- 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 customers make selections, and what it takes for manufacturers to achieve 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 customers, and drive measurable progress.
Her strategy to advertising and marketing goes past promoting budgets and inventive campaigns. For Moe, understanding an organization’s enterprise mannequin, industrial goals, and long-term ambitions is simply as necessary as understanding its audience.
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 strategy 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 develop 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 believe the magic is knowing that advertising and marketing isn’t just about visibility. Visibility is necessary, however what occurs after individuals see your model is much more necessary.
At Digital Square, we strategy 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 rivals? And most significantly, what does success appear to be for the enterprise?
I’ve a background in Economics, so I’ve all the time been concerned about understanding shopper behaviour, market dynamics, and the way companies develop. That pondering influences how we strategy advertising and marketing.
We mix information, expertise, shopper psychology, and inventive storytelling to construct methods that don’t simply appeal to consideration however truly affect buying selections and drive progress.
And I believe that’s the place lots of manufacturers get it incorrect. They confuse being standard with being worthwhile. You can have hundreds of thousands of impressions, hundreds 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 house owners complain that digital businesses burn via advert budgets on Meta and Google with out bringing tangible gross sales. How does Digital Square be sure that each Naira spent interprets to excessive Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)?
First, I believe it’s necessary to grasp that good advertising and marketing outcomes are a mix of a number of components. You must get the product, pricing, positioning, viewers, and timing proper. Advertising is only one a part of that equation.
We’ve truly needed to flip down just a few manufacturers at Digital Square as a result of, after evaluating their merchandise, we didn’t consider they had been prepared for the market. But the enterprise house owners wished to go straight into promoting and begin producing gross sales. The reality is, advertising and marketing can not repair each basic drawback with a product or enterprise.
That’s why we do lots of analysis earlier than growing a technique. We wish to perceive the market, shopper behaviour, the competitors, and what’s going to genuinely inspire individuals to purchase.
Another factor I’ve realized over time is that advertising and marketing requires experimentation. You can spend months growing what you consider 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 fascinating factor about shopper behaviour; you can not all the time predict what individuals will reply to.
The actual talent is understanding easy methods to mix completely different approaches, take a look at concepts, examine the outcomes, and recognise when to vary path. At Digital Square, we monitor the whole lot 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 house owners need quick gross sales with out investing in constructing a model. They don’t wish to inform their story, set up belief, or give clients a cause to decide on them. They merely wish to run adverts at the moment and begin earning profits tomorrow.
And whereas efficiency advertising and marketing can definitely 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 severe 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 technique that offers the enterprise one of the best likelihood of succeeding.
For me, efficient advertising and marketing isn’t about having one sensible 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 essential diagnostic take a look at you run on their enterprise funnel?
The very first thing I wish to perceive is the place the enterprise is dropping alternatives. Because stagnant progress and low visibility are two completely different issues, and you can not clear up them with the identical technique.
I normally begin by asking questions. What does the enterprise think about progress? Is it struggling to draw clients, convert enquiries into gross sales, or retain current clients? Sometimes, a model believes it has a visibility drawback when, in actuality, individuals already find out about it however aren’t satisfied sufficient to purchase.
Then we have a look at your entire buyer journey. How are individuals discovering the model? What occurs after they go to the web site or social media pages? Is the worth proposition clear? How straightforward 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 info. Where is the site visitors coming from? At what level are potential clients dropping off? What are rivals doing in another way? What are clients saying concerning the services or products? These issues inform us loads.
But one factor I’ve realized is that information alone doesn’t inform the entire story. You even have to grasp individuals. Why are they shopping for from rivals? What issues have they got? What would make them belief this model? Sometimes, having precise conversations with clients reveals greater than hours spent an analytics dashboard.
I consider it’s a must to diagnose an issue correctly earlier than prescribing an answer. Otherwise, you would spend hundreds of thousands of Naira driving site visitors to an internet site that isn’t changing, or growing consciousness for a product that hasn’t discovered its market.
So, my first essential take a look at is actually figuring out the largest hole between buyer curiosity and enterprise outcomes. Once we perceive the place the issue is, we are able to begin making knowledgeable selections about easy methods to repair it.
From search engine optimization 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 dropping viewers belief?
One factor I’ve realized in digital advertising and marketing is that you simply can not afford to get too snug. What labored six months in the past won’t work at the moment, and what’s performing exceptionally nicely at the moment may develop into irrelevant tomorrow.
But whereas algorithms change, the basics of selling stay largely the identical. People nonetheless need worth, they wish to be understood, and so they wish to belief the manufacturers they’re spending their cash on.
