Eko Innovation Centre has launched MarkHack 2.0, a platform for marketing, media professionals and students to explore new and innovative ways to disrupt the creative industry.
Victor Afolabi, the founder of Eko Innovation Centre, said this during the launch of the second edition of Mark Hackathon last weekend in Lagos.
He said the initiative was aimed at fostering collaboration, creativity and critical thinking among participants and also provides a platform for them to showcase their ideas to potential investors.
Afolabi said participants would be split into teams of five and required to work together for a period of three weeks, brainstorming and ideating new concepts based on their focus areas.
The founder said each team would pitch their ideas to a selection of the jury and the best 10 teams with the most viable concepts would go head-to-head at the finale to win a prize pool of 10,000 dollars.
Afolabi said they would also get the chance to join an acceleration programme to get their products ready for the market.
Speaking on the creative industry, he said it is the country’s second-largest employer and has the potential to produce seven million jobs by 2025, with a major contribution from entertainment and media.
“The entertainment and media growth will be seen in the development of the metaverse and the use of non-fungible tokens. The metaverse could contribute around 40 billion dollars to the economies of sub-saharan markets like Nigeria.
“With the rise of digital media, social platforms and the increasing use of technology, the creative industry stands among the most dynamic sectors in the world.
“The industry is becoming more digital, mobile and more pitched at media that attracts the young and more dependant on advertising today.
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“It is important that the growth of the industry is steered by innovation that can only be birthed through collaboration among the brightest mind in the industry,” he said.
Similarly, Hannah Oyebanjo, Managing Director, Redwood Consulting, said the creative industry held the potential to create jobs for young people
Oyebanjo said research showed that the creative sector currently employs about 4.2 million people across five industries including media, entertainment, beauty and lifestyle, visual arts, as well as tourism and hospitality.
“The creative industry encompasses advertising, architecture, arts, video, photography, electronic publishing, radio and television, among others.
“The creative industry is considered as a reliable source of cultural and commercial value,” she said.
Oyebanjo, however, said that the Nigerian creative industry had its challenges which included a lack of appreciation for intellectual properties, access to reliable data, weak marketing knowledge and access to funding, among others.
Also, the Managing Director of Entod Marketing, Iquo Ukoh, commended the innovation centre for organising hackathons such as the MarkHack to give several talents opportunities to bring their ideas to reality.
She said that soon enough, solutions would come out of the hackathon that would disrupt markets in Nigeria.
