O2 Academy celebrates 5th anniversary with commitment to produce more ad men

L-R: Victor Oyerero, Ozoemena Mbanefo, nneka Ezinwa, Oforma
Anyianuku, Kunle Shittu, and Nnenna Onyewuchi, faculty members
O2 Academy

Oxygen Academy, the ad school for ad men by ad men celebrated her fifth year anniversary at the Oxygen Complex in Lagos. The event was a mix of creativity and fun displayed by young talented Nigerians.

Celebrating the 5^th anniversary is in tandem with our mission statement “to be a hallmark of effective 21ST Century ideas that will move the industry forward, reshape human
thinking and perceptions. Carving a niche for the Nigerian ad industry with relevance to our Identity and bring about a revolution in the marketing communications and advertising industry”, said Ozoemena Mbanefo, Founder of Oxygen Academy.

Mbanefo described the academy as a window that unveils ad men into the creative industry. Since 2008, Oxygen Academy has helped young men and women to achieve their dream of creativity.  “The sole aim of O2 Academy is to bridge the gap between after school for young graduates and unemployment. We duplicate ourselves into them by infusing the real practical experience into to the students thereby making them readily available for any ad agency to hire,” he enthused. 

The ad mogul lauded Intercontinental Distilleries Limited (IDL), makers of premium wine, Veleta, Squadron, Commodora, Chelsea and a host of others for supporting the O2 Academy. “We want more corporate organisations to support us so that we can build a world class school of ad”. 

Ozoemena Mbanefo, Founder, O2 Academy

“I am part of this academy to see how we can revolutionise the industry and to ensure that creativity  will not be lacking in our business”, said one of the faculty members, Nnena Onyewuchi, Director of Strategy, Yellow Brick Road.

Other faculty members whose agencies partner with the academy and has also absorbed some of the students are Kunle shittu, STB Mccann; Chemberlin Ukenedo, 141 Worldwide; Victor Oyerero, Noah’s Ark; Oforma Anyianuka, STB Mccann; Nnenna Onyewuchi, Yello Brickroad; Bolaji Alausa, Noah’s Ark; Akin Adesola, Creative Taichai, Dotun Babatunde, 141 Worldwide and Frank Ozekome, Insight Communications.

O2 Academy is a CSR based hands-on creative training school designed to bring the real everyday workplace experience of an advertising agency to every young person with a passion for advertising. This is an initiative by a team of seasoned advertising professionals to selflessly grow new admen and revolutionise the ad world.

Students of the academy are strictly tutored on real time practical sections. The current set has visited the studios of famous photographer, Kelechi Amadi, where they were exposed to the real art of photography. They also had a field trip tagged ‘Operation Nebuchadnezzar’ (the handwriting on the wall), where they interviewed a cross section of the public to have their insight in consuming a product and also understand the USP of every product in the market. 

Faculty members and students of )2 Academy with during
visit to Kelechi Amadi' studio. 

The academy is tuition free and with some of the best brains in the industry who are facilitators. They render their services free and they see it as their own way of giving back to the industry.

O2 Academy runs a 23 week hands on creative training on copy writing, art direction, strategic planning, photography and multimedia software training. The school holds on Saturdays from 12pm to 4pm. A new session has begun since March 1^st and it will produce another set of graduates by August 2014.

The academy graduated 20 students last session and 13 of them are currently working in different ad agencies. A session is for a period of six months, that 23 Saturdays.

Apart from IDL the key sponsors, O2 Academy also enjoys partnership from DDB, Prima Garnet, Blue Bird Communications, Max Edge Communications and LTC JWT; all advertising agencies in Nigeria.