‘OUR PROJECTS ARE WORLD CLASS PRODUCING WORLD CLASS ACTS’
SOLA FAJOBI, MD DIGITAL INTERACTIVE MEDIA

When he came up with the Next Movie Star TV reality show, which aims at grooming fresh talents for the country’s movie industry, many never expected the show to last for long due to lack of sponsorship. But determined to keep the dream alive, Sola Fajobi, managing Director, Digital Interactive Media(DIM) did almost everything he could to fund the project, which has today produced notable names such as Big Brother’s UtiNwachukwu, Kelvin Pam, Tonto Dike and others.
Having made his mark with the show, which now includes contestants from other African countries, two years ago, Fajobi came up with another reality show tagged Supermom, aimed at celebrating mothers. All these among other projects from this dude stable is making waves and as become a sort after for some brands. In this exclusive interview, Fajobi revealed the secret of his success and why he won’t relent despite the challenges in the industry.

Digital Interactive Media (DIM) is parading excellent projects, the like of Next movie star, supermom among others, what’s the motivation factor and where are the ideas coming from?
Basically it’s God. Our focus is to create project that can add value and people will always want to watch because of it contents. That we are changing lives gives me inner satisfactions though we don’t have exclusive sponsorship of our projects the desire that we are doing what people applauds is enough for us.
Moreover, the question I ask myself is why is it that some programs that are not well driven with ideas gets sponsorship and the widely accepted ones don’t? This makes you to wonder who the brand managers are. But these challenges are what I have prepared myself towards and we are coping with them.

You said you not making money how have you been coping?
It’s not a money driving project but live changing. We are on the brand building stage now and distraction won’t cope from the fact that money is not coming now. The moment the brand its built then money will spin in. i have not share this with anyone but because of your question I’ll say this; next year we are starting projects that I can authoritatively tell you that we’ll start making money from inception.

Tell us more about your projects?
With the mission to revolutionize television, in 2003, I berth with The Next Movie Star. When I created the Next Movie Star, it was basically meant to be a talent hunt project. Along the line, I realized that there was no way you could create a talent hunt show without adding entertainment value to it. That was when I decided to work in the direction of a reality show. At the time I created the Next Movie Star, reality show was not the in thing. Only Gulder Ultimate Search show was created before I launched the Next Movie Star in January 2005. The Next Movie Star is the second reality show that took place in Nigeria.
The show was set to discover new talents for the movie industry because it was noticed that Nollywood kept making use of the same faces. There was a need to create a platform to steer in new talents and propel their rise to prominence. Another thing is that we wanted to provide excitement for TV viewers so that the show would have a strong entertainment value while providing advertisers with opportunity to connect with their target market. To a large extent, the aims and objectives of these shows are achieved because anytime the Next Movie Star is on, people are excited to view it. Advertisers get value opportunities to connect to their target market and they get it at a good price. More importantly, more talents are discovered for Nollywood.
The 2005 Next Movie Star winner, Kingsley Ogboso got a brand new car, while Tonto Dike and Annie Macauley came second and third. In 2006, it was Portia Yamahan, while Kevin Chuwang Pam who later won Big Brother Africa came second. The third edition was won by Enoch Hammond, a Ghanaian. He was presented with the prize of a car in 2007.
In 2008, Avenette Sirleaf from Liberia won the show while Oyindamola Odesola, a Nigerian, won that of 2009. Last year saw Akilo Ilami, a student from University of Jos, winning the coveted prize and these people were duly rewarded with their prizes of car and cash.
These people were not only fished out. They were also groomed and a platform of continuity has been given to them so that they are not relegated to the background. For example, Excite TV which has been running for two years now and some other drama series, movies and programmes including Groove on TV, strictly a music/party and lifestyle programme.
One of the 2010 winners of the Next Movie Star, Boma Mac-Ake, the third runner-up, confirms that he got his presenter job with the Digital Interactive Media. He would be presenting one their programmes. Tonto Dike is a product of Next Movie Star, also, Akio Ilami, the 2010 winner of the Next Movie Star and some others, seeing these people give me joy that what we are doing is impacting positively in people’s lives. On Supermom, we want to change the direction of reality shows. After brainstorming, we figured out an important figure in the home. We realised that the mother is the one loved most by all and we developed the format of Supermom. The show is an emotional experience of an average Nigerian woman who would go the extra mile to ensure stability in her home and to better the lot of her kids. The stories in Supermom are screen played and enacted by top movie stars in short films of 30 minutes syndicated on 24 stations and cable networks in Nigeria, Africa and Europe.
We have brands like Indomie Noodles, Always, Vicks and Ariel, courtesy Procter and Gamble; Cowbell and Onga from Promasidor as our sponsors but there is still space for any who wanted to be on it.

Tell us about yourself?
Born in Ilorin, Fajobi moved to Ibadan for both primary and secondary school education. I couldn’t finish secondary education in Ibadan due to the serious challenges that confronted me. I even had to help people with their loads with a wheelbarrow at Bodija market and some other menial jobs to make up what my dad had to give. Daddy drops money for us over the weekend, then goes to Lagos to work till the next weekend. So we were on our own until Friday or Saturday when he returns.
I was exposed to a lot of risky tasks not expected of a 10-year old. At 11, i was already fending for myself. It left me with a lot of challenges, so i had to discipline myself, though this and some other factors are qualities that has helped me to get this far.
Get to lagos to attend Oduduwa Secondary School in Mushin, before moving to Mafoluku Grammar School. I got admission into Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, Osun State and was later admitted into the University of Ibadan to study Food Technology.
At the age of 19, I made up my mind that I was going to be successful. I went into the production of flavoured garri, tapioca and some other stuffs and I will take them to campuses to sell. My father saw this and took me to UTC and I was offered a job as a trainee in their research and development department. I asked myself why I should be a trainee in their department when I had started designing food on my own. So I didn’t take the offer. I continued to trade with the N15,000 that daddy gave me.
Having turned down UTC’s job, I went fully into business, making enough money to travel to but later found myself in Ghana, where i started a direct marketing company called Breakthrough Africa Limited. After spending three years in Ghana, i came back to Nigeria and got involved in the new media. I then set up a Multimedia Convergence Limited, which metamorphosed in 2005 to Digital Interactive Media.

Where do you want to see DIM in the next five years?
To be one of the worlds greatest in terms of packaging of world class programs that will always gets multinational brands attention with sponsorship.