A few years ago, while serving as Head of Strategy at a Lagos ad agency, I stumbled on a wild insight that no pitch deck or marketing textbook could teach. It didn’t come from a brainstorm or boardroom, but from the untamed theatre of Lagos street – the chaos of suburb Surulere.
Lagos taught me that marketing is everywhere, especially in the places we ignore. And nothing screamed that louder than three beggars I observed over three years between Yaba and Okota. The epiphany? Marketing lives in chaos, branding on the streets.
It began on a daily commute between Yaba and Okota, through Tejuosho, Ojuelegba, Lawanson, and Itire – a melting pot where the middle class rubs shoulders with market women, hawkers, abokis, touts, loud smokers, and the forgotten members of society.
Somewhere between Odo-Eran in Itire and the Cele bus stop is a chaotic ecosystem of survival. And in that swirl of flesh and noise, I met them – the three begging marketers – pushing strategy with bowls instead of billboards. These economically ignored E socio-economic class showed me more branding depth than a whole marketing team high on Jollof and loud.
“…alakoba oni koba yin o…”
Beggar A [BGA] yelled with cracked, wounded Yoruba – the kind only a northern-accented beggar with missing four front teeth could twist with such chaotic charm. His teeth, again, casualties of long-term neglect, stood like relics from a war against toothbrushes.
But his voice carries weight. He doesn’t just beg. He gives – Safety. Protection. Long life. He’s not asking; he’s offering something the average Lagosian craves: assurance in a city where tomorrow is never guaranteed!
He had a hook: value-first marketing, then went all out with the line, sinker, and bait. His sonorous voice filtered into the emotions of the Lagos market. Every tribe, every class, every tired Lagos soul heard him and dropped something.
He broke psychological barriers — tribal, class, and religion — with his emotional and logical pitch. And it works.
‘Èèè ni ra’la kobááá..2x.’ BGA continued.
Few steps away was the “Please abeg” crooner, a real-time begging sensation whose main strategy was to direct emotional attraction to himself.
– Help me abeg – though singleminded and punchy, yet no value was attached to his campaign. No prayers, no blessing, no humor, no narrative, no offering.
A selfish, egomaniacal, narcissistic marketer.
“Please, abeg, help me abeg.” Rinse. Repeat. Dry. Repeat.
BG2 is an emotional advertiser. His entire message is a cry for help. All about him. He didn’t know that branding is not about you but what the customer gets.
This is where most brands flop. They tug at emotions, but forget logic. They show need, but offer no solution. The market hears them, pities them, but doesn’t convert. BG2 brought emotions, but no logic, and the market evaded him.
Emotion takes you to the market. Logic keeps you there. BG2 forgot that.
And then “Shhhhhhh” comes the 3rd loser beggar, B3.
He sits slumped beside a wooden shed. Around his neck hung a 100kg DEAF & DUMB placard.
He says nothing. Moves nothing. Just stares into space. No voice. No pitch. No engagement. No brand personality. No hook. No brand story. Just presence. And Lagos passed him like expired Gala.
His plate? Almost empty!
Why? Because in a world powered by attention, he chose invisibility, hoping for the mercy of the market. Expectedly, Lagos market evaded him like a plague, and scrambled for those with value proposition, like BGA.
Brands that hide, say nothing, or let assumptions speak for them end up like BG3: unnoticed, untouched, unbothered. How could you pose to be deaf and dumb in the world of Barack Obama’s “Yes I Can!”
Marketing is beyond theory. It’s not buzzwords. It’s not awards. It’s persuasion.
It’s emotion + logic.
It’s clarity + connection.
It’s showing up + giving value.
You’ll see every brand archetype: the loud, the silent, the soulful; but when you understand what makes Lagos drop coins into a beggar’s bowl, you’ll understand what makes people buy, click, listen, and stay.
Because in this jungle, noise is everywhere, but value gets paid.
BGA offered value and blessings, he was rewarded.
BG2 was begging for attention – he got ignored.
BG3 said nothing, the world walked past.
Most brands are BG2 – all “me, me, me” with nothing to give. Or BG3, mute and hoping the market pities them.
But real ones? They’re BGA. They shout blessings in pidgin and still close the sale.
Because in the end, Lagos doesn’t reward volume, it rewards vibes + value.
