Ized, Elizabeth and Kemi: Scripting Successful Brand Stories through Value-driven Creativity and Insights

We all make plans for our lives and strive to fulfill those. However, sometimes, some best things just happen without a plan and we realize them to be way better than what we decided for ourselves.

Growing up, Ized Uanikhehi always thought of being a doctor or working in the medical profession. When she couldn’t get to study medicine, she decided to study biochemistry with the hopes to switch to medicine along the line. In the meantime, she ignored the other skill which she was honing unknowingly, that of sales and marketing. When she needed to raise money back in school, that became her side gig, selling for other businesses/people and making commissions. Other times she would come up with marketing plans, strategies, and campaigns for school events, shows, and businesses, making money from those. After graduation, whilst she was waiting to go back to study medicine or get a job as a Biochemist or something in the medical industry, she finally realized what life had been telling her and took to sales and marketing as her go-to profession. The career took off from there and she never went back to school to study medicine or worked as a Biochemist.

Ized would go to businesses, and send proposals on how she could market for them on commission and it grew bigger from there. Even when she went to organizations to work in different roles, I sort of always ended up in the sales and marketing unit because that’s where she thrived. “So, I started to read and learn more about what I had a flair for. So basically, I didn’t choose the Industry, the industry chose me and I just stayed,” admits Ized. In 2021, she finally started her venture Zedi Africa with Co-Founders Elizabeth Ughoro and Kemi Ogunmuyiwa.

The Creative Head

Like Ized, Elizabeth, the Co-founder and Creative Head, too slowly discovered her passion for sales and marketing. Her career journey began in Journalism at a magazine in 2009. Elizabeth later moved to BusinessDay as an arts correspondent, a period she enjoyed, but couldn’t shake the feeling that she belonged in the world of marketing and advertising. In early 2012, she transitioned and joined CentrespreadFCB as a copywriter, and then moved to Noah’s Ark, a top advertising firm in Nigeria. Here she worked as a creative lead on many leading household brands, from Telcos to FMCGs, until she left as a Group Head, Copy in 2020, before proceeding to Loose Media as Creative Director and then Zedi as Co-founder/Creative Director, providing creative direction for numerous leading startups in Nigeria. “We are currently in the Golden Age of young startups doing great things. I want to be a part of that by creating passionate brands out of them and finding creative solutions that will help them grow,” says Elizabeth.

In her role as a Creative Director, Elizabeth is largely interpreting and executing Zedi’s creative vision and those of its clients, from creative strategy to creative direction. Zedi’s services span the whole marketing ecosystem: Strategy, Content creation, and design, SEO, Media buying, PR, personal Email Marketing, Tech, and recruitment of marketing talents for startups. She has introduced the creed of creative excellence as a mantra, guiding everything we do, from ideation to execution.

Managing The Human Asset

As for Kemi, she feels the industry chose her. In 2013, Kemi took up the role of a Project Officer at Career Development Network, a non-profit organization that focuses on helping Nigerians build skills and capabilities for the workplace, with an emphasis on fresh school leavers. In this role, her responsibilities centered on devising strategies that assisted the company in realizing its organizational goals, engaging both internal and external stakeholders, and managing the resources working on the projects. She rose through the ranks to become the Project Coordinator where she led the team that developed and published a Student Career Handbook in partnership with known brands in Nigeria, successfully managed the deployment of the Ventures Career App, and piloted and managed the annual ‘I Cee Technology’ workshops designed to provide internship platform for fresh graduates and undergraduates. This role redefined both her career interests and her professional path significantly. It made her see the wider impact of what they were doing as an organization and the roles employers can play in helping their employees better understand the importance of planning their careers, including playing a part.

All of these contributed to her decision to transition into Human Resource Management with areas of keen interest in business leadership and talent management and development. “As an HR professional, I have mostly worked in the marketing tech industry and as the pioneer People Ops professional in 3 startups, have helped to build the organizations’ human resources units from the ground up, developed organizational culture, implemented employee engagement initiatives, and managed the people resources to help achieve organizational objectives,” she says.

The Biggest Challenge (yet)

When they had just launched Zedi; the holding company that owns Zedi Africa – the marketing agency, ZedFlo – the sales agency, and HireFoster – talent recruitment in communication companies they have, Ized tried raising funds for the company to drive growth but it was really difficult, not just as a black person but also as a woman. Although she had prior industry experience and had reached certain numbers that she thought would be helpful in convincing investors that what they were doing with Zedi was the thing, it didn’t pan out as she had hoped. Even when they tried crowdfunding for $100,000, what they were able to do from their Friends & Family round was $30,000 – $40,000 which was spent before the 1st 3 months just setting up. What Ized and her co-founders learned was no one was coming to save them, they needed to be the ones to save themselves. “So, we started to come up with ideas on how to drive revenue up to sustain our expenses and instill growth. We started looking for and making key partnerships to help us drive growth. That’s what brought us to becoming a company that can sustain itself,” shares Ized.

