This week, ADMARP One-on-One is shining the spotlight on Arafat Manliki (Man like Manliki), Regional Senior Marketing Manager, Exams, West Africa at British Council and former Digital Marketing Manager at MTN who holds a chequered reputation of leading company-wide projects and high-impact teams across functions.
Manliki’s cognate experience spans nearly two decades in marketing communications strategy, brand management, digital marketing & transformation, growth hacking, PR, and stakeholder engagement.
He is also a co-founder of ROUTE-28, a hybrid mobile content production hotshop and acceleration hub
ADMARP: Did you choose marketing, or marketing chose you?
Manliki: I chose marketing.
ADMARP: What is your greatest weakness?
Manliki: Hmmmm…My greatest weakness will be my eagerness to get things sorted once they come into my space. I like them sorted and cleared up as soon as humanly possible and this can be a problem because at every point in time, my brain goes into overdrive, working to sort out issues and find a clear path forward……
ADMARP: What is the idea of you people have that is quite contrary to who you really are?
Manliki: People believe I’m snobbish and standoffish.
ADMARP: What can you describe as the most groundbreaking moment/period in your career journey?
Manliki: Launched the Mobile number portability (MNP) digital campaign and delivered earned media value of 4bn Naira ($9.4 million).
ADMARP: What is your favorite food?
Manliki: Pounded yam and ofe nsala soup, without a doubt.
ADMARP: What food do you think is the most overrated?
Manliki: Jollof rice
ADMARP: Tell us something, an unpopular opinion about marketing that you think people should embrace more?
Manliki: Causality over Correlation: A critical component of marketing success is the ability to find the exact “marketing genetic code” of specific customers or customer set that are predictive of future behaviors.
Causality indicates that a specific event is the actual and direct result of the other(s). This is the basic notion of “cause and effect” in which a specific event is identified because of the other. Essentially, causality allows you to see which events or initiatives led to a particular outcome.
In summary, the ability to properly gauge causality can supply you with the fact base that is necessary and relevant to make well informed marketing decisions, because it is all about finding the exact “marketing genetic code” of specific customers or customer sets that are predictive of future behaviors. Understanding this will also help predict and manage customer/buyer relationships with brands. Correlation is simply a means of measuring the relationship between variables to find statistically relevant trends.
ADMARP: If you weren’t a marketing expert, what would you have done differently in life?
Manliki: I would most likely have joined the army.
ADMARP: What state are you from?
Manliki: Proudly Kwara state
ADMARP: What are you afraid of the most?
Manliki: Failure and Reptiles
ADMARP: Who is your bestie in the industry?
Manliki: Me
