Steve Babaeko: The Man Known for X3M Creativity

“If you call yourself extreme, you shouldn’t be caught doing the safest work in the country. Your ideas must be seen to represent the name you bear. So the ideas have to be on the edge, and they have to be extreme.” – Steve Babaeko

Ahighly accomplished entrepreneur with about three decades of experience up his sleeves, Steve Babaeko, without argument, is a significant force in Nigeria’s branding and Public Relations space. He’s the founder of X3M Ideas, the digital advertising agency that was acclaimed “one of Nigeria’s fastest-growing communications brands in 2017, He’s also the President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN).

Babaeko was born on June 1, 1971, to a very modest family in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, and he was raised in the same town. As he grew into the age of reasoning, the young Babaeko realised, quite painfully, that his parents could not afford to give him some of the things children of his age enjoyed. This would become the core of his driving desire to succeed in life.

As a child, he was attracted to the screens and imagined himself pursuing a career in TV presenting. He attended the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he bagged a B.A in Theatre Arts (Drama) in 1994. He applied for and got an internship with a Broadcast organisation, and this gave him first-hand access to the lives presenters then were living. The pay was very modest, and given his background, Steve Babaeko knew he would not want to spend his adult years scrounging and depriving himself of the luxuries he desired.

Rather than give up and settle altogether, Babaeko discovered a new dream which would help him get what he wanted, and he set out to pursue the new dream in the creative industry. A B.A in Drama already gave him a bit of a background, so he was confident that it would not be an entirely unfamiliar ground to him.

The journey of no-return

When Steve Babaeko left Kaduna for the bustling city of Lagos, going back without results was not an option for him. The 24-year-old was ready to give all it took to break into the creative industry. He had no place to stay, so he squatted in a hotel with a chef for two years. That was how long it took him to land his first job as a trainee copywriter at a well-known agency in Lagos.

Babaeko worked five years with MC&A Saatchi & Saatchi, then another five years with Prima Garnet Ogilvy (agency). At this time, there was nothing amateur about him any longer. He had grown so fast in his skills and creativity that no firm would be afraid to put him in charge. His next stop was 141 Worldwide, where he worked as a creative director for seven years.

By this time, Babaeko was both ready and qualified to run the show himself. He left to set up X3M Ideas.

X3M Ideas; a hub for extreme creativity

The quote which started this piece is an expression that conveys Babaeko’s thoughts on what creativity should be. In creating X3M Ideas, Steve Babaeko found a cooking pot to bring unlimited creativity into his work.

X3M Ideas was set up as “a full-fledged advertising company”, and soon after, a record label joined –X3M Music. Babaeko says he founded X3M Ideas with “a pretty small team of about 8 persons” after he turned 40 and “started seeing the world from a totally different perspective.” The mission of X3M Ideas was to redefine advertising in Nigeria. In line with this, Babaeko would always ask his team of talents, “Do you think this idea is extreme enough?” Today, X3M has a staff of over a hundred people and occupies a purpose-built office complex in Lagos since 2016. It is now rated one of the top marketing firms in Nigeria and services some of the biggest companies globally. X3M now has a physical presence in five other African countries – South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, and plans to expand further.

As part of its Corporate Social responsibilities, X3M undertakes a project to rehabilitate a government school every year and hand it over to the government.

Steve Babaeko has served as CEO and Chief Creative Officer since August 2012. The grit and perseverance acquired from the days of job-hunting and squatting would later come in handy for the entrepreneurial journey into Nigeria’s advertising space.

Other stints and Awards

Steve Babaeko indeed occupies an enviable position in the Nigerian creative industry, and he’s instrumental in shaping the future of creative arts in Nigeria and beyond in his capacity as President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria.

In 2016, 2017, and 2018, Babaeko was a jury member of the New York Advertising Festival, acclaimed as “one of the oldest advertising festivals in the world.” He continues to represent Africa and Nigeria on the global stage. He has been a speaker at the Cannes Lions Festival and was conferred with the “Visiting Fellow” honours at the Henley Business School, University of Reading.

In 2019, Babaeko was named among Adweek’s top 100 Creatives in the world, (otherwise known as Most Fascinating People In Marketing, Media, and Culture). He emerged Outstanding Creative Personality of the Decade at the Marketing Edge Marketing Excellence awards (2021) held in Lagos.