Ayodele Adio: Providing Strategic Media Advisory Services, Reputation Management in Africa 

As the Managing Partner of Adio Strategy and Communications, a  Reputation Management and Media agency, Mr. Ayodele Adio provides strategic media advisory services for senior corporate and public officials while also managing the reputation of major organisational and individual brands. In the course of duty, the alumnus of Pan Atlantic School of Media and Communications, who also doubles as a policy analyst, 

has developed and managed media relations strategies that supported the passing of the Nigeria startup Act, as well as handled some of the biggest tech events in Africa. The author of “Who Took My Socks” – a simple guide on reputation management, and “Pitch Perfect” – how to deliver powerful interviews, in this  interview with Chiemelie Ezeobi, shared the trajectory of his duties and how he has helped shaped communications strategy for new policy implementation in private and public sector

As the Managing Partner of Adio Strategy and Communications, exactly what services does your firm offer and what type of clientele do you offer does services to?

In our firm, we believe that reputation is everything. We specialize in shaping and protecting personal and corporate brands. Whether you’re a rising entrepreneur, an established business, or a public organization (or person), our mission is to ensure you get noticed, heard, and trusted.

Hence, we craft narratives that put our clients in the spotlight for all the right reasons. We focus on cultivating trust, building strong narratives, and delivering clear, impactful messaging that resonates with a targeted audience.

At the core, we help brands get noticed—strategically navigating the ever-changing media landscapes, building lasting relationships with key outlets, and creating opportunities that ensure your message reaches the right ears and eyes. And as I always say to my team, we don’t just manage reputations—we build legacies.

One of the prefix is “Reputation Management”, what does that entail?

In simple terms, Reputation Management is about influencing and controlling an individual’s or organization’s public perception. It is about shaping how an entity is perceived by stakeholders and the public. However, it entails quite a lot and it is all encompassing. It requires building a strong brand identity, engaging with audiences consistently, managing crises effectively and maintaining trust. 

Would you like me to elaborate on any specific aspect of reputation management?

For the sake of this interview let me dwell on maintaining trust as a key aspect of reputation management. Every business that exists is making a promise to the customer, and its success will be determined by how committed it is at keeping that promise. Therefore, when an organization makes a habit of breaking its promises to the customer, it loses credibility and damages its reputation. And ones a business has a damaged reputation, it is difficult, if not impossible, to survive. That is why building and maintaining a culture of excellence, and a fanatical commitment to the customer, make up the foundation of every organization’s reputation. With a great reputation, you can charge a premium, but with a battered reputation, you’d be out of business. It is the realization of this truism that compels brands and professionals to take reputation management very seriously. 

When did this Brand start and what’s the journey been like since its establishment to now?

We started out about five years ago and it’s been an incredibly exciting journey. We’ve worked with professionals across industries, brands across various sectors, and public sector leaders from various parts of the country. 

Any challenges and how did you navigate that?

There have been several challenges managing certain kinds of clients, managing crisis, and even finding the right talent internally to scale. One of the challenges most reputations managers deal with especially when managing a crisis is getting the client to understand that saving their reputation will first require saving them from themselves. There is always the tendency to centre themselves during a crisis, and every time this happens the crisis typically goes from bad to worse. 

So, managing the ego of successful brands or professional is the most daunting task you can encounter. It is challenging but crucial, because it doesn’t matter if you publish a statement your client imposes on you, if there is a backlash from that statement, you would still bear the brunt. With reputation management, it is almost as if you are dammed if you do and damned of you don’t. 

That is why is it advisable to build trust, so when the day comes that you have to prioritize the brand over the emotions of the person, you will have the confident and support of the  CinC. 

One of your highlights says you provided strategic media and communications support towards managing the Youth Party’s brand reputation after an illegal deregistration by INEC which was later overturned by the Supreme Court. Care to elucidate?

I’m sure you know the story. After the 2019 general elections, INEC, illegally deregistered the Youth party along with 72 other political parties. But rather than be cowered or intimidated, the party took INEC and the FG to court and secured a supreme court judgement legitimizing the party and ordering INEC to reinstate the party. But this journey took close to 5 years of a vigorous media and strategic communications campaign. We knew that to succeed we needed to make a convincing argument in court and to shape public opinion. It was a daunting task because resources were limited, and we needed to run a brilliant media and communications campaign. And so got to work leveraging the digital media space to gain traction and get attention, which we then used to get media appearances and features on mainstream media. Looking back now, it is clear that we pulled off the impossible: we went against institutions with budgets that we can only imagine in our dreams. The media and civil society in Nigeria had also leaned towards the argument that we didn’t need more political parties and so it was fair to have deregistered the 73 political parties. And even more significantly is that none of the other 70 political parties put up a fight. Hence it was a cold lonely walk but our skills and resilience shone through. The courage, tenacity and brilliance of the like of Wale Irokosu, and the dexterity and imagination of Tomiwa Aladekomo who was the chair of the party at the time, made our work easy and helped us succeed. 

