What was the brief like?
No one is really prepared for death, but it shows up at some point so it’s understandable how this brief came in abruptly and things needed to be put in place in no time.
Family and friends wanted to organise a special tribute night for the late iconic artist, Sound Sultan. They wanted something simple, impactful, memorable, and celebratory – and the NECLive team had about 12 days to organise the programme from start to finish.
Let’s talk about the role you played during the execution of the brief.
My team consisted of the NECLive partners as well as Mr. Henry, Joice, Phenom, Prince, Femi, ATG, and we also got a lot of support from ID Africa’s Comms and Editorial teams. The information about this event came on the fly and as the in-house Programme Manager, I had to play the role of information custodian/dispenser, concept creator, and event planner. Asides from all that, I was responsible for following up and updating people on what things need to be done, how they should be done, and when they should be delivered. I drafted the documents containing all the information we intended to send out to the public, got them approved by the stakeholders, and passed it onto the creative team along with the design concepts we wanted.
Let’s just say I was the hub of the project. I had to be everyone’s friend and yet, not anyone’s friend due to the fact that I needed everyone’s hand on deck to get things done properly and at the right time.
Can you share some of the results or outcomes from this campaign/project?
Interestingly, I felt so good after this event and also consider it a big win. Apart from the support we received from Terra Kulture and everyone who had a hand in this project, the turnout for the event was beyond our expectations. Initially, I panicked when some of the performers failed to show up during rehearsals. I almost concluded that they were going to cancel on us, but surprisingly, they showed up at the event and their performances were epic. It was magical to see them perform and flow with the band without any practice.
Since the event took place on the same day as the Lagos State Local Government Elections, I feared that people wouldn’t make it to the venue that evening since a curfew was imposed in the early hours of the day.
The band’s failure to come in at the agreed time got me anxious; beyond that, frustration hit me when I noticed that the printer didn’t install the media wall.
In all, this project would have been more satisfying if I had made adequate post-event preparations like creating pre and post-event videos, sending out news and feature stories after the event, etc.
You can watch the full stream on Sound Sultan’s YouTube channel.
Have you got any key lessons from this campaign/project that is worth sharing?
A major lesson this entire project left me with is that no matter the time frame of an event/project/campaign, proper pre-launch/event and post-event activities must be done. Secondly, simple is classy and there’s no need to reinvent the wheel each time.
What’s next for you over the next three months?
I have already started preparing for the launch and marketing of 🤐😎😉🤐, our new consumer product. There’s also a lot of work going on with NECLive; from the content adjustment on the website, to strategy creation for our digital channels management and developing plans for NECLive9 in 2022!
While working on this campaign/project did you ever get to a point where you questioned if this career path was for you? If you did, can you share what made you feel this way and your motivation to keep going?
Funny enough — no, I never questioned what I was doing here. Although there was pressure everywhere, the heat was enormous but I had the mindset that feedback should never be seen as negative, so I was able to push through.
I was sleep-deprived on most days but I had to constantly remind myself that I have worked under similar circumstances in the past and I am capable of doing more. Also, regular conversations with my friends also served as extra motivation. They sure did a great job of getting me pumped on slow or bad days.
Was there any feedback from the client or your boss(es) that you are going to be holding on to for a while?
Femi, Henry, and other members of the committee warmly appreciated my efforts. ATG gave me a reality check by encouraging me to do better in the future. I’ll be holding on to this as I execute upcoming projects.
Did you acquire any new skills as a result of this task?
Yes, I did! For the first time, I wrote a press release and I also learned how to interact with the media which was quite enlightening.
If you had a choice, what’s that one task you never look forward to doing when handling a project/campaign of this nature?
This has to be graphic design. I got to do one or two designs for the event day screens since the creative team had their hands full. This wasn’t fun at all.
Which emoji best describes how you felt during the various stages of this project/campaign?
At the beginning: 🤯
Midway: 🙄
At the end: 😎
