October 15, 2018
In this interview with PETER OBIORA of InvestAdvocate, Odion Aleobua, former Head, Brand & Corporate Communications Forte Oil Plc and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Modion Communications, one of Nigeria’s fast growing Public Relations and Communications solutions providing agency, gives an insight on the creation of the company, its plan to fill the generational gap and take the marketing communications industry to the next level, awards and future of the firm. Excerpts:
The creation of Modion Communications
How did Modion Communications start?, Modion was always going to be; but I was not sure what the name was going to be, so all my career years, I was thinking there will be a point where I have to make that tough decision and move to start something, this is because I understand there was going to be a generational gap were the celebrated marketing communication professionals and champions that we have will definitely leave the scene. The likes of Biodun Shobanjo Founder of the Insights Communications and the Troyka Group; especially is aging , his reign will happen actually where he will go back and say who are the young people that will take over and do the industry proud like he has done.
Therefore, that’s always at the back of my mind, even when I was working in structured client organizations. Also, I wanted to move before I was forty years of age, very interestingly I told him; maybe he thought I was joking, but he was also inspired by Wale Tinubu. I worked with these people very closely and I know they started around thirty five, thirty six years of age and I wanted to start around that same time. So, when I was thirty five, one day I just went to work and made up my mind that it was time to go. It was a small journey, we started inside a sitting room, I left my job in December 2014 and we started Modion Communications in January 2015 inside my living room.
It was a slow journey, because I jumped, I didn’t look very closely, I didn’t realize that 2015 was an election year, what that means is that all corporate planning go into a freeze, because everybody is looking at the political environment; which usually is tense, when we are progressing from one regime to the other, also it was even more tense when the players involved made it obvious that it was going to be a contest, Jonathan Goodluck and Muhammadu Buhari, and so, there was tension as much as there was anticipation and that’s when I started business. Not a very wise thing to do because when we get into any organization with our proposal, they always say they liked what we had to offer; but wait let’s sees how the political terrain plays out. I said to myself, its February of that year and we are not going to wait long; but the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) postponed the election to April, so my waiting period extend and because I started on a zero level, with nothing, it was tough; but it was good. It taught me discipline and understanding that the world out there was different from where I was for over 10 years and that I was going to actually have to craft a different strategy to succeed. If I gone into the business world and immediately became successful, perhaps I would have stumbled.
Modion Communications first client
Our first client were the Pest Control Association of Nigeria (PECAN), they saw a publication we did and they came to us and said we liked what you did and I think the payment we received was N50,000. And they struggled to pay the money, but from the Pest Control Association of Nigeria, we did something for a German Pharmaceutical company, they were trying to come in and were working with PECAN who referred them to us. That was our first corporate job and we did media relations for them. Thereafter, we had the opportunity to get into Leadway Assurance, the insurer was the first client to ever show us confidence and we would continually till the end of time be grateful to them. It’s tough for a corporate entity to take a chance on a new firm, after that we had Rainoil Limited and others, Oando came in towards the end of that year, also Lagos State Employment Trust Fund and the journey started.
FACTS CHECK: Modion Communications has in its client base the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, Oando Group, Rainoil Limited, Nigerian Gas Association, Leadway Assurance, Elektron Petroleum Energy and Mining, Nepal Oil and Gas Services Limited, Propetrol Limited and Pest Control Association of Nigeria (PECAN)-Source: Modion Communications website
Why is the bulk of your clientele base majorly oil servicing companies?
Ranoil for example called us from nowhere and we have never met them before, they obviously saw a bit of the transformation I championed at Forte Oil Plc, what the company had intended was to poach me; but I wanted to do business, the company requested I do two proposals, one as a staff and the other as a consultant. This was January of that, it was an election year like I said earlier and I was a bit desperate and I offered the two plans. So, when I was called back in April of that year, I gave only one plan and they said I think you are serious now. That was how they became our client and did business that also helped Modion go a long way. The attraction for the oil sector is that it was a legacy thing, like I said earlier, I was in that industry for close to ten years and we left creative marks behind, so for every time someone in the industry see what we have done for the others, it all trickles down and they will say so you are running your own business now, then come and do something with us.
