The sensuous has always sought to subsume the substance in the Nigerian entertainment scene. Netizens who have been splitting hairs and spleen to push their stance on the trending Olodo Uprising debate forget that the pop culture conclave has been down this path before.

Intellectualism apologists will therefore sleep easy if reminded that practitioners of an earlier iteration of the “Peller culture” carried the day. Their present-day successors are poised to prevail again.

With social media algorithmic configuration, absurd and uncouth content can easily take over timelines in a far shorter timeframe than intelligent ones ever could.

Nigeria’s attention economy is increasingly being propelled by shallow, low-cognitive content that promotes flamboyance, mockery, or “fooling”, female anatomy or conjured outrage, all for engagement rather than encouragement.

The Root: How it All Began 

Tied to Nigeria’s current socio-economic realities and misaligned reward structure, “Olodo Uprising” shattered online tranquillity after rapper YCee’s used the term to condemn the rapid rise and monetisation of “performative ignorance” by some social media personalities.

Originally the Yoruba word for someone slow to understand and struggling academically, ‘olodo’ is now being used for mega skitmakers who achieve fame and fortune by milking their lack of formal polish, expertise, or education.

These content creators unapologetically denigrate expertise yet expect to be esteemed and rewarded as experts. But confidence can’t compensate for competence.

The development has divided the online community into two major camps. Olodo Uprising opponents and intellectuals uphold academic excellence as a cultural priority that must be preserved, contending that society loses out when the performance of illiteracy is rewarded with noise and obscenity incentivised over education and competence.

It must be pointed out that just as it has done with poverty, the Nigerian system has long sown the seed for the weaponisation of ignorance. Not considering this would be playing the ostrich.

Pragmatists and proponents of Olodo Uprising, on the other hand, argue that a university degree or artisanal training rarely guarantees financial success and worsens the unemployment crisis in Nigeria; hence any form of entertainment should be allowed provided it realistically paves the way to economic survival. To them, influencers like Peller and Javis should be encouraged, not blamed, for creatively profiting from a broken societal system.

A Re-play of the Shift in the Nigerian Music Industry 

It was in the 2000s into the 2010s and beyond that music with meaningless lyrics started “making sense” in the Nigerian music scene. Songs that have meaningful plots gave way to high-tempo, rebellious street anthems. That was the golden age of “zanga” and street-certified bangers with unapologetic energy and unhinged vibes.

Music producers and artists dropped wild, fast-paced street vocals and experimental beats that sounded like “nonsense” on the surface, but they completely took over the streets and dance floors.

It was all about the melody side of music, where songs are guaranteed to become anthems provided they are pleasing to the ears.

In the art where music belongs, two major schools of thought exist. One demands that art be functional, while the other stipulates that art should be expressed just for fun or art’s sake. Evidently, local music artists have since that era subscribed to the latter.

That year, there was a contestation between songs like 9ice’s Gongo Aso, Paul Play Dairo’s Forever, African China’s Mr President, Adaz’s Zarokome, Waconzy’s I Celebrate, MI’s Crowd Mentality, Sunny Neji’s Oruka, J Martins’ Good or Bad versus Terry G – “Free Madness”, Dr Sid’s Pop Something, P-Square’s Do Me, Bigiano’s Shayo, Jazzman Olofin’s Shake something, Mo Hit All Stars’ Booty Call, Iyanna’s Kukere, Olamide’s Science Student etc.

Even 2Baba, who gave Nigerians the politically conscientious “E Be Like Say’ song, was soon caught up singing the hook for Freestyle’s “Sip Easy”.

Timaya started with sensible songs like ‘My Story’ but after catching the bug in no time, started making music like ‘Shake Your Bum Bum’.

Music enthusiasts of that era decisively opted for what livens their mood rather than enlightens their minds.

The same preference is now playing out in the digital ecosystem. Content created solely for entertainment instead of thought was the order of the day, with proud dullards (olodos) holding court. It’s in line with the anti-perfect proclivities of Gen Z, where radical realness is the haymaker.

