Your Product Isn’t Enough. Your Story Is.
In 2025, if you’re still relying on supermarket promos and billboard placements, you’re already playing a losing game. In Nigeria and across the globe, competition has shifted for what it has always been to a game of attention. Questions like,
- Whose content will get people talking ?
- What content can stop the scroll ?
The game is attention, and the brands that win are not just selling alone, they are interested in captivating attention.
Let’s talk about how they do it, and how your brand can too.
Nigerian consumers don’t just want to know what you’re selling. They want to know why.
- Why did you choose tigernut milk?
- Why did you reimagine Jollof in a pack?
- Why are your drinks named after streets in Surulere?
Imagine the Pepsi Long throat campaign , It tells a story around “people’s desire for more”. The visuals, animations, videos, materials were all consistent in creating that visual story that everyone can relate with.
Actionable Tip: Build a content ecosystem around your origin story. Make it impossible to separate your product from your purpose.
1. Experiential > Traditional
The most viral food brands didn’t get there with flyers, or just random billboards in random places, doing random things that aren’t trackable. They gave people an experience.
The honeywell noodles christmas train, was an experiential event to connect to true fans of the honeywell noodles brand.
To get the best of this, you might need to partner with micro-events, intimate music shows, or outdoor events. Anything to get connected to the fanbase, you can as well take advantage of times like these to build a community of interested individuals . The goal is to meet people where the vibes are.
2. Borrow Culture, Don’t Hijack It
It’s tempting to jump on every trend, but culture isn’t a costume. What worked for Detty December in 2022 won’t necessarily slap in April 2025. Smart brands study culture, then collaborate with it. Not co-opt it.
Imagine putting a Yoruba ad on TV because you saw another brand do it. It doesn’t work that way. They embedded their product into the storyline of urban youth culture, sponsoring skits and music videos in ways that felt natural, not forced.
Actionable Tip: Invest in cultural intelligence and build a team that understands strategy (or work with one), speaking of a team you can work with, contact us here.
3. Influencer Marketing Is Not Dead. You’re Just Doing It Wrong.
One more thing: you don’t need a B-list celebrity shouting “Buy Now!” on Instagram. You need real people, with real influence, doing real things with your product.
Food & beverage content is one of the most consumed formats on Nigerian TikTok and Instagram Reels. But instead of scripted skits, think:
- Unfiltered tasting reactions
- Side-by-side comparisons with mainstream brands
- “Can I cook this with ₦1,000?” challenges
- Kitchen hacks with your product as the key ingredient
Actionable Tip: Find 5 micro-influencers in the food space and ask them to make content that looks nothing like an ad. Pay them for content and distribution. Finding these influencers and getting expected results is also a strategy, we can do that for you, contact us here.
What Innovative Looks Like in 2025
- Ditch the old playbook.
- Make your brand feel like culture, not just commerce.
- Treat every customer as a potential content creator.
- Focus on connection, not just conversion.
The food and beverage game in Nigeria is ripe for reinvention. And the brands that dare to show up differently, with soul, relevance, and boldness , will be the ones people remember (and repost).
Want to build a campaign that actually gets people talking, buying, and tagging?
Let’s make your product unforgettable, from ideas to attention and revenue..
Work with Intense Digital Today
