When Nigerian advertising ace Adebayo Owosina was announced as one of the honourees of leading marketing publication Adweek’s Creative 100 list, it gave credence to his agency The Hook Creative Agency’s claim to be the “creators of impact”. Only this time the impact is on an international scale.

Owosina made the Creative 100 list released recently alongside American singers Doja Cat, Anderson .Paak and other global advertising leaders including TBWAChiatDay LA’s Anh-Thu Lee; Publicis Groupe’s CCO Natalie Lam; 72andSunny’s ECD Zach Hilder and others.
The Creative 100 list recognises some of the most inspiring and innovative people globally. Honourees are selected for their outstanding contributions to the field of marketing, media, and culture.

Adebayo Owosina fits the profile, having worked as: An art director at Lowe Lintas and X3M Ideas; an independent documentary photographer as well as leading the creative team at the fastest-growing ad agency in Nigeria, The Hook Creative Agency.

The Nigerian-born advertising leader left Lagos-based ad agency DDB in 2015 to co-found the agency alongside the trio of Sam Ochonma, Akinwale Muse and Toheeb Balogun.

Reacting to Adweek’s announcement, Owosina said in a LinkedIn post that the desire to create impact at a large scale has always been the driving force at their agency since its earliest founding days.

“I have always wanted to be a world class creative solutions provider, and that’s why this [Adweek Creative 100] means so much to me,” Owosina explained in another statement obtained through WhatsApp.

“On a personal level, it feels great to be internationally recognised while working from Nigeria. But the most important thing for me is the message it sends to global brands looking to introduce their brands into our local market because there’s no better way to say ‘we can do it well’ than to show you actually can and on the big stage too.”

The recognition of one of The Hook’s leaders by Adweek joins a growing list of accomplishments from within the agency.

In 2019, the agency led the Nigerian political party the All Progressive Congress (APC) to victory in Kwara State with its “O to ge” campaign: the agency was also announced as one of the finalists in the acclaimed South African advertising award, Loeries, for their COVID-19 campaign.

While commenting on the agency’s achievement, the managing director Sam Ochonma congratulated his co-founder Owosina on his recognition, adding that the agency’s commitment to continue making a positive impact across its portfolio of businesses remains unshaken.

“Bayo’s recent recognition by Adweek is well-deserved and a testament to the efforts we have put in to ensure excellence is the hallmark of our business and creative culture. Our quest to continue delivering impactful solutions to our partners (clients) at all times has led us to create sustainable systems that enable us drive our core essence (creativity) in ways that can be easily replicated across our creative team and the accounts they manage,” Ochonma concluded.