It’s always difficult to get Rosemary Egabor to talk about her work. In this interview, she talks about her new PR firm, passion for the media and initiative, The Mediahangoutng.
About Princess Rosemary Emesomiade Egabor
I am the last daughter of HRM George Oshiapi Egabor, the Okumagbe of Weppa Wanno Kingdom Edo state. I have 10years working experience in banking, media and public relations and I am currently the CEO of Urban 10 Hub Limited, a fast growing full- serviced Public Relations Consultancy in Nigeria that has been successfully connecting its clientele to the media giving their organisations and brands the necessary buzz through quality press material and successful online campaigns
Her schooling
Was born in Lagos. Had my primary education at Chrisland primary School Ladipo, Chrisland college for my secondary education, attended Covenant University where I studied marketing and graduated with a second class upper division and currently running my Master’s degree in Media & Communication at Pan Atlantic University
About Urban 10 Hub
Urban 10 is a fast growing full- serviced Public Relations Consultancy that has been successfully connecting its clientele to the media giving their organizations and brands the necessary buzz through quality press material, experiential activities and successful online campaigns. Our team consist of young and vibrant individuals who have managed big brands and the image of corporate organizations and multi-nationals over the years.
We tell compelling stories for brands and corporate organization. With our story telling capabilities, we are always focused on creating conversations centered around our clients.
Inspiration for Mediahangoutng
Couple of years ago I worked at Nigeria’s first 24hours news station NN24 as a marketer in charge of adverts and sponsorship and handled a bit of public relations for the station, it was the first time in Nigeria that we had a TV station that broadcasted news 24hours a day, a station that was determined to be different by being objective with its news and telling both sides of a story, a station that refused to align itself with any political party, for me I was proud to be part of the team that drove that vision. Its entry was a game changer, good competition for the broadcast media.
It was different working at NN24, all reporters and presenters went through extensive training, the presentation style was different, brown envelope was a no go area, we were doing things differently. It was a thing of pride to say I worked at NN24, we were highly respected but unfortunately the TV station folded up.
I ventured in to full public relations working with QuadrantMSL as a client service manager which I would like to give massive thanks to Bolaji Okusaga and Tosin Adefeko for that opportunity. There I managed multinationals like Google, Microsoft, Dell, Coca-cola, Some Unilever brands, PMI and so many other brands. I had the opportunity to interact with media personalities (OAP’s, editors, presenters) on a daily basis, I became close to some of them and listened to their complains, some of their challenges were lack of resources to carry out their duties, little or no salary, foreign media getting exclusivity to important stories, no training so many others, unfortunately brands also had their complains about the media, it was either their stories were not properly transcribed and reported, press releases were written poorly, reports were not investigated before they were been reported, and I thought to myself that the media needed an initiative that brought together personalities across all media platforms to network and discuss issues faced in the industry and seek for possible collaborations to solve those issues
An initiative that was driven with the passion to change the negative perceptions about the Nigerian media by taking it upon itself to train Journalists for free through partnerships with educational institutions, launching monthly social media campaigns to educate media personalities/involve them in daily discussions and organize a yearly gathering to give the media a great time, which is what the Mediahangoutng is about. We envisioned a time when all Nigerian Journalists will be proud of who they are and what they do, the sentence “is it because am a journalist” shouldn’t be in their vocabulary
Only when the Nigerian media becomes one and not each platform seeing itself as an independent entity, then issues can be addressed more effectively. I discussed my ideas with an old colleague and my media friends, they gave me that push and support which I still enjoy till today. The Mediahangoutng is an initiative of my PR company Urban10 Hub Limited, we are not just another networking platform, we are addressing key issues
Challenge Faced
Well so far we have organized two MediaHangoutng events, the first was in partnership with Primi Piatti restaurant where we hosted 70 media people, they were kind enough to give us their venue for free because they understood what we were trying to accomplish. It was the first time the Newspapers editors, radio personalities, bloggers and TV presenters sat down together to have healthy discussions. Sincerely funding was the problem but because of the passion we funded other items from our personal pockets. We also celebrated women’s day by hosting 10 media women to a spa session in partnership with Oasis Medspa, Cameron drive Ikoyi.
