Building Talent in a Fast-Growing Industry: Why Advertising Needs Mentors, Not Just Managers

For Remilekun Enitan Dosumu, one of Nigeria’s most accomplished media investment professionals, mentorship has never been a side activity. It has been a central engine of growth, a pathway to building future leaders, and an anchor that has shaped her professional identity far beyond her technical achievements in media buying, compliance, and strategic brand planning. […]

For Remilekun Enitan Dosumu, one of Nigeria’s most accomplished media investment professionals, mentorship has never been a side activity. It has been a central engine of growth, a pathway to building future leaders, and an anchor that has shaped her professional identity far beyond her technical achievements in media buying, compliance, and strategic brand planning.

Across more than a decade, Dosumu has risen steadily through the ranks of Nigeria’s marketing communications sector, earning recognition as the Most Outstanding Media Investment Professional of the Year in 2022 and contributing to multiple Pitcher Award winning campaigns. She has led media investment teams at PHD Media and delivered industry level improvements in return on investment, compliance, and vendor management. Yet when she talks about her career, the conversation always circles back to one theme: lifting others while advancing herself.

Her volunteer work, panel contributions, editorial service, and active mentorship within institutional networks have been as defining as her professional milestones. These efforts have strengthened her brand as a people centered leader who does not simply chase outcomes, but invests in systems and people that make excellence sustainable.

Advertising in sub-Saharan Africa continues to evolve at a rapid pace. According to the African Marketing Index, media investment in key markets such as Nigeria and Kenya has grown by an estimated 12 percent annually since 2020, driven by digital transformation, multiscreen consumption, and the rising demand for cost accountability. Yet this expansion has not been matched by a proportional growth in experienced talent. A 2023 report by APAAC showed that more than 40 percent of advertising agencies in West Africa struggle with talent shortages, especially in analytics, compliance, and media planning functions.

This widening skills gap has made mentorship increasingly indispensable. Agencies are expected to deliver transparency, data driven recommendations, and measurable efficiency, but many entry level professionals enter the industry without structured developmental pathways. For Dosumu, the need to prepare the next generation has always been clear. Her early years in media buying exposed her to the reality that the industry thrives when knowledge flows openly and consistently.

While navigating her roles from Executive Media Buyer to Head of Media Buying and Investment at PHD Media Nigeria, Dosumu grew a reputation as a builder of teams who learn fast, deliver accurately, and embrace ethical standards. Her personal mantra is simple: the industry is only as strong as its future leaders, and those leaders must be intentionally cultivated.

Within the agency environment, Dosumu is known for her hands-on mentorship style. Long before she became the head of media buying and investment, she served as a guide to junior analysts, interns, and rising planners, often shaping their professional habits through structured coaching and real time feedback. When she served as Assistant Manager at PHD Media between 2019 and 2020, she trained interns across media disciplines and supported their transition into full time roles. Many of those trainees now occupy mid-level positions across the industry.

Her mentorship does not follow a top-down approach. She creates space for collaborative learning, exposing team members to negotiation techniques, real time budget tracking, and compliance monitoring. By the time she took on senior managerial responsibilities, her teams were already known for precision, speed, and accountability. Her direct leadership contributed to reduced staff turnover rates, improved operational efficiency, and a culture of mutual support.

At PHD Media, where Dosumu currently heads media buying and investment, her role requires strategic oversight, but she still prioritizes mentorship in daily workflow. She supervises and empowers the media buying team, ensures they understand the technical nuances of investment decisions, and encourages them to lead portions of campaign execution. This method strengthens competence and builds a deep bench of talent that the industry will inherit in the coming years.

Her impact is measurable. Under her leadership, media investment teams have achieved up to 99 percent compliance rates, improved performance delivery by up to 45 percent, and cultivated strong analytical and operational capabilities. In a sector where audit pressure and performance accountability are rising, her ability to train teams that deliver accuracy and innovation has significantly reinforced her personal brand.

While internal mentorship has shaped her reputation within the agency, Dosumu’s external volunteering has amplified her influence across broader advertising and marketing communities. She serves as a Non-Executive Member at Achieving Greatness Ltd, a role that exposes her to youth development programs and community empowerment initiatives. Her panel contributions at PHD Talks offer insights to aspiring practitioners and young professionals who are seeking guidance on career progression, industry innovations, and professional ethics.

She also plays a visible role in her workplace communities as the official host for PHD’s quarterly gatherings and end of year events. Though seemingly informal, these engagements enhance team morale, encourage cross departmental collaboration, and reinforce her status as a trusted leader whose influence is both professional and cultural.

