The Chief Executive Officer, who also doubles as the Chief Creative Officer of X3M Ideas, Steve Babaeko, has thrown his hat into the ring to contest for the president of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN).

The founder of the Lagos-based digital advertising agency that was listed in 2017 as ‘one of Nigeria’s fastest growing communication agencies’ is hoping to be the next president after the two-year term of the current president which began in 2018 expires.

With a manifesto laced with revolutionary ideas, Babaeko, in an over two minutes campaign video, dished out his plans for the advertising association if voted in as new president.

“In 1973, a group of visionary admen came together and charted a revolutionary new course for the advertising industry; AAAN was born.

“47years later, we are still here. We’ve gone through name change and some people think we have lost a few things along the way. But I believe strongly in my heart that one thing we can’t afford to lose at the moment is hope.

“And it is for this reason, that I come to you to humbly seek for your support to become the next president of the AAAN,” he announced.

Currently the publicity secretary of AAAN, associate member of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), and current chairman of the Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival, Babaeko began his career in 1995 with MC&A Saatchi & Saatchi where he worked for five years. He then moved to Prima Garnet Ogilvy (agency), where he also worked for another five years and then at 141 Worldwide for seven years before setting up X3M Ideas in 2012.

His career journey is a proof that the astute adman has all it takes to lead the association to the needed next level in a world brought to its knees by a novel pandemic as he sought his colleagues’ support in the industry to lead.