Raheem Akingbolu
The rising affect of know-how, altering client expectations and financial pressures is forcing companies to rethink how they construct and maintain their manufacturers, with trade specialists warning that promoting and public relations alone can now not assure client loyalty.
The warning fashioned the central message at Brandcomfest 2026, the place advertising communications professionals referred to 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 trade stakeholders to look at the realities of brand name constructing in a quickly altering market. It additionally featured the Brandcom Awards, which recognised manufacturers, companies and advertising professionals for his or her contributions to the trade.
Delivering the keynote deal with, the Group Chief Executive Officer of GDM, Dr Victor Gbenga Afolabi, argued that companies should look past the photographs they undertaking by way of promoting campaigns and focus on the worth they ship to shoppers.
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 clients expertise after partaking with their services.
Afolabi famous that digital platforms had expanded alternatives for companies to succeed in shoppers however had concurrently made model repute 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 sources invested in promoting and promotion.
He subsequently urged organisations to establish and deal with the issues clients encounter as a substitute of relying on new slogans and promotional campaigns to compensate for weaknesses of their operations.
For manufacturers looking for long-term relevance, he maintained, advertising should be supported by operational effectivity, applicable know-how, efficient management and an organisational tradition able to sustaining constant requirements.
The implication is that model administration can now not be handled completely because the accountability of selling and public relations departments. The whole organisation should contribute to delivering the expertise promised to shoppers.
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 trade.
In his welcome deal with, the convener of Brandcomfest and the Brandcom Awards, Joshua Ajayi, stated the platform was created to attach trade practitioners with rising concepts whereas recognising organisations and professionals whose work had translated into measurable outcomes.
He noticed that synthetic intelligence was reworking content material creation, algorithms have been influencing the messages reaching shoppers, and social media had accelerated the pace at which reputational challenges might emerge.
“If we are waiting for things to return to former ways, we may be waiting in eternity,” Ajayi stated, highlighting the necessity for practitioners to answer modifications within the enterprise atmosphere fairly than rely on established strategies.
He added that the trade might now 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 deal with, three panel discussions and a fireplace chat.
The periods 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 industrial outcomes. Participants additionally thought-about how companies might preserve inventive relevance as client preferences change and know-how reshapes marketing campaign growth.
From the model perspective, discussions targeted on the necessity to steadiness affordability, product high quality and flexibility whereas sustaining the requirements that assist client loyalty.
The periods on synthetic intelligence explored how rising instruments might enhance viewers focusing on, marketing campaign administration and promoting personalisation. Participants, nevertheless, confused that know-how ought to assist human creativity and strategic judgement fairly 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 12 months’s version additionally introduced 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 companies compete for market relevance and trade recognition.
The awards additionally celebrated 35 Under 35 advertising professionals, drawing consideration to rising expertise throughout the advertising communications ecosystem.
