Raheem Akingbolu
The rising affect of expertise, altering client expectations and financial pressures is forcing companies to rethink how they construct and maintain their manufacturers, with business specialists warning that promoting and public relations alone can not assure client loyalty.
The warning fashioned the central message at Brandcomfest 2026, the place advertising communications professionals known as on companies to align their model guarantees with product high quality, service supply and significant buyer experiences.
The occasion, held on the Landmark Event Centre, Lagos, introduced collectively business stakeholders to look at the realities of brand name constructing in a quickly altering market. It additionally featured the Brandcom Awards, which recognised manufacturers, businesses and advertising professionals for his or her contributions to the business.
Delivering the keynote tackle, the Group Chief Executive Officer of GDM, Dr Victor Gbenga Afolabi, argued that companies should look past the pictures they undertaking via promoting campaigns and focus on the worth they ship to customers.
His place displays a elementary problem confronting manufacturers within the digital economic system: whereas corporations can make investments closely in advertising to draw consideration, sustaining client confidence more and more relies upon on what prospects expertise after partaking with their services and products.
Afolabi famous that digital platforms had expanded alternatives for companies to achieve customers however had concurrently made model status harder to regulate. Customers can now evaluate competing merchandise, consider buying choices and share their experiences publicly, leaving companies extra uncovered to the results of poor service supply.
According to him, failed transactions, complicated communication and unresolved complaints can undermine client belief, whatever the assets invested in promoting and promotion.
He subsequently urged organisations to determine and tackle the issues prospects encounter as a substitute of relying on new slogans and promotional campaigns to compensate for weaknesses of their operations.
For manufacturers searching for long-term relevance, he maintained, advertising should be supported by operational effectivity, acceptable expertise, efficient management and an organisational tradition able to sustaining constant requirements.
The implication is that model administration can not be handled solely because the duty of promoting and public relations departments. The whole organisation should contribute to delivering the expertise promised to customers.
Afolabi additionally emphasised the necessity for companies to adapt to technological developments and altering client expectations with out abandoning the values and commitments that distinguish their manufacturers.
Technology, affordability reshape model competitors
The discussions at Brandcomfest mirrored the broader pressures dealing with companies as synthetic intelligence, digital promoting and altering buying behaviour reshape the advertising communications business.
In his welcome tackle, the convener of Brandcomfest and the Brandcom Awards, Joshua Ajayi, mentioned the platform was created to attach business practitioners with rising concepts whereas recognising organisations and professionals whose work had translated into measurable outcomes.
He noticed that synthetic intelligence was remodeling content material creation, algorithms have been influencing the messages reaching customers, and social media had accelerated the velocity at which reputational challenges might emerge.
“If we are waiting for things to return to former ways, we may be waiting in eternity,” Ajayi mentioned, highlighting the necessity for practitioners to reply to modifications within the enterprise surroundings slightly than rely on established strategies.
He added that the business might not assume that promotional visibility alone would safe client loyalty, significantly in an economic system the place buying choices are more and more influenced by affordability and perceived worth.
The convention, themed “Brand Building, Consumer Connection and Disruptive Realities,” featured a keynote tackle, three panel discussions and a hearth chat.
The classes examined model constructing from company and model views, alongside the rising affect of synthetic intelligence on digital promoting, marketing campaign supply and client personalisation.
Discussions on the company perspective highlighted the significance of client analysis, steady engagement and measurable business outcomes. Participants additionally thought of how businesses might keep inventive relevance as client preferences change and expertise reshapes marketing campaign improvement.
From the model perspective, discussions centered on the necessity to stability affordability, product high quality and flexibility whereas sustaining the requirements that assist client loyalty.
The classes on synthetic intelligence explored how rising instruments might enhance viewers focusing on, marketing campaign administration and promoting personalisation. Participants, nevertheless, harassed that expertise ought to assist human creativity and strategic judgement slightly than change them.
These conversations underscored the significance of mixing technological innovation with a transparent understanding of client wants, significantly as companies compete for consideration in an more and more crowded market.
Meanwhile, for some Nigerian manufacturers, this yr’s version additionally offered a superb platform for them to shine as they clinched numerous awards. For occasion, manufacturers like Golden Penny Foods, Coca-Cola, Integrated Indigo and Maggi, FrieslandCampina, Standard Chartered, recorded a number of wins.
The Brandcom Awards offered a possibility to recognise organisations throughout client engagement, product classes, public relations, monetary providers, sustainability and innovation.
The recognitions lined a variety of actions and classes, highlighting the other ways manufacturers and businesses compete for market relevance and business recognition.
The awards additionally celebrated 35 Under 35 advertising professionals, drawing consideration to rising expertise inside the advertising communications ecosystem.