Smart content creators are trying to align with an audience that has since embraced unfiltered, chaotic, and brutally honest self-expression as the norm. With raw being preferred to refined, Olodo is indeed rising!

Are Brands Now in Quandary?

On this matter, creators’ credentials are only a visage concealing the core issue in the Olodo Uprising – content design.

These are 15-to-30-second reels that merely elicit laughter and shares, abridging the appetite of children and young adults for mentally demanding posts and inspiring the exchange of ideas. Brands will have to decide whether they want to be perceived as pedestrian by their presence on pages with such vain content.

When a brand partners with a KOL on social media, it is not only borrowing their followers but also giving itself away as a subscriber to the sort of influence wielded by that creator.

As socially responsible entities, brands must critically weigh the arguments of the intellectuals and pragmatists before staking their reputation on the influencers they partner with. As digital PR scours for trending hashtags to jump on and culture movements to tap into, it must ensure that the ensuing viral moment is worth the cost in goodwill.

Given brands’ role as active participants in transcending trends into culture, they must be wary of the kind of society they are helping to build.

Businesses must introspect on whether they would be proud of themselves for having helped in elevating idiocy to an industrial scale.

They will be shaping perception by patronising pages that are focused on flaunting, fooling, and friction, leaving audiences high and dry.

Based on the influencers they do business with, brands will be exposing who they think society needs more: celebrity olodos or experts. Whatever is consistently rewarded by society ultimately becomes aspirational.

Indeed, collaboration with culture and trendsetters portrays the propriety and morality quotient of an organisation. Therefore, the strongest brands shouldn’t be as bothered about what everyone is talking about as they are about “What conversation should we contribute to and what values will we be reinforcing by so doing?” This contemplation is necessary because while the vitality that comes with riding a pop momentum is momentary, PR sets its sights on something more enduring – credibility.

Not the First Rodeo; Fads Always Fade!

Who still remembers the so-called University of Wisdom and Understanding? Founded by the Nigerian content creator Geh Geh, the online entertainment movement dominated timelines in the second half of last year.

One of his online classes had over 25,000 livestreamers, with his catchphrase “No spend on woman wey no fit spend on you” going viral.

Some brands must have salivated at the visibility that the audience could fetch them but exercised restraint because they don’t want their brand to be associated with a community that misuses academic titles and is dogged by allegations of misogynistic teachings and concerns over the promotion of rigid gender roles.

There was also the light-hearted Mr Meerkat; the animal’s meme adaptations that were the fad about this time last year.

Images of the character without perception pitfalls were all over the place, yet serious brands knew better not to stake their reputation on the memes just for cultural relevance.

Society has since moved on from Mr Meerkat, just as it may with the extant Olodo Uprising. But even if the “Peller culture” eventually becomes entrenched as music with nonsensical lyrics was, there will still be popular content creators who are decorous in their online hustle.

The fact that vain songs are chart-toppers doesn’t mean that decent music isn’t giving them a run for the top spot.

A proof is the impressive ranking of Gospel music artists on music streaming platforms. As Olodos braggadociously rise on social media, content creators who are professional in their craft will be around to offer alternative platforms.

No Middle Ground 

Brand equity building doesn’t necessarily lend itself to a circus or charade. Here’s the question begging for an answer: is the revolving door that delivers only a brief moment in the sun worth the credibility capital or image inconsistency? It’s like news judgement, which editorial marketers can help companies figure out.

By looking inwards, organisations can ascertain where to perch in the ongoing Olodo Uprising debate without frittering away their PR stock.

Given the glaring values driving the culture shift, brand custodians should weigh them against the values of their organisations. If there is an alignment, they can go ahead to be Olodo content creators’ cheerleaders and partners. If not, they should settle for their urbane, cerebral counterparts.

It’s ultimately a test of fidelity to what brands brandish as their very essence. And their publics are keenly watching to reward authenticity with credibility.

