Mellamby Ileogben is the CEO of Memento Magnum Lounge Int’l, tucked inside the heart of Surulere, Lagos. Apart from night club business, he also runs Orbit Audio Visual which is a radio/ TV production company that have shot commercials for both individuals and corporate organizations. He speaks more in this interview with Samuel Onyekwere.
The idea behind the name Memento
Memento, as you can find it in the dictionary, is something to remember like souvenir. Getting the name of the lounge was a result of brainstorming session, which brought about several names, but the name Memento struck a chord and sounded nobler. The name has to do with what we do here today. We are different in the way we render our services here. We go a little bit further to make it personal because we realize that our primary responsibility is that whenever a customer steps in here in whatever mood, the customer should leave here happier with memories. There is a personal touch to everything we do. The people at the helm of affairs are not far from the customers. There are some places you go and it’s just the customers relating with the workers but here, there is one on one between the customers and even the proprietor.
Clientele
When we started, the lounge was situated within the neighborhood. It was intended to be a lounge where people coming back from work can sit and relax before they go back home. But we realized that people come, they feel comfortable and want to stay longer. The club is open to all, but not all. We look at the responsible and reasonable people who value services. You are welcome as long as you are responsible. We don’t entertain nuisance in our club. No matter how well you dress, if we discover that you have questionable character we will excuse you.
The ambience makes the place accommodating and friendly for people from different professional background to mix up and through this you can exchange business ideas and also discuss politics. We even have people above 60 years patronizing us.
Activities at the club
The most important thing for us is to make the environment comfortable. Moreover, we put God first in everything we do. We have different activities for the week and the month. We have a live band every last Saturday of the month. We have Karaoke on Monday, Tuesdays and Thursday, and we have Lady’s night after the Karaoke. We have the comedy night and the variety night where we feature up and coming music and comedy artistes. We also have disc jockeys performing. On
Sunday, we have the old school music and there is seasoned DJ to thrill people. People look forward to these events. The most important thing is this is a lounge that you can walk in at any time of the day and enjoy yourself.
Special services
Memento Lounge offers restaurant services, lounge, bar, night club and lodging facility, a guest house attached to this place just in case you’re stuck, you have a place to pass the night. Our lounge offers all sorts of drinks from alcohol to non alcoholic drinks: the pintos, vino drinks, red and white wine, champagne, sparkling wine, vodka, and tequila among others. We also have Liquor mixers, soft drink and fruit drink and Arab wines etc.
We offer both continental and African dishes though it’s not wide. We have special delicacies for vegetarians which contains protein produced from plants. Our prices are affordable and we don’t react to external forces in terms of price hike because we understand fairly well the situation in the country. We don’t ask for too much even though it requires a lot to maintain our operation. We are competitive. This place is open to people who want to watch live matches, do their end of the year parties, bachelor’s eve, bridal showers and engagement parties. People have engaged their spouses here and they are happily married. A lot of celebrities like to come here and they want to relax and be themselves.
Tell us more about yourself
If you ask me my profession, I will tell you that I am a business man.
I studied Biochemistry at the University of Benin. Right from my Secondary school days, I have always had flair for entertainment. So, it was no surprise that after graduation I found myself in the industry through training and apprenticeship with Klink Studios owned by Kingsley Ogoro. I first trained as sound engineer, camera man, editor, all the works in production, then as a producer and director before I set up my own. Today, I run Orbit Audio Visual which is a
radio/TV production outfit. We do a lot of movies and documentaries, and TV commercials. I have done jobs for big brands like Cadbury and Coca Cola etc. I have done jobs for some communication giants also. I shot a movie titled My Brother’s Keeper which looked at HIV/AIDS and the effect of peer pressure. I have shot a short profile for people like Ibrahim Mantu, Chukwuma Soludo and Oscar Ibru among others. I have shot for Dangote Group and Chivita also.
Why do blue chip companies go abroad to shoot their commercials
Its quiet erroneous for them to prefer to go abroad. True, they could get guaranteed quality jobs outside the country and that’s not to say we don’t have the wherewithal. We have the people that can deliver the same quality of work; we probably don’t have the finances. If empowered by the same blue chip companies, and they spend a quarter of what they spend abroad, they can do better work here because the content you are going to expose here you are going outside to shoot it.
The people handling it outside cannot have a better interpretation of issues than we Nigerians and the customers know what they want. When you give them what is not real they won’t appreciate. The place they go for shooting was developed by people and if we are patriotic we should think of developing our own. If we don’t develop our own who will, and we also need to give back to the society. Do the video, take
your time to edit it and you will get what you want because we
understand our people better. We have people who can deliver here and these people have earned their encomiums abroad.
Let’s meet you
I am Mellamby Ileogben, from Edo State. I am the CEO of Memento Lounge. We’ve been in operation for eight years.
What’s the competition level between clubs on mainland and Island?
The sky is big enough for everybody. We operate the same kind of business but we reach out to different set of people. We look at our client set of choices. What those on the island are enjoying, we also import to the mainland. So we make sure we balance everything and do our best to satisfy our customers.
