Emmanuel Adediran, Business Unit Director at Plus Acuity Ltd and digital transformation lead at mediaReach OMD Nigeria, has won the Outstanding Contribution to Industry Advancement Award at the fourth edition of the Location Marketing Conference and Awards (LOMA 4.0), recognising his decade-long efforts to strengthen research, improve access to market intelligence and develop talent across Nigeria’s marketing communications industry.
The award was presented at the Lagos Marriott Hotel, GRA, Ikeja, on Saturday, October 3, as industry professionals gathered for LOMA 4.0, themed around leveraging intelligence to improve location marketing and out-of-home (OOH) advertising.
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Adediran’s recognition comes amid renewed efforts to establish a stronger evidence base for Nigeria’s outdoor advertising market, where reliable audience measurement and consumer insights are increasingly important to campaign planning, investment decisions and accountability.
Kingsley Onwukeme, convener of LOMA, described Adediran as an influential contributor to the development of the sector, highlighting his thought leadership, support for the awards and work on audience research.
“Emmanuel Adediran has done more for Nigeria’s out-of-home industry than most professionals and stakeholders realise,” Onwukeme said.
One of Adediran’s significant contributions in 2026 was chairing the oversight committee for the Nigeria OOH Advertising Consumer Penetration and Audience Behaviour Study, commissioned by OOH Academy Nigeria and conducted by Research Brooks Limited in collaboration with TMKG Consulting.
The nationwide research, unveiled at LOMA 4.0, surveyed 1,800 respondents across 12 Nigerian cities.
Findings reported after the event indicated that more than seven in 10 respondents had taken a commercial action after seeing an outdoor advertisement, offering fresh evidence of OOH advertising’s potential to influence consumer behaviour.
The study addresses a longstanding challenge in the sector: the need for independent research that helps advertisers understand audience reach, engagement and the relationship between outdoor campaigns and consumer action.
Its findings could support more informed media planning and give brands a stronger basis for assessing their advertising investments.
Adediran has also contributed to wider industry research and knowledge-sharing initiatives.
He co-authored the NIMN–Lagos Business School report, Community, Culture, and Connection: Re-imagining the New Market, and served on the committee for the ARCON and PwC study examining the size and economic contribution of Nigeria’s marketing communications industry.
Since 2016, he has helped publish the MediaFacts Book, covering English- and French-speaking West and Central Africa.
He also conceived Top Trends, a mediaReach OMD thought-leadership initiative developed with Lagos Business School, the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN) and GeoPoll, and co-authored Africa’s Goldmine: A Guide to Winning Customers in Its Unstructured Market with Professor Uchenna Uzo.
Beyond research, Adediran’s work spans business leadership, campaign strategy, teaching and mentorship.
According to the award announcement, the agency portfolio under his leadership has recorded more than 300 per cent growth in annual business while maintaining profitability.
Over the past decade, he has also led strategy for campaigns involving more than 25 brands, including Indomie, Colgate, Lush, Bacardi, Johnnie Walker, Power Oil, Bigi, 9mobile, Pocari and Google.
His professional development work includes serving as visiting faculty at Lagos Business School and Alphabet Media Academy, patron of the University of Lagos PRAD Club, and trainer for NIMN and Africa Retail Academy.
He has also served as a judge for several local and international marketing awards.
Reacting to the recognition, Adediran called for stronger research capabilities and more deliberate investment in training young professionals to make better use of evidence when developing marketing strategies.
“Nigerian marketing has never lacked creativity. What it has lacked is evidence. The narrative that Nigeria does not have data has to change. That means better research and young professionals trained to ask better questions,” he said.
He further stressed the importance of combining data with a practical understanding of local markets as artificial intelligence continues to reshape consumer choices and the way brands engage their audiences.
The LOMA honour adds to a list of professional recognitions that includes a Global Recognition Award in 2024, BrandCom’s Top 35 Under 35, a WARC Award in 2023, Gold awards at the Media & Marketing Global Awards and Festival of Media Global Awards, as well as more than 40 Pitcher Awards.
A first-class graduate of the University of Lagos, Adediran is an alumnus of Lagos Business School and the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a member of the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) and NIMN.
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His recognition at LOMA 4.0 highlights a broader shift in marketing communications towards measurable outcomes, credible research and professional knowledge-sharing, with the potential to help Nigeria’s advertising industry make more informed decisions in an increasingly data-conscious marketplace.