Meanwhile, not getting involved is also an option. But how will the neutral brand satisfy the business’s influencer marketing needs without inadvertently revealing its position in the debate?

*Ugochukwu is a branding specialist, editorial marketer and media trainer who can be reached via nmiringwu@gmail.com

The post ‘Olodo Uprising’: Before Brands Bite the Enticing Bait appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

Unlike the physical sciences, where 2 + 2 always equals 4, that’s not a given in public relations. This explains why the parent faculty, mass communication, is domiciled in the humanities or social sciences, not the biological or physical sciences. While natural science is formulaic and predictable, the art, where PR also belongs, is variable.

As the former deals with what lacks a mind of their own, the latter interacts with beings who are strong-willed and unpredictable in their ways.

In other words, while scientific research can be controlled through test tubes and laboratories, social experiments don’t lend themselves to such manipulations.

For there to be an equation of the fractions, therefore, messaging must level up, taking audience perplexities and complexities into consideration every step of the way.

Trust is earned, not plucked. Perception is engineered, not imposed. Credibility is conferred, not commandeered. Goodwill is consequential, not graciously given. As such, the hypodermic needle theory may find expression in other genres of mass communication, but definitely not public relations!

Output versus Outcome 

As it were, output can be likened to when a projectile strikes the bull’s face, chest, or misses the animal entirely. Outcome, on the other hand, is when a thrown object hits the bull’s eye. It’s the slam dunk! For golfers, you can think of output as a lip-out and outcome as the birdie.

As the saying goes, “Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades”. The successful campaign is the one with an outcome, not just an output.

Granted that output guarantees brand amplification (with noise sometimes embedded), outcome delivers much more in terms of stronger relationships, warmer sales conversations, better referrals, increased trust, and opportunities that would never have otherwise existed.

Outcome shapes perception, builds credibility, and instigates trust long before someone is ready to buy, partner, invest, or advocate.

Outcome is of such importance in PR that it featured in the discipline’s updated definition by PRCA, thus: “Public relations is the strategic management discipline that builds trust, enhances reputation and helps leaders interpret complexity and manage volatility – delivering measurable outcomes including stakeholder confidence, long-term value creation and commercial growth.”

At its core, public relations concerns itself with the poser: How does the world understand and interpret what you do? Messaging, which falls under “what you do,” is the output, whereas “interpretation” (what people do with the information) is the outcome.

This is synonymous with results that manifest as stakeholder confidence and authority-building, topical relevance, and long-term value creation through enhanced brand perception and commercial scalability.

Output-outcome divergence is when the message purveyed by public relations isn’t what the audience needs to hear. Influence and impact are engineered when public relations reads the room, studies cultural movements, and strategically cinches messaging with actionable insights harnessed from social listening.

It is for the sake of outcome, not output, that PR is a deliberate endeavour, not one that is left to chance. Communications is objective-driven; hence, strategies are designed, messages crafted, narratives built, stakeholders engaged, and campaigns executed to authentically resonate with the people these activities are meant to influence.

Meaning over Messaging 

Successful public relations activities have always turned ideas, innovations, and identities into narratives people could relate to and trust because they pack meaning. For a long time, public relations has been misconstrued as visibility, media coverage, events, and ‘noise’. In reality, however, PR is not about saying more but saying the right things to the right people at the right time and through the right channel.

How it works is: One brand. One narrative. One story that holds across every touchpoint towards supporting a unified purpose. Everything to be said must support the organisation’s core mission and “Why.” The same language, tone, and values must also be used across all platforms to build trust and avoid confusion. In the highly competitive business environment, success is not only about what is best but also what is best communicated.

Brands and businesses must not be so bent on what they want to say that they forget what their audiences need to hear. The most successful PR campaigns are not the ones that shout the loudest but the activities that are genuinely relevant and emotionally connect with target audiences.

