Imo Ekanem
Imo Ekanem
Digital Marketing Manager / Consultant / Event Coordinator / Founder
Modena, Italy
WHAT DO YOU DO?
“Social Media Management and More!”
Social Media Management:
I started working as a social media manager in Germany when I was writing my thesis for graduation in Italy. I started with a startup in Munich. I said, “Okay, this could be something I could do to work with them”. I went back to Italy and continued to work with them as a social media manager. Then I thought why should I work with just one client so I wanted to develop to learn more about this work. I started studying and attending webinars. Social media was something really new at the moment. There were no university courses at that period so I needed to be self-taught and learn, take marketing courses online, learn Instagram, etc. Then I started getting more jobs online, always related to communications and marketing. I started working with Max Mara Fashion Group as a copywriter for the Italian e-commerce Diffusione Tessile - Intrend. Then I was contacted to be the online moderator of a wonderful and positive contest launched by Marina Rinaldi for Milan Fashion Week. The contest was called "Turning Point" and it was addressed to all the women around the world to share their personal life stories and win a ticket to participate in MFW that year. Not even one year later, I was chosen to work as content creator for two brands, Marina Rinaldi and Persona. One year after that, I was in charge of part of the European content for the e-commerce of Intrend. All three of these fashion companies are part of the Max Mara Group.
After I started with another company that makes books for kids, I had more passion for this work because I realized there were no limits. The only thing I need is my laptop and I can travel a lot around the world. I can still have more clients and this is what I want to do.
Déshabillé Magazine:
Déshabillé Magazine is an online magazine where we talk about emerging designers, artists and other talent. Working on this project, we realized there's a lot of talent and that we should make something more for these new designers to give them a special package. We should use our jobs to offer them so much more and so IN D.A HUB our new concept was born.
IN D.A HUB:
Each one of us uses our knowledge and special skills in areas including graphics and communication. We have professional instructors from universities on our team. We come together in the digital world and in social media, with copywriting, photography, video...altogether to support the designers and companies that need this knowledge. IN D.A. HUB is a network. It’s a family that we want to bring together for talent, emerging designers and independent designers because we’ve realized how much designers need resources, expertise, support, a network and a lot of things. We thought why in Italy, a country people all around the world know for fashion, the maisons and artisanal expertise there’s no real entity taking care of the smaller brands, everyone is focused on the big brands. We decided to be that network to build what was missing.Last year, we surveyed designers in Italy to understand their needs in terms of our expectations vs reality and the results didn’t match our perceptions. They told us their needs and we started IN D.A. HUB as the solution. We are a services marketplace open to any company that needs to be powerful in the digital area. They go to IN D.A HUB, select the services they need e.g. a photographer, videographer, a business coach, a fashion writer, to learn English for the fashion industry...anything fashion-related, we offer services from trends to study. We currently focus on Italy but in the second phase, we’ll be focusing on African designers too.
WHAT STEPS DID YOU TAKE TO GET TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW?
I’ve lived in Modena, Italy since I was 2 years old. I’ve always been interested in everything international, art and fashion- not just luxury fashion but fashion where you can express yourself because to me, fashion is art. Music is art, interior design, everything you use to express yourself, your energy and your work to let people know who you are for me is art. I studied to be in business so I put business and art together to create a job and social media was the perfect channel to bring these two together. You can work for everyone from a dentist to a company that builds houses, a fashion designer… whoever you want. You learn a lot from your clients and it just brings together everything I love.
How do you stand out in your field?
I listen to my clients. I try to get to know them including starting with an interview to get to know what they want. For example, for our German client, we brought them creativity and a fresh perspective on how to do things and shape messaging to their audiences because an external social media manager comes in and sees things differently from the people inside the company. I helped them raise their income so the result is good. I’m satisfied with what we’ve done and I hope we can bring some good results with IN D.A HUB as well but in terms of providing the total package. We deliver a job that is complete, the total package.
WE ARE ALL SLASHIES WITH MULTIPLE SKILLS, WHICH ONE DO YOU WISH YOU COULD DO MORE OFTEN?
I would like to find the time to speak more languages and to travel more to transform myself. I’m also a spiritual person and I want to develop that part of me. It’s important in my group, all of my partners are very spiritual people. It lets us vibrate more and put our egos aside. We can bring more energy and more power to our projects and bring more positivity. It makes a difference, someone who really cares about what you're doing.
WHAT IS FRUSTRATING YOU RIGHT NOW?
