- Modupe Sanni, Managing Partner; Digital Square Limited (DSL)
With a background in Economics and an MBA from the University of South Wales, Modupe Sanni has constructed a profession round understanding how companies develop, how shoppers make choices, and what it takes for manufacturers to reach aggressive markets.
As Managing Partner of Digital Square Limited (DSL), a advertising and marketing and digital technique firm with a presence in Nigeria, the United States, and Canada, she has labored with native and worldwide manufacturers, together with Gokabet, Branch, and FXCG, serving to companies enter new markets, join with shoppers, and drive measurable progress.
Her strategy to advertising and marketing goes past promoting budgets and inventive campaigns. For Moe, understanding an organization’s enterprise mannequin, business aims, and long-term ambitions is simply as necessary as understanding its audience.
Now, as synthetic intelligence reshapes the advertising and marketing trade, she is difficult conventional company practices, embracing automation, and rethinking what companies ought to count on from their advertising and marketing companions.
In this interview, Modupe Sanni speaks concerning the realities of constructing manufacturers in Nigeria, her unconventional strategy to management, the rising affect of AI, and why she believes good advertising and marketing begins with understanding the enterprise behind the model.
Expects:
Digital Square Limited (DSL) has turn into a go-to progress powerhouse for prime company manufacturers in Lagos and past. What is that core “digital magic” you carry out that takes a model from obscurity to market dominance?
I feel the magic is knowing that advertising and marketing isn’t just about visibility. Visibility is necessary, however what occurs after individuals see your model is much more necessary.
At Digital Square, we strategy advertising and marketing from a enterprise perspective first. Before we discuss campaigns, artistic concepts, or promoting budgets, we wish to perceive the enterprise itself. What are we promoting? Who are we promoting to? Why ought to anybody select this model over its rivals? And most significantly, what does success appear to be for the enterprise?
I’ve a background in Economics, so I’ve all the time been fascinated with understanding shopper behaviour, market dynamics, and the way companies develop. That considering influences how we strategy advertising and marketing.
We mix information, expertise, shopper psychology, and inventive storytelling to construct methods that don’t simply entice consideration however truly affect buying choices and drive progress.
And I feel that’s the place quite a lot of manufacturers get it fallacious. They confuse being standard with being worthwhile. You can have hundreds of thousands of impressions, hundreds of followers, and exquisite campaigns, but when none of that interprets into significant enterprise outcomes, then we have to query what we’re doing.
For us, the true magic is connecting creativity to business outcomes. That’s what we do at Digital Square.
Many enterprise homeowners complain that digital businesses burn via advert budgets on Meta and Google with out bringing tangible gross sales. How does Digital Square be sure that each Naira spent interprets to excessive Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)?
First, I feel it’s necessary to know that good advertising and marketing outcomes are a mix of a number of elements. You must get the product, pricing, positioning, viewers, and timing proper. Advertising is only one a part of that equation.
We’ve truly needed to flip down just a few manufacturers at Digital Square as a result of, after evaluating their merchandise, we didn’t consider they had been prepared for the market. But the enterprise homeowners needed to go straight into promoting and begin producing gross sales. The fact is, advertising and marketing can’t repair each basic drawback with a product or enterprise.
That’s why we do quite a lot of analysis earlier than growing a technique. We wish to perceive the market, shopper behaviour, the competitors, and what is going to genuinely inspire individuals to purchase.
Another factor I’ve discovered over time is that advertising and marketing requires experimentation. You can spend months growing what you consider is the right marketing campaign, launch it, and the outcomes are underwhelming. Then somebody creates a easy, spontaneous piece of content material, and it goes viral. I’ve seen it occur. That’s the attention-grabbing factor about shopper behaviour; you can’t all the time predict what individuals will reply to.
The actual ability is realizing methods to mix totally different approaches, take a look at concepts, examine the outcomes, and recognise when to alter route. At Digital Square, we monitor all the pieces from buyer acquisition prices and conversions to return on advert spend. We scale what works and rethink what doesn’t.
But there’s additionally the difficulty of persistence. Some enterprise homeowners need instant gross sales with out investing in constructing a model. They don’t wish to inform their story, set up belief, or give clients a purpose to decide on them. They merely wish to run advertisements at the moment and begin earning money tomorrow.