Every message must have intent, with every channel strategically chosen to enhance this meaning in the audience. This is in keeping with “The medium is the message” concept coined by Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan in 1964.

Placing messaging over meaning is tantamount to regarding visibility over value or promotion over connection. The role of the communication professionals is not merely to communicate organisational intentions but to create content, experiences, and engagements that naturally advance those intentions.

When meaning is so prioritised over messaging, output seamlessly elicits outcome. And the best PR is the kind with an outcome that feels natural, not manufactured.

From the discussions so far, we can approximate messaging as the output, while meaning/connection is the outcome.

PR should sit in the Boardroom, not the Newsroom 

Business leaders have got to stop treating public relations as an afterthought, that is, if they care more about the outcome than output.

PR and communications shouldn’t function like the press that reports or explains decisions after they have been made, but a department that determines whether those decisions can hold.

Inviting the public relations team after the fact reduces the department to a mere newsroom rather than the critical arm of business that it should be.

Without PR, even the most valuable work will remain unnoticed or misunderstood. The fact that public relations defines objectives, understands audiences, crafts messages, and anticipates/mitigates risks should earn the strategic discipline a seat at the table. After all, the discipline rallies the troops who will influence how people think, feel, and talk about the brand when its human resources are not in the room.

No forward-thinking organisation relegates what builds trust, strengthens reputation, and turns visibility into long-term influence to the background.

Trust and other outcomes aren’t just by-products of effective messaging (which is what you get with the newsroom approach), but built over time through consistency, transparency, and behaviour. PR must therefore remain in the boardroom to guide organisations through the delicate and intricate trajectory.

An organisation will be shooting itself in the foot by not carrying along the department that matches business goals with the needs of stakeholders, be they employees, customers, or partners.

Corporate comms officials must be in boardrooms where decisions are made as trusted counsels and partners to leadership, helping executive directors untangle and interpret complexities for a multitude of audiences.

Every resolution at important meetings must be weighed against their professional judgment, ethical counsel, stakeholder insights, and assessment of risk before it becomes a crisis.

All said, outcome matters more than output in public relations because it is the actual return on investment (ROI)!

*Ugochukwu is a storyteller, branding strategist and media trainer, who can be reached via nmiringwu@gmail.com

The post People Perplexity, Perspectives Should Make PR Pursue Outcome beyond Output appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

For instance, with content being expressive, there are scenarios to which thoughtful organisations respond by not putting out any content. And at the end of the day, that calculated silence over an issue critical to their brand survival saves the day!

This indicates that there is a smart that trumps content as per communications – this phenomenon is called strategy. Reputation can be built without content, but it will be dead on arrival without a strategy.

The corporate communications manager who is not keen on content can make company staff brand advocates or ambassadors, yielding impressive outcomes.

This is because the teams have been made to understand not just what they’re doing, but why.

Leadership strategy has been translated into stories, metaphors, and messages that align everyone’s mental models.

Strategic Communication

Strategy is so germane to communications that there is a genre called strategic communication. This is the planned and intentional use of communication to achieve specific objectives for an organisation or individual.

It involves aligning all communication actions with the entity’s identity, values, and objectives, both internally and externally. It is an ongoing process that aims to optimize the impact of communication to achieve desired purposes.

Strategic communication does the following:

• Defines accurate and measurable objectives aligned with the organisation’s vision and mission.
• Analyses to understand the internal and external environment, stakeholders, and industry trends.
• Selects the most effective communication channels to reach the target audience.
• Ensures consistency in messaging through clear, relevant messages tailored to the target audience.
• Tracks results, measure the impact of communication, and adjust the strategy based on the results.

Strategy the Sovereign; Content the Gold State Coach

Given that content embody and reflect its strategy, the latter is the king while the former serves as his ceremonial carriage.

Content can’t rule in corporate communications because what is posted isn’t as important as what people believe.

This belief – which is instigated by strategy – is significant because it is how organisations wield influence.

