I Spin Great Creative Ideas

Akinpeluni Okelola, deputy creative director of ZK Advertising, shares with Yetunde Ogundipe his crave for creativity and the challenge creative people face.

My name is Akinpeluni Okelola, the Deputy Creative Director of ZK Advertising. I finished from the University of Maiduguri; during the Abacha regime. We had all white lecturers and updated facilities; because Abacha pumped money into the University. I read creative art, – fine arts, applied and theater arts combined. It was a new course in Maiduguri then.

One of the reasons why I took this part is that I am the last born of the family, so my parents didn’t want me to travel out the country to study, they wanted me close.

I made up my mind early for a career in advertising. My sister influenced this choice. She was a model. I went with her to locations to shoot commercials, then as a young fellow. I recall seeing white people running around, everybody busy doing one thing or the other, way back then. I fancied what the crew was doing. So I knew back then I was going to be in advertising. I had to change from science class to art class in school to that effect.

When I graduated, I got to know that Insight Communications was one of the best advertising agencies in Nigeria. So, I applied for their test and out of 17 youth coppers that wrote the test, I was one of the two copy writers they selected.

From Insight, I was posted to MC&U, the agency’s sister company. At the MC&U I encountered some challenged so I left the country.

My sojourn out of the country was for some time. I wanted to learn new things. But while abroad, I realized that things were going fine for some of my friends back home in Nigeria. They were living good lives contrary to their claims that things were tough. So, I decided to come back, which was challenging because my friends tried to discourage me.

I came back about 9 years ago, to start afresh. So, I started with freelancing for Angel’s Communications. From Angel’s, I moved to STB McCann, following the success of a test I wrote a long time ago. I ran into Steve Laoye, the vice-chairman of STB McCann, who informed me that the copy I wrote as test was fabulous and it was used. He asked me to join them, that’s how I fully got back to advertising.

I also worked with CT&A Associates, I must say that, that was the period I was going to give up, but I talked myself into waiting for some months. As if to compound this trying period, I lost my car. My passport was also stolen! Just when I thought I was through with it, my boss, suddenly came to the office to say that a copy I wrote, Visco supper V an AP product has won an award.

In all these experiences, the going abroad and coming back, all I can say is – my flare for creativity has really motivated me to push on. Conceptualization is my core competence. Coming up with an idea is what am good at. I paint it in my mind while people are talking to me. It worked for me at Coca Cola. As a client is talking to me; I am creating the pictures in my mind. For instance Coca Cola; that day in front of the client I was like; ‘am going to put the Coca Cola bottle there and it going to splash and write something on the wall, the girl is going to smile and her hair is going to go this way, with breeze blowing her hair that way. I think that grabs attention. At the end of the day its like am painting the clients mind and asking the right questions that bring out the essence of the brand.’

But when I see the way things are done now, I yearn for the good old days when people were more conscious of creative ideas. Many of us in the industry are now running after client’s money and by this, there is no creativity anymore. Now it takes a lot of guts to stand in front of a client and say this strategy will sell versus your client saying  sorry, I call the shot. So creativity is being challenged, but I think we should strive to reach a balance for the benefit of the final consumer.