Tolulope Ibukunoluwa
Gbemi Sagay, a renowned illustrator and advertising practitioner, has been announced as the chief juror of the 2019 Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF) awards, slated to hold on 14 December at the Landmark Event Centre, Lagos.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by Chairman, LAIF Management Board, Steve Babaeko.
The chief juror, the statement noted, is vastly experienced in the marketing communications industry and is expected to, alongside his fellow jurors, bring his expertise to the fore to ensure that only the best of the numerous submitted entries are shortlisted and subsequently awarded.
Sagay has almost four decades of experience in the advertising industry. He started his career in 1984, after which he joined Insight in December 1989, where he participated in creating campaigns for local and international brands. In 1993, he co-founded SO&U Limited along with two other colleagues.
He is a member of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and currently the Chief Executive Officer of The Shops Limited, an idea generation/print production company. The advertising guru has over the years mentored several practitioners.
Other jurors include Stanley Lumax, a New York-based Communication Expert; Toni Kan Onwordi, Author, Editor and Public Relations Specialist; and Irene Donati, Head of Marketing and Brand Strategy, Lionheart Group, Ghana.
Ekenena Ezaga, Creative Director, SO&U; Yaa Boateng, Creative Director, Ogilvy Ghana; Dave Chukwuji, Creative Director, DKK Nigeria; Sunny Mohammed, Creative Director, DDB Lagos; and Kayode Olowu, Creative Director, Onewildcard, complete the jurors’ line-up.
The 2019 LAIF Awards, which is the 13th edition, has as its theme: “Tori Tori, Story of LAIF”. The event is expected to attract practitioners from the marketing communications community, business leaders and policymakers, who will deliberate on key marketing and marketing communications challenges as well as celebrate the industry’s best of creativity, innovation and promotion of excellence in brand development strategies.