It takes strategy for content to clearly and consistently align with organisational goals and map audience journeys.

The Gold State Coach could have been any other carriage but for the fact that the British monarch rides in it. Ditto for content that can only be celebrated as on-brand, on-time, on-tone, and on-culture due to the strategy put into it.

With content as the voice, strategy is the force that prevents this voice from being a noise, harnessing it to consistently reflect an organisation’s journey, mission and values while resonating with its audience.

In corporate communications, strategy is the very definition and at the intersection of messaging, branding, and executive profiling cum thought leadership. The playbook aligns all communication actions with the entity’s identity, values, and objectives, both internally and externally.

For business transformation sake, companies can’t be optimising for content when what they need is counsel.

With machine learning increasingly churning out AI slop nowadays, humanity must generate meaning in communications, which is what strategy guarantees.

Strategy doesn’t have to eat content for breakfast 

While not at the pinnacle of the perking order in corporate comms, content still occupy a pride of place given their visibility as press releases, decks, blogs, social media reels, shorts, proof points, internal newsletters and community updates.

Corporate communications integrates these fragments into a consistent identity, ensuring that every tweet, report, or speech sounds like part of one voice.

Communications hits the bull’s eye when the narrative arc coherently connects relevant touchpoints such that donors are assured of sustainable impact, field staffers see their work matters, partners spot where to collaborate, and beneficiaries hear dignity restored.

This is apparently beyond the ken of content.

It is a strategy that has the wherewithal to make multiple audiences see themselves in one core narrative. Be that as it may, content still do a yeoman’s job in corporate communications by mirroring real life so that audiences can see themselves in the messaging.

People remember stories, not bullet points or data. The compelling and authentic narrative that content convey has the utility of capturing attention, evoking emotion, humanising your organization, and ensuring that your voice isn’t lost in the noise.

A synergy between strategy and content is therefore required for relatable posts centering human realities, creatively adapted to each platform and expressed in clear language, not corporate speak.

As strategy sets the direction and storytelling (content) delivers the impact, momentum cum movement get activated and accelerated.

Uneasy lies the head that wears the Crown

The very essence of corporate communications depicts how integral strategy is to it.

Of course, it takes strategy to drive business outcomes by influencing perception and shaping narratives. You’ve also got to be strategic to align messaging with organisational goals, anticipate potential crises, and evaluate the impact of your communications.

It is through strategy that you can find unique ways to connect your organisation with diverse audiences, translate complex information into meaningful conversations, and make your company memorable.

Strategy shoulders this heavy weight of communications responsibilities in the following ways:

• It defines the overarching goals, aims and objectives that all communications efforts are meant to achieve, ensuring that the big-picture, helicopter view is captured.
• It determines the outcomes the entire team is working toward, the audiences that matter most, the messaging that supports those aims, and the techniques we’ll use to measure effectiveness.
• It creates alignment and clarity on what success actually looks like at the senior leadership level.
• It ensures that content is grounded in how influence forms: how culture moves, meaning spreads, identity is signaled, and demand takes shape inside communities before brands even enter the conversation.
• It helps people make sense of what the organisation does, why it matters, and how it connects to their world. It is the bridge between doing and being known.

Conclusion 

With corporate communications covering how organisations are positioned and regarded over time – across consumers, partners, policymakers, and internal teams, it takes strategy – which encompasses creativity, structure, and system design – to build and align these layers.

The organisation that is strategic about communications is the one that will be able to shape perception, earn credibility, build authority, wield influence, protect reputation, and sustain long-term organisational value. Content remains critical to the foregoing and should be harnessed even though corporate communications isn’t its kingdom!

The crux of the matter is that before crafting or developing any content, be sure to have a brainstorming session with eggheads. That way, the majesty of strategy will make the final output magical.

*Ugochukwu, a Branding Strategist and Media Trainer, welcomes feedback via nmiringwu@gmail.com

The post Content King Elsewhere, but Strategy Rules Corporate Communications appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.