7 ways to fix Nigeria’s marketing communications industry- Experts
By Zion Rufus
Notable leaders in the marketing communications space have identified collaboration, cracking down on quacks, presence of a strong regulatory intervention in the space, and drawing the line between the practice and business of advertising amongst others as some of the ways to address the challenges in the industry. Earlier in a heartfelt appeal, calling for unity and collaboration amongst stakeholders in Nigeria’s marketing communications industry, Dr. Lekan Fadolapo, Registrar, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) had submitted that every sector in the industry was guilty of the disunity that has plagued the space.
Collaboration
Lanre Adisa, CEO Noah’s Ark Communications said: “Collaboration will be very important going into this year (2022) and even years to come.”
Jude Odia, Managing Director of Starcom Media Perspectives challenged practitioners to collaborate with the existing players in marketing ecosystem to enhance their value offering and revenue generation channels. He said: “We must re-define competition really because sometimes where you really need help, it is those people you perceive as competition that comes to help. It is about understanding how to innovate and know that the person you compete with today is not necessarily your enemy tomorrow.”
Dr. Lekan Fadolapo, Registrar, APCON said: “My appeal advice to operators and stakeholders in the industry is, let us come together. You see, it is not a good thing for us. We have experienced banters, claim and counter claims, accusation and counter accusation, and if you ask me as a regulator, every sector in the industry is guilty. I am not taking part, and I am not promoting disagreement or unethical practice.”
Jaiye Israel Opayemi, President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria said: “Collaboration will solve some of the problems. It is good for the industry and it simply means that we can do better. I am for it; it is going to ensure that we can play bigger and even international businesses will know that there are big players in the Nigerian public relations sector.”
Barrier to entry into the industry should be raised significantly
AAAN President, Steve Babaeko said: “Measures are being put in place to prevent the influx of quacks into the ad industry. Not everyone that applies gets to be a member. Considering that there are benchmark criteria that are set by the membership committee, those must be met before an agency is deemed qualified to join. Just pure quality control to ensure that we get agencies that are best in class.”
Jaiye Israel Opayemi, President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria said: “We need to take care of the issue of the barrier to entry. The barrier to entry needs to be raised significantly. At the moment, practically anybody can leave a media organization and set up a public relations consulting firm, and this is still a major challenge. Are you qualified, because when you say you are a consultant, it simply means that you are an adviser who has the requisite expertise and training to be able to advise client on its reputational issues or its image issues? We need to ensure that this is sorted out.”
Cracking down on quacks
Dolapo Otegbayi, Specialised Nutrition Director at Frieslandcampina WAMCO said: “There are many people parading themselves more as businessmen and women, with little or no added value and benefit to brands, noting that the authentic practice of advertising delivers value to the client, brand, and agency. Many agencies have become jack of all trades and master of none. What is their distinctive asset? What is their value proposition? Whilst I respect their versatility, not many agencies are able to integrate the marketing communication services offered to benefit the brand.”
To crackdown on charlatans and individuals parading themselves as professionals, the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, (APCON) announced its plans to introduce in April 2022, a new vetting regime which will permit only licensed advertising organizations to apply to the Advertising Standards Panel (ASP) for vetting.
Presence of a strong regulatory intervention in the space
Jaiye Israel Opayemi, President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria said: “Just like what APCON has done, we also need to have some reforms in the law governing the practice of public relations in Nigeria. We are also coming up with something similar with what AISOP is; and basically, we just want to ensure that the industry is sanitized and in a win-win situation.
Steve Babaeko, President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria said: “Making a law is not just enough, you have to be able to bring justice, bring the people who are flouting your law to account. That is what we expect to see. The AISOP as a law has been passed since October 6th, 2021. We want to see beyond just passing the law to say look,’ let us check, are people obeying this law if people are not obeying it, how do we bring to justice people who are flouting the law’. It is within APCON’s power to make sure that they enforce this law. I like to see more enforcement going forward.”
Audience measurement must evolve with changes in the industry
Validating the need for evolution in audience measurement, Brila FM Chairman, Dr. Larry Izamoje said: “If the sample population or size is wrong, your research is already defective. Audience measurement in Nigeria must evolve with changes in the industry. Calls for specialized stations ratings is something we think will eventually happen because even the Nigerian government through the Ministry of Information and Culture is unhappy with the kind of audience measurement we have in Nigeria. It is why the Honorable Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed seeing how audience measurement has fared and with nothing for new media and digitization beginning inaugurated a committee to look at audience measurement specifically and generally.”
Femi Adelusi, President of the Media Independents Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), said: “Although the Media Planning Services (MPS) has provided the industry with tools to do audience measurement, the industry has not been widely covered as this has elicited criticism from key stakeholders. The rate and pace at which things happen more frequently, the time frame and all others, we need a tool that provides media information at regular interval.”
PR should evolve beyond press releases
Yomi Olaniwun, Bold Brand Buzz CEO said: “PR has gone beyond sending out press releases to announce brand activities. Agencies need to task themselves on new deliverables around strategy, content, channels, creativity and measurement. PR is all about connecting people with brands through storytelling, so we have to shift the narrative to reflect what people need and want.”
Stanley Olisa, media and communication consultant, said in his letter to Nigerian PR Practitioners: “Telling your client you’ll get them published in the dailies and on blogs doesn’t really cut it anymore. Selling press release syndication as your only value-add to a prospective client is no longer a sustainable approach. Your client is now interested in how your PR campaign will help them strengthen relationships with their key stakeholders and engender supportive behavior. There is a growing need for PR practitioners to embrace the reality that the demands and expectations in the business world are changing, and the business environment is also becoming more complex. These changes are adding new ramifications to the PR profession, as it is coming under intense scrutiny by CEOs, especially as they pose questions which impugn the value of PR practice”
Drawing the line between the practice and business of advertising
Dr. Lekan Fadolapo, Registrar, APCON said: “The biggest challenge facing Nigeria’s marketing and advertising industry is the failure to draw the line between the practice of advertising, and the business of advertising. APCON has previously paid more attention to the practice of advertising, whereas the business of advertising had for the longest years been on auto-run.”
“I looked at these issues basically from those two standpoints and I concluded that we need to do things that will strengthen the practice of the industry from those two areas. If we don’t look at the business of advertising and concentrate only on the practice of advertising, there is going to be a major challenge. This challenge has created a lot of gaps and big issues for practitioners and operators within the industry. So, coming to this seat, I felt like since most efforts have been concentrated on the practice of advertising, we just have to look at what we have on ground, and how we can up that. Then, in the business of advertising, we will need to start afresh. This was what led to some of the new initiatives that we are currently pushing.”
Doyin Adewunmi, managing director, Creative Xone Limited, said: “A lot has happened to the practice of the business of advertising, which has impacted negatively on the professional aspect of it. It is a profession because we have values that we are supposed to deliver to every brand, we are supposed to build brands, we are supposed to peak brands.”
Dolapo Otegbayi, Specialised Nutrition Director, Frieslandcampina WAMCO said: “The practice and business of Advertising are two sides of the same coin. The value of Advertising is in the practice. The authentic practice of Advertising delivers value for the Client, Brand and the Agency. Unfortunately, there are many people parading themselves more as businessmen and women, with little or no added value and benefit to brands,”
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