Getting the media personalities to feel free to discuss their challenges openly online, hosting the media personalities without sponsors and getting educational institutions to offer their training services for free are major challenges
About Media online campaign, #iamthenigerianmedia
The campaign was part of our commitment to promoting professionalism in the media industry and influencing the younger generation of Journalist, the campaign engaged the media community to discuss issues in the industry from poor reportage, zero investigative journalism, high level of illiteracy, news falsehood in social media, social media used as a tool for attack, insecurity of Journalist and thereafter proffer solutions. One major problem we picked out was lack of insurance for journalists, no journalist will agree to go in to Sambisa when his/her life isn’t insured.
The campaign was also set out to educate Upcoming Journalists on the rules that guide journalism, to make the Nigerian Journalist see reasons why they should be proud of what they do and see collection of brown envelopes as a degrading act to the profession. (Journalism till today is not seen as a reverend profession, Journalism is and should be seen as a respected job).
To achieve this, we chose 20 selected media personalities across platforms (Guardian, Businessday, Nigeria Info, Naija FM, Channels TV, The Luxury Reporter, OSG and others) to educate the upcoming about what their job entails and challenges, so people do not get in to journalism for the wrong reasons. The interviews which is on all our social media platforms gave the personalities the opportunities to air their views about the state of the industry and proffer their independent solutions
Passion for Naija brand
Nigeria is such an interesting country, rich in culture, there are so many stories to tell about Nigeria especially to the outside world. Foreigners know little about Nigeria because they see negative stories on foreign media platforms and so it is the responsibility of the Nigerian media to tell the positives of our country with support from the PR practitioners
Role model and mentor in the media industry
My role model is my father, HRM George Oshaipi Egabor who apart from being our traditional ruler is the chairman board of directors, Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto and my mentor in the industry is Dr Ken Ikpe who is the MD/CEO All seasons Mediacom Ltd and the president of MIPAN
PR being dead
Absolutely not, PR is still highly relevant. As the world evolves you will only notice that the platforms used by PR companies have changed but the profession hasn’t. Earned media today still has a great impact on brands/corporate image. A full page feature article some years ago carried a lot of weight and still does today but an article placed in an online platform will carry more weight depending on which is used because there’s an opportunity for it to be tweeted and retweeted, stories can be shared with friends which means more eyes reading the article. PR companies use bloggers and influencers now to create awareness, so if your brand is targeted towards the young group be sure your story will trend especially if the content is good.
Even the usual press releases used by many is still a good PR tool, but the problem is most organization request for press releases when they have little to say. For a press release to be effective, you must have something concrete to say, visual is very important not like what we see now. What about extending the release to online platforms. So if you look at it PR is a part of our everyday lives, PR companies just need to advise their clients on the most effective platforms to use depending on their target audience and what their campaign stands to achieve. An article I read said PR tells and advertising sells which is true.
Definition of fashion
Seriously fashion is anything simple (pants and a nice top), comfortable and quality, not a die hard for big fashion names
Favourite fashion piece
My Bag and jewelleries
Favourite fashion icon
Jennifer Lopez- if she isn’t on the red carpet she’s quite simple, nice pants/jeans with a nice top and she still looks gorgeous. You can never find me wearing a crop top
Favourite food
I have 2, Amala, ewedu n begiri and the other is Yam and egg sauce
Favourite author
Sidney Sheldon
Favourite book
Master of the Game- very old novel, read it 4 times, reading it again
How The Mediahangoutng initiative is promoting best practice in the media industry
We will be offering a lot of free trainings for media personnel across all media platforms by partnering with educational institutions and using well experienced journalists who volunteer to train the young ones
Partnership with Poise Communication
Oh yes, we are partnering with Poise School of Communication, Nigeria’s No 1 Etiquette training school to train journalist in: Etiquette in Media Reporting, Social and business etiquette for media professionals, understanding thinking styles in communication (Emotional Intelligence) and delivering Difficult messages and managing perceptions (tact and diplomacy).
Etiquette will help professionals in the media industry reflect confidence, build inter-personal skills, strong relationships and prevent misgivings with important stakeholders. Considering that media practitioners are called in for both local and international events that are very important, the training will help enhance their cross cultural sensitivity and professionalism.
The future for Mediahangoutng and Urban 10
In the next few years we want the mediahangoutng to have impacted the lives of media personalities all over Nigeria, we intend to expand our support to other media people outside Lagos. We want to add value to the industry, we want to improve the way news is been reported, we want to change lives. On Urban 10, we want to be on the top 5 PR companies in Nigeria that would have successfully impacted multinational companies and their brands.
About The Author
