The Business Idea Rant Series — Episode 2

As promised, I started this series two weeks ago, sharing thoughts on the commercial opportunities offered by our infrastructural deficits as a nation. I would endeavor to present them in easy-to-understand language, and hope it inspires a few people to take

*Full Disclosure: I initially saw this idea in practice, as part of my training on the Alibaba UNCTAD programme, when we visited a business that was currently implementing a type of it.

Challenge:

• Unemployment is a huge problem in Nigeria. Estimated currently at over 18%, Nigeria has one of the worlds highest unemployment rate. Unfortunately, while population continues to grow at alarming rates, government policies grapple with even keeping the currently-employed as employed. Uninspiringly, McKinsey estimates that over 800M jobs would be lost to robots by 2030. Thankfully the same report also confirmed that robots will also create a pipeline of opportunities. How can we create more jobs in the country, by focusing on industries that didn’t. exist a couple of years ago?
• The digital economy has democratized access to fame. Locally, it has become commonplace to hear of influencers and stars that were built exclusively off the strength of digital media. Falz, Maraji, Lasisi Elenu, Emmanuella and Sisi Yemmie are just a few of those who have achieved this. How can an industry be built of this seeming happenstance?
• In developing economies, word of mouth has been proven as a huge driver of sales (return on investment) for brands. As a result, brands spend millions of dollars on ambassador and influencer programs. However, many argue about the impact of such programs, considering that the image associations of many influencers has become worn-out. A single influencer in the span of 10years has been an ambassador for all the key players in an industry, leaving one wondering, what exactly is the competitive advantage. How can we increase the available number of influencers, help brands achieve more impact, and ultimately help even small businesses develop a route to market?

Solution:

I believe there is an opportunity for a solution that tackles all three. The proposed solution is the establishment of businesses that can cultivate influencers over a period of time, and monetize the cultivation afterwards. This company would need competencies in marketing, public relations and image management, technology, digital marketing and business development.

The company may choose to initially focus on specific industries it seeks to build influencers for, outrightly, or choose to iterate as it grows. Once a year, through an extremely competitive process, the company recruits a cohort of interested applicants. Cohorts are kept minimal depending on the availability of resources at the company’s disposal. I would work with a cohort size of 10people in this example. These individuals would go through a 2-year programme detailed below:

• Application: These 10 get shortlisted from an applicant pool of day 3,000 individuals based on their digital proficiency, unique selling point, personality and demonstrated diligence in the past.
• First Six Months: These individuals will be taken through an intense and rigorous training session on personal brand building, content creation, and digital media. In this time, they would also be made to undergo business case studies of current industries that the company seeks to tackle. The last two months will be spent specializing each these 10 individuals in the various industries the company seeks to tackle. Investments to be made in them during this period include dressing (appearance), lifestyle (exclusive access to some events, photo-ops, other influencers associations, e.t.c) and Salaries (They need to also be encouraged in this period. Depending on the industry, the investments in each individual may vary.
• Next 12–18months: Leveraging your relationships with brand, start deploying them into influencers marketing gigs for the key industries. Immerse them in the various experiences the brands want to create and not just the fluff sometimes done by already established influencers. Remuneration will be a mix of fixed “salary” and performance-based commissions.
• Last 6months: They are beginning to wind down their contract. Propose a contract renewal based on performance. Make some of them mentors for ongoing cohort. Take them on additional trainings on life outside “your incubation”, and how they could pursue future opportunities without you. Take this process very importantly, their future success remains critical to your continued success story.

Think of this company as akin to what record labels is to artistes, only with more investment and a clearer route to market. I also believe that this could spin off the following:

• An influencer marketing platform: An online marketplace for small businesses to find verified influencers required to do specific activities that can help grow their brand quickly. For example, a fashion brand may just be looking for a fashion-influencer to take a picture with an outfit and share on the influencers platform, for a specific sum. Funds are escrowed and time bound until both parties agree to task completion.
• An influencer training platform: A less intense and less expensive format where people sign-up and depending on different levels of their journey, they earn ratings and points that affect their discoverability on the influencer marketing platform.
• An affiliate influencer platform: Similar to the influencer marketing platform, this platform would allow brands and small businesses directly allow influencers create their own sets of activity that can help drive sales for a particular product. For example, a fashion business seeking to sell a particular outfit online, posts on this platform, multiple influencers sign up, each generates his/her own unique affiliate link for the product, and does whatever activity to promote that product.

#MassEntrepreneurship

*P.S. This is the second in the series of many. I am confident the format will get fine-tuned along the way. I hope this inspires someone to start something today.