Stakeholders object fine payments by local brands running adverts on CNN
Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups (HASG), an umbrella body for all professionals in the Nigerian Integrated Marketing Communications sector, has strongly objected to recent pronouncements by the Federal Government mandating all local brands running adverts on CNN to henceforth pay a fine of N100,000 naira only.
Specifically, the Hon. Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had announced earlier this week that brands which run adverts during foreign matches must advertise during the Nigerian Premier Football League games.
Besides, he said creating adverts abroad for broadcast on CNN and other foreign stations broadcasting in Nigeria will also be penalised with a fine of N100,000 each time such adverts run.
Objecting to the litany of rules, the HASG said, “it is important for the Minister to understand that advertisers put their advertising investment where the eyeballs of Nigerians are,” noting that media decisions are driven by the consumers interest, passion, inspiration and aspirations”.
The body noted that CNN and other international news channels are watched by Nigerians locally and internationally especially now that the world has become a global village, and Nigerians do not only live within the nation’s physical boundaries but across nations and continents.
It stated further that Nigeria-based news channels and contents developed locally are also consumed across many countries beyond the shores of Nigeria with no special fines and levies imposed on companies who place adverts within them.
Speaking further, HASG revealed that “while there are some merits in the bid to encourage and support local production of contents in a bid to support the local industries, the Minister must understand that these have to be allowed to develop organically. Also, many leading advertisers are multinational companies who rationally seek to explore economies of scale in the production of materials, negotiation costs and broadcast of their contents which run across many countries. Even with this said, empirical information and trended data show clearly that investment on local broadcast stations still outweighs that of foreign channels.
However, the body said there are many areas where the government can support the industry to grow, which includes funding in the areas of technical infrastructure, content development grants, and investment in tools of measurement of advertising effectiveness & efficiency etc. With the right support for the marketing communication industry, content development. Local media investment and media infrastructural development will grow and improve organically.
The group further said, “the Nigerian music and entertainment industry, as well as the movie industry did not emerge and become global by forced legislative fiats, but via organic growth and creativity of the practitioners. Production and content development capabilities are improving daily as technology and funding improves; these are the areas of support required for the local players and production industry to emerge and lead the world.”
The HASG, as a body made up of advertisers, advertising agencies, media agencies, marketing activation agencies, out-of-home media agencies and broadcasting company groups, would like the Minister to engage the industry players and practitioners more and explore collaboration on issues like this before making these pronouncements that can significantly impact the industry.
“Our sectoral group is made up of integrated marketing communications professionals and we should be engaged and consulted in matters relating to our industry as it is done with other professional sectoral bodies in Nigeria. We will continue to reach out and be available to support the Ministry of Information and Culture as well as its regulator, the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) in moving the marketing communications industry in Nigeria forward.”
Finally, the group strongly appealed to the ministry as well as the National Assembly to engage and involve the professional practitioners of the various sectors of the marketing communications industry in the conversations on policies at the point of ideation, formulation and development of these policies.
This, HASG noted, is the best pathway to a progressive and implementable legislation of policies and initiatives that will improve the well-being of the industry and Nigerians. The ministry and the communication industry in Nigeria can benefit more from working together and in addressing the key issues concerning the development of marketing, advertising and sponsorships in Nigeria when the capability and expertise of the professional players are leveraged.
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