Competition and money. If you have the money and resources, it’s faster to reach your goals. Now we’re in the startup phase where we’re building the business plan, we have a consultant who really believes in us, we believe in what we are doing, but we need to follow some steps and wait for finances to reach investors. We want this so bad but we have to be patient so that is frustrating.
IF YOU COULD HIRE SOMEONE FOR $20/HR, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE THEM DO TO MAKE YOUR DAY EASIER?
I would like to have people around to help build IN D.A HUB in other cities such as in Lagos, in Bogota, in London, etc. We are stronger together and I really believe in connections.
LET'S BRING OUT THE TIME MACHINE. WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU COULD HAVE TOLD YOURSELF, WHEN, AND WHY?
There was a period in my life like after university when you have more time to do all the things you want to do- to travel more, learn new languages, learn new things to do, meet new people, etc. You have to do that then because when you start working, it's very difficult to do so. I wanted to go to a small town in France and stay there just to practice French because I knew it when I was small, and then kind of lost it. Learning French is always on my mind, but it’s so difficult for me.
IF YOU COULD TALK TO AN EXPERT TO GAIN MORE INSIGHT ON SOMETHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE ABOUT?
I’d love to learn how to understand different markets, culturally as far as marketing tips and how to reach certain markets in different countries. I’d like to learn the cultures and how to communicate to them effectively to be able to sell to them and to understand them. It’s really powerful because you cannot talk to an Italian like the Chinese or the Chinese like the Japanese, it's really smart.
WHAT KIND OF OPPORTUNITIES/PROJECTS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
The second step of this project is to have a physical location where designers can share machines and knowledge to collaborate among themselves. We can invite people from all around the world who can sell to our partners online but also to offline shops around the world in physical spaces.
A lot of fashion companies have a problem now because they've all outsourced their jobs to Asia and other places. When the pandemic began in China, they couldn't produce. If there are artisans involved, maybe they wouldn't have had that problem, so I think it’s time to come back to small artisans.
DESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL JOB/CLIENT/COLLABORATION.
To create something new, something that doesn't exist. We make events. A lot of people told us that we made events that nobody has seen before, they were really amazed. We did a sustainable event in London and we decided that meant no plastics, no junk food, no plastic bags, etc. It was difficult because, for example, we lost the caterer at the last minute and the public already paid. We had to find everything that we needed without resorting to plastic and we come from Italy, so paper cups were not going to do it. We couldn’t even do plastic cups because they weren’t sustainable. At the last minute, we found a place in London. We also had a sponsor that gave us organic wine, and all of the food was like homemade from a company in Italy. Everything was fresh.
Since we had that event, we would like to do something similar where people feel open to connect with each other and where something will come out of it for them. We're all young artists, designers, fashion entrepreneurs and photographers. We want to connect with the planet but also with each other.
Who's in your Go-To Squad?
Francesca Malagoli - Italian newspaper editor, graphic designer, photographer
Idara Umoh - editor and translator
Uchenna Oguezue - Nigerian photographer and filmmaker
Benedetta Simone - Fashion designer and fashion instructor at University of IED Turin
Cecilia Rinaldi - sustainable fashion designer, professor at Accademia Italiana Florence
External Collaborators
Federica Cerri - Vienna-based stylist, studied fashion in London
Giulia Baldini - Afro-Italian-Brazilian, studied to be a fashion journalist, models in New York
Alexis Calcavecchia - American with Italian grandparents, blogger in New York
Elisa Gibaldi - Italian fashion blogger, editor, fashion designer and consultant
Plus lots of stylists, copywriters, journalists… we try to connect with creatives every day.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
We would love to make an event in the United States, next year, especially New York for IN D.A HUB. Up next, we’re making a digital fashion week in Italy, but next year we would like to do events. I just love to bring together a lot of fashion designers, journalists, bloggers, musicians, etc. together and we think something always comes out of making something in the United States. I would also like to visit South Africa and meet some designers and go to the Fashion Week there because I hear it’s explosive for art.
HOW DO YOU STAY CREATIVE?
I like music from Black people. It may be jazz, hip hop, rap, it could be Bossa Nova. I read and go into nature, meditate and sing. I like to see pictures and art with people. When I was small, I drew portraits because my father was an artist. I don’t know how I could do it so easily to just watch their faces and replicate them. I try to keep up with that. I would love to buy and play the piano in the near future.
This member profile was originally published in October 2020.