- 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 selections, 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 method to advertising and marketing goes past promoting budgets and artistic campaigns. For Moe, understanding an organization’s enterprise mannequin, industrial targets, and long-term ambitions is simply as essential as understanding its target market.
Now, as synthetic intelligence reshapes the advertising and marketing business, she is difficult conventional company practices, embracing automation, and rethinking what companies ought to anticipate from their advertising and marketing companions.
In this interview, Modupe Sanni speaks concerning the realities of constructing manufacturers in Nigeria, her unconventional method 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 change into a go-to progress powerhouse for high 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 essential, however what occurs after folks see your model is much more essential.
At Digital Square, we method advertising and marketing from a enterprise perspective first. Before we discuss campaigns, inventive 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 opponents? And most significantly, what does success appear to be for the enterprise?
I’ve a background in Economics, so I’ve at all times been fascinated with understanding client behaviour, market dynamics, and the way companies develop. That pondering influences how we method advertising and marketing.
We mix knowledge, know-how, client psychology, and artistic storytelling to construct methods that don’t simply appeal to consideration however really affect buying selections and drive progress.
And I feel that’s the place plenty of manufacturers get it incorrect. They confuse being common with being worthwhile. You can have hundreds of thousands of impressions, 1000’s 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 actual magic is connecting creativity to industrial outcomes. That’s what we do at Digital Square.
Many enterprise homeowners complain that digital companies burn by advert budgets on Meta and Google with out bringing tangible gross sales. How does Digital Square be certain that each Naira spent interprets to excessive Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)?
First, I feel it’s essential to know that good advertising and marketing outcomes are a mixture of a number of elements. You need to get the product, pricing, positioning, viewers, and timing proper. Advertising is only one a part of that equation.
We’ve really needed to flip down just a few manufacturers at Digital Square as a result of, after evaluating their merchandise, we didn’t imagine they had been prepared for the market. But the enterprise homeowners needed to go straight into promoting and begin producing gross sales. The reality is, advertising and marketing can’t repair each basic drawback with a product or enterprise.
That’s why we do plenty of analysis earlier than growing a method. We wish to perceive the market, client behaviour, the competitors, and what is going to genuinely inspire folks to purchase.
Another factor I’ve realized through the years is that advertising and marketing requires experimentation. You can spend months growing what you imagine 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 client behaviour; you can’t at all times predict what folks will reply to.
The actual ability is realizing mix completely different approaches, check concepts, research the outcomes, and recognise when to vary course. 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 prospects a purpose to decide on them. They merely wish to run advertisements at this time and begin creating wealth tomorrow.
And whereas efficiency advertising and marketing can actually ship fast outcomes, sustainable progress usually 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 are able to do is make knowledgeable selections, minimise wasted spending, preserve experimenting, and construct a method that offers the enterprise the most effective probability of succeeding.
For me, efficient advertising and marketing isn’t about having one good marketing campaign. It’s about understanding how all of the completely different items work collectively to supply outcomes.
As Head of Strategy, when a company model approaches you with stagnant progress or low on-line visibility, what’s the first important diagnostic check 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 completely different issues, and you can’t remedy them with the identical technique.
I normally begin by asking questions. What does the enterprise take into account progress? Is it struggling to draw prospects, convert enquiries into gross sales, or retain present prospects? Sometimes, a model believes it has a visibility drawback when, in actuality, folks already learn about it however aren’t satisfied sufficient to purchase.
Then we have a look at the whole buyer journey. How are folks discovering the model? What occurs after they go to the web site or social media pages? Is the worth proposition clear? How simple 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 prospects dropping off? What are opponents doing in a different way? What are prospects saying concerning the services or products? These issues inform us rather a lot.
But one factor I’ve realized is that knowledge alone doesn’t inform the entire story. You even have to know folks. Why are they shopping for from opponents? What issues have they got? What would make them belief this model? Sometimes, having precise conversations with prospects reveals greater than hours spent an analytics dashboard.
I imagine you need to diagnose an issue correctly earlier than prescribing an answer. Otherwise, you might spend hundreds of thousands of Naira driving visitors to an internet site that isn’t changing, or rising consciousness for a product that hasn’t discovered its market.
So, my first important check is admittedly figuring out the most important hole between buyer curiosity and enterprise outcomes. Once we perceive the place the issue is, we are able to begin making knowledgeable selections about repair it.