At Digital Square, we make investments lots of time in analysis, finding out shopper behaviour, monitoring business developments, and experimenting with rising applied sciences. We’re concerned about understanding not simply what’s altering, however why it’s altering and the way it impacts shopper behaviour.
For instance, the way in which individuals uncover merchandise is evolving. We’re now not Google alone. Consumers are looking out on TikTok, asking AI platforms for suggestions, and making buying selections based mostly on conversations in on-line communities. We have to grasp these shifts and place manufacturers accordingly.
However, I don’t consider in chasing each development. Not each platform is correct for each model. We additionally encourage purchasers to construct belongings they management, resembling their web sites, buyer databases, and communities, fairly than relying fully on social media algorithms.
I consider a superb 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 easy: adapt to the expertise, however by no means lose sight of the individuals you’re attempting to achieve.
You maintain a level in Economics. How a lot of financial concept provide, demand, shopper psychology; truly comes into play when designing digital technique for company organizations?
Quite loads, truly. I believe my background in Economics has performed a big position in how I strategy advertising and marketing and enterprise technique.
Economics teaches you to grasp how individuals make selections, how markets behave, and the way assets will be allotted effectively. And when you concentrate on it, that’s basically what advertising and marketing is about.
Take shopper behaviour, for instance. People don’t all the time make buying selections based mostly on logic. Their selections are influenced by feelings, perceived worth, pricing, social influences, and even the financial scenario round them. Understanding these components helps us develop methods that join with customers past simply promoting a product.
Some purchasers are literally stunned after they strategy 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 propose to go down? What does long-term success appear to be for you?
But these questions are necessary as a result of the path 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 targeted 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 assets, whether or not it’s cash, time, or manpower. My job is to find out how finest to deploy these assets to attain the best doable return.
I additionally take note of broader financial realities. You can not develop a advertising and marketing technique for Nigerian customers with out contemplating buying energy, inflation, and altering spending habits.
So, I might say Economics gave me the muse to suppose analytically, query assumptions, and perceive the connection between shopper 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 type, and the way do you foster innovation contained in the Digital Square crew?
I might describe my management type as collaborative, versatile, and fairly completely different from the normal company strategy. I consider that if you would like individuals to ship their finest work, it’s a must 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 all the time questioned how we anticipate somebody who has spent 4 hours navigating Lagos site visitors to reach at work with the identical degree of power, focus, and creativity as somebody who hasn’t. I believe good management requires being lifelike about these items.
That’s why we’ve adopted a versatile working construction at Digital Square. Our staff can work at home, and those that stay 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 important workplace as a result of collaboration and human connection are equally necessary. This strategy has labored very nicely for us.
I’m additionally very aware of the truth that everyone seems to be on a unique journey. Not everybody who joins Digital Square will spend their whole profession with us, and I’m completely snug with that. Some persons are furthering their schooling, taking skilled programs, and even constructing companies of their very own. I recognise that Digital Square could be a chapter in somebody’s journey fairly 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 individuals 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 an absence of accountability. I’ve excessive requirements, and I anticipate individuals to take possession of their obligations. I encourage my crew 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 suppose.
I consider management is about creating the proper circumstances for individuals to do their finest work. When individuals really feel trusted, supported, and challenged, innovation turns into a pure a part of the tradition.
As a worldwide enterprise strategist and guide, what do you suppose is the largest mistake West African company manufacturers make when attempting to scale their market footprint internationally?
I believe one of many largest errors is assuming that what labored in your house market will mechanically work elsewhere. Numerous companies strategy worldwide growth as merely coming into a brand new nation, fairly than understanding a completely new market.
Consumer behaviour, buying energy, cultural influences, competitors, and even the way in which individuals reply to promoting can differ considerably from one nation to a different. You can not merely replicate your Nigerian advertising and marketing technique within the UK, Canada, or the United States and anticipate the identical outcomes.
I additionally suppose 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 necessary as advertising and marketing.
Another mistake is attempting to increase in every single place without delay. I consider in being strategic about market entry. Research the alternatives, establish the place there’s real demand, take a look at your assumptions, and be taught earlier than committing important assets.
And there’s one thing else I all the time emphasise: being an African model is a part of your id, but it surely shouldn’t be the one cause you anticipate worldwide customers 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 id 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 crew assist these companies navigate the market?
Nigeria is a really fascinating market. We have a big, youthful inhabitants, a vibrant shopper tradition, and important industrial alternatives. But it’s additionally a market it is advisable perceive earlier than coming into.
One mistake worldwide manufacturers make is assuming that as a result of a technique labored in Europe, Asia, or North America, it’s going to mechanically work in Nigeria. Our shopper behaviour, buying energy, cultural nuances, and even the way in which 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 strategy to market entry.
We begin by understanding the enterprise, researching the aggressive panorama, figuring out the proper 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 shopper.
