IMC Industry Rots as FG Fails to Name APCON Council
Last week Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed spurned a great opportunity to cement his friendship with the Integrated Marketing Communications industry when he again avoided the demand for the reconstitution of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) Council during a speech at the APCON Advertisers Summit in Lagos. It was an omission that practitioners felt aggrieved about because for about one year APCON has been without a council and therefore the industry has been lacking in proper leadership and direction.
The two-day event held between 7- 8 of July provided a veritable platform for the importunate minister to rally the industry behind the government by clearing the air on the controversial matter. But unfortunate, it was another missed chance.
This blunder, was the second time the minister would let advertising industry down on the issue. In February, 2016, there was high hope that he was going to bring the matter to a rest during his tour of Lagos, but he didn’t. All he did was give a feeble assurance that he was going to begin work on the council. And five months after, there is yet to be the smallest hint he meant what he said.
Now, tension is mounting as operators are worried about the implications of the long drawn debacle and its implications on the industry. In the absence of the council, APCON has become like a toothless bulldog that barks, but lacks bite. And some practitioners are already exploiting this lacuna for their own selfish gains knowing that the industry lacks any disciplinary structure.
A couple of weeks back Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Alhaji Bello Kankarofi cut a frustrated figure when he lamented publicly about the rising cases of inter-agency copycatting. Alhaji Karkaronfi kept going on and on about how he is regularly inundated with petitions by members centering on copycatting. From the tone of his voice it was clear Kankarofi’s hands were tied as there was very little he could do with regards to sanctioning erring members.
Another issue that have bugged the industry, taking advantage of the council crisis is proliferation of agencies and low entry bar which allows every Tom, Dick and Harry with an half-baked idea about advertising to parade him or herself as a practitioners. This is even more prevalent in the outdoor industry where anybody with a billboard in front of his/her home parades himself as an operator, even when they lack the slightest understanding the industry. The digital marketing segment is also fast becoming a victim of this misnomer, same for the Public Relations segment.
According to Biodun Shobanjo, Chairman Troyka Holdings, these proliferations of agencies is fast eroding the respect and dignity left in the industry and clients and government agencies are well of this and using it for their own interest.
Former President of Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, Kelechi Nwosu also noted that such development is having negative consequences on the industry. Nwosu noted that despite the best efforts of the APCON Registrar/CEO, the regulation of the large and growