For passion and tech: A story of Robert Damilola’s journey from advertising into growth marketing

Marketing is dynamic. Yesterday’s rules don’t apply today so you need to keep learning and stay at the top of your game. After almost a decade of making exploits in the world of marketing, the above is just one of the profound lessons Robert Damilola has learnt. 

Robert Damilola studied Economics at the University of Ilorin. However, he didn’t take any marketing courses. Despite this, he has honed his skills as a growth/marketing expert over the years and is now building a community that nurtures young talents in the marketing industry. 

In a conversation with Technext, Robert Damilola narrates his journey; the challenges, triumphs as well as the lessons that have come from them. 

Robert Damilola’s entry into marketing 

After his university education in Ilorin, Robert moved to the centre of Nigeria’s economic growth – Lagos where he worked as a Business Development Executive at a digital communications company, CK Digital. There, he saw digital marketers go about their business – run ads, make sales – but he didn’t understand what it is that they do or why it matters in the big picture. 

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Interestingly, he wasn’t too fond of what he was doing at that point. So, he gathered courage and asked the digital marketers questions and he got answers that intrigued him. That was the turning point for him.

Three months later, he resigned from CK Digital and enrolled for a digital marketing training at Vibeweb Solution. The best-graduating student was promised a job at a reputable marketing agency. That was the catch for him. 

He recounts fondly that that was how his love for marketing started.

Working in marketing 

After graduating as the best-graduating student at Vibeweb Solution, he worked at Bates Cosse for a year as a digital marketing executive before moving to Abuja and worked for an advertising agency, Rage Media Global for about 4 years before 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. 

After, he pivoted into growth marketing and got a job at a health-tech startup. The startup needed someone to drive acquisition and revenue. And, Robert Damilola drove the user base from about 19,000 to 112,000 within 12 months using a combination of strategies, with no advertising spend. The startup started to make revenue through his strategy. 

After 15 months, he moved to a Fintech startup where he currently serves as the Head of Growth/Marketing at Bitnob. 

Challenges and accomplishments 

Being a growth marketing expert cuts across all fields. This job requires looking at data, acquisition, revenue and retention. All these haven’t come without challenges.

A major obstacle Robert Damilola faced at the initial stage of his career was the inability to understand that the integration of traditional & digital is what makes marketing effective. He however understood with time that digital marketing can’t work alone.

Another challenge is the dynamism of user behaviour.

“Users that say they want this today demand change when they get exposed to a superior experience. You must stay up to date on their wants and needs constantly, and communicate to their new level of reality.”

Lack of access to data to make informed marketing decisions is also a problem for Robert in the marketing space. For instance, financial institutions do not have uniform bank vs unbanked population statistics.

Notably, Robert Damilola has recorded some solid wins in the marketing industry. He was at the marketing agency that handled the United Bank of Africa (UBA) *911# campaign at launch. He developed the strategy and execution plan which was challenging because that was his first major brief.

Also, he once worked for an agency that had a real estate company, Foreshaw Waters as a client in 2019, who had to inform him about calling off marketing campaigns because the houses were sold out just one week into the campaign. Additionally, he built a brand digital strategy from scratch for Access Pension ( Sigma Pension then) to grow brand visibility from 2017 to 2020.

After his pivot to growth marketing, Robert Damilola grew the user base of a health-tech startup from 19,000 to 112,000 with sustainable revenue streams. He now works at Bitnob, where he has contributed immensely to the growth the fintech startup enjoys.

At Bitnob, he has facilitated a partnership with Tether for campus tours in Ghana and has led marketing expansion into Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

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Damilola recently did a certificate course at Harvard Business School and he is at the moment studying MBA at Rome Business School to upskill. Asked about his secret juice, Robert Damilola says he can bring team members together to achieve success and have conversations on how to grow.

“I ensure everyone is contributing their best, just as I do. There’s no space for underperformance here – continuous learning is key, so we encourage at least two courses a year to keep growing.”

Nurturing marketers 

Having observed a skill gap, Robert Damilola now has a marketing community with over one thousand members called The Growth Camp where he brings in professionals to nurture marketers, upskill them, teach them how the industry works and provide them with resources to grow.

“If you’re young and you want to grow, don’t stop learning because marketing will never wait for you. Today the rule is this, tomorrow it has changed. So you have to be constantly learning and not just that, the application aspect which is the most important part.”

The Growth Camp has its first physical meetup in June and there are plans to hold another in Kenya on December 13.

“It’s exciting because we are now seeing people from Kenya, and Ghana attending our meetings and asking about when real-life meetups will be held in their country.”

On an individual note, Robert Damilola says there’s so much more to give to the tech marketing community.

“I’m hoping that I can impact as many people as I can. I hope we’re able to have a more solid community due to my contribution to the marketing space.”  He concludes. 

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