Shileola Ibironke began her career at media production company CMA Africa as a sales executive. Ten years later she went on to found one of Nigeria’s foremost content acquisition and distribution companies, Micromedia Marketing Limited…
What did you go on to study after school?
I attained a professional Certification in Marketing from the National Institute of Marketing in Nigeria in 2006. I also studied at the School of Management at Lagos Business School in 2010. In addition I studied Strategic Marketing Management at Harvard Business School in 2013.
Did you always know what career path you wanted to follow?
No, originally I wanted to be a stock broker while my parents believed I would work in investment banking, but I was very fortunate to have started out modelling and acting while in university. Once I graduated in 2012 I refused to stay back at home doing nothing while waiting to attend the mandatory National Youth Service, so I applied for a sales executive position with one of the production companies that offered me an acting role while at university. Unknown to me, I was thrown into the world of content production, acquisition and distribution.
You began your career at CMA Africa in Nigeria as a sales executive and later rose to the position of brand marketing manager, how did that experience prepare you for a future in content acquisition and distribution?
Working at CMA was the ultimate experience as I climbed the ladder from a sales executive to the head of Brand Marketing. I was the first brand manager for Soundcity Music Channel. We were very young individuals who started with a vision of a music channel. We lived out of our suitcases as we travelled across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria organising outdoor music concerts in the various university campuses and promoting the Soundcity brand name. We also had corporate sponsors who had come on board with specific marketing goals and objectives which we had to adhere to. We were always in strategic meetings preceding the execution of each concert, rigorously highlighting SWOT analyses, running through a risk management plan and deploying all of these objectives to the delight of the corporate client, my organisation and ultimately the youth in each university campus. That strategic knowledge prepared me for content acquisition and distribution (each target audience has diverse entertainment needs, the landscape in each region is very different, entertainment is transient; you must constantly re-invent new modes of connecting with your target audience).
How did you start Micromedia Marketing Limited?
Micromedia stems from my educational background because I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, thus the term ‘micro’ originates from microeconomics meaning a perfect market which promotes competition, production, innovation, sales and distribution among multiple players. The economics of winning amidst a competitive market is the ethos of Micromedia. The ideal of creating, acquiring and distributing lifestyle entertainment to a generic audience is our on-going mission at Micromedia.
Apart from acquisitions and distribution does the company produce its own shows?
Yes, we produce our own drama series and Nigeria’s first telenovela Taste of Love, as well as the action drama series Casino. Each of the productions has a running time of 200 and 150 episodes respectively.
Since starting the company, which production that you have worked on are you most proud of and why?
I am proud of both productions – Taste of Love and Casino.
Taste of Love is an adapted format from Eastern Europe, hence we couldn’t alter the story plot, but Casino was my creative idea from story development, character casting and production design through to filming and post-production. We built all our production sets from scratch. I was constantly on the production location set which is in Ibadan about 140km from our corporate office in Lagos. We are currently working on two new drama series (100 episodes each) and venturing into big cinema screens with 4(Four) Movie Production (there is a constant demand from the cast members who worked on both productions).
In your opinion, what are some of the defining characteristics of the African television landscape at the moment?
Content is king – I am proud to say Africans love African content, there is usually a huge reception to content produced by Africans, acted by Africans with a story plot that is relative to Africa. Regarding story plot, I found out while in Abidjan that there is huge relativity between my social environment in Nigeria and the other African countries, our cultural beliefs and societal values share many similarities. This is a welcome relief to any investor in the content production business because when you develop a production business model, your target audience is any individual of African descent which spans as far as the Caribbean countries in North America.
Geography – Locality is another characteristic of the African television landscape, there’s a growing demand for ethnic content across the African continent. For example, the Igbo/Hausa tribes in Nigeria are demanding content dubbed and spoken in their local dialects. That means the days of general use of English as a communication tool are soon be streamlined with digitisation. Multiple streams of channels with niche content serve various localities across the African continent.
What has been your career highlight/s so far?
Biggest career highlight was starting out Micromedia on my HP laptop in 2010 and grooming it to become a group of companies with over 150 hours of original produced content, acquiring the exclusive distribution license to content like CBeebies’ Mister Maker, M-Net’s Tinsel and most recently ZEE World Drama’s The Promise which have become highly successful in Nigeria. We have also launched a content distribution division which oversees the distribution of our indigenous productions across Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and North America. Taste of Love and Casino have been launched in Uganda, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, South Africa, Lesotho, UK, and the USA, and also will commence French dubbed broadcast on CANAL+ Afrique bouquet in September 2016.
Considering the current broadband explosion we are experiencing and the way in which it is changing the way people consume media, what are your thoughts on how pay-TV networks can remain relevant?
I believe pay-TV networks will remain relevant by deploying their popular shows on second screens (broadband access – mobile, web) either as a simulcast or catch up service. For example East Enders on BBC 1 and BBC iPlayer.
