By: Funso Oyelohunnu
There is something rather fascinating happening around the Dangote IPO.
People are joking about it.
Creating memes. Making skits. Declaring themselves “shareholders.” Some are even imagining what their first board meeting with Aliko Dangote might look like.
“Call Dangote. We need a board meeting.”
It is the kind of humour Nigerians are famous for. Give us a serious subject and, before long, someone will turn it into a joke, a meme or a skit.
But beneath the laughter is a serious marketing lesson.
As someone who has spent many years working in brand communication and strategy, helping organisations develop strategies designed not merely to create awareness but to influence markets and ultimately sell products, I find the Dangote IPO particularly interesting.
Because this is no longer just a story about an Initial Public Offering.
It is a story about how a product can become a conversation, how a conversation can become culture, and how culture can become a marketing force of its own.
From the stock market to the street
Traditionally, an IPO belongs to the world of financial pages, investment analysts, stockbrokers and business executives.
For many ordinary Nigerians, the language of the capital market can feel distant and complicated.
Shares. Equity. Dividends. Market capitalisation. Prospectuses.
Not exactly the language of everyday conversation.
Yet the Dangote IPO has managed to break through that barrier.
It has entered the language of ordinary Nigerians.
People who may never have picked up a financial newspaper are discussing shares. People who may never have considered themselves investors are asking questions about ownership. Social media creators are producing content around the IPO. WhatsApp groups are having conversations about it.
And suddenly, “I bought shares” has become something of a cultural statement.
That is significant.
Because successful marketing is rarely about simply putting a product in front of people.
It is about giving people a reason to care.
When consumers become the media
One of the biggest changes in marketing over the last decade is the declining distinction between the brand, the media and the consumer.
There was a time when a company created an advertisement, paid for media space and waited for the audience to receive the message.
Today, the audience can take that message, reinterpret it, joke about it, challenge it, improve it and distribute it to millions of other people.
The audience is no longer simply consuming the communication.
The audience is participating in it.
That is what makes the Dangote IPO particularly interesting.
The most engaging conversations around it are not necessarily coming from formal advertising.
They are coming from Nigerians themselves.
They are taking a relatively complex financial proposition and translating it into humour, everyday language and popular culture.
In marketing terms, that is incredibly valuable.
The brand has given people something to talk about.
And people are doing the distribution.
The power of making people feel included
There is another important dimension to this.
The minimum subscription of 10 shares, at N525 per share, puts the initial entry point at N5,250. That does not make investing affordable for everyone, but it creates a significantly more accessible proposition than the perception many people have of participating in major corporate ownership.
And psychology matters.
There is a difference between telling someone:
“You can invest in a company.”
And making them feel:
“I can actually own a piece of this.”
The second proposition is emotional.
It creates participation.
It creates conversation.
And, importantly, it creates a sense of belonging.
This is one of the oldest principles of brand building: people are attracted to things that allow them to see themselves as part of a larger story.
Humour is doing some heavy lifting
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the Dangote IPO conversation is the role of humour.
Nigerians have an extraordinary ability to use humour to make complicated subjects accessible.
A subject that might appear intimidating in a financial seminar suddenly becomes approachable when someone turns it into a skit.
That does not mean the jokes themselves constitute financial education. They don’t.
But they can open the door to curiosity.
Someone sees a meme.
They laugh.
Then they ask, “So how do I actually buy these shares?”
That journey—from attention to curiosity to information to action—is precisely where marketing becomes commercially interesting.
But attention is not understanding
There is also a cautionary lesson here.
When a financial product becomes a social-media phenomenon, the line between entertainment, promotion and investment advice can become blurred.
A funny video can generate millions of views, but views do not necessarily mean that viewers understand the risks or terms of an investment.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has cautioned investors to use approved channels and verify information, particularly amid the possibility of impersonation, fraudulent offers and misleading communications surrounding the IPO.
That distinction is important.
A successful marketing strategy can generate attention. Responsible communication must turn that attention into informed action.
What marketers should learn for me, the most important lesson from the Dangote IPO is not that Nigerians like memes.
We already knew that.
It is that a well-positioned proposition can become much bigger than the communication originally created around it.
This is something I have seen repeatedly in brand strategy.
The job is not simply to make a product visible.
Visibility without relevance can be expensive.
The real challenge is to understand the market deeply enough to identify the proposition that people will find meaningful—and then communicate it in a way that makes them want to participate.
That is when marketing begins to move from advertising to influence.
From awareness to engagement.
And ultimately, from engagement to action.
People don’t share advertising. They share stories.
Perhaps this is the most enduring lesson.
People may not share your carefully crafted corporate advertisement.
They may not even remember your campaign six months from now.
But give them a story that connects with their lives, their ambitions, their humour or their aspirations, and they will carry it for you.
They will tell their friends.
They will make a joke about it.
They will create a video.
They will debate it.
They will put it in a WhatsApp group.
And suddenly, your marketing budget has acquired something money cannot easily buy: cultural participation.
The Dangote IPO has therefore become an intriguing case study—not just in capital markets, but in brand storytelling, consumer psychology, cultural relevance, earned media and the creator economy.
It reminds us that the strongest brands do not merely speak to the market.
They give the market something worth talking about.
And when that happens, the audience can become your most powerful media channel.
So perhaps the question worth asking is not:
“How well was the IPO advertised?”
The more interesting question is:
“Did Dangote market an IPO to Nigerians—or did Nigerians end up marketing the IPO to one another?”
For those of us who are experienced brand strategist, that distinction is worth paying attention to.
Because ultimately, the purpose of strategy is not to win an advertising award for being noticed.
It is to create something that matters enough to people that they want to participate—and powerful enough in the market to move behaviour.
And that is where brand strategy earns its keep.
•Funso Oyelohunnu is a business leader with extensive experience in brand communication, financial services strategy and market development.
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