Why we can’t obtain billings figure for PR investments in Nigeria – Badejo-Okunsanya
Veteran Nigerian Public Relations practitioner, Yomi Badejo Okusanya, has shed more lights on why it appears seemingly impossible to obtain accurate billings figure for public relations investments in Nigeria.
Badejo-Okunsanya, who appeared as personality guest at MARKETING EDGE on TV aired on TV Continental, observed that throughout the industry, accurate billings figure in PR investments had never been captured by operators in the industry, adding that previous attempts to capture PR spend was unsuccessful because practitioners were reluctant in “telling the truth” or sharing their numbers.
According to the erudite practitioner who also is Group Managing Director, CMC Connect Limited, a leading PR company in Nigeria, entry point for public relations in Nigeria was too low, thus creating room for many unregistered, briefcase-carrying practitioners.
He added that under such an environment, it was practically difficult tracking the size of revenue that passes through them and “yet they eat into the pie”.
In his words: “Like everything done in Nigeria, statistics is not accurate. You don’t even have the numbers for two reasons; we don’t capture, when you attempt to capture, people are not telling the truth. People are reluctant to share their numbers with you.
“Now there is also another issue in there, the entry point for Public Relations is low, so there are many people who are doing this business by so many kinds of nomenclature.’ I am a Corporate Affairs person, I only do CSR, I only do Events, I only do digital PR’, and really they are eating into our pie. So, it’s very difficult for us to be able to capture such persons,” he said.
Similarly, he gave reasons why it appeared that client companies were increasingly cutting down their PR budgets. He attributed the trend to generally dwindling fortunes of the Nigerian economy.
Badejo-Okusanya also added that the budget cut was a trend happening across the board because clients were declaring very low returns in their investments.
“We all agree that technically there is a reduction in budget across the board and am sure if I ask you at TVC you will probably tell me your advertising revenue has kind of declined, so it’s across the board and if the clients are not declaring significant profit, or results it’s bound to affect our business,” he said.
On the general belief that the digital revolution was eating up fortunes in public relations space and that the digital might at the end replace PR, the PR expert who also is President of the African Public Relations Association (APRA) debunked the insinuations emphasising rather that the future of public relations was fully secure.
He explained that the digital could not be a replacement for public relations, adding that the digital was only a necessary tool deployed by PR practitioners in achieving better results, over and above the traditional or analogue means of doing things.
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