And whereas efficiency advertising and marketing can definitely ship fast outcomes, sustainable progress typically requires greater than that. People usually tend to purchase from manufacturers they know, perceive, and belief.
So when purchasers ask us how we guarantee each Naira generates a return, my reply is that no critical advertising and marketing skilled can assure that. What we will do is make knowledgeable choices, minimise wasted spending, hold experimenting, and construct a technique that offers the enterprise the most effective probability of succeeding.
For me, efficient advertising and marketing isn’t about having one sensible marketing campaign. It’s about understanding how all of the totally different items work collectively to provide outcomes.
As Head of Strategy, when a company model approaches you with stagnant progress or low on-line visibility, what’s the first crucial diagnostic take a look at you run on their enterprise funnel?
The very first thing I wish to perceive is the place the enterprise is shedding alternatives. Because stagnant progress and low visibility are two totally different issues, and you can’t clear up them with the identical technique.
I often begin by asking questions. What does the enterprise take into account progress? Is it struggling to draw clients, convert enquiries into gross sales, or retain present clients? Sometimes, a model believes it has a visibility drawback when, in actuality, individuals already find out about it however aren’t satisfied sufficient to purchase.
Then we have a look at all the buyer journey. How are individuals discovering the model? What occurs once they go to the web site or social media pages? Is the worth proposition clear? How straightforward is it to make a purchase order or contact the enterprise? And importantly, what occurs after that first interplay?
I additionally like to take a look at the information. Where is the visitors coming from? At what level are potential clients dropping off? What are rivals doing in another way? What are clients saying concerning the services or products? These issues inform us lots.
But one factor I’ve discovered is that information alone doesn’t inform the entire story. You even have to know individuals. Why are they shopping for from rivals? What issues have they got? What would make them belief this model? Sometimes, having precise conversations with clients reveals greater than hours spent an analytics dashboard.
I consider you need to diagnose an issue correctly earlier than prescribing an answer. Otherwise, you could possibly spend hundreds of thousands of Naira driving visitors to an internet site that isn’t changing, or growing consciousness for a product that hasn’t discovered its market.
So, my first crucial take a look at is actually figuring out the most important hole between buyer curiosity and enterprise outcomes. Once we perceive the place the issue is, we will begin making knowledgeable choices about methods to repair it.
From search engine optimisation and Google Search to TikTok and programmatic promoting, algorithm modifications occur in a single day. How do you retain your purchasers forward of digital platform shifts with out shedding viewers belief?
One factor I’ve discovered in digital advertising and marketing is that you simply can’t afford to get too comfy. What labored six months in the past won’t work at the moment, and what’s performing exceptionally nicely at the moment might turn into irrelevant tomorrow.
But whereas algorithms change, the basics of promoting stay largely the identical. People nonetheless need worth, they wish to be understood, they usually wish to belief the manufacturers they’re spending their cash on.
At Digital Square, we make investments quite a lot of time in analysis, learning shopper behaviour, monitoring trade developments, and experimenting with rising applied sciences. We’re fascinated with understanding not simply what’s altering, however why it’s altering and the way it impacts shopper behaviour.
For instance, the way in which individuals uncover merchandise is evolving. We’re now not Google alone. Consumers are looking on TikTok, asking AI platforms for suggestions, and making buying choices primarily based on conversations in on-line communities. We have to know these shifts and place manufacturers accordingly.
However, I don’t consider in chasing each development. Not each platform is true for each model. We additionally encourage purchasers to construct belongings they management, corresponding to their web sites, buyer databases, and communities, reasonably than relying completely on social media algorithms.
I consider strategist should know what to alter and what to protect. We can change our channels, instruments, and techniques, however the model’s values and the belief it has constructed with its viewers ought to stay constant.
My philosophy is straightforward: adapt to the expertise, however by no means lose sight of the individuals you’re attempting to achieve.
You maintain a level in Economics. How a lot of financial concept provide, demand, shopper psychology; truly comes into play when designing digital technique for company organizations?
Quite lots, truly. I feel my background in Economics has performed a big position in how I strategy advertising and marketing and enterprise technique.
