Babaeko: Local Agencies Must Be Creative to Compete Globally

The Chief Executive Officer of X3M Ideas, Steve Babaeko, speaks to Raheem Akingbolu on the evolution in the marketing communications industry and the need for local agencies to deepen their creative ingenuity to be able to compete maximally with global firms.  

How will you evaluate the practice of advertising between the 1990s and now?

There has been a transition. I think we are heading in the right direction, though there are still a lot of challenges ahead for the industry because fragmentation keeps happening. In the early 1990s, advertising agencies were able to put PR, Events and Media services under one roof. So, what was supposed to be a problem is fast becoming a blessing in disguise. You are no longer worried about media, PR, events but you focus on brand solutions, creating strategies and developing quality creatives. So, it has made advertising agencies to become specialist and more focused and if you keep that and find a way for clients to pay premium for the creative generated, I think the future is bright for the industry.

How will you describe the journey that started back in 2012?

It gladdens my heart that X3M Ideas is 10 years old. It just shows us the value of time. Sometimes you just don’t know how fast time goes. At times, I think what would have happened if we didn’t take the bold step to start X3M Ideas 10 years ago, there is no way we would have known what is possible today. That shows whether you do something or not. Whether you decide to choose the path of greatness or not, time will still pass. It moves so fast especially when you are busy building for the future. For me and my team we are really excited that God has spared our lives to see 10 years of all the hard work we have put in. And to have built a solid organisation within the marketing communications industry in the country.

Have you achieved some of the goals you set for X3M Ideas when you stated?

Right from inception we wanted to be number one in the industry, and I think after 10 years one can unequivocally say that X3M Ideas is the number one agency in the country today. For me, that is very important for us. I told my team from the beginning that we are not here to be number two to anybody. We set up to lead and that was among many other goals. We also told ourselves that we must have our facility within the first five years and we were able to achieve that in the first three years. Part of the goal was to be able to spread out our tentacle beyond Nigeria within the first five years. I think we achieved that in the fourth to fifth year, and now on the occasion of our 10th anniversary, we are more than just a solitary agency in Nigeria. We have footprints across Africa. Apart from that we wanted to add value to the business of our clients, 10 years down the lane I think we can look back and see all of the great brands that X3M Ideas has been privileged to work for with great value we have added to their businesses.

What operational philosophy drives X3M Ideas?

Excellence for us is really key. Excellence in ideation and excellence in execution. What drives us every day is my personal phrase of what next.  No matter how great we have achieved, the next question we always ask ourselves as a team is what is the next big thing. What is the next level we are going to take in this business of creativity? So, for us we always focus on breaking new ground, working with cutting edge technology to drive all of our goal aspirations.

What are the achievements you can say X3M Ideas have achieved in its 10 years of practice?

I think the biggest one for me is just the quality of the team that we have. We have to overcome so many obstacles and hurdles and in between that we were able to put together a solid all-star team that we have in X3M Ideas. Secondly, the quality of creativities and strategies we have been able to deploy in support of the brands that our clients have magnanimously put in our custody is another one. That is really satisfying. Once we see that the brands are growing, there is that special sense of accomplishment to say that we are doing the right thing. I think the overall thing is that we are moving forward.

What is the staying power of X3M Ideas that has made it dictate the pace for a long period?

It’s just not being satisfied with what we are doing. We don’t like to rest on our laurels. While it is common for people to win this year, go to sleep and think that they arrived, at X3MIdeas, we see it as the beginning of our journey. One needs to understand that in this business you never truly arrive. The day you truly arrive you are six-feet under. Because we take cognizance of that. Everyday we wake up it’s an opportunity for us to be better than yesterday. It’s Just that constant quest for excellence for new achievement and new records. I think that’s what basically keeps us going to survive and that’s the kind of person that I am, and I have been able to infect the team with the same energy.

Can you tell us some of the CSR and Sustainability initiatives X3M Ideas have undertaken?

