A one-day “Creativity Decoded” workshop used HEINEKEN’s 2026 awards run and the Effie framework to test what global creative work can teach African beverage brands.
Nigerian Breweries Plc has hosted a creative workshop for its marketing and agency partners, drawing on the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the Effie effectiveness framework. Titled “Creativity Decoded,” the session asked how global creative thinking can produce stronger brand work in Nigeria. Riquesa Africa, part of The People Company group, co-created and delivered it.
Adim Isiakpona, Co-Founder and Group CEO of The People Company, said Riquesa developed the concept, curated the speakers and facilitated the sessions. The day examined selected Cannes-winning work alongside Effie, then tested its relevance to brands built in Africa.
Why HEINEKEN’s Cannes run matters
Nigerian Breweries’ parent, HEINEKEN, was named Creative Brand of the Year at Cannes Lions 2026. It won 31 Lions across six portfolio brands, 11 campaigns and 18 categories, including two Grand Prix, eight Gold, eight Silver and 13 Bronze. The workshop treated that record as a source of lessons rather than a trophy display.
That matters for a beverage company because creativity must work inside a commercial system of consumer behaviour, distribution, pricing and positioning. Effie awards reward effectiveness, which gives creative ideas a measurable business test.
Nigerian work in the room
Vaseline’s “The Real Nigerian Prince” won a Gold Lion in 2026 and four Bronzes. The campaign flipped the “Nigerian Prince” scam stereotype into a tool for verifying genuine Vaseline products and fighting counterfeits. Quadrant MSL, one of the agencies involved, reports 2.8 million organic views in 10 days, more than 5,400 verification interactions and a 13x return on investment.
Steve Babaeko also took part. His agency, X3M Ideas, won Nigeria’s first Cannes Lion in 2023, a Bronze in Health & Wellness for its “Soot Life Expectancy” campaign.
Co-Founder & Group CEO, The People Company; the executive behind Riquesa Africa’s “Creativity Decoded” workshop.
What participants took away
Ayodele Aburo, who attended, said in a post that the discussion moved past making communication prettier or following trends, towards changing how organisations define marketing problems. His takeaways included starting with the human problem, challenging the brief, separating data from insight, planning how a story travels after launch and defining measurement from day one.
For beverage marketers, the implication is direct. A campaign can win attention without changing behaviour, strengthening a brand, lifting penetration or moving sales.
The commercial backdrop
The session comes as brewers work in a tight consumer market. Euromonitor data reported by Drinkabl shows retail beer volume fell 4% in 2025 even as value sales rose 16%. In that setting, brand work must earn its cost across the whole chain: insight, brief, media, activation, trade execution and purchase.
For Riquesa, the assignment shows an agency role that extends beyond campaign delivery. Isiakpona said the team did not simply produce the event.
The wider question
The test reaches beyond Nigerian Breweries. African beverage brands compete for cultural relevance, attention and drinking occasions as much as for shelf space. The harder question is whether Cannes-level ideas can be adapted to African consumers without copying global campaigns, a debate that echoes whether the industry has a storytelling problem. Isiakpona said the aim was to share ideas, workshop them and hear perspectives that make marketing better.
Source: This report draws on a LinkedIn post by Adim Isiakpona, Co-Founder and Group CEO of The People Company.
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