Economics teaches you to know how individuals make choices, how markets behave, and the way assets will be allotted effectively. And when you consider it, that’s primarily what advertising and marketing is about.
Take shopper behaviour, for instance. People don’t all the time make buying choices primarily based on logic. Their choices are influenced by feelings, perceived worth, pricing, social influences, and even the financial scenario round them. Understanding these elements helps us develop methods that join with shoppers past simply promoting a product.
Some purchasers are literally stunned once they strategy me for promoting or advertising and marketing recommendation, and I begin asking questions that appear fully unrelated. Where do you see this enterprise in 5 or ten years? Are you constructing one thing you ultimately wish to promote, or is that this a legacy enterprise you plan to go down? What does long-term success appear to be for you?
But these questions are necessary as a result of the route of a enterprise ought to affect how we promote it. An organization constructing in direction of an eventual acquisition could have totally different priorities from one targeted on constructing a long-lasting household legacy. Marketing shouldn’t exist in isolation from the larger enterprise technique.
Then there’s useful resource allocation. Every enterprise has restricted assets, whether or not it’s cash, time, or manpower. My job is to find out how greatest to deploy these assets to attain the best doable return.
I additionally take note of broader financial realities. You can’t develop a advertising and marketing technique for Nigerian shoppers with out contemplating buying energy, inflation, and altering spending habits.
So, I might say Economics gave me the muse to assume analytically, query assumptions, and perceive the connection between shopper behaviour and enterprise progress. Digital advertising and marketing merely gave me the instruments to use that information in actual time.
Sitting within the Managing Director’s chair of a fast-growing digital technique agency comes with intense stress. How would you describe your management model, and the way do you foster innovation contained in the Digital Square crew?
I might describe my management model as collaborative, versatile, and fairly totally different from the normal company strategy. I consider that if you need individuals to ship their greatest work, you need to create an atmosphere that enables them to thrive, each professionally and personally.
We work in an trade the place creativity and demanding considering are important. And I’ve all the time questioned how we count on somebody who has spent 4 hours navigating Lagos visitors to reach at work with the identical degree of power, focus, and creativity as somebody who hasn’t. I feel good management requires being lifelike about these items.
That’s why we’ve adopted a versatile working construction at Digital Square. Our workers can make money working from home, and people who reside removed from the workplace can select to work from a coworking area nearer to them on sure days. We even have designated days when everyone seems to be required to be bodily current at our predominant workplace as a result of collaboration and human connection are equally necessary. This strategy has labored very nicely for us.
I’m additionally very aware of the truth that everyone seems to be on a distinct journey. Not everybody who joins Digital Square will spend their whole profession with us, and I’m completely comfy with that. Some individuals are furthering their training, taking skilled programs, and even constructing companies of their very own. I recognise that Digital Square is perhaps a chapter in somebody’s journey reasonably than their closing vacation spot.
What issues to me is that whereas they’re right here, they’re studying, contributing meaningfully, and rising. I need individuals to depart Digital Square higher than they had been once they joined, whether or not they keep for two years or ten.
Of course, flexibility doesn’t imply an absence of accountability. I’ve excessive requirements, and I count on individuals to take possession of their duties. I encourage my crew to problem concepts, together with mine, experiment with new applied sciences, and discover higher methods of doing issues. I don’t need individuals who merely wait for directions; I need individuals who assume.
I consider management is about creating the suitable situations for individuals to do their greatest work. When individuals really feel trusted, supported, and challenged, innovation turns into a pure a part of the tradition.
As a world enterprise strategist and guide, what do you assume is the most important mistake West African company manufacturers make when attempting to scale their market footprint internationally?
I feel one of many greatest errors is assuming that what labored in your house market will mechanically work elsewhere. Loads of companies strategy worldwide growth as merely coming into a brand new nation, reasonably than understanding a completely new market.
Consumer behaviour, buying energy, cultural influences, competitors, and even the way in which individuals reply to promoting can differ considerably from one nation to a different. You can’t merely replicate your Nigerian advertising and marketing technique within the UK, Canada, or the United States and count on the identical outcomes.
