How we got Osun Osogbo festival- Ayo Olumoko

As a protocol staff with the Federal Ministry of Finance and later, clerical staff with the then United Bank for Africa (UBA), nothing perhaps suggested that Ayodele Michael Olumoko would be walking on his present career path; but one thing was clear- he knew he will be successful. According to him “I have always known I will be a reference point, but I didn’t know how”. However, one cannot rule out doggedness, honesty, creativity and dedication to duty as some obvious attributes that made his success a reality today as the Chief Executive Officer of Infogem Limited, an Integrated Marketing Communication Company with special interest in promoting cultural tourism in Nigeria. In this THE BUSINESS INTERVIEW with Arinze Okamelu, Olumoko was in his element as he shares his business journey and how he won the Osun Osogbo Festival account among other interesting revelations. Read excerpt below.

At what point sir did you come in contact with Public Relations as a career?

Yes, while I was waiting for my posting for my youth service; I was invited, by Mr. Yemi Akeju, who was trying to form a public relations company then-Ideas Communications, which happens to the first Public Relations company in Nigeria. While I was with him, my Call-Up letter was out, and I was posted to Ogun State, and fortunately, he has an office at Abeokuta. I was posted there, and from there I was shuttling between Abeokuta and Lagos as a staff. At Ideas Communications, we were doing public relations and events marketing which was how we got Nigerian Music Award account during Tony Okoronji’s year as president of Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN).

When did you leave Ideas Communication?

I grew in Idea Communications and assisted with the management of other subsidiaries of the business which included artiste management, fashion, business automation services amongst others. They all later came under First Grants Nigeria Group. That was where I cut my PR and marketing teeth, and I later resigned as the group’s General Manager, Operations, in 1997.

Why did you resign, having gotten to such top position in the company?

Interestingly that was why I resigned. As the group’s General Manager, Operations, I was no longer going to the fields again. I have to wait for all the managers of all the subsidiaries to report to me, and I report to the Group Managing Director, Mr  Yemi Akeju, who is the current president of the Institute of Directors of Nigeria (IoD Nigeria). So I wasn’t feeling fulfilled because I was field person and I know how good I was on the field. At some point I was even scared I was losing the fire in me because staying put in the office was not just me- I needed to be on the field, meeting people, talk to people, tell them about our products, and matching intelligence and with intelligence. So when others were coming to give me their field reports, especially mentioning challenges like “we can’t go forward”, I felt so sad. Whenever I told my boss (Mr Akeju) that I want to go to the field, he will say “No, no, no, no, when you become a group general manager, you have to act and behave like one” that is, I should carry myself like what we call “Big Man”. But I didn’t see myself as that proverbial “big man” because I believe I had a lot of energy locked up inside me, and were wasting. I saw most of the challenges that the managers were presenting as resolvable. So I had to resign my appointment.

What was Mr Akeju’s reaction upon seeing your resignation?

He never took me serious because in the past, companies gave me offer letters, and when I tell him I want to resign, he would say “where are you going? What do you want in other companies that I can’t give to you?” He will say “what are they offering you, we can do better” and I will stay again. So this time around I was determined. And when I approached him, he said where is your  “Love Letter?” Because that is what he called my resignation letters.  But this time when he asked “what do you want?” I said “nothing, I just want to leave?” He said “to where? I said, “I want to go home”. You see, a lot of people at that time took advantage of the company. When they come, they learn and resign to go and form their own companies, and they will be doing something parallel. So I didn’t want to go through that route. I don’t just want to compete with my boss. Meanwhile, I felt I could turn the company around.  I had a lot of energies, ideas and I kept meeting my boss that I can turn this company around and all that. He would say “Ayo, slow down, you don’t know anything yet”. But I felt I have known a lot, and I was getting disillusioned and I was seeing myself as being maligned, perhaps if I had being made the deputy group managing director with responsibilities, I may have stayed.  But I didn’t see that coming. Infact, he didn’t take my resignation letter serious, that two weeks to the expiration of my three months’ notice, I reminded him of my resignation letter,that he has not asked anybody to take over from me. He then asked again “where are you going?” I said I want to resign, that I am going home. So I know the only way I could leave is to work out something myself. So fortunately I had an assistant then, I had to talk to him and begged him not to let my boss know, and I did a lot of detailing to him, and I handed over everything to the last document to him, and did all my handing over and the man signed. So when the two weeks came, I just did not come to office.

