TheCable

BY ABIOLA ODUTOLA

The end of one year, the beginning of another. In itself, these are major achievements for many individuals and businesses, especially after the tough time businesses had in recovering from the pandemic. But where some are merely content with surviving the times, others like BlackHouse Media (BHM) thrived and went on to crush new milestones in the year 2021. We can say it was a year of firsts for BHM.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) is what many consider as a spur to business in Nigeria particularly. It has been much anticipated, and the World Bank says Africa now has the opportunity to connect one billion people in 55 countries with a combined GDP of almost £3 trillion, thus creating the world’s largest free trade area. African businesses and their counterparts outside the continent will be using this opportunity to explore opportunities regardless of boundaries. But what would have been a challenge is getting a PR agency that will understand their needs outside the continent.

In April 2021, BHM became the first-ever Nigerian public relations and communications agency to launch operations internationally in the UK. Having a PR partner that understands how you work and wants to help you explore opportunities in new terrain is a plus for any business, and that is what BHM positioned itself to do. In 2019 alone, UK-Africa trade increased by 7.5% to £36 billion, a pointer to just how much interaction is expected both ways.

While speaking about the decision to launch in the UK, BHM founder and CEO Ayeni Adekunle (pictured) stated that BHM is out to help organisations understand and explore bilateral opportunities between the United Kingdom and Africa. To chart the course, Ayeni serves as CEO and principal consultant; past CIPR president Stephen Waddington of Wadds Inc., serves as an adviser and non-executive director. There are also other key people as directors including Moliehi Molekoa of Magna Carta and Femi Falodun of ID Africa; as well as Dotun Ayeni who’s a doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh.

“Our dream is to give the world its first truly global agency from Africa, and the launch of our operations in the UK, today, marks an important step in that journey. The opportunities are remarkable. The UK-Africa investment summit says 8 of the 15 fastest-growing economies are expected to be in Africa, and by 2050 over 1 in 4 global consumers will be African” Ayeni said.

BHM now has its UK operations in London and Edinburgh, but with the remote and flexible work plans which it adopts, the company could really service a client anywhere in the UK. There are plans to expand to Brussels and Washington D.C. as well. The move received the commendation of the CIPR president Mandy Pearse Chart PR who noted that considering the pandemic which the world just survived, and the post-Brexit world, “this is a welcome demonstration of confidence in the UK public relations profession”.

This again is another first for BHM – being the first Africa Corporate Affiliate member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the world’s only Royal Chartered body for public relations professionals. This happened in June 2021 as a follow-up to the launch of the UK operations in March.

The CIPR Corporate Affiliate Scheme was launched in January 2016 to recognise and support the professional standards of in-house communications teams and PR agencies across the UK and overseas. According to the CIPR president, BHM earned its membership as a result of its commitment to ethical practice and continuous professional development.

As a company that was founded by former journalist and columnist Ayeni Adekunle, it could be expected that BHM would conform to ethical practices. Since November 6, 2006, when BHM was founded, it has served the PR and communication needs of several market leaders in FMCG, ICT, and Media including the Nigeria Breweries PLC (Heineken), Coca-Cola, MTN Nigeria Plc, MultiChoice, Shoprite, Honeywell Group, Reckitt Benckiser and the Project Management Institute. BHM has also pioneered several innovations like the PR App introduced in 2014, the annual PR report in 2016, the World PR Day, and the Global Day of Influence in 2020.

Good news must come in threes, at least so we like to think in Africa. That may be the reason BHM chose to score another first in 2021. In October and November, BHM became the first-ever African platinum sponsor of the ICCO global summit. This summit has been ICCO’s flagship annual conference for more than a quarter-century. In deepening its engagement with the international PR community, BHM might just be the trigger to greater African participation and representation at every level in global organisations and events

In addition to sponsorships, BHM had key team members who spoke at the London event on November 17 and 18. BHM’s founder and CEO, Ayeni Adekunle spoke on the ‘Balancing free speech, dangerous speech, free media, and misinformation’ panel; Femi Falodun, CEO of ID Africa and BHM director, spoke on the ‘Africa Challenges and Opportunities’ panel; Moliehi Molekoa, managing director of Magna Carta spoke on the ‘What can we do to accelerate pace of change’ panel; and Enitan Kehinde, general manager, Black House Media spoke on the ‘Skills for the future: retaining talent and developing star players’ panel.

It is invigorating to look back on the successes of 2021 particularly of the hat trick it has scored, but BHM is already strategising on the next steps both in Africa and in the UK.