BY FEYI BANKOLE
Remember that popular Guinness TV commercial “My friend Udeme is a
great man”? Until I spent over an hour with this innovative middle-aged
man who actually produced that ad, I couldn’t grasp why he had to
adjudge ‘Udeme’ great. Mr.Udeme Ufot is the Group Managing Director
of SO&U, one of Nigeria’s most influential advertising agencies, affiliated
to Saatchi & Saatchi, a global advertising agency. ‘A great seat!’, you
might exclaim, but believe me, that isn’t the reason our friend Udeme is
a “great man”. In 1990, Udeme Ufot had resigned his rewarding
employment with a foremost advertising firm, Insight Communications,
and had ventured into private practice relying solely on his creativity and
dynamism, knowing well that the field was highly manipulated by the
“bigger and older practitioners”. He seemed too brave and almost
everyone thought it won’t be long before he crumbled, but it’s over 23
years on and Udeme Ufot is still making great strides in the world of
advertising, even to the extent of winning the Fate Model Entrepreneur
Award 2012. We had an inspiring session with him in Lagos.
Courageous beginning
When 23 years ago he became restless about venturing into private
practice, Udeme Ufot did not have the ideal prerequisites for setting up
an advertising firm. But today, Udeme is a great man. He had studied
industrial design and specialised in graphic design at the Ahmadu Bello
University where he graduated and then worked for several years with
Insight Communications as a creative artist. That knowledge was of
course not enough to run a successful advertising business considering
the presence of people who had perhaps studied advertising and
managed frontline seats in the industry. “What a disadvantage!, one
would ordinarily think. But Udeme was smart and decided to rely on the
main substance visible in advertising- creativity, and within 18 months,
the agency was named the most creative in the country.
Naïve team
“Getting started was not easy. We had a bunch of very green, naïve
young people. SO&U is an acronym for Gbemi Sajay, Julia Oko and Ufot.
We used to be among the backroom guys who get things done in the
advertising industry. I have a creative background, Sagay was an art
director and Oko was a copywriter. So, in the first instance, setting out
to establish such business was an anomaly in the industry. This made
people laugh at us. But what have seen us through are resilience,
determination and focus. We said to ourselves that we’ll go by a very
simple strategy- nobody can deny seeing a good thing when he or she
has seen it. What was important to us was to ensure that we very
quickly make a mark in our calling”, Udeme reveals.
“Therefore, we agreed that any work we found to do, we must do it
differently and well. We rendered outstanding services above what we
were paid for! We put our people through intensive training, and we
virtually turned the agency into a school. We gradually turned our entire
agency into an environment for continuous improvement and learning”.
*Udeme Ufot
Gift of creativity
Udeme didn’t just stumble into the creative world of advertising- he had
dreamed of it as a teenager! He co-incidentally discovered he had the
skills and made conscious efforts towards improvement. Being the son
of the Registrar of the University of Calabar at that time, he had access
to the university library and read voraciously. While studying a journal
on advertising and marketing one day though he had wanted to be a
political scientist, he came across an illustration of an impressive
looking fellow, and the caption under that illustration read: “A Trendy Art
Director”. Immediately, Udeme fell in love with the art director and his
work and began dreaming and working towards becoming one someday.
That was between 1975 and 76.
He adds: “What helped me was that I was talented creatively. Right from
my primary school, I could draw very well, I could act in plays and I was
very good in literature. In fact, when I sat back and analysed myself, I
saw that I had the relevant skills. That’s why I always tell people that it
is easier to succeed when you’re doing what you enjoy doing”.
Between passion and success
To Udeme, the relevance of passion to success was invaluable. Having
been in business for 23 years, and with a clientele comprising
conglomerates and the banking sector, you cannot but wonder how he
became one of the few doyens of the industry. “Passion makes the
difference! It drives everything. It’s one thing to have the talent and
resources, but you must have the drive, and that drive comes from the
passion to succeed. Because we had nothing when we set up SO&U,
everyone told me and my team we’ll fail.
For the first six months, we couldn’t afford a telephone in the agency,
not even curtains. The first furniture we had was my dining table in my
own house. We all sat round that table to do our work! The first furniture
in my office as MD was a sofa I brought from my house. I didn’t have a
worktable, so, I would write my notes on my thighs. Of course, these
lacks aren’t the things that will make one fail, unlike what many think. I
believe it’s about knowing what you lack and being able to improvise.
But when you have the passion and drive to succeed, nothing can stop
you. That passion drove us and every income we made, we invested in
ourselves to acquire knowledge and upgrade our skills. We invested in
our business too to furnish the office, buy computers and make
ourselves more efficient because we had the vision of where we were
taking our agency. If you lack passion, you’ll sit back and lament about
what you don’t have: ‘I don’t have a godfather, I don’t have money, I
can’t find clients because I’ve not worked with clients before…’, but
when you’re being fired up by passion, nothing will stop you”.
Financial barrier
True to his word, not even financial constraints could make him jettison
his aspiration of going into private practice 23 years ago. “This company
was started with N60,000 of my life savings in 1990”, Udeme was quick
to add. He had started the business in the guestroom of his house, and
when in the third month he found an office in Apapa that would cost
him a hundred thousand naira rent, not even his age-long bank was
willing to loan him N60,000 to augment what he had. A childhood friend
came to his rescue and in less than two years after SO&U took off,
because he had become influential in the industry, a delegation from the
same bank came to woo him to bank with them!