I additionally assume some manufacturers are too fast to pursue worldwide visibility with out first asking whether or not their enterprise is operationally prepared for that market. Can you ship your services or products persistently? Is your pricing aggressive? Do you perceive the regulatory atmosphere? Can your buyer expertise meet the expectations of that market? These issues are simply as necessary as advertising and marketing.
Another mistake is attempting to develop in all places directly. I consider in being strategic about market entry. Research the alternatives, establish the place there’s real demand, take a look at your assumptions, and be taught earlier than committing important assets.
And there’s one thing else I all the time emphasise: being an African model is a part of your id, however it shouldn’t be the one purpose you count on worldwide shoppers to purchase from you. Your product nonetheless has to resolve an issue, ship worth, and compete on high quality.
Having labored throughout totally different markets, I’ve come to understand that worldwide progress requires a stability between sustaining your model id and adapting to native realities.
For me, profitable growth isn’t about what number of international locations your model operates in. It’s about how successfully you may compete, create worth, and construct a sustainable enterprise in every market you enter.
Digital Square has performed a strategic position in introducing a number of worldwide manufacturers into the Nigerian market. What does it take to efficiently launch a international model in Nigeria, and the way does your crew assist these companies navigate the market?
Nigeria is a really attention-grabbing market. We have a big, youthful inhabitants, a vibrant shopper tradition, and important business alternatives. But it’s additionally a market you’ll want to perceive earlier than coming into.
One mistake worldwide manufacturers make is assuming that as a result of a technique labored in Europe, Asia, or North America, it would mechanically work in Nigeria. Our shopper behaviour, buying energy, cultural nuances, and even the way in which we talk are totally different.
At Digital Square, we’ve had the chance to work with manufacturers like Lavyanna, Gokabet, Branch, FXCG, and a number of other others on their entry into the Nigerian market. And one factor these experiences have strengthened is that there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy to market entry.
We begin by understanding the enterprise, researching the aggressive panorama, figuring out the suitable viewers, and figuring out how greatest to place the model. Sometimes, that includes rethinking the messaging, pricing, communication technique, and even the product providing to raised go well with the Nigerian shopper.
One factor I all the time inform worldwide manufacturers is that Nigerians communicate a distinct type of English, one which typically solely one other Nigerian can really perceive. It’s not nearly language; it’s about context, humour, expressions, and shared experiences. You can talk in completely polished company English and nonetheless fully lose your viewers since you’re not talking in a method that resonates with them.
And that’s the place native intelligence turns into extraordinarily necessary. You can’t merely take a world marketing campaign, change the foreign money to Naira, run some digital advertisements, and count on Nigerians to attach with it. You have to know the tradition, the conversations, shopping for behaviour, and what genuinely influences belief.
Our position is to mix that native market intelligence with international advertising and marketing requirements, serving to manufacturers construct consciousness, set up credibility, purchase clients, and develop sustainably.
I all the time say that coming into a market and profitable a market are two various things. Our job is to assist manufacturers do each.
With the fast rise of synthetic intelligence, there’s a rising perception that AI might finally exchange advertising and marketing businesses and even advertising and marketing professionals. Do you share this concern, and the way is Digital Square making ready for this shift?
AI has already taken over a big a part of advertising and marketing, and I don’t essentially see that as a nasty factor.
If we’re being lifelike, quite a lot of what advertising and marketing businesses cost purchasers for at the moment can already be accomplished with AI, typically sooner and at a fraction of the fee. Content creation, analysis, reporting, marketing campaign optimisation, and even sure points of technique have gotten more and more automated.
So the query is now not whether or not AI will change advertising and marketing. It already has. The greater query is what worth advertising and marketing professionals deliver when everybody has entry to the identical expertise.
At Digital Square, we’ve already modified how we work. For occasion, I count on my crew to ship 5 occasions sooner due to AI. You can’t spend 5 days doing one thing that expertise may also help you accomplish in half-hour. That doesn’t imply compromising high quality. It means utilizing the instruments obtainable to work smarter and spending extra time on issues that really require human considering.
I additionally consider that no matter your position in a advertising and marketing company, it’s best to know methods to use AI to get work accomplished past your instant duties. Whether you’re a strategist, account supervisor, content material creator, or designer, it’s best to have the ability to write efficient prompts, develop content material, generate artistic ideas, produce movies, and even put collectively an promoting marketing campaign utilizing AI instruments.