Modion Communication Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and offer of insurance cover to 100 photojournalists
In working with Leadway Assurance, we were able to provide education series on a weekly basis for 100 weeks. And because we were providing insurance education, we were not just a brand that was talking about insurance anymore, we were now proponents of the insurance industry itself, we were Ambassadors, as a result of this, we were able to take insurance because we now understood the industry better and we also wanted the message to be demonstrated. Therefore, we should be the first to demonstrate beyond our activities with Leadway Assurance, we also want to do insurance and show people that we believe in insurance. So, when my fortieth birthday came, we decided to do something completely different and we looked at the stakeholders that we engaged the most, who are the journalists and among the journalists who are the most exposed to risk?. They are the photojournalists, they are the ones that has to go through a lot to capture assignments given by their editors, clients and publishers on a daily basis and we thought these are the people we would first extend the CSR to and working with Leadway Assurance was just natural, they were the first, we know they are market leaders and clearly we know whatever they were going to promise in the policy was what they were going to deliver.
On the awards as an outstanding young PR Agency/PR Personality
We think we have been very lucky that the industry quickly heard of what we were doing, Marketing Edge found us out and though we needed to be encouraged as a young agency and I think we deserve the accolade, understanding that we grew from zero level to handling accounts that were bigger than us. Like I said earlier, we are working for the Lagos State Government, Leadway assurance, Oando Plc for us these are very strong strides and the award we got wasn’t for me; but for the young people who understand the dream.
FACTS CHECK: “Modion Communications in 2017 won the young PR Agency of the year; subsequently Odion Aleobua won the PR Personality of the year by Marketing Edge an online number one website for news in the integrated marketing communications sector. Source: Modion Communications website
On Modion Communications online news platform insidemainland.com
www.insidemainland.com is Modion Communications media platform and dedicated to reporting only Lagos Mainland, if news breaks in Lekki, insidemainland.com will not carry it. The understanding for us was very personal; we live on the Mainland and believe in a whole lot in knowing what is going on in the area. The Mainland is the joke of everybody; because there is a very low quality infrastructure investment on the Mainland, you can’t see the level of infrastructure development you are suppose to see. Corporate Nigeria invested on the Mainland and all the SMEs are in this area of Lagos State. The Mainland holds over 80 percent of Lagos residents, holds almost the entire SMEs and the hubs, like the Computer village holding the hubs for computer hardware and software, Ladipo holding the hub for motor spare parts trading, Owode Onire, a hub for scraps and recycling of metal products. We said why is it these important places are not getting adequate reportage? This is the reason we set up insidemainland.com. We have done only about two percent of what we are suppose to do with insidemainlaind.com; it’s a huge market that we are yet to explore.
We are surprised that the Lagos State Government follows our twitter handle, engages and recognizes us. Also, we were impressed when we noticed that the head of CNN bureau in Africa follows insidemainland.com. For instance 90 percent of members of the Lagos State House of Assembly who are on twitter follow insidemainland.com. Every Local Government that is on twitter or other social media is actually on the mainland. So, the Law Makers, Government and key people are on the Mainland. It has turned out that what we are just doing as a simple thing, which we have not really paid close attention to, is actually generating a huge institutional response and attention. We are yet to start reaping any income from insidemainland.com, that’s why I said we have done only about two percent with the platform, Modion Communications is still funding its operations, we know we would eventually make money from insidemainland.com, but we are actually harping that it should be a role model.