Remember that popular Guinness TV commercial “My friend Udeme is a
great man”? Until I spent over an hour with this innovative middle-aged
man who actually produced that ad, I couldn’t grasp why he had to
adjudge ‘Udeme’ great. Mr.Udeme Ufot is the Group Managing Director
of SO&U, one of Nigeria’s most influential advertising agencies, affiliated
to Saatchi & Saatchi, a global advertising agency. ‘A great seat!’, you
might exclaim, but believe me, that isn’t the reason our friend Udeme is
a “great man”. In 1990, Udeme Ufot had resigned his rewarding
employment with a foremost advertising firm, Insight Communications,
and had ventured into private practice relying solely on his creativity and
dynamism, knowing well that the field was highly manipulated by the
“bigger and older practitioners”. He seemed too brave and almost
everyone thought it won’t be long before he crumbled, but it’s over 23
years on and Udeme Ufot is still making great strides in the world of
advertising, even to the extent of winning the Fate Model Entrepreneur
Award 2012. We had an inspiring session with him in Lagos.
Courageous beginning
When 23 years ago he became restless about venturing into private
practice, Udeme Ufot did not have the ideal prerequisites for setting up
an advertising firm. But today, Udeme is a great man. He had studied
industrial design and specialised in graphic design at the Ahmadu Bello
University where he graduated and then worked for several years with
Insight Communications as a creative artist. That knowledge was of
course not enough to run a successful advertising business considering
the presence of people who had perhaps studied advertising and
managed frontline seats in the industry. “What a disadvantage!, one
would ordinarily think. But Udeme was smart and decided to rely on the
main substance visible in advertising- creativity, and within 18 months,
the agency was named the most creative in the country.
Naïve team
“Getting started was not easy. We had a bunch of very green, naïve
young people. SO&U is an acronym for Gbemi Sajay, Julia Oko and Ufot.
We used to be among the backroom guys who get things done in the
advertising industry. I have a creative background, Sagay was an art
director and Oko was a copywriter. So, in the first instance, setting out
to establish such business was an anomaly in the industry. This made
people laugh at us. But what have seen us through are resilience,
determination and focus. We said to ourselves that we’ll go by a very
simple strategy- nobody can deny seeing a good thing when he or she
has seen it. What was important to us was to ensure that we very
quickly make a mark in our calling”, Udeme reveals.
“Therefore, we agreed that any work we found to do, we must do it
differently and well. We rendered outstanding services above what we
were paid for! We put our people through intensive training, and we
virtually turned the agency into a school. We gradually turned our entire
agency into an environment for continuous improvement and learning”.
*Udeme Ufot
Gift of creativity
Udeme didn’t just stumble into the creative world of advertising- he had
dreamed of it as a teenager! He co-incidentally discovered he had the
skills and made conscious efforts towards improvement. Being the son
of the Registrar of the University of Calabar at that time, he had access
to the university library and read voraciously. While studying a journal
on advertising and marketing one day though he had wanted to be a
political scientist, he came across an illustration of an impressive
looking fellow, and the caption under that illustration read: “A Trendy Art
Director”. Immediately, Udeme fell in love with the art director and his
work and began dreaming and working towards becoming one someday.
That was between 1975 and 76.
He adds: “What helped me was that I was talented creatively. Right from
my primary school, I could draw very well, I could act in plays and I was
very good in literature. In fact, when I sat back and analysed myself, I
saw that I had the relevant skills. That’s why I always tell people that it
is easier to succeed when you’re doing what you enjoy doing”.
Between passion and success
To Udeme, the relevance of passion to success was invaluable. Having
been in business for 23 years, and with a clientele comprising
conglomerates and the banking sector, you cannot but wonder how he
became one of the few doyens of the industry. “Passion makes the
difference! It drives everything. It’s one thing to have the talent and
resources, but you must have the drive, and that drive comes from the
passion to succeed. Because we had nothing when we set up SO&U,
everyone told me and my team we’ll fail.
For the first six months, we couldn’t afford a telephone in the agency,
not even curtains. The first furniture we had was my dining table in my
own house. We all sat round that table to do our work! The first furniture
in my office as MD was a sofa I brought from my house. I didn’t have a
worktable, so, I would write my notes on my thighs. Of course, these
lacks aren’t the things that will make one fail, unlike what many think. I
believe it’s about knowing what you lack and being able to improvise.
But when you have the passion and drive to succeed, nothing can stop
you. That passion drove us and every income we made, we invested in
ourselves to acquire knowledge and upgrade our skills. We invested in
our business too to furnish the office, buy computers and make
ourselves more efficient because we had the vision of where we were
taking our agency. If you lack passion, you’ll sit back and lament about
what you don’t have: ‘I don’t have a godfather, I don’t have money, I
can’t find clients because I’ve not worked with clients before…’, but
when you’re being fired up by passion, nothing will stop you”.
Financial barrier
True to his word, not even financial constraints could make him jettison
his aspiration of going into private practice 23 years ago. “This company
was started with N60,000 of my life savings in 1990”, Udeme was quick
to add. He had started the business in the guestroom of his house, and
when in the third month he found an office in Apapa that would cost
him a hundred thousand naira rent, not even his age-long bank was
willing to loan him N60,000 to augment what he had. A childhood friend
came to his rescue and in less than two years after SO&U took off,
because he had become influential in the industry, a delegation from the
same bank came to woo him to bank with them!
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