Deji Garuba is a communications strategist and the lead partner at Belfry Africa, a communication intelligence company that specializes in delivering unique communication, reputation and brand management services to its clients.
Garuba, who strongly believes that everything rises or falls in the way it is communicated, created unique solutions to help his clients rebrand their businesses.
The young-entrepreneur is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations UK and has led and delivered several brand campaigns across sectors in Nigeria.
He was also part of the organising team of the Lagos Social Media Week in 2014 and the Digital Entertainment Conference Africa in 2015.
Speaking on what inspired him to start Belfry Africa, the communications strategist explains that brands especially start-ups and SMEs needs to communicate with their target customers with clear cut measurable goals as gaps do exists in marketing their product and services.
This, according to him, inspired the establishment of Belfry Africa in 2017.
Garuba said Belfry Africa has since recorded some success stories as it has helped a good number of businesses rebrand and transform.
“Though it wasn’t easy to earn their trust initially, we have been able to prove time and time again that we can deliver on our promise. We have worked with brands across various sectors including financials services, real estate, hospitality, fashion and entertainment. We have deplored tailored strategies with precision in execution for these brands within these sectors,” he said.
Belfry Africa is home to several brands including Digital Content Summit Africa, amongst others. Belfry Africa’s impressive client includes OUCH Lifestyle Plus, Fashion Business Intelligence Africa, Oak Pensions, PAC Holdings, The Waterside Ikoyi Lagos, TVCreed amongst others.
In 10 years’ time, Garuba hopes to have been able to create a niche for his brand as the leading innovative tech driven intelligence communication firm in Nigeria, as the brand continues to scale its business growth, as this will guide its expansion plan across Africa and the rest of the world.
He notes that in-house PR or communications teams in corporate organisations most times don’t have the versatility an agency will have, adding that a PR agency in most cases has dealt with various possible project or campaign scenarios across a number of sectors than an in-house communication team.
Belfry continuously re-engineers its services to deliver more value to clients and constantly moves with the times and continually upgrades its services, he says.
Speaking on how he leverages technology to deliver results, the PR guru says, “At Belfry, technology and innovation are at the centre of our operations. We constantly explore new ways we can get tasks done using relevant tools not just to save costs but also to deliver good value.
“At the very peak of the COVID 19 pandemic, it was quite easy for our team to transition to a 100 percent virtual office because prior to the pandemic we were already exploring new technologies in the workplace and in that direction. We have also acquired industry based digital assets to help us deliver quick and measurable solutions to our clients.”
He mentions that a major challenge practicing public relations in Nigeria is the bandwagon mentality. “Once there is a new trend you find a lot of practitioners joining the trend whether it works for their purpose or not. This has also exposed the lack of creativity and ingenuity in the sector. As brand custodians we must continue to deliver fresh ideas in brand communication design and execution.
“Then there is the issue of the ease of doing business in Nigeria with the constant rise in operational cost from infrastructural deficit to access to the right talent, PR practitioners are not isolated from these issues,” he says.
Garuba hints that the practice of PR is not doing badly in Nigeria, however there is still a lot of room for improvement.
He says there is dearth in creativity and this leads to a lot of ‘copy and paste’ ideas in the industry. He therefore advised that PR firms and practitioners must begin to create authentic solutions that resonate for brands.