We have done quite a lot even as far as Zambia now. It is a culture that we carry within the group. The team in Zambian is doing its own CSR and for every place we go in Africa we have been able to extend the same spirit. Here in Nigeria education for me is the building block of the bright future. That is the area where we can intervene and do great things. Every year since day one, we have always renovated a government school and we hand it over to the government. Don’t forget we also went to Chibok in Borno State to make contributions to high school there and beyond there. Even these days we have extended to climate change initiatives like all the trees we planted about 1.5Kilometres stretch along Lekki Expressway, Ibeju Lekki axis. This is important as a responsible corporate citizen that if you operate within the environment and you made gains, you must plough back to impart that society. At X3M Ideas people matter to us a lot.

What other exploits should we expect from X3M Ideas?

Quite a lot.  We look forward to being able to, sometimes in the near future, partner with some global agencies to take our business to a new level. The kind of partnership we are looking forward to is not the so-called affiliation kind of partnership. We want somebody that will come here to take a stake as the law permitted then, we can build our African push together. If that doesn’t work out, we also have the option of being able to go to the stock market in Nigeria. We really hope we can do that. Already, we have built a foundation for success and we think we can give more Nigerians the opportunity to really buy into the dream. At the end of the day entrepreneurship is being able to create opportunity for as many people as possible. We think this is a good ground to share some of our good fortunes.

After expanding out of Nigeria to Southern Africa, which market are you still targeting in Africa?

To be honest in the past three months we expanded into three new markets.  We will soon make a formal announcement about that. In total, we are in about 6 markets and we are present in the Middle East right now. We shall be unveiling new operations in the coming weeks. For us we will not stop because Africa is hope for us. We know this continent like the back of our hand and with all of the successes we have recorded in Nigeria, the only thing we can do is to share that platform with our fellow Africa brothers and sisters, a greater opportunity we have built. Frankly one of the things we look forward to inspiring us is also moving in the same direction as our clients expand into Africa. The good thing that we have is that we would be there ahead of them and by the time they set up we would be ready to welcome them or go side by side with them and provide the quality service we have provided for them in Nigeria.

Can you share some of your experiences in advertising over the years?

Some of the things that we thought we couldn’t do at 141Worldwide and probably if you see anything new and global that we are doing here just consider it as one of those things we could not do when we were there. Honestly, I enjoyed all my stay there and I am grateful to my boss Mr. Akinwumi for giving me the opportunity to be the creative director there for 7years. Interestingly, being a creative director is different from being a CEO where you have to be in control of the steering wheel and lead the organization in a much more forward-thinking way. We decided that’s exactly what we are going to do as we touched down in X3M. So, all these innovations and the energy behind all the awards we are winning are some of the things that we felt we could do differently.

Can you also tell us some of the excellent works that you have done?

We have quite a number of them. Our creative director just came back from Dubai recently where we won gold for Glo in one of the international awards in Unted Arab Emirates. We have also done a lot of Pan Africa works for DStv, Showmax and Lacasera. Recently, we won awards for Flour Mills at the Dubai Festival as well. We have also done a lot of work for Peak Milk as well. X3M has done a whole lot of quality work for our clients.

How close is X3M Ideas to Cannes Lions?

 I told my people that there is a huge amount of money on the table for any creative team that wins Cannes. Though I am not going to mention that amount. I can only motivate the team. All I am confident about is that the race is on, and we are not the only agencies in the country that are making an effort towards winning Cannes. I know sooner than later we will win it, and I know probably we will be the first agency to win it.

What are your projections for the agency in the next 5 to 10 years?

It is just to continue to fly the flag for Nigeria on the global stage. X3M will continue to do a lot of that. Look at all of the awards we have won. We won one in Switzerland late last year. We won the Lisbon Advertising Festival also. So, it’s just to continue to fly the Nigerian flag on that international stage and to continue to make our team stronger, to improve on our processes in making sure that our works come out better and continue to provide support for our clients. We will continue to make great works to get the clients to a very comfortable place where they are winning in the market.  That is the only thing that guarantees that we will also continue to win. These are the things we have in mind for the next few years.