One factor I all the time inform worldwide manufacturers is that Nigerians communicate a unique form of English, one which typically 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 approach that resonates with them.
And that’s the place native intelligence turns into extraordinarily necessary. You can not merely take a global marketing campaign, change the foreign money to Naira, run some digital adverts, and anticipate Nigerians to attach with it. You have to grasp the tradition, the conversations, shopping for behaviour, and what genuinely influences belief.
Our position is to mix that native market intelligence with world advertising and marketing requirements, serving to manufacturers construct consciousness, set up credibility, purchase clients, and develop sustainably.
I all the time say that coming into a market and successful a market are two various things. Our job is to assist manufacturers do each.
With the speedy rise of synthetic intelligence, there’s a rising perception that AI may finally substitute advertising and marketing businesses and even advertising and marketing professionals. Do you share this concern, and the way is Digital Square getting 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 nasty factor.
If we’re being lifelike, lots of what advertising and marketing businesses cost purchasers for at the moment can already be achieved with AI, typically quicker and at a fraction of the associated fee. Content creation, analysis, reporting, marketing campaign optimisation, and even sure points of technique have gotten more and more automated.
So the query is now not whether or not AI will change advertising and marketing. It already has. The greater query is what worth advertising and marketing professionals deliver when everybody has entry to the identical expertise.
At Digital Square, we’ve already modified how we work. For occasion, I anticipate my crew to ship 5 occasions quicker due to AI. You can not spend 5 days doing one thing that expertise will help you accomplish in half-hour. That doesn’t imply compromising high quality. It means utilizing the instruments obtainable to work smarter and spending extra time on issues that truly require human pondering.
I additionally consider that no matter your position in a advertising and marketing company, you need to know easy methods to use AI to get work achieved past your quick obligations. Whether you’re a strategist, account supervisor, content material creator, or designer, you need to have the ability 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 develop into an skilled in the whole lot. But you need to perceive what’s doable and know easy methods to use these instruments when the necessity arises. There’s a distinction between somebody who is aware of easy methods to do advertising and marketing and somebody who is aware of easy methods to do advertising and marketing in a world the place expertise is consistently 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 programs and their advertising and marketing successfully, they could not want us anymore. I don’t see something incorrect with that.
The approach I see it, businesses 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 fairly give attention to working their companies and have skilled professionals deal with that duty. That’s the place we are available.
I additionally suppose AI goes to show lots of people in our business. If your whole worth as a marketer is understanding easy methods to use an promoting platform or create social media content material, then sure, you need to be involved. But in the event you genuinely perceive customers, enterprise technique, positioning, and progress, AI turns into an extremely highly effective software in your palms.
Five years from now, I don’t suppose probably the most profitable businesses will essentially be those with the biggest groups. They’ll be those that know easy methods to mix expertise, 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 get pleasure from 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 grasp about myself is that I want selection. I get bored doing the identical factor for too lengthy, so I get pleasure from engaged on completely different initiatives, studying new issues, and difficult myself. But I’ve additionally needed to be taught that simply because I can do one thing doesn’t imply I’ve to do it myself.
I’m turning into extra intentional about constructing groups, delegating obligations, and creating programs that permit 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 suppose. Some of my finest concepts come after I’m away from my desk, not after I’m looking at 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 continually occupied felt like an achievement. These days, I’m extra concerned about what I’m truly carrying out and whether or not I’ve the liberty to get pleasure from my life whereas doing it.
I 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 girls who wish to excel in company management, expertise, and the humanities with out compromising their private values?
My recommendation could be to outline success for your self earlier than the world defines it for you.
I believe girls, 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 typically, with out realising it, we begin making selections based mostly on these expectations fairly than what we genuinely need.
I’ve by no means believed that it’s a must to match into one field. You will be concerned about enterprise, expertise, creativity, and 100 different issues. You don’t must restrict your self as a result of somebody thinks you need to select one path and follow it.
But I additionally suppose ambition have to be backed by competence. Learn your craft, develop your expertise, keep curious, and be keen to begin once more when vital. The world is altering too rapidly for anybody to imagine that what they know at the moment will likely be sufficient tomorrow.
And please, don’t compromise your values simply to get forward. There will all the time 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 snug strolling away.
I might additionally encourage younger girls to develop into financially impartial. Having your individual assets provides you selections, and having selections provides you a sure degree of freedom.
Most importantly, don’t spend your life attempting to develop into another person’s definition of a profitable lady. You will be formidable and nonetheless desire a peaceable life. You can construct companies, pursue a profession, have a household, discover your inventive pursuits, or select a very completely different path.
It’s your life. Make positive you’re truly dwelling it, not simply assembly different individuals’s expectations.