Creating a Supportive Workspace

Zedi believes that diversity and inclusion are essential for a successful workplace. First, they want everyone who works for Zedi to feel like they belong and that they are valued for their unique contributions. They do this by creating a culture of open communication, where everyone feels comfortable sharing their ideas and perspectives. They also make sure that every team member is treated with respect, regardless of their race/ethnicity, gender, or any other personal characteristic. Second, they believe that everyone should have the same opportunities to succeed, regardless of their background. They do this by creating a fair and equitable workplace, where everyone is evaluated on their skills and performance, not on their characteristics. They also make sure that every team member has access to the same resources and opportunities, regardless of their background.

On attracting and retaining young talent, Elizabeth says, “It’s about creating an enabling creative environment that is a culture fit for the team to thrive. I learned that you can’t make young talents stay; you can only make them feel valued, and appreciated and that you care about their overall growth and well-being.”

How Emerging Technologies Will Change the Marketing Game

Elizabeth feels that with the Metaverse, marketing just got way more personal. And it will guide many strategies, knowing that the way people try and experience products even before purchase has changed. We can connect with anyone, wherever they are in the world, on a genuine, one-on-one basis. In virtual spaces, customers can research and experience products and then decide which ones to buy.

AI marketing automation, on the other hand, can transform how marketers manage their marketing campaigns, provide personalized content, and boost customer connection. And remember that, at the moment, AI needs to be prompted; it does whatever it’s told. So, creatives and marketers in general are the super admins that guide AI. That means skill and technical know-how are still very important, even in the world of AI.

Dreams for a Better Tomorrow

Elizabeth sees Zedi as a leading growth marketing solutions platform for startups and businesses around the world. They agree that the business environment can be largely unpredictable, and startups face many challenges. However, they want to be known as a leader in providing value-adding marketing tech solutions integral to growth.

As an HR Professional, Kemi would like to change the way that HR is perceived in the workplace. She believes that HR professionals are capable of taking up more responsibilities beyond hiring, firing, and recruitment because they are equally essential to the success of the organization. As a woman entrepreneur, she would like to see more women give themselves more credit. She sees women trying hard not to brag about their accomplishments and believes it’s past time that they start to do so.

Ized on the other hand as the CEO is poised to keep the business nimble and flexible even as they grow to explore the opportunities the market may present, evolving, innovating and even pivoting with new innovations should the need arise. This is the fastest growing industry in the world, she says, to stay alive, you have to adapt with the times.

“We see our organization continuing to grow and thrive in the years to come. We have a strong team of experienced professionals who are committed to providing high-quality service. We are also always looking for new ways to stay ahead of the curve in the ever-changing marketing and sales landscape. In the next few years, we plan to: Expand our reach into new markets and offer new services, such as marketing consulting and training. Become the leading marketing/sales and recruitment company in the world. We are confident that we can achieve these goals because of our strong team, our commitment to excellence, and our passion for helping businesses succeed,” conclude the Founders.

Message for the Budding Entrepreneurs

“If you have a passion for something, don’t go into it until you are ready to make a business out of it. It’s not merely a passion point; it’s a business. Even charities have to make a profit. So you must be convinced that you have a product that will deliver value and make you money before following that passion.”

Quote to Live By:

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” – The Dalai Lama

Diverse Styles Common Goals[1] 

Elizabeth: My work method is simply allowing the team to do their jobs while offering direction and supervision when it’s required. I have spent my entire academic and professional life as a creative person, I am aware of the need to give people space and trust them to do their jobs.

Kemi: My working style is a blend of structure and flexibility. I believe that having a well-defined plan and goals is essential for staying on track and being productive. However, I also understand that things can change quickly in the workplace, so I am always willing to modify my approach as needed.

Ized: My work style is lazy- it’s always about the simplest, fastest way to achieve results. Although it might not look like that from the outside, I am really a lazy person. So I like to get things done upfront and on time so we can go rest or bask in what we have done. For example; if I was working for a client to sell their product/service, I’d look for the fastest way to sell in bulk, meet my KPIs fast and go rest. It comes off to most people as being an overachiever because I and my team try to go beyond and above to meet KPIs in record time, but I am really just looking for us to get back to resting. LOL. I might work very well with pressure but I don’t like pressure

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