From website positioning 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 realized in digital advertising and marketing is that you just can’t afford to get too comfy. What labored six months in the past won’t work at this time, and what’s performing exceptionally nicely at this time may change 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 plenty of time in analysis, finding out client behaviour, monitoring business 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 client behaviour.
For instance, the best way folks uncover merchandise is evolving. We’re not Google alone. Consumers are looking on TikTok, asking AI platforms for suggestions, and making buying selections primarily based on conversations in on-line communities. We have to know these shifts and place manufacturers accordingly.
However, I don’t imagine in chasing each pattern. Not each platform is true for each model. We additionally encourage purchasers to construct property they management, equivalent to their web sites, buyer databases, and communities, moderately than relying fully on social media algorithms.
I imagine strategist should know what to vary 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 know-how, however by no means lose sight of the folks you’re attempting to succeed in.
You maintain a level in Economics. How a lot of financial principle provide, demand, client psychology; really comes into play when designing digital technique for company organizations?
Quite rather a lot, really. I feel my background in Economics has performed a big position in how I method advertising and marketing and enterprise technique.
Economics teaches you to know how folks make selections, how markets behave, and the way sources might be allotted effectively. And when you concentrate on it, that’s primarily what advertising and marketing is about.
Take client behaviour, for instance. People don’t at all times make buying selections primarily based on logic. Their selections 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 after they method 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 finally 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 essential as a result of the course of a enterprise ought to affect how we promote it. An organization constructing in the direction of an eventual acquisition might have completely different priorities from one centered on constructing an enduring household legacy. Marketing shouldn’t exist in isolation from the larger enterprise technique.
Then there’s useful resource allocation. Every enterprise has restricted sources, whether or not it’s cash, time, or manpower. My job is to find out how finest to deploy these sources to realize 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’d say Economics gave me the inspiration to assume analytically, query assumptions, and perceive the connection between client behaviour and enterprise progress. Digital advertising and marketing merely gave me the instruments to use that data in actual time.
Sitting within the Managing Director’s chair of a fast-growing digital technique agency comes with intense strain. How would you describe your management fashion, and the way do you foster innovation contained in the Digital Square group?
I’d describe my management fashion as collaborative, versatile, and fairly completely different from the standard company method. I imagine that if you would like folks to ship their finest work, you need to create an atmosphere that permits them to thrive, each professionally and personally.
We work in an business the place creativity and significant pondering are important. And I’ve at all times questioned how we anticipate 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 reasonable 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 essential workplace as a result of collaboration and human connection are equally essential. This method has labored very nicely for us.
I’m additionally very acutely aware of the truth that everyone seems to be on a unique journey. Not everybody who joins Digital Square will spend their total profession with us, and I’m completely comfy with that. Some individuals are furthering their schooling, taking skilled programs, and even constructing companies of their very own. I recognise that Digital Square is likely to be a chapter in somebody’s journey moderately than their ultimate vacation spot.
What issues to me is that whereas they’re right here, they’re studying, contributing meaningfully, and rising. I would like folks to go away Digital Square higher than they had been after they joined, whether or not they keep for two years or ten.
Of course, flexibility doesn’t imply a scarcity of accountability. I’ve excessive requirements, and I anticipate folks to take possession of their duties. I encourage my group 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 would like individuals who assume.
I imagine management is about creating the best situations for folks to do their finest work. When folks really feel trusted, supported, and challenged, innovation turns into a pure a part of the tradition.
As a world enterprise strategist and marketing consultant, 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 routinely work elsewhere. Quite a lot of companies method worldwide growth as merely coming into a brand new nation, moderately than understanding a wholly new market.
Consumer behaviour, buying energy, cultural influences, competitors, and even the best way folks 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 anticipate 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 constantly? 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 essential as advertising and marketing.
Another mistake is attempting to increase in every single place without delay. I imagine in being strategic about market entry. Research the alternatives, determine the place there’s real demand, check your assumptions, and study earlier than committing vital sources.
And there’s one thing else I at all times emphasise: being an African model is a part of your identification, nevertheless it shouldn’t be the one purpose you anticipate worldwide shoppers to purchase from you. Your product nonetheless has to resolve an issue, ship worth, and compete on high quality.
Having labored throughout completely different markets, I’ve come to understand that worldwide progress requires a stability between sustaining your model identification 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’ll be able to 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 overseas model in Nigeria, and the way does your group assist these companies navigate the market?
Nigeria is a really attention-grabbing market. We have a big, youthful inhabitants, a vibrant client tradition, and vital industrial alternatives. But it’s additionally a market it’s worthwhile to perceive earlier than coming into.
