Writer, author, and public relations enthusiast, Ayeni Adekunle, has scored a hat trick with his media empire, Black House Media Group. The company headquartered in Ikeja, Lagos, with standalone brands in media, publishing, public relations, digital commerce, music streaming, marketing, information technology, and research has grown from the budding public relations firm that it used to be over 15 years ago to become the first-ever Nigerian public relations and communications agency to launch operations internationally in the United Kingdom.
Having grown into a conglomerate with many subsidiaries, Ayeni who has been described by Forbes Africa as one of the pioneers who led Nigeria into the digital-first strategy era of Marketing Communications felt it was about time to take public relations, Nigerian style, beyond the shores of the country. According to him, his decision to take BHM to the UK is basically to help organizations understand and explore bilateral opportunities between the United Kingdom and Africa.
From his days as a features editor with Hip Hop World Magazine to transitioning as a showbiz columnist at the defunct Encomium Weekly tabloid and moving on to ThisDay and later The Punch as a columnist, Ayeni has no doubt come a long way. Following his exit from The Punch, he set up Nigeria Entertainment Today, NET, a newspaper and web portal specially dedicated to only entertainment news in Nigeria and Africa. He soon floated the Nigeria Entertainment Conference, NEC Live, an annual deliberative conference of Nigerian entertainers drawn from all sectors of creative industry, media and economic policy makers which discusses industry development issues.
He also floated ID Africa, a creative marketing communications, digital media and technology agency; Plaqad, a social network connecting brands and individuals to bloggers, news websites, publishers and social influencers; Neusroom, a solely web based platform that offers news, features and up-to-date happenings in the industry real time, on-line, as they unfold; 234Star, a platform detailing the stories, lives, style and fashion of Nigerian celebrities; Orin a music app and NET Shop, platform for the sale of branded items under his conglomerate. In 2012, he led a team of software and content developers in Nigeria to unveil the BHM App, an app for public relations experts, becoming the first to ever do it in that space.
A recipient of several awards, Ayeni was named Nigeria’s PR Practitioner of the Year in 2017. In the same year, the Lagos State chapter of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations named his company, Black House Media, winner of two awards — Agency of the Year and Best Agency to Work. His company, ID Africa, emerged Best PR Agency for Use of New Media, in 2018, the same year BHM clinched the PR Agency of the Year category at the Brandcom Awards. In 2019, Ayeni Adekunle was named Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Marketing in recognition of his contribution to the marketing profession.