So where did you go from there and how did you form Infogem Limited?

I was in the house for three months doing nothing just because I didn’t want to start anything parallel to my boss’s business. I was looking out what I would do that would not be in competition with my boss. Meanwhile my wife like my friends, had been telling me to resign that I was wasting my potentials where I was . So one of my friends Kunle Alonge, came to my house one day and asked after me and my wife told him that I have resigned and he told my wife, who is a professional secretary,  to come and work for him,  because this secretary was not around. He took my wife and my two kids and left a note for me and said, “If you want to see your wife and children, come to my office” and I went to his office that night and He said “you resigned and have been going round the streets” and he said “what have you made?”  He told me “congratulations for resigning; you used to be our boss, you have brains” He then said from Monday, I should come to his office and resume. He created a space for me in his office, bought me a printer and a whole ream of paper and said “be sitting down there, any idea that comes to your head, be writing  them down”  Eventually, I conceptualized something different- that is to be organizing  End-of-Year parties for organizations; getting venues, MCs, doing  plaques, awards and printing certificates.  When I got that idea, I said “this is I”t and I started writing proposals to companies. That was how Unipetrol’s Managing Director then invited me for a presentation, which I did well and he was impressed. He approved that I handle their parties. I started with the headquarters and after the success; he said I should organize same for other four regions. That was my first breakthrough. Ofcousre I made money, but I was more fulfilled because I made impact. Infact I did that job without registering any business name yet. I just came up with McLeads Consulting and start writing proposals with it.

So why didn’t you register it then?

I didn’t have money, and still I didn’t let that discourage me from doing my proposals. However, my friend Kunle Alonge gave me money, but I didn’t want to use his money to register my company because I felt it was aberration. Perhaps  because I am a typical Yoruba man and I wanted to use the money from my own sweat to register my company. It was just a belief, so when the money came I registered the company. I did everything on my own including the leg work and marketing until I got a breakthrough with the Unipetrol’s contract. So after that events, I looked at between March and December, what do I do? That was when I conceptualized the idea of workshops in different industries. Then I created another company Yempat and Rossie Associates; while I used Mcleads Consulting for events, I used Yempat and Rossie for workshops, and we did a lot of workshops with the Nigerian Institute of Transport and some other industries. It was after that I started looking at public relations for corporate entities which Ideas Communications wasn’t doing. Then later I registered Infogem Limited during my work with Coca-cola.

How did you come about cultural festival marketing and Osun Oshogbo Festival?

Yes, since I went into PR for corporate organizations, I started writing proposals and the turning point was that I got Coca-Cola account. Coca Cola took me and Phil Osagie’s GSP as their two PR agencies, and they had about two or three advertising agencies.  While GSP was the main PR agency, Yempat and Rossie Associates was on category “B”.  So then, Coca-Cola developed an idea of participating in community cultural festivals as part of their corporate social responsibilities (CSR) for communicates as they want to look at the cultural advantages of each community. So when they asked GSP to undertake it, Phil Osagie  said “No, I am a born again Christian” and that was how they called us and I said “is it not to go there and take pictures and publicize it?”. That was how we came in contact with Osun Osogbo Festival, Argungun Fishing Festival and other festivals that Coca Cola was involved with that time. Even at the community level, we were getting closer to the people as we were more involved. Then fortunately, the ‘Kabieyesi, late Oba Oyewale Motomi the first,, a graduate, and an English trained accountant, has a lot of Ideas of what the festival should be. He felt instead of him and his chiefs and friends spending money on the festival annually, that they can market the festival and get sponsors like they do for Notting Hills Carnival and other similar carnivals. So he suggested they look for consultants who would package the festival and get sponsors. So he was just talking about it and I said “sir we are consultants on festivals, that we can do it”

Just like that?

Yes. But the Oba told the community and the chiefs to go and look for 4 or 5 companies and Infogem Ltd got the bid.  That was our turning point for cultural festival marketing for us. 

What made Infogem get the contract considering there were bigger agencies that bided?

Besides the fact that I have been with the community as a PR agency to Coca Cola for three years on the festival, and we did well, I told them, “look I may not have N1million to drop like other agencies were promising and were ready to do, and then go get the money, that I will get the sponsors to drop N1million each for the festival”. And you know they already got established sponsors. So they calculated that N1million naira in five places is N5million, and said that is a better offer. As a consultant, I made them see that I will get those sponsors to give them better money as I make the sponsors have value for their sponsorship. And I told them to try me for one year, after that, we can talk of signing any agreement. And we delivered and that is where the success story of Osun Osogbo festival began. We have been handling the festival since 2002, and in 2005, the UNESCO got interested in the festival and listed it amongst world’s heritage sites with the assistant of the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Also the then government of Olagunsoye Oyinlola also played a major role as it provided the helicopter for the UNESCO team to do their aerial survey to know how many hectares that the Osun grove is sitting on, which is about 75 hecters.