One mistake worldwide manufacturers make is assuming that as a result of a method labored in Europe, Asia, or North America, it should routinely work in Nigeria. Our client behaviour, buying energy, cultural nuances, and even the best way we talk are completely 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 method to market entry.
We begin by understanding the enterprise, researching the aggressive panorama, figuring out the best viewers, and figuring out how finest to place the model. Sometimes, that entails rethinking the messaging, pricing, communication technique, and even the product providing to raised swimsuit the Nigerian client.
One factor I at all times inform worldwide manufacturers is that Nigerians converse a unique form of English, one which generally 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 essential. You can’t merely take a global marketing campaign, change the forex to Naira, run some digital advertisements, and anticipate 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 prospects, and develop sustainably.
I at all times say that coming into a market and successful 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 may ultimately substitute advertising and marketing companies 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 foul factor.
If we’re being reasonable, plenty of what advertising and marketing companies cost purchasers for at this time can already be finished with AI, generally quicker and at a fraction of the fee. Content creation, analysis, reporting, marketing campaign optimisation, and even sure features of technique have gotten more and more automated.
So the query is not whether or not AI will change advertising and marketing. It already has. The larger query is what worth advertising and marketing professionals convey when everybody has entry to the identical know-how.
At Digital Square, we’ve already modified how we work. For occasion, I anticipate my group to ship 5 instances quicker due to AI. You can’t spend 5 days doing one thing that know-how might help you accomplish in half-hour. That doesn’t imply compromising high quality. It means utilizing the instruments accessible to work smarter and spending extra time on issues that truly require human pondering.
I additionally imagine that no matter your position in a advertising and marketing company, you must know use AI to get work finished past your instant duties. Whether you’re a strategist, account supervisor, content material creator, or designer, you must be capable to write efficient prompts, develop content material, generate inventive ideas, produce movies, and even put collectively an promoting marketing campaign utilizing AI instruments.
I’m not saying everybody has to change into an skilled in all the pieces. But you must perceive what’s doable and know use these instruments when the necessity arises. There’s a distinction between somebody who is aware of do advertising and marketing and somebody who is aware of do advertising and marketing in a world the place know-how 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 techniques and their advertising and marketing successfully, they might not want us anymore. I don’t see something incorrect with that.
The method I see it, companies 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 moderately give attention to operating their companies and have skilled professionals deal with that accountability. That’s the place we are available in.
I additionally assume AI goes to reveal lots of people in our business. If your total worth as a marketer is realizing use an promoting platform or create social media content material, then sure, you ought to be involved. But when you genuinely perceive shoppers, enterprise technique, positioning, and progress, AI turns into an extremely highly effective software in your arms.
Five years from now, I don’t assume essentially the most profitable companies will essentially be those with the most important groups. They’ll be those that know mix know-how, creativity, and good enterprise judgement to ship outcomes.
How do you keep away from burnout and keep grounded amidst demanding schedules?
I want I may 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 take pleasure in 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 take pleasure in engaged on completely different initiatives, studying new issues, and difficult myself. But I’ve additionally needed to study 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 techniques that enable 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 finest concepts come after I’m away from my desk, not after I’m watching a display screen attempting to power an answer.
I additionally attempt to not measure my productiveness by how busy I’m. There was a time when being always occupied felt like an achievement. These days, I’m extra fascinated with what I’m really carrying out and whether or not I’ve the liberty to take pleasure in 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 onerous for.
What is your message to younger Nigerian ladies who wish to excel in company management, know-how, 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 ladies, 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 generally, with out realising it, we begin making selections primarily based on these expectations moderately than what we genuinely need.
I’ve by no means believed that you need to match into one field. You might be fascinated with enterprise, know-how, creativity, and 100 different issues. You don’t need to restrict your self as a result of somebody thinks you must select one path and stick with 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 this time shall be sufficient tomorrow.
And please, don’t compromise your values simply to get forward. There will at all times be alternatives that look enticing however don’t align with who you’re or the form of life you wish to construct. Learn to recognise them and be comfy strolling away.
I’d additionally encourage younger ladies to change into financially impartial. Having your personal sources provides you selections, and having selections provides you a sure degree of freedom.
Most importantly, don’t spend your life attempting to change into another person’s definition of a profitable girl. You might be formidable and nonetheless need a peaceable life. You can construct companies, pursue a profession, have a household, discover your inventive pursuits, or select a totally completely different path.
It’s your life. Make positive you’re really dwelling it, not simply assembly different folks’s expectations.
