, with the issues they are dealing with and speak the same language with them”
According to him, this can be achieved by brands getting involved and intervening in issues that communities are interested in. “This way the brand owners are not just selling products but they are connecting with consumers hearts and in return the consumers will be loyal to the products. Consumers don’t just buy products these days because they are told to buy, but they are also buying and connecting with the hearts of the brand owners”
Nnamdi suggested that “if different companies take one issue in the society, using Sustainable Development Goals of UN as template, even if they adopt one and pursue it, we will see that the society will grow”.
He noted that though some companies are involved in CSR, but many of the CSR projects are for the camera. The issues should be internalised, to the extent that even the staff should be able to say what the brands represent inside and this should resonate outside, he said.
The organisers used the opportunity of Creativity Week in the last week of March, 2019 to launch ‘Creating a Better Africa programme’ which Nnamdi said is an opportunity for African businesses to stand up and take positions to help in solving challenges confronting the continent today.
Creativity Week is an annual forum that brings together all those who are involved in marketing communication and marketing and the whole idea is to promote the industry. It is also targeted at establishing the industry so that they can produce materials that are at par with materials produced from other parts of the world.
