Afrigather Layi Wasabi breaks the mould of Nigeria’s latest comedic choices. In a single occasion, he’s “The Legislation,” a struggling lawyer with a swimsuit that hangs off his 6’4 body. In one other, he’s Mr Richard, a fast-talking motivational speaker convincing anybody who cares to take heed to spend money on a life-changing pyramid scheme. His given identify, Isaac Olayiwola, could not ring any bells, however these characters carry humour and pleasure to tens of millions of individuals.
The 22-year-old content material creator’s development has been beautiful, with an Instagram following that has grown from 300,000 in 2023 to over two million as we speak. On a social media platform the place engagement is the foremost metric, Layi has thus far loved the best engagement price on Instagram in 2024, outpacing different Nigerian skitmakers like Taooma, Broda Shaggi, and Sabinus.
Regardless of these early successes, content material creators like Layi Wasabi know they’re in an area the place a notoriously fickle viewers continually adjustments its preferences. The punchline is that endurance requires greater than humour.
For some time, the components for virality stayed the identical: slapstick, action-packed humour that will get some knocks for being simplistic. However Layi hasn’t taken the well-trodden path. As an alternative, he leans on acquainted characters and pokes enjoyable at stereotypes. In his Cost of Loving sketch, Mr. Richard tells a shopper, “The circle of pals you may have determines the circumference of the earth to you,” as he talks him into becoming a member of GNCC, a fictional pyramid scheme.
These sorts of schemes are frequent in Nigeria. In 2016, three million Nigerians misplaced ₦18 billion to MMM, a well-liked Ponzi scheme with Russian roots.
Whereas Layi has perfected this technique of utilizing the acquainted to create relatable content material, he’s hardly a pioneer.
“Should you intently comply with skit characters, you’ll see that a number of different comedians have picked up the schtick however dropped it too early or didn’t refine it,” says Olufemi Oguntamu, Layi’s supervisor.
“As quickly as we noticed The Legislation, we knew there was an area for such a personality within the skit market, and we have been satisfied that Layi might pull it off.”
“The primary collection of The Legislation skits I dropped blew up on social media,” mentioned Layi. “I knew that we have been right here.”
The enterprise of laughter: Platform and monetization methods
A part of Layi’s technique is to focus totally on skits whereas establishing himself within the comedy business. He could make folks chortle in a single minute, which is much less complicated to attain than the longer-form content material on YouTube favoured by creators like Lasisi and Mr Macaroni.
Whereas his first viral video was on TikTok in 2020, he’s now extra lively on Instagram and posts solely often on TikTok.
The transfer to Instagram was strategic. Layi Wasabi and his workforce imagine Reels appeals to a broader viewers and is the popular app for his goal market: millennials and Gen Zs.
Instagram can be a well-liked selection for influencer advertising and marketing, the first manner creators like him become profitable. In contrast to their counterparts in America and Canada, African creators wouldn’t have monetisation accessible on Meta platforms like Instagram, the place nearly all of Layi’s viewers is.
Now that Layi has established a robust presence on Instagram, he’s engaged on increasing to different platforms like YouTube.
“He desires to do rather a lot on YouTube to benefit from the monetization accessible to creators there, but additionally doesn’t wish to do the identical type of content material as he does on Instagram,” he shared. “We’re taking our time, however Layi will probably be on YouTube very quickly.”
Whereas sponsored posts don’t get as a lot engagement as authentic skits – because the web viewers is notoriously averse to advertisements, influencer advertising and marketing stays some of the common advertising and marketing methods.
In March 2024, Meta announced that their platforms will open up direct monetization to African creators the place they’ll have the ability to receives a commission based mostly on the variety of performs their reels get.
Coping with an evolving viewers
Viewers measurement impacts a creator’s potential to monetise, and though precious to the influencer, can be dynamic and might be risky. Instagram’s algorithm prioritises engagement, leaving creators scrambling to adapt their content material as viewers preferences shift.
“It’s a lot simpler to navigate your viewers and their preferences if you’re a macro influencer. When you may have tens of millions of followers, it’s laborious to navigate their preferences,” Layi shared with TechCabal.
For Layi, it’s not simply concerning the laughs, it’s about understanding what the viewers desires, even when it means creating content material he doesn’t love.
He sometimes creates content material on a whim, however there are events when he consults together with his workforce of seven on whether or not or not sure concepts work for his model and the kind of viewers he has.
“There’s some concepts that I could also be feeling, however I share with my workforce they usually suppose it’s not nice [in terms of what the audience would like],” Layi mentioned. “And there are some concepts they [my team] recommend to me that I’m not all for however we go forward and execute anyway.”
“There are additionally concepts the workforce shared with me as a result of they really feel like there needs to be a Layi Wasabi content material round this material,”
Maintaining with shrinking consideration spans
In contrast to long-form skits, Layi’s content material doesn’t all the time require scriptwriters. As quickly because the content material concept is established, Layi works together with his workforce to execute it. He has a workforce of seven, comprising his supervisor, street supervisor, scriptwriter, private assistant, shopper service supervisor, manufacturing supervisor, and editor. Execution, which takes one to a few days, together with manufacturing, covers the place to shoot and what sort of actors to rent.
Since he began creating content material in 2015, rather a lot has modified within the content material creator business, with certainly one of such being shrinking consideration spans. In accordance with a CNN report, the typical consideration span to a display screen is now about 47 seconds from the 2 and half minutes it was in 2004.
Layi Wasabi understands the worth of brevity. His skits, meticulously created to hit the candy spot between 60 – 90 seconds, maintain the viewers hooked from begin to end.
“With Instagram, folks had some persistence for content material that’s between one to a few minutes lengthy,” he shared. “Nevertheless, I feel TikTok is taking us again to fast-paced content material [like with Vine]. Individuals need you to get your factors throughout as quick as doable. They don’t have the persistence for 4 or five-minute content material, besides they’re core followers.”
One other factor that’s considerably totally different from when he began is the engagement metrics. When he started creating content material on TikTok and Twitter, 7,000 retweets or likes signalled that the viewers cherished the video.
“As soon as that quantity will get to 10K, it means the video was epic.”
Now, his movies common 50K likes on Twitter and over 100K on the clock app, often going as excessive as 600K.
“Instagram is tough to inform for me, however I common about 100K likes for authentic content material there. If it does 200K then it’s nice content material.”
*Editor’s Be aware: Charge costs have been eliminated on the interviewee’s request.
