It was a celebration with excitement and glamour on Saturday, May 1 2021 when the first set of marketing professionals graduating from ExperientialNG Academy had their certificate presentation ceremony in Ikeja, Lagos.
Ezinne Okalanwa of Max Connection and Ifunaya Olisaemeka of Brainbox marketing were the first to collect their certificates after emerging as the best graduating students in Events and Experiential marketing. The duo bagged distinction at an experiential master class in marketing and was copiously congratulated by the presenter and Course Director of ExperientialNG Marketing Academy, M, Mr. Tunji Adeyinka – GMD, Republic Group.
Speaking on her experience during the course of the master class, Ezinne Okalanwa of Max Connection, an experiential marketing outfit in Lagos State Nigeria said, ” it was very interesting and mind-blowing, and every session of the class was quite revealing. I also learnt a new approach to handling marketing projects”.
While commenting on what gave her the edge and helped her to graduate with a distinction she said; “first of all, I will say it was the commitment because any task I lay my hands on, I always ensure I put in my best. Secondly, my agency which is Max Connection has been in tandem with all that we learnt here, I think that also was an added advantage in my performance.”
Speaking on the relevance of training in the marketing communications landscape, she pointed out that; “training in the marketing communications industry is very important, and that is not debatable at all, because the way I came into this training is not the same way I am returning in the area of knowledge acquisition.”
Advising young people, Ezinne disclosed that “for every level, you find yourself in the marketing strata, it’s very important you inculcate the habit of learning, and whatever level you have gotten to, always know that there is room for learning and growth. That should be a motivating factor for you to always learn, and look for a mentor in the industry to put you through. This master program is also a program that I will recommend for everybody in the experiential marketing world.”
Speaking about her feelings at ExperientialNG academy, she stated that; “I will start with the communication platform, I think we had an excellent communication platform, it was clear, concise and very precise. The faculty did well to distil all the modules.”
“Also, special thanks to Dr Rotimi Olaniyan, the convener of this initiative, who did a lot of brilliant work from start to finish. I remember we used to have a review session on Sunday evenings to make sure everyone understands what we have been taught so far, highlighting your challenges on areas where you have issues so that it can be explained for us all to be on the same page.” She added.
Also sharing her experience, Ifunaya Olisaemeka who works with Brainbox marketing, an experiential marketing outfit in Lagos State, Nigeria said, “it was quite interesting because at the time when the training was on, I had a project which I was handling, and it was really an eye-opener for me because I was able to learn new skills.
Speaking on what made it possible for her to come out with distinction, she noted that “I will like to say that, my experience with brainbox marketing really helped, so also the level of clients I have worked with helped me as well as projects that we did at the end of the class.”
Commenting on the relevance of training as far as the marketing communications industry is concerned, she pointed out that, “training in general regardless of your discipline is very important because it will expose you to new techniques of doing things.”
“Particularly in marketing communications, it’s very important because every and again you are dealing with people and is there will be the need for you to understand their behavioural change as they evolve.”
While advising new entrant, and even those that are already in the industry as far as training is concerned, she stated that, “we all need to keep learning because as the days go by people are creating new things, so you need to learn, unlearn and relearn about new development in the industry.
“Times and things are changing, who would have known that something like COVID-19 will emerge and have such adverse effects on the marketing industry. So, it’s important to learn how to prepare yourself for the unknown in the industry.”
“my experience at ExperientialNG academy was quite interesting, we had amazing faculty with the depth of knowledge like never before, and learning under such people was a thing of joy to me.” She added
Other graduating students that were presented certificates include, Atanlusi Kehinde, Caroline Mahmoud-Lawal, Emmanuel Joshua, Ernest Igbokwe, Ighodalo Godsend, Kehinde Oloke, Otene Ene Peace among others.
Before the presentation ceremony, the free Strategic training sessions for top African Executives also organized by ExperientialNG took place digitally view zoom platform. The training was handled by three experts Stuart Hamilton, Head of International Trade, Scottish Chambers of Commerce, Dr Rotimi Olaniyan of Experiential NG, and Austin Ufumba, Managing Partner, Tytron Group.
The three Experts advised marketing leaders in Africa to strongly pay close attention to strategic thinking if they want to maintain the competitive edge in today’s very challenging business environment
In the end, a highly elated Rotimi Olaniyan, Publisher of ExperientialNG explained that ” the success of this program is not just from our efforts. We owe a lot to partners like Hybrid Studios, Abelinis, Emporium, Connect Marketing, Ideas House, Trybes, Max Connection, Francey Tansley, Linkpoint, Brainbox Marketing, Leverage group, and many others. Without them, the race would not have been so smooth and easy”.
