Dolapo Otegbayi – the juggernaut behind Frieslandcampina WAMCO brand

Maintaining its No.1 position as the nation’s leading milk manufacturing company in Nigeria by investing in its people, leading responsible production and being an excellent corporate citizen, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria PLC has been enhanced to the envy of many in the last few years with the introduction of unparalleled innovations.

The success story chalked by the manufacturing giant is a testament to what is termed as customer centricity with Dolapo Otegbayi as the pioneer. With over a decade of rich and flourishing careers across the entire spectrum of marketing, Dolapo Otegbayi has earned bragging rights, not just for her unique skill set but for her accomplishments in the field.

Currently serving as the Director for Specialized Nutrition (SN) at FrieslandCampina, an institution that brought forth her creativity in the industry, Dolapo Otegbayi is known as the master brain behind all innovations that have taken place in the industry where she designs and leads marketing strategies for the SN Business in Nigeria & Africa with 40 Team Members.

With over 18 years of career experience at FrieslandCampina, Dolapo has turned the fortunes of the diary company around by designing forward-thinking marketing strategies aligned to commercial sales lines, new product development, and company objectives. She has indeed proven herself a doyenne in marketing.

Throughout the years, Dolapo has overseen the biggest dairy brand in Africa – PEAK generated incremental value in revenue, led 20 direct & 30 indirect reports, and managed 15 vendors.

As a solutions-focused global team leader, she is passionate about driving sales and commercial marketplace strategies to bring new channels to life and accelerate growth. Moving forward, she remained committed to building compelling visions for brands to gain stakeholder approval and team alignment.

Her experience in the management team of the company has earned her rave reviews in the marketing communication community. Some of the success stories that have brought the leading milk manufacturing company to its enviable current status include the product strategy where the first-ever evaporated milk in a sachet in the world was launched.

She also repurposed the company’s Alternative Medical Channel Route to Market Business Model and professionalized the unit to embrace new concepts & WOW through Marketing Innovation and also introduced successful NPDs in the product portfolio through category management.

Prior to her appointment at FrieslandCampina Plc Nigeria, she was the head of Shopper Marketing Modern Trade & Alternative Trade Business (ATB) from 2017 to 2019, where she initiated & executed the Peak-My-Town Plant, a flag program which delivered incremental 20% revenue to the Channel & reached 100 + tier-2 towns in 2018. This initiative spearheaded by Dolapo resulted in ATB Team winning the prestigious FrieslandCampina Win-Win Awards for Commercial Obsession Category thereby becoming the first in the maiden edition.

In the year 2018 to 2019, she served as International Channel and Shopper Marketing Manager and Project Lead of a special assignment to drive commercial awareness and embed FrieslandCampina’s Nourishing by Nature program amongst the commercial units across markets. In the year 2019, she also functioned as Head of Shopper Marketing – General Trade.

It must be noted that her sterling effort and performances in the marketing industry, cannot go unnoticed hence she received many awards to that effect.

 In 2017, Dolapo was listed as part of the Top 50 Marketing Professionals where she received an award. Aside from the aforementioned, she was awarded as an Outstanding Woman in Marketing in Nigeria. In 2018, she was honoured with the Marketing Thought Leader Award.

In the year 2021, she was adjudged as the MarketingWorld Woman of the Year at the 10^th Marketingworld Awards held in Accra.

Notwithstanding, she has received accolades in Excellence in Marketing Communications, Marketing World Woman of the Year, and Top 50 Africa Marketing Leaders.

Dolapo is passionate about inspiring young Nigerian professionals to be more than they thought they could be and her positive attitude and tireless energy are geared towards encouraging young entrepreneurs to work hard and succeed in any field they find themselves in.

For an accomplished amazon who has broken several ceiling glasses, she has remained a shining light to the younger generation in Corporate Nigeria.

In addition to her professional achievements, she possesses an MSc in Global Marketing from the University of Liverpool, a Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Lagos, Social Media Marketing Specialization from Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Science – BS from Ambrose Alli University.

During her spare time, Dolapo loves to review brand campaigns, volunteering and spending quality time with family and friends.

She is a member of the Advertising Council of Nigeria and a Fellow of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria.

By: Diella Teku / Marketingworld