Innovation, Key To Clients Loyalty

Adetola Adeniyi is MD of CLINCHCOM, a marketing, media and music consulting outfit. He shares with Buki Oyedemi, his passion for the advertising industry and ways small agencies can remain relevant.
Our destiny lies in our hands! Some have been lucky to have people guide them in the right path when they were too young to make their own decisions, some were not that lucky. Having attended Moshood Abiola University to study Mass Communications, I decided to get a PGD from Lagos State University but after writing the last paper I realised the certificate I was about to get really was not what I wanted and I did the absurd, I opted out and started to pursue what I really wanted to do.
My career in the advertising industry started when I was posted to the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, to work as the golf course manager for my service year. Though I thought I would be of no use on the job, at the end of the day, I was able to help rebrand the golf course. I worked well with the challenge. I was retained after the service year but after five months, I decided to take a walk because I thought I needed something more challenging.
I came back to Lagos in 2002 and got a job with Comex Advertising as a client service executive. After two years, I wanted to handle new brands so I moved to KWT Ltd. After spending nine months there, I was invited by Leadership newspaper to push the paper in Lagos. I decided to work as an outside staff so that I could also pay attention to my music. At this time I was already making moves to establish my own outfit.
One year after, I moved to Bluebird where I worked for another nine months. By then, it was time to birth my vision – CLINCHCOM. It started in December 2007 and we basically do media, marketing and music. We call it M3. We are greatly involved in media buying, song production, packaging, promotion and distribution. To take our expertise to another level, we have built two music studios where people can come around to do their jingles, voiceovers and recordings.
One thing I have come to realise in the advertising industry is that small ad agencies do not get the response they need to grow. I believe that money begets money; creativity begets success. No client will see creativity and turn it down. My advice to ad agencies is: develop something the client will not reject. Develop something new that will blow their minds and they will not turn you back. Even if you do not finally execute the concept, they will probably buy the concept from you.
It has always been my dream to develop concepts that I can sell to people and advertising has given me that platform. I love to develop concepts that are unique and unpredictable. I love to see foreign ads because they are so interesting to the extent that I stand and mope without realizing it.
Advertising is my passion and I am going to follow it through. If I wasn’t in the ad business I would be singing. I recently released an album titled ‘Oshoko Oshaka’ meaning neither this nor that. I relax only when I’m worshipping. I have a black belt in Karate and would one day try my hands on lawn tennis. My idea of life is to give and give and never get tired of giving.