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How to move advertising sector to the next level, by stakeholders

By Gbenga Salau
26 July 2015   |   11:37 pm
For Nigerian advertising to move to the next level, it would require collaboration among critical stakeholders. This was the submission of the two key speakers, the CEO of Noah’s Ark, Lanre Adisa and General Manager, Marketing, Airtel, Dele Anifowoshe, at the 42nd AGM/Congress of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) with the theme,…
Chairman, Event Planning Committee of AAAN, Mr. Tunji Olugbodi; Vice Chairman of the committee, Mrs. Bisi Afolabi; APCON Chairman, Mr. Udeme Ufot; President, Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Mr. Kelechi Nwosu and representative of the Governor of State of Osun, Chief of Staff to Governor, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola at the AAAN 42nd AGM/Congress in Osun State.

Chairman, Event Planning Committee of AAAN, Mr. Tunji Olugbodi; Vice Chairman of the committee, Mrs. Bisi Afolabi; APCON Chairman, Mr. Udeme Ufot; President, Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Mr. Kelechi Nwosu and representative of the Governor of State of Osun, Chief of Staff to Governor, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola at the AAAN 42nd AGM/Congress in Osun State.

For Nigerian advertising to move to the next level, it would require collaboration among critical stakeholders. This was the submission of the two key speakers, the CEO of Noah’s Ark, Lanre Adisa and General Manager, Marketing, Airtel, Dele Anifowoshe, at the 42nd AGM/Congress of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) with the theme, Nigerian Advertising, what next?

While Adisa emphasized the importance of collaboration with foreign agencies, Anifowoshe talked about the need for marketing communication agencies and clients to collaborate if things must get better.

Adisa said the advertising sector should move from the foreign invasion psyche, afraid of foreign agencies taking over the business here, to foreign collaboration. He observed that practitioners are not doing enough to lead the sector within the African continent noting that while Nollywood is speaking for Africa in the world creative industry, the advertising sector in Nigeria is not visible and silence. He however argued that foreign collaboration could help change the ugly tide.

He further said that the new APCON reform should be reviewed suggesting that the provision of 25 per cent stake for foreign agencies willing to startup or invest in local agencies should be reviewed upward to 49 per cent.

For him, this is important, as these agencies would be more committed to developing the organization and its people, which would rub off positively on the advertising sector in Nigeria. He maintained that the increase would not hurt noting that he is not the originator of the idea he is pushing but one that is already working and yielding results in South Africa, whose industry is vibrant.

The Noah’s Ark boss started his paper by going historical looking at the journey of advertising in Nigeria using the formation of advertising as specimen. He gave four categorizations, describing them as four eras: Pre-indigenization, children indigenization, the Daring 90’s and the Millennials. The pre-indigenization era, he said, comprised of the pioneer agency, Lowe Lintas and all the agencies leading to the promulgation of the indigenization decree in the early 70’s.
The children of the indigenization decree are agencies like Rosabel Advertising and Insight Communications, which were founded in 1979 and 1980 respectively.

He tried to give peculiarity of each of the segments that had evolved from the practice of advertising in Nigeria over the years. The advertising agencies and practitioners that were categorized under the children of indigenization, he claimed are the most adventurous.

Anifowoshe who repeatedly talked about the place of partnership between the clients and agencies to achieve better result noted that understanding the consumer journey is critical to agency value added contribution as investment in market study to unearth the dynamics driving consumer behaviour is critical to meeting client’s expectation. “Application of the insights in building client’s business nourishes the relationship. Clients recognize the speed at which consumers are evolving. Agencies must keep pace and stay ahead,” he said.

He noted that the challenging business environment is driving client’s decision making and defining relationships with its partners which is why businesses are now managed on a week-on-week basis, rather than wait for end of quarter, which is too late to respond to fast changing market and competition.

Anifowoshe wondered if agencies fully appreciate where the shoes hurt because among other things clients now have to deliver more with less and are seeking a better, faster and cheaper attitude from agencies; Chief marketing Officers have to account for returns on their advertising investment, and agencies continue to struggle to prove their value.

He listed what clients are looking for in agencies to include greater knowledge of the digital space; more use of pull interactions; agencies that understand consumer behavior and demonstrate strategic thinking; branding and creative capabilities in conventional and digital marketing and ability to measure success.

He also felt that agencies business model are structured to suit the agencies, not clients, maintaining that the current economic model is unsustainable.

“Therefore, there is a need for agencies to redefine their value proposition to focus on commercially driven business building ideas, supported by well-tailored organizational structure.”

Anifowoshe also argued that agencies must redefine their terms of engagement from seeing themselves as agencies to business partners; designer suit wearers to project managers; working on the business to working in the business; planners to business strategists; taking briefs to driving process, brand and channel innovation and from being subservient to equal seat.

Former AAAN President, Funmi Onabolu however disagreed on the business model noting that clients dictated the economic model because they do not see and treat agencies as business partners.

The Chairman of APCON, Mr. Udeme Ufot, however said that the APCON Reform was put in place in very good faith though it was unfortunate that just after the reform and time for implementation, there was a lull in the activities of APCON because of the absence of a legitimate council that the industry was meant to work with.

“And since the council was reconstituted, it has since sworn into action, committees had been set up and we can begin to see this reform being fully implemented and strengthened.”

Ufot said that APCON cannot do it alone, so where people have been seen to infringe on the rules, APCON attention should be drawn to it and it should be specific and not vague allegation.

In his welcome remarks, the President of the Association, Mr. Kelechi Nwosu, stated that the cardinal objective of the AGM is to evolve policies, articulate options and identify strategies for addressing national issues, particularly those that affect the advertising industry and the Nigerian economy.

“Our members create experiences, feelings and engagement that elevate brands, using traditional and new media to drive innovation and creative solutions. We are actually the bastion of the creative industries sometimes creating monster brands out of nothing. We stimulate demand and support industry.

“Apart from our significant contributions to oiling the economy through fueling choices to consumers, advertising, has under the auspices of AAAN, continued to act as a catalyst in promoting development in Nigeria.

“Advertising also serves to educate the Nigerian publics on economic opportunities and creatively promotes our rich cultural heritage to achieve market relevance.

“Immediately after the election of the new President and in furtherance of our social responsibility to the Nigerian nation-state, we congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari and his team for their success at the elections, and also pledged our readiness to support the government’s development initiatives with our creative communication skills.”

He listed the areas the association wants Buhari administration to consider to include national re-orientation; innovation, entrepreneurship and production; local content and affirmation and management of government communication.

He canvassed an urgent need for national re-orientation because the current state of apathy, despondency and disconnect between the citizens and the government needs to be addressed.

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