Every September the same brief lands on my desk. "We want to do something for Detty December." Nobody asks the second question, which is what, exactly, the brand would be doing there.

I have started to think of it like this. Detty December is a casting call. There are a handful of roles and they do not change much from year to year. The brands that get something out of December audition for the role that fits what they sell. Everyone else is an extra holding a wrapped billboard.

The stage is the small part

MO Africa Co's report on the 2025 season, "The Economics of Euphoria", puts consumer spend at 396.54 billion naira across 55 days and 3.6 million participants. The split underneath it matters more. Ticketed, curated events accounted for about 50 billion naira. The walk-in economy, meaning the nightlife, casual dining and beach days nobody bought a ticket for, accounted for about 171 billion. So the wallet at the ticketed end is small, and every sponsor in Lagos is queuing for it. The money is everywhere else.

The four roles

The Stage. Concerts, festivals, the headline sponsorship. Right for drinks brands, telcos and anyone whose product gets consumed at the event. A study in Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy counted nineteen alcohol brands sponsoring or hosting 50 high-profile Detty December events in 2024. They belong there. If your product is never in someone's hand at the venue, ask what the logo is buying you.

The Rails. Everyday spend in 2025 ran largely through OPay and Moniepoint, with larger settlements going through GTBank and Zenith. Nobody gave those brands a stage. They sat underneath the whole season and got used millions of times, which for a fintech is worth more than any banner.

The Venue. Zenith Bank's Christmas light-up on Ajose Adeogun kept a whole street trading past 2am and became a destination on its own. You can be the place people go. Most brands settle for being a sticker on somebody else's place.

The Homecoming. The same report counts 1.6 million interstate travellers arriving by road and records higher foot traffic on the Mainland than the Island. Food, transport, family, church, gifting. If your audience is a mass one and lives outside Lekki, you do not need the stage at all.

Sitting it out is a strategy

Some brands should do nothing loud in December, and I would tell a client that to their face. If your customer is a 45-year-old civil servant in Abeokuta, a beach activation at Ilashe is a photo opportunity for your marketing team and very little else. Fares ran at three times the normal rate last season. Security costs rose 50 per cent. The city operated at 238 per cent of its designed capacity. For a lot of categories the smarter money lands in January, when the same audience is broke and at home, and actually paying attention.

What to do with the brief:

• Name the role before you name the venue. Stage, rails, venue or homecoming. If you cannot say which one in a sentence, you are an extra.

• Budget for the walk-in economy. The unticketed money was more than three times the ticketed money. Plan for the bukka and the traffic first. The concert is a bonus.

• Price the season honestly. December rate cards go up, and so does everything around them. Put the same budget against January before you sign anything.

• Clear it early. As we wrote here in August, the Advertising Offences Tribunal now sits, and pre-exposure approval is the advertiser's responsibility. Vet in October.

What we are telling clients this quarter

UK advertisers spent around 12 billion pounds in last year's Golden Quarter, and the latest AA/WARC report has retail media and social growing fastest. The same thing is true here. The prize in December is being close to where people already are, and in Lagos that is mostly outside the ticketed tent.

So when the brief arrives, we ask for the role first. Some clients we will send to the stage. Some belong in the rails, and some on the Mainland. And a few we will tell to keep the money for January and be the loudest brand in a quiet month.

Key Takeaways

• Detty December 2025 generated 396.54 billion naira in consumer spend across 3.6 million participants, according to MO Africa Co.

• The walk-in economy (171 billion naira) was more than three times the ticketed one (50 billion naira). The stage is the narrowest part of the wallet.

• Four roles: the Stage, the Rails, the Venue, the Homecoming. Pick one before you pick a venue.

• Sitting the season out is a legitimate strategy for brands whose customers are not on the Island.

• The tribunal is sitting. Vet December work in October.