When you say you have developed and managed media relations strategies that supported the passing of the Nigeria startup Act, just as you have done for some of the biggest tech events in Africa, can you give more details about that?

The Nigeria Start up act is one of the most consequential legislations for the tech ecosystem and perhaps for young people across the country. It was an audacious bill that was passed and signed within a year, which was a record. Although the bill was passed in a year, it took a lot of hard work and leadership by the like of Oswald Osaretin Guobadia, who were committed to the vision. Primarily, I was responsible for managing media relations and for shaping public opinion in favour of the bill. And to be honest, I also needed to use the media in certain instances to pressure the legislators to move the bill faster. And so, in a sense, I was managing narratives on both sides: getting the public and particularly the ecosystem to yearn for the bill and also getting the legislators to act swiftly on its passage. It also helped that there was a phenomenal communications team behind the efforts led at several times by Olanrewaju Odunowo and a couple of others. 

You also worked with some politicians during the last election. In what capacity was that?

I have worked with political in every election cycle since 2014 and my roles has mostly been media advisory and communications strategy. 

Can you also call yourself a crisis expert seeing that you have managed several crisis for corporate and government institutions? Any instances that stood out for you?

I would argue that shaping narratives (which is reaching hearts and minds) and crisis management would be my strongest points. I also sort of enjoy being in a crisis situation, the adrenalin rush, the tension and the demands it places on one to think radically. What I enjoy the most is the look of the face of the client when the notice that public perception is changing in their favour or when it is clear that they have gotten off the hook. Its almost like magic, sometimes. 

But I think it is important to stress my view when managing a crisis situation. I always believe that the end goal for crisis management is for the customer, client or public to give the brand or organization another chance. As long as the organization or individual is given another chance, then the efforts in managing the crisis was successful. So, managing a crisis does not mean that everyone will be hypnotized to think in one direction or to suddenly start eating from your plate, no. In fact, sometimes, the anger or resentment would last a while depending on what triggered the crisis. My job is to get the audience, public or customers to give you another chance. 

In shaping communications strategy for new policy implementation in private and public sector, how did that come about and what were the processes involved?

For any policy to succeed, the people must have (or at least feel they have) a stake it processes and the success. Without the buy in of the people, there will be sabotages and compromises that would either limit the impact of that policy or completely derail it. For me, this has been the bane of policy making in Nigeria, both at federal, state and local government level, where policies are implemented without taking the pain to engage. It explains why so many brilliant policies are resisted and why several others fail. 

What I try to do, whether its in the public or private sector is to help policy makers to see how their policies would impact the people, the concerns people are likely to have, what is likely to be resisted and why. That way, two things follow: such concerns are addressed before its implementation and where such concerns are necessary for the success of the initiative, we then help to create a communications plan and engagement strategy that carries the public along. And every time this has happened, those policies succeed beyond expectation because the people take ownership. 

Can you shed light on your book “Who took my socks” and how does one apply it to build a brand reputation?

Well, who took my socks is a book on reputation management and how brands can gain loyalty by building a reputation that is people or customer centric. And I use the analogy of the missing socks to explain the importance of building a culture of excellence and a fanatical commitment to certain standards and values. 

Interestingly, and this is mostly for men, you wake up one morning and you are struggling to find a pair of socks that match. You are almost in shock how they got missing because the last time you could remember, you had more than enough. So what could have happened to your socks? Well, the truth is, you may have flung one in your sitting room last month and didn’t remember to pick it up. 

You may have left another in your car when you tried to take of your shoes and wear a slippers to feel a bit more comfortable. When you think about it deeply, you will see how those small and inconsequential actions you took when you had more than enough had suddenly forced a scarcity. Similarly, some organizations tend to be dismissive and sometimes condescending to customers because they are in abundance. And so they don’t even notice when a customer never returns or when they lose them to their competition – until when it finally hits them that they are out of business because most of their customers have now migrated to where they are treated with more respect and dignity. That’s the morale of the story. 

You also wrote “Pitch Perfect” as the ultimate guide in delivering powerful interviews. What influenced that book and would you say it has made impact on the target audience?

I really enjoyed writing this book because it came from my experience managing and preparing hundreds of senior executives and government officials for interviews. The book is a simple guide to help people deliver radio or television interviews that are more appealing to their audience. It provides practical guides in managing the interview process to help achieve stated objectives. Every time I watch a television interview or listen to one on radio, I’m almost always disappointed how most people waste the opportunity to make a great impression and this book provides a solution to that problem. 

As a policy analyst, what policies do you suggest to the government of the day to either focus or discard that will better society?

This is a difficult one because a lot has gone wrong across various sectors. But I believe that providing leadership from the top will be the most defining factor. By leadership here I mean the kind of leadership that a sheperd provides, where they sacrifice for their herd, where they lead from the front, where protect even at the cost of their lives. It is only that kind of leadership that can transform this country. As long as people see public office as a ticket to wealth, our country will continue to wallow in abject poverty and under-development. 

What’s in the future for your brand? 

I believe that we will become the biggest indigenous reputation management firm in the subregion over the next decade.