JOURNEY OF DISRUPT DNA: A CREATIVE AGENCY IN LAGOS
One Year Anniversary… It Feels Like We‘ve Been Here Way Longer
Today marks the first anniversary of Disrupt DNA, and to be honest; It feels like we have been at it for five years.
I vividly remember my last day working as a banker, I had just left the office on May 31st, 2019, and while driving home with mixed emotions, the little voices in my head kept asking; “Are you 100% sure you want to do this, Nkem? Why change what is working?” Amidst the chaos in my head, one thing was clear, I had garnered some experience and confidence throughout my career, and I needed to put it to good use.
At some point during my corporate career, I had thought about testing the waters of entrepreneurship, and my co-founder and I registered Disrupt DNA as a company in 2016; it’s safe now to say, that plan fell through. DDNA officially began operations at our little Lagos studio on August 5th, 2019, thanks to my new employment reality.
The first few months before we started DDNA was about learning and researching; I talked to friends, colleagues, and family, gathering as much information as possible. The goal was simple; we were going to build an agile content agency designed to break the rules. One year later, I like to think of ourselves as the “Table-Shakers.” We have proven that the disruption of a status quo is not necessarily the destruction of it and that collaboration across the ecosystem is the future of the creative industry.
During the beginning phase, one of the crucial elements was building the right team and implementing a great work culture; we wanted a young, agile, and experienced team. If you are a startup founder, you understand that hiring the right people to help drive the startup is essential for delivering excellent service. Ultimately, it’s people that make a company successful.
So far, I’d say we’ve got it right with the people at DDNA. We have a diverse team that brings a wealth of experience from brand and content strategy to content production and distribution, and 40% of our team are women who are consistently delivering excellent work.
Some of our works are in this reel.
Every startup and small business needs customers to thrive, so our early clients like Access Bank and Sparkle Nigeria were more than just clients. They serve and still serve as critical mentors and advisors to our growing business, helping us evolve and provide much-needed feedback from the client’s perspective. I owe them a lot of gratitude.
WHAT IS NEXT FOR DDNA?
As COVID-19 pandemic continues to take its toll on the world, businesses are still trying to navigate the financial and operational challenges of this new normal. We had the foresight long before the pandemic to automate our business process and become a digital-based studio. The impact of COVID-19 on our business was minimal and only accelerated our content creation capacity.
During the first few days of the lockdown, the team struggled a bit to adjust. Once we passed that initial phase, I can say what we’ve built at DDNA is a model of the future of work; we have modified and implemented a healthy workplace culture that functions on empathy, respect, kindness, and trust. We wake up every day, striving to do better than we did yesterday; the ride has not been smooth, and as cliche, as this may sound, it has been worth it.
During this journey, we have picked up bits of knowledge, and I will share a few of them with you:
- The right partnership can make all the difference. I have seen this firsthand with my Co-Founder Kelechi Dozie and how his entrepreneurial experience has significantly shaped how we think, work, and reach our business goals.
- As creatives, the coffee machine is the most beautiful person in the world to us.
- Building great relationships will help build a lasting business,
- Don’t be afraid to experiment; there are no bad ideas, just poorly executed ones.
- Creative work does not exist in a silo; you must collaborate to deliver excellent work. One of our biggest goals at DDNA is to always provide exceptional service, and one of the ways we have done this is through cross-functional collaboration. We partner with credible firms and even competing businesses as long as it drives our shared goals.
As we continue our journey, we look towards driving consistency, teamwork, and being the best at what we do.
To those we have worked with it — We say thank you!
To those we are yet to work with — We look forward to such a time when we can help you find and tell your best stories.