An example was when we did a story on Makoko area of Lagos, the Governor awarded 144 roads across the State and we monitored some of them, and there is one we picked so much interest on, they called us to monitor the one in Makoko, so we monitored it until it was launched, they finished the road and commissioned it and two days later, the place was flooded, and the Bale of the area called us to come and see what is going on, we went there and discovered that flood has overtaken the whole place and we did the story and the Lagos State House of Assembly summoned the contractor, this is the story Cheta Nwanze twitted about and said this is one of the best journalism ever. The Lagos State House of Assembly requested the contractor to go back there and rectify the problem. The way they constructed the road actually blocked the drainages, in the evening when the tides go up, instead of the road to have a place water can escape, the channel is blocked and when this situation happens, water flow into people houses.
They went back, repaired the road and eventually did a fantastic job, a worthy thing to note is that this contractor went to one of the online medium alleging that we collected money from the Bale of Makoko to smear their image, and for me it’s a misnomer, which is easier to collect money from the Bale a struggling community leader or the contractor who get funded by the government? Our reporters cannot go down so low as to collect money and do what they are not suppose to do. Also, we did a story in Ogudu, on Emmanuel High Street, we saw on facebook that they have been complaining for a long time they never had a road, we reported the story and Honourable Sikiru Osinowo, the House of Assembly member representing Kosofe immediately twitted that the problem will be looked into and two weeks later, they invited a contractor to go and work on the road, they finished the job half way and tried to commission it, insidemainland.com exposed this on the social media and the commissioning was called off immediately. These are the responses and reactions insidemainland.com has elicited that makes us happy even though we are yet to make money from the platform. We are going to expand the scope of insidemainland.com through radio and television, we are here for the long term, these are what we want to do to create a more influential platform, the one that can be so strong and influence the policy environment in the business area.
Modion Communications and foray into investor relations
At Oando, I was in-charge of investor relations and PR and as the head of Corporate Communications of a listed company at Forte Oil Plc, there were a whole lot of investor relations activities, and so it’s part of our offering. You will see us once in awhile take companies to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). For example the Nigerian Gas Association, we actually took them to the Stock Exchange to tell their story there, because we believe that the depth of the Exchange is on connecting to the leading income generating industry in Nigeria; which is the Oil and Gas. Simply put what we do is to help companies connect them to their communities, which include the investment community, quoted companies, financiers, shareholders and the media. We help companies engage these stakeholders, because they speak differently and engage differently, we can also help companies’ organize teleconferences with our partners in London; these are what we do in the area of investor relations.
New ideas Modion Communications as a new kid in the block can offer the industry
For veterans like Yomi Badejo, we are actually riding on the shoulders of the height they have created, we definitely wouldn’t have risen from the bottom to the top, if they hadn’t created that opportunity, we are not improving on what we say, because they have already made the profession an enviable one and created an industry that people like us are not only enjoying from; but creating employment for others. What we are doing differently is that we are coming with what you call the Integrated Public Relations Experience (IPREX); that means we are leading public relations into other means of communications. We can still do a marketing communications; but leading with PR in mind and that is because PR gives you goodwill and goodwill is the best. So, what we are bringing into the industry as an innovation is the IPREX that’s what we call it in-house and going into next year, they are going to see a lot of insights and we will unveil them as they come, we will leverage on trend and research to do our work and create narratives, but what we would be doing is that we would then be creating insights into lives that we see every day; but we don’t understand. It will then lead to a different level of Modion Communications next year.
From the secured first deal of N50,000, What is Modion Communications current worth?
We are not a firm of N50, 000 anymore, but we don’t value this company in terms of how much we make, we think that until we work for the biggest brand in the world, we have not arrived, We want to be that firm that when people look at, they will be marveled that a Nigerian firm can work at this level. The same way we look at the Nigerian musicians and see where they play, that is the dream we have and until we achieve it, we will never count how much we have made. Modion Communications has surprised me, We actually didn’t emvisage this phenomenal adoption and embrace from the industry, government, finance, Oil & Gas to the media and I would say this is just a flash in the pan, we haven’t really started, we would create an agency that is driven by technology and digital to create a brand that everybody will be proud of, a brand that is not driven by my name, but a brand that deals with creativity, ideas, intuition and innovation, that’s what we are set out to do, if it hasn’t been done before, then its time for us to do it.
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