Enter Africa Lagos Interviews: Shina Charles Memud, Product Designer, Marketing Specialist and Founder, Lagos Games Festival
The product designer and marketing specialist tells Adefoyeke Ajao the story behind Lagos Games Festival and why the local gaming industry needs to be more involved in the business side of creativity.
Tell us a little about yourself…
My name is Shina Charles Memud. I am a experienced product designer and marketing professional with over 7 years cognate experience in product design, marketing technology, brand communication, strategy, brand management, integrated marketing, designing and executing strategies and managing brands in Africa and Europe. I’m highly proficient in managing complex projects from strategy to execution, leading multicultural teams and delivering business results.
I also have good knowledge of market segmentation, data science, go-to market strategy, digital marketing, experiential marketing, project management and brand communication. I hold a degree in Computer Science from Teesside University, UK.
What’s the story behind the Lagos Games Festival?
The gaming industry is worth over $100billion and yet the Nigerian and African gaming industries are worth less than $1M. Why? Is it that we don’t have game players?
I am looking at the business side of the gaming industry, not just the entertainment to see how we can create better opportunities for the developers, producers, designers and investors by connecting all parties together to share and see what can be done in creating a new thriving industry for the African market.
What inspired you to start the festival and what did you set out to achieve?
We see large number of addictive digital game lovers and yet our local games are not equally promoted or sharing in the success of the global gaming business. We want to promote African gaming culture, create business opportunities in the gaming industry.
Any plans for similar events in other locations besides Lagos?
We have got several requests from Port Harcourt and Abuja but we think for several reasons, Lagos is the best places to hold such event. Similar to how Calabar Festival is unique to Calabar.
What do you look for when selecting/curating games that will feature at the festival? Any special criteria?
Honestly, we don’t have special requests. We only look for games that are already in the market and available to play either digitally or physically and with some level of existing audience to validate how people play it. But we are also interested in new games to introduce to the market.
What challenges do you face as a festival organiser in Nigeria?
The space was a huge struggle, it was very expensive to have enough space to gather over 20 different types of games, now imagine the 50 types of games we will be bringing in 2021.
Gathering all the resources needed for the games was a challenge as well but partnerships really helped in solving that.
What do you find most rewarding about what you do?
Partnering with Nigerian Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture; seeing how people came together from just an idea to creating one of the biggest game gatherings in Nigeria with about a thousand for the first edition.
What impact has the current pandemic had on Lagos Games Festival?
We had to cancel it this year 2020 as we are not able to put a large number of people together. It was very unfortunate but safety is certainly our utmost concern.
Any significant lessons learnt so far? Any plans to go virtual?
For the concept we are designing for the gaming industry, it would be hard to go fully digital as 40% of the games we brought in are very physical and there is no way to create a true experience from digital platforms.
How would you describe the local gaming industry?
In a simple sentence? Just there.
People are playing games randomly, game studios don’t have unique contents to produce and market, there are no business use cases to grow the industry.
I believe we can do better, but first we need to identify those in the industry, understand the potential and market opportunities.
What do you think are the biggest challenges the industry currently faces and how do you think the industry should be empowered?
The gaming industry is lacking original content, no distribution model and zero business strategy. We almost have no educational game in Nigeria.
Identifying where the opportunity is can be a huge challenge; and what you don’t know, you just don’t know. How do we create more visibility for those in the industry is my primary goal. Then we can move on to building a business model around them.
If you could give one piece of advice to anyone seeking to pursue a career in gaming, what would it be?
Understand consumer behavior.
The way we consume information and use products is different for the Nigerian market. The opportunity is certainly there, so your strategy is what would make you win.
What are you currently working on and what should we expect from you in the future?
I am a strong believer that we can only build our economy by building sustainable businesses. If we can make the gaming industry thrive, that can contribute 2–3% to our GDP.
Creating experiences that bring people together is my passion and that is what we do at doingsoon.com. Our partners and audience should expect bigger experiences such as Lagos Games Festival and Artistry Museum.
To know more about Shina Charles Memud and his work, follow him on Twitter @shinamemud and on Instagram @lagosgamesfestival.
This interview series is part of Nigeria’s Gaming Industry: Opportunities, Challenges and Practices, an Enter Africa Lagos project supported by Goethe-Institut Nigeria.
