Babaeko Tasks Media Agencies on Local Intelligence, Future Growth

Raheem Akingbolu

Players in Nigeria’s media and communications industry have been reminded of the global transition in the business space as a result of technological revolution, which is rapidly changing advertising planning, buying and delivery.

Speaking at the 2026 Annual General Meeting of the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria, MIPAN, the Chief Executive Officer of X3M Ideas, Steve Babaeko dwelled extensively on artificial intelligence, programmatic systems and self-service platforms and the advantages they have over traditional approaches. He challenged media professionals to wake up to the new trend as they are losing a major chunk of their jobs automated processes.

Babaeko urged agencies to build their own audience intelligence, deepen their understanding of local consumers, and work together in areas where individual firms may lack the required scale.

According to him, Nigerian agencies should not shy away from the fact that the pressure is already evident.

He said, “Global technology companies control substantial audience data and increasingly provide advertisers with tools for targeting, placement, optimisation and measurement. As these platforms take on more functions, the traditional media buying model is coming under pressure, leaving agencies to reconsider what clients will continue to pay them for.”

The AGM, themed “Monetizing Tomorrow: Outpacing Disruption, Capturing Growth in the Next Era of Media,” provided the setting for Babaeko’s keynote, “Whose Tomorrow Are We Monetizing?” He argued that technology companies are extending their influence across the advertising value chain, from audience data and campaign planning to placement, optimisation, and measurement.

For agencies that remain heavily dependent on media buying and execution, he said the implications could be significant. As routine functions become automated, practitioners would have to demonstrate value through judgement, consumer understanding, and strategic interpretation. “You cannot out-run the algorithm at arithmetic. It does arithmetic for a living,” he said.

Babaeko, however, sees knowledge of the Nigerian consumer as an advantage local agencies can develop further. Purchasing decisions are influenced not only by digital platforms but also by radio, markets, commercial transport, WhatsApp groups, religious institutions, neighbourhood networks and word-of-mouth communication, much of which may not be adequately reflected on conventional dashboards.

These influences shape how consumers make choices and how brands gain acceptance across communities. With a large part of Nigeria’s economic activity taking place in the informal sector, Babaeko argued that what remains outside conventional measurement could become valuable intelligence for local agencies. Global platforms, despite their data advantage, “do not own the Nigerian,” he said.

That argument formed the basis of what Babaeko described as a second independence for the Nigerian media industry. MIPAN’s establishment in 1999 by seven companies, he recalled, marked an earlier movement away from guesswork towards greater professionalism, data and scientific discipline in media planning. The next stage, he said, should be independence of thought.

This would require the industry to question imported metrics and frameworks where they fail to reflect African market realities. Babaeko advocated what he called an “Original Africa orientation”, arguing that African cultural and commercial systems should be understood on their own terms. “You cannot monetise a tomorrow you have to import,” he said.

But greater independence would also require investment in the tools needed to understand the market. Babaeko called on MIPAN to build and own audience intelligence and data infrastructure, saying the association could collectively undertake projects that individual agencies might struggle to finance. Indigenous measurement, he added, could provide a credible “currency of attention” for the industry.

The change would also affect how agencies make money. Babaeko urged practitioners to move beyond earning principally from media insertion and place greater commercial value on strategic thinking, consumer understanding and judgement. “The independent’s future is not in the insertion. It is in the interpretation. Not in the buy. In the meaning. Not in reach. In resonance,” he said.

On artificial intelligence, Babaeko argued against treating the technology only as a threat. He advised practitioners to make AI their “junior, not their replacement”, using it for repetitive calculations and optimisation while professionals concentrate on strategy, creativity, cultural understanding and the interpretation of consumer behaviour.

He also questioned how the industry determines what constitutes premium media, arguing that Nigerian channels should not automatically be valued below global digital platforms. Radio, despite repeated predictions of decline, continues to reach millions of Nigerians. Babaeko also called for greater collaboration among MIPAN members, particularly in data, measurement and technology, to strengthen the industry’s collective capacity.

For Babaeko, the choices facing the industry ultimately come down to where agencies expect to create value as technology assumes more of the work they once performed. He argued that their advantage would increasingly lie in understanding people, culture and meaning. “The next era belongs to whoever owns meaning in a world drowning in transaction,” he said. Returning to the question posed in his keynote, “Whose tomorrow are we monetizing?”, Babaeko answered: “Ours. If we have the nerve to build it.”