Would you say that your efforts contributed to the UNESCO’s acknowledgement?

Of course, our events’ handling expertise speaks volume in this direction, also the publicity we were giving the event and the corporate organizations we were attracting. If it wasn’t good, corporate organizations won’t come in.

What is the mission of Infogem Limited?

Infogem Limited  is an integrated marketing communication company that develops appropriate marketing solutions to elevate customers value and satisfaction perceptions to higher levels that ensures long-term profitability and products sales performance, with sustainable corporate, events, brands growths, products or services acknowledgement and acceptability and our areas of services include public relations, event marketing , debt management and strategic counseling. We are also into community relations, brand management and ideas and event conceptualization.

Osun Osogbo Festival seems to be what Infogem Limited has been known for. How have your clients and staff been able to differentiate Infogem and Ayo Olumoko?

Well it depends on the area you want to see Infogem Limited from. All those things I highlighted are what Infogem does, but majority of the people know us more with cultural promotions like the Osun Osogbo Festival. But Osun Osogbo Festival is not the only cultural festival we are  involved with; we were part of the conceptualization of the Lagos Water Regatta until politics set in. We handle some festivals in Kwara State among others. We were one of those that resuscitated the Argungun Festival in 2005, on the platform of coca cola, after seven years of being moribund. However, we still do our PR functions to our clients. Just that Osun Osogbo Festival seems to have over shadowed other of our deliverables. Nevertheless, in the corporate world, Infogem is seen as a leading organization that is promoting culture in Nigeria and when they see our proposals or our press releases, some of the corporate organizations calls us and ask if we are behind them. They ask what is in it for them that they want to participate.  And this is because we have been able to deliver.  For my friends, they see Ayo Olumoko more as a cultural icon than a Public Relations’ person. They see me as someone who has passion for things that are Nigerian.

What were the things you brought in the made Osun Osogbo sellable?

We conceptualized different programme like the beauty pageant, ‘ayo’ games, football etc such that there is something for everybody. Not only in Osun Osogbo Festival, but in any community festival that Infogem is involved with we make efforts to make a difference. We have a pedigree of integrity, transparency and creativity.

Did you envisage you would be where you are today when you started?

Wherever anyone wants to get to in life, he or she will get there. What is important is for one to move close to God and be steadfast. It is God that can lead one in everything. Though I have always known I will be a reference point, but I didn’t know how. I thank God for where he has brought us.

Do you think that cultural tourism market has been explored in Nigeria?

No ,we haven’t at all. The potentials that Nigeria has in culture, travel, hospitality and tourism industry are enormous. What we at Infogem has been able to bring to bear on the Nigerian economy is that we are using our God’s given talents in Public Relations to rub off on tourism, culture, hospitality and travels in Nigeria. More needs to be done in our tourism industry. You can’t compare Nigeria with for instance, Kenya, Gambia and so on. The question most people are asking is “if the oil dries up, what next?” However, in few years from now, we will be going into full blown tourism.

What do you think the government is not doing right towards developing our tourism industry?

They are not simply harnessing our tourism potentials. But I think the present government of President Buhari with the wide consultations he is doing, I trust he would explore the Nigeria’s tourism potentials. I share in his consultations and his methodical planning. I can assure you that Nigeria will be happy by the time President Buhari chooses his ministers. However, there is need to put tourism oriented people to lead the tourism industry and agencies. Putting square pegs in round holes has been part of the major challenge preventing the development of the industry,

What would you recommend to those going into your line of business?

What every other professional would recommend. They should be steadfast and professional-like, and ensure they are patient like a farmer who must wake up early to plant believing that the time of harvest is coming. They shouldn’t cut corners and must be ready to propose ideas that can sell their products no matter the challenges. There will be ups and downs, but if they persevere, they will be victorious. 

How do you unwind?

In this type of business we do, you unwind as you work. I also unwind with reading and playing with my family. But I must say that my wife has been very supportive and understanding, and she supports me with prayers and ideas, so also are my children.