I’m not saying everybody has to turn into an professional in all the pieces. But it’s best to perceive what’s doable and know methods to use these instruments when the necessity arises. There’s a distinction between somebody who is aware of methods to do advertising and marketing and somebody who is aware of methods to do advertising and marketing in a world the place expertise is continually evolving.
Interestingly, we additionally assist purchasers arrange AI automations inside their companies. And I’m very open about this: if a shopper has somebody in-house who can handle these programs and their advertising and marketing successfully, they might not want us anymore. I don’t see something fallacious with that.
The method I see it, businesses ought to exist as a result of they supply worth, not as a result of purchasers are depending on them. Some companies have the experience and time to handle their advertising and marketing internally. Others would reasonably give attention to working their companies and have skilled professionals deal with that accountability. That’s the place we are available.
I additionally assume AI goes to show lots of people in our trade. If your whole worth as a marketer is realizing methods to use an promoting platform or create social media content material, then sure, try to be involved. But for those who genuinely perceive shoppers, enterprise technique, positioning, and progress, AI turns into an extremely highly effective device in your fingers.
Five years from now, I don’t assume essentially the most profitable businesses will essentially be those with the biggest groups. They’ll be those that know methods to mix expertise, creativity, and good enterprise judgement to ship outcomes.
How do you keep away from burnout and keep grounded amidst demanding schedules?
I want I might let you know I’ve mastered the artwork of avoiding burnout, however I haven’t. It’s one thing I’m nonetheless studying, particularly as a result of I genuinely get pleasure from what I do. Sometimes, the issue isn’t that I’ve an excessive amount of work. It’s that I’ve too many concepts I wish to discover.
One factor I’ve come to know about myself is that I want selection. I get bored doing the identical factor for too lengthy, so I get pleasure from engaged on totally different tasks, studying new issues, and difficult myself. But I’ve additionally needed to be taught that simply because I can do one thing doesn’t imply I’ve to do it myself.
I’m changing into extra intentional about constructing groups, delegating duties, and creating programs that permit issues to run with out my fixed involvement.
Outside work, I benefit from the easy issues. Going for walks, spending time in nature, getting some quiet time to myself. Walking, particularly, helps me assume. Some of my greatest concepts come after I’m away from my desk, not after I’m observing a display screen attempting to pressure an answer.
I additionally strive to not measure my productiveness by how busy I’m. There was a time when being continually occupied felt like an achievement. These days, I’m extra fascinated with what I’m truly engaging in and whether or not I’ve the liberty to get pleasure from my life whereas doing it.
I really like constructing companies, however I don’t wish to construct a life the place I’m too busy to benefit from the issues I’m working so arduous for.
What is your message to younger Nigerian girls who wish to excel in company management, expertise, and the humanities with out compromising their private values?
My recommendation can be to outline success for your self earlier than the world defines it for you.
I feel girls, particularly in our society, develop up with so many expectations about who they need to be, how they need to behave, what they need to prioritise, and even how formidable they’re allowed to be. And typically, with out realising it, we begin making choices primarily based on these expectations reasonably than what we genuinely need.
I’ve by no means believed that you need to match into one field. You will be fascinated with enterprise, expertise, creativity, and 100 different issues. You don’t must restrict your self as a result of somebody thinks it’s best to select one path and follow it.
But I additionally assume ambition should be backed by competence. Learn your craft, develop your expertise, keep curious, and be prepared to begin once more when vital. The world is altering too shortly for anybody to imagine that what they know at the moment can be sufficient tomorrow.
And please, don’t compromise your values simply to get forward. There will all the time be alternatives that look enticing however don’t align with who you might be or the type of life you wish to construct. Learn to recognise them and be comfy strolling away.
I might additionally encourage younger girls to turn into financially unbiased. Having your individual assets offers you selections, and having selections offers you a sure degree of freedom.
Most importantly, don’t spend your life attempting to turn into another person’s definition of a profitable lady. You will be formidable and nonetheless desire a peaceable life. You can construct companies, pursue a profession, have a household, discover your artistic pursuits, or select a totally totally different path.
It’s your life. Make certain you’re truly dwelling it, not simply assembly different individuals’s expectations.
