Someone in Lagos hears immediately when a line written in Johannesburg does not sound right. Someone in South Africa can spot the same problem travelling in the opposite direction. Sometimes the campaign idea survives and the language changes. Sometimes the language is fine and the idea itself is wrong.

The smartest thing you can do is let somebody tell you.

That matters even more once commerce enters the room.

Entertainment properties like Big Brother Naija are also enormous consumer ecosystems. Sponsors do not simply buy airtime. They enter tasks, parties, competitions, prizes, social content, live shows and conversations that millions of people are already invested in.

The logo is easy.

Belonging is harder.

A good integration understands why the audience is there in the first place. It knows when to speak, when to entertain, when to reward and when to get out of the way.

A bad one feels like a brand manager has climbed into the television.

Working across markets adds another layer. The commercial objective may be regional. The consumer never is.

That is why I have become wary of localisation as something done at the end of a campaign. Change the copy. Swap the artwork. Add another flag.

The local thinking should have started much earlier.

I have only spent short stretches in Lagos. I would never mistake that for knowing the city. If anything, being there made the limits of knowing more obvious.

But that has its own value.

Because after years of working with teams, audiences, brands and cultural properties across the continent, those trips gave physical form to something the work had already been teaching me.