Her membership in the ForbesBLK community reflects Dosumu’s commitment to engaging with global networks that support Black professionals across industries. By participating in a platform that connects innovators, corporate leaders, and high achieving creatives, she contributes to conversations about equitable representation in leadership spaces.

One of the least discussed but most powerful aspects of Dosumu’s mentoring footprint lies in scholarly contributions. She has co-authored over a dozen academic publications in marketing, agile project management, digital communication, and consumer insights. Her work spans topics such as campaign performance analytics, customer value management, and sustainable digital marketing. These papers serve as a knowledge base for professionals, students, and researchers exploring the evolving dynamics of media investment and compliance.

In addition to publishing, she holds significant editorial responsibilities. She is a section editor at Fair East Publishers and sits on editorial boards for several international journals across management, economics, communication, and social science. Her involvement ensures rigorous peer review standards, promotes research quality, and supports emerging scholars who rely on constructive reviews to refine their work.

Her editorial service functions as a mentorship channel of its own. Young academics benefit from her detailed feedback, while journals benefit from her expertise in brand communication, advertising strategy, and market penetration. At a time when Africa’s research community continues to battle funding and resource limitations, Dosumu’s contribution strengthens the ecosystem that trains the next generation of marketing scholars.

Representation remains a major challenge in advertising spaces globally. A 2022 McKinsey report revealed that women occupy only about 29 percent of senior leadership positions in global advertising, and Black women hold less than 2 percent. Although Nigeria’s marketing industry has become more inclusive over the years, women still face barriers in areas such as investment finance roles, data analytics, and C suite pathways.

Dosumu’s rise serves as a living counter narrative. Through visible leadership, mentorship, and volunteerism, she contributes to shifting perceptions about who can lead and excel in technical and strategic roles within media. Her efforts encourage young women who aspire to build careers in advertising but fear the barriers that have historically held many back.

By sharing her journey on professional platforms and panel discussions, she continues to demystify concepts such as negotiation, compliance, vendor relationships, and measurement analytics. Her message to emerging female professionals is consistent: competence thrives when cultivated, and leadership becomes attainable when knowledge is shared.

Beyond structured programmes, Dosumu also supports informal mentorship circles where young practitioners consult her on career choices, academic pathways, and workplace navigation. These engagements often go undocumented yet carry enormous influence. They shape early career decisions, boost confidence, and help rising professionals avoid common industry pitfalls.

She advises many mentees on how to build portfolios that reflect both analytical intelligence and creative thinking, how to negotiate for better roles, and how to maintain professionalism under pressure. Her openness to guiding strangers and acquaintances alike has helped strengthen the culture of knowledge sharing within Nigeria’s marketing sector.

In an industry that values visibility, Dosumu’s mentorship and volunteer work have become central to her professional identity. Her personal brand is built on three pillars: competence, collaboration, and community impact.

First, mentoring others showcases her confidence in her technical mastery. Professionals who hoard knowledge often project insecurity. Those who teach are often the ones who understand their craft deeply. By sharing insights generously, she reinforces an image of competence that is recognized by colleagues, vendors, and clients.

Second, her reputation as a team builder enhances her credibility as a leader. Brand planning, media investment, and compliance are disciplines that depend heavily on coordinated teamwork. Her ability to develop strong teams makes her an asset in high stakes environments where precision and collaboration determine success.

Third, her volunteer commitments demonstrate character. In an industry occasionally criticized for elitism, burnout, and high turnover, her efforts to nurture people reflect values of empathy, service, and long term thinking. These attributes strengthen her leadership presence and position her as a role model for emerging professionals.

Her brand has also been amplified by the awards and recognitions she has earned as part of high performing teams. For instance, her contribution to Pitcher Award winning campaigns and her track record of securing cost efficiencies and added value in media investments have solidified her status as an authority in her field. Yet it is her mentoring relationships that bring depth and authenticity to her story.

As artificial intelligence, performance tracking, and data driven storytelling continue to reshape global advertising, the gap between skilled professionals and evolving technologies is widening. The World Federation of Advertisers projects that up to 60 percent of marketing roles will undergo competency shifts within the next five years, particularly in analytics, automation, and consumer behavior modeling.

Mentorship is becoming not just beneficial, but critical to keeping the workforce future ready. Dosumu’s ability to train younger professionals in compliance monitoring, media analytics, investment strategies, and integrated planning positions the industry for long term resilience. Her mentorship accelerates the transfer of knowledge that would otherwise take years to internalize.

She represents a generation of African media leaders who understand that sustainable growth depends on human capacity development. Through coaching, volunteering, panel discussions, and research engagement, Dosumu continues to build a pipeline of competent practitioners who can compete globally.