The Best (and less than best) 2025 Children's Day Ads From Nigerian Brands
Some brands proved that marketing isn't child's play.
On May 27 every year, brands across Nigeria try to tap into the marketing potential of Children’s Day. Children’s Day is one of those rare cultural moments that has broad appeal, high emotional value, and low risk of controversy or backlash.
Some brands rise to the occasion, capturing the joy, innocence, and wonder that Children’s Day represents. Others make a lacklustre attempt and fall flat on their faces.
So what makes a great Children’s Day Campaign?
Personally, I judge every Children’s Day campaign using five simple criteria. A great one should hit at least four of them:
It feels like it’s for children (or childhood) or is clearly about them.
It taps into at least one of the emotions associated with children & childhood — joy, innocence, creativity, nostalgia, protection/empowerment, hope (for the future).
It connects the moment to the brand authentically.
It has a playful tone, portrayed visually or with words.
It’s thoughtful and doesn’t feel like a brand simply ticking a box.
But not every brand sells to children. So, should every brand still show up?
Yes. One of my favorite things about Children’s Day is how flexible it is. You don’t need a kids’ product to take part. After all, everyone was once a child.
That said, different brands should show up in different ways depending on their relationship with children. When it comes to Children’s Day, I think of brands in 3 categories:
Brands with children as the primary audience
(e.g. toy companies, snacks, edtech for kids)
For these types of brands, Children’s Day is extremely important. That’s why they’re the most likely brands to run special campaigns, events, or giveaways on the day.
Approaches to trySpeak to kids directly through playful, vibrant content
Organise fun offline or online events
Involve kids as creators, not just subjects
Brands with parents as a major audience
(e.g. banks with kid accounts, telcos, FMCGs)
These brands don’t have a direct relationship with children, but parents form a huge portion of their target audience.
Approaches to tryCelebrate parent-child bonding moments
Show how families use the brand together
Encourage parents to do something special for their kids
Brands not directly relevant to children
(e.g. B2B tools, productivity apps)
These brands have zero relationship with children. So, instead of forcing a connection, they can focus on the spirit of childhood and use elements like nostalgia in their marketing.
Approaches to tryShare childhood throwbacks
Highlight the childlike curiosity or creativity that still fuels your team
Use humour or a light tone to bring the message home
Noteworthy Children’s Day Ads From Nigerian Brands
Now that we’ve set the context of what makes a great Children’s Day ad, let’s dive into some of the most noteworthy ads this year.
1. Daystar Christian Center - 10/10
Daystar is a mega church in Nigeria, with the tagline “raising role models”
I didn’t expect a church to make it to this list (and with a perfect score), but Daystar did too good a job not to make this list.
Daystar’s ad is brilliant and does an amazing job of tying their core message to the relevance of the day. To solidify their point even more, they interspersed the static ads with visual clips from a Children’s Day performance (from children in their church) that perfectly ties the message together.
It ticks all of my boxes and I have zero notes.
2. Cowrywise - 8/10
Cowrywise is a wealth management app.
Cowrywise executed multiple campaigns for Children’s Day; one video, one carousel, and one static ad. Of all 3, the video and static ad were the best.
The video leaned on the success of Cowrywise’s last Children’s Day campaign, bringing the same children back again to get an update. They leaned on themes like innocence and joy, but still did a great job tying it all back to one of their offerings — Nest, a savings plan for children.
The static ad is great as well, targeting parents with messaging about saving for their children’s future with Nest.
3. Piggyvest - 8/10
Piggyvest is a wealth management app.
The ad here is simple, but incredibly efficient. Like Cowrywise, they target parents and nudge them to set up their children’s futures.
I appreciate that they didn’t go the cliche route by using piggy bank visuals (which would have been on brand regardless, considering the product name). But it does feel like the visuals could be a lot stronger and not be so literal in translation. However, this is a personal opinion and subject to taste.
4. The Hook - 7/10
The Hook is a marketing & advertising agency.
