The 4th day of October is here again

This is a most significant day in my professional career as an “Advertising Practitioner”

33 years ago on the 4th of October 1988, i began my career as a copywriter against the Board’s recommendation that i will ”make a good client service man” at LINTAS:LAGOS – the University of Advertising in Nigeria. The Directors were right but i was too. Thanks to the MD “Prof” Christopher Awusa Doghudje and Creative Director, Late Uncle Ted Mukoro who balanced it all for me in their constant “fight” about who truly “owned” me.

25 years ago on the 4th of October 1996, The Tall and Wide Company Limited was founded marking the “official” commencement of my sojourn in the world of entrepreneurship. Official because i had been heavily involved in “racquets” and “PP” before setting up shop.

Today, the business that started on the dining table in my Ogba Flat with Onuora Molokwu and myself as the “entire staff” (Onos signed off a birthday card to my wife in this manner) is 25 years old. Wow!!! God has been faithful indeed and i would love to return all the glory to God for his faithfulness.

In the last twenty five years, we have witnessed and encountered, the good, the bad and the ugly but stayed true to our mission of a small company with a big heart. From sleeping in radio/tv production studios to owning ours including a radio station, sleeping in the printing press to meet delivery schedule/timing, rushing to newspaper houses on Okada to meet publication deadlines, to waking up in the morning to discover that your ad is not in the papers, to sleeping in the office to meet presentation deadlines and still lose the pitch or get a postponement call in traffic on your way, it has been more than an eventful 25 years.

Our first brief and engagement from Vego Products Ltd came with an advance payment cheque but no bank account because the account opening documentation process was still ongoing. We did not know whether to celebrate or not. From that point it has been a slow and steady movement in the advertising industry.

From rejecting clients advertising brief because we knew advertising was not the solution to the sales problem but an increase in the trade discount to signing dangerous performance bonds and tricky Service Level Agreements, we have sacrificed a lot on the altar of professionalism including taking bets with clients that they will come back most of which we have won.


For 25 years, we have been convinced that we not all Agencies can work for big clients and pitched ourselves in the middle and structured our Agency for such. A very lean but competent human capital with 50 – 50 split between the Tall & Wide spirit and their technical competence has been the key recruitment policy. No matter how good you are, we hate toxic people in our system.

In the last twenty five years, we have seen the industry transit from Advertising to Marketing Communications and to Brand Management. Whatever the dynamics of the nomenclature of the industry, Tall & Wide will not change. The first thing i was taught in Lintas:Lagos is “When you create a concept, you create a brand, when you create a brand, you create a future” or something in that realm. This is the simple truth in brand management and communication.

If una like make una change again to another nomenclature as the industry is wont to do. Fundamentals are fundamentals, basics are basics, we will continue to be Advertising Practitioners and will remain members of the ASSOCIATION OF ADVERTISING AGENCIES OF NIGERIA.

25 years on, Tall and Wide like most of its peers and fore runners has operated all the traditional and modern payment forms, types and structure. From Agency Commission to Service fee, Fixed fee to Retainership Fee and lately a performance based renumeration which is tied to the sales of the client’s products and a percentage of the business. Of course delayed payment, debts and no payment at all for jobs and campaigns executed. The latest being that we now quote strong biblical or quranic passages to clients in our request for outstanding payments and it works.

The past quarter of a decade has seen us witness technology finish the finished artist. From the days of transparent film slides and overhead projectors now to virtual power point presentations hand illustrated artworks and typed copy read at presentations, lithographic artworks to digital and press ready images, artworks being taken to publishers and commercials on reels, cassettes, CDs to mp3 and mp4 formats delivered online, it has been a very dynamic and interesting journey.


Today’s technology has truly redefined the business. Covid 19 has finally put a lie to all the typical Agency “effizy and sakamanje”. You can work remotely, present remotely, revise remotely, get approvals remotely, execute and implement campaigns remotely and receive payment remotely. To buttress the point, i got a call this morning from the AAAN secretariat to know if we were working from the office or home to facilitate the delivery of our anniversary cake. Indeed, what a different world we currently live, work and play with the new and digital media leading the narrative.

Permit me this day as i don my Tall & Wide branded denim shirt and sneakers for some swagger in my steps to express my profound gratitude to our clients who have given us the opportunity of service to their businesses.

Tall and Wide clients are like Arsenal fans. Very die hard. Very loyal. Once they believe in us, they ride peaks and valleys with us. They all played significant roles at different milestones in the 25 years of our operations.

Our testimony is that every year between August and September, God brings a job that takes us through till the end of the year. This year’s is in already but looking forward to a 25th anniversary bonus.

The lead and supporting actors in the Tall and Wide story are Engineer Olusegun James of Vego Products Limited. Tony Aletor of Capital Express Assurance Limited, Rasheed Sarumi & Wole Adeyegbe of Saro Africa, Bade Aluko of Finance Application Systems Limited (FASYL), Dele Martins of HFP Engineering Limited, Ayo Biobaku of QMB Builders Mart, Taju Akande of PKF, Ope Banwo, then of Dove Media, Mrs Tonia Smart of NLPC Pensions, Oriade Soyege of PAL Pensions, Senator Gbenga Obadara of Imperial Telecoms and Media 15900, Tayo Orekoya of the World Bank Project – LAMATA, Messrs Adeyanju and Modibbo of Eterna Oil and Gas, Late Chief Bode Akindele of Standard Flour Mills, Chief Bode Amao and Biola Amao of Bode Foam, Lagos State Government, Ekiti State Government, Ayo Oduntan of Amo Bing Siebrer Hatchery and Sir Demola Aladekomo of SmartCity PLC.


Special appreciation goes to all those we fondly refer to as “Waka Pass’ clients in Tall & Wide. They are clients who bring one – off brand or political campaigns, events or projects and played very well their roles in completing the story of our 25 year old movie. Might seem insignificant but they contribute 50% of our annual income.

Thank you all for being a part of The TALL & WIDE Story.

Any regrets or disappointments? Of course yes.

At some point in our 25 year journey, I thought we were going to lead the way in Mergers and Acquisitions in the advertising industry. Tall & Wide was to merge with CTA. Several meetings were held with serious enthusiasm. Unfortunately, it did not happen. I desired it for no other reason than to prove that Agencies can come together especially since M&A was on the front burner as a growth solution for the adverting industry at that time. In any case, i was to be MD, while Mr Cornelius Tay, a senior practitioner was to be the Chairman. Maybe that was really the problem. Ultimately, it did not work out and both parties moved on. The instructive thing for me is that the idea was muted by our banker who saw both companies at different curves of the business life cycle. CT&A was going South and Tall and Wide was going North. Kudos to Eniola Adigun, then of Sterling Bank for the vision which never came to pass.

After all said and done, there is still much cause for thanksgiving as i have left the business partially and totally in the hands of other people twice and for a cumulative eleven and a half years. out of the twenty five years of existence. The first being four and a half years as Executive Consultant to MITV /STAR FM and my seven year sojourn in governance in Oyo State. Yet, we are still standing Tall and Wide.

We therefore celebrate today because we are 25 years on. Certainly, for any tree to be tall and wide, it has to be deep, for any building to be tall and wide, it has to be deep, for any company to be Tall & Wide, it has to be deep.