APCON must rise to curb foreign firms, outsourcing of advertising business, says Adewunmi
An Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) industry practitioner, Adedoyin Adewunmi, has advised the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) on the need to wake up and take proactive measures towards curbing the continuous influx of foreign firms in to Nigeria’s marketing and advertising space.
Similarly, the council has been urged to take decisive steps to stem the trend of outsourcing of advertising related businesses by some traditionally known consulting specialists.
Giving this admonitions recently during an exclusive interview with MARKETING EDGE publications, Adewunmi who is Managing Director/CEO, Creativezones Communications Limited, observed that APCON was the only legal agency set up by government to regulate the practice of advertising in the country and as such the council needed to rise and do its billings to sanitise the industry and ensure professionalism.
Responding to questions as to the consequences of foreign firms’ incursion and the threats of consulting firms outsourcing advertising related businesses, the agency boss said there was nothing intrinsically wrong in that but noted that APCON existed to vet and regulate the manner in which such entrances should happen.
“There are rules and regulations governing how somebody should come in. So, in terms of ownership of agencies and stuff like that there are rules guiding that; you can’t just come in as a foreigner and begin to practice advertising, there are guidelines to follow.
“You cannot work as an advertising practitioner unless APCON allows it. APCON needs to sit up and say: ‘guys, you cannot run an agency here’. The same way that CBN was telling the banks that they could not do some other businesses; they should divest themselves of all these mortgage companies,” he said.
He continued: “So, if you are KPMG, do your KPMG work and leave advertising business alone. Everybody is free to invest in advertising companies: everybody is free to own an advertising agency, but let the professionals run it.
“Most importantly, APCON should sit up and live up to its billings. APCON should sit up and reorganise this industry. APCON is the only agency that has been given the powers to organise and build the industry but that is not happening right now. APCON needs to really begin to exercise its powers; if it exercises its powers the right way this industry will grow.”
According to him, despite the fact that APCON introduced the corporate licensing policy which mandates marketing and advertising companies to pay specific license fees to operate, Nigeria’s advertising space is replete with lots of unlicensed practitioners who go about carrying on advertising business but are not being checked.
Also speaking in similar vein, the Managing Director/CEO, Culture Communications Limited, Yomi Benson, advised the council on the need to focus more on enforcement and implementation of provisions of Nigeria’s advertising laws if it were to make any headway in tackling challenges of indecent exposure and other unwholesome advertising practices in the industry.
Benson, joining his voice to the growing list of industry stakeholders calling on the federal government to step up action in reconstituting the governing council of APCON, noted that APCON was the apex advertising industry regulator and having been fully empowered by law to administer control on the profession must rise up to the task. He advised the apex body to step up its activities in the areas of enforcement and implementation of the laws so as to nip in the bud, the growing excesses and breach of procedures by desperate and unscrupulous individuals.
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