Since The Hook doesn’t directly target children, they decided to focus on the whimsy of the day. As a gag, they “replaced” their Creative Director with a 7-year old for a day.
While the ad doesn’t have any core underlying messaging, it’s a fun watch and really leans into the innocence and joy of the day. For a brand with no relevance to children, this was a great approach.
5. First Bank - 6/10
First Bank is a multinational traditional bank.
One of First Bank’s CSR pillars is education and empowerment, so they used their ad to reflect this. Last year, First Bank organised a Tech Skill-Up Bootcamp. So they used kid participants to promote this year’s event and to celebrate the day.
They lean into hope for the future with advocacy. The video is a little long, and it doesn’t do enough to capture the viewer’s attention. Which is a drawback, considering their CTA and main point are at the end of the video.
6. Koyn - 6/10
Koyn is a crypto trading platform.
The strength of Koyn’s ad is really in the copy, not the imagery. The copy drives home a straightforward message about the importance of securing a financial future for your kids.
However, the imagery doesn’t do anything to complement the copy. It shows a father who’s distracted (by trading on his phone) and not really in the moment with his child. This detracts from the message significantly.
7. DKK - 6/10
DKK is a marketing & advertising agency.
If DKK had only used the “Ctrl + Z” creative and the tagline in the last slide, this ad would have been far higher up in this list.
While the general idea looks great, some of the creatives in the campaign (like the “feedback machine”) feel like forced analogies.
8. Airtel - 4/10
Airtel is a telecommunications provider.
Airtel’s ad is simple and doesn’t try to be anything more than that. They focus on themes like the joy of childhood, and encourage parents to let children be free just this once.
But none of it really ties back to Airtel aside the red colour in the visuals. The phone itself feels randomly placed and doesn’t add anything to the message. Perhaps it might have if they’d tied it into messaging about capturing these joyful moments.
9. Vendyz - 3/10
Vendyz is an escrow payment platform for social commerce and real estate.
The core idea of Vendyz’s ad appears to be safeguard your children’s future. But the idea feels disconnected because Vendyz doesn’t really help you safeguard your children’s future, they help you safeguard transactions (nothing to do with children specifically).
There are also some details in its execution that shift the tone of the message or that have no relevance with the ad. For example, it’s unclear what “Little hands” has to do with the messaging, since the messaging has nothing to do with kids working with their hands.
The use of “every child feels protected” in particle shifts the message slightly. When people think about protecting children, they don’t think about financial protection; they think about physically protecting them from the dangers of the world. So, Vendyz’s use of “protected” without specifying that its the children’s future that’s protected, not the child itself, really changes the tone of the ad.
10. Mavin Records - 2/10
Mavin Records is Africa’s leading entertainment company and record label.
When I first saw these visuals, I had no idea what they meant. It felt like I was missing some context to make the message reveal itself. A couple hours later, Mavin posted a video to contextualise the images a bit.
But despite the production value of the video, it’s unclear how it ties into the key messaging. There were many missed opportunities for better execution with this campaign.
A better execution would be bringing kids whose dreams are to work in music & entertainment (rather than those who want to be doctors and lawyers). Frankly, kids who want to be doctors already get validation for their dreams. It’s those who want to be creatives that often get their dreams invalidated, with society telling them they can’t make money from it or become very successful.
A powerful message got incredibly watered down with the execution in this campaign, and it’s disappointing.
11. OPay - 1/10
Opay is a fintech solution
The first crime in OPay’s ad is the AI voice. For such an emotional holiday, an monotonous AI voice draws zero emotions (and in fact kills any emotions one might have felt).
The ad itself feels like an investor update rather than a customer-facing piece of communication. They monotonously rush through bare numbers that hold no meaning to users.
For a company that claims to have made so much impact with children, they say nothing about the impact. They could have done some impact storytelling here by sharing visuals & stories about how OPay has changed the lives of these children.
It’s easily the worst Children’s Day ad I saw today.
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