Israel Jaiye Opayemi: Master Strategist, PR Specialist

By Eric Elezuo

The business of public relations and standard strategy will definitely not be complete without the mention of Chain Reactions Nigeria, and its indefatigable founder, who doubles as the Chief Strategist/Managing Director, Mr Israel Jaiye Opayemi. Here is a man, whose stock in trade revolves round creating acceptable images for brands, either individual or corporate, extending through services and products.

Those in the know have concluded without equivocation that Mr Opayemi has remained a Midas in the business of image branding for quality results, a reputable force to reckon when the story of strategy is told from any angle.

A prolific career personality, Opayemi has been the Chief Strategist of the his establishment since 2010, in fact an approximate of 11 years and six months, serving humanity and practically putting smiles on the faces people through result-facilitated public image branding, strategy-oriented profit acquisition and more.

For him, his name, brand, and belief system embody influence and driven by a persistent goal to always influence. These encompasses a purchase decision, a behavioral change or perhaps acceptance of a new public policy or national agenda. In other words, Opayemi’s world and work are driven by this single most important philosophy, influence.

An ebullient team player, Opayemi has a assembly of some of the brightest, most creative and passionate people in the industry, who have been trained and programmed to provide the best image projection services across board.

This team, according to the company’s site “combines a rich and storied background in Strategy Development, Public Relations, Advertising, Brand Management, Business Consulting, Corporate Social Responsibility, Multimedia and Creatives, Events and Experiential, Journalism, Digital PR and Digital Marketing.”

Speaking of the eloquence of the firm’s services, Opayemi noted that “We are systematic, yet organic. We do not restrict ourselves to obsolete business philosophies or practices. We believe in building trust and allowing relationships with our clients to grow organically. We also inspire our clients and in return draw inspiration from them.

“We have overtime earned a reputation for being a dynamic work force with quick turn-around response time. We work hard to ensure that the public, customers, investors, partners, employees and stakeholders remain informed. For us, the ultimate goal is to ensure that our client’s messages persuade stakeholders to maintain a certain view or to take certain purchase decisions.

“We maintain a very strong relationship with our client’s target audiences, the media, government, businesses and key opinion formers.

Rooted in Ownership, Responsibility, Respect, Discipline, Creativity, Audacity as core values, and with the vision of becoming Africa’s preferred PR and Reputation Management Consultants and solution house for clients who wish to play in the reputation economy, and a mission in always offering strategic solutions to clients with uncommon passion and deep market insights, Opayemi’s Chain Reaction is fast lording it over the PR world as clients have basically become addicted. And this explains how Opayemi had professionally and effortlessly converted prospects to clients and clients to faithful witnesses of the best practices the industry can boast of.

The establishment, who took off as a small media services consulting firm, like the proverbial mustard seed, in 2007, has undergone developmental strategies, the hallmark of the well trained Opayemi.

He said: “It’s been a journey of grace and grinding. We opened for business with just two staff at inception and now we have grown to a 32 man professional army. Today, we are the Nigerian affiliate and West Africa’s Preferred Partner to Edelman, the largest Public Relations firm in the world!

A workaholic of immense value, he is presently the President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria, a position he merited through a dint of hard work in the field. He brought with him the Midas touch that that has grown Chain Reactions to the topmost, and PRCAN is an envy of other associations across disciplines

“Together with my colleagues in the leadership, we are working on a strategic goal for the Public Relations industry in Nigeria named, “Better Business”. It is a mutually beneficial campaign for both the PR firms and the clients. Time will fail me to go into all the details in the cause of this interview. But watch out for it. The Public Relations industry in Nigeria will never remain the same again!’ He said during a recent interview.

In 2019, while taking over the reigns of administration from his predecessor, John Ehiguese, Opayemi promised to further reposition the association, focusing on four cardinal points namely: advocacy, professionalism, structure/administration and capacity building.

Opayemi has continually offered the professional assistance of its member-firms to the Federal Government of Nigeria in crafting a response strategy and a campaign plan to help the positive story about Nigeria as well as shape its current low perception.

In appreciation of his cut to size services to mankind, Opayemi’s Chain Reactions Nigeria has variously been honoured including being named the ‘Best Reputation Management Consulting Firm in West Africa’ at the 7th edition of Nigeria Brand Awards 2017 organised by International Brand Award Nominees in the keenly contested Gold Category award that featured two leading Ghanaian agencies: Insel Communications Ltd and GMA Communications Inc.

Over the years, Chain Reaction has remained one of the country’s leading public relations and integrated communications consulting firms. It is not by mistake that it has become the exclusive Nigerian affiliate and preferred West Africa’s partner of Edelman, the world’s largest PR firm with presence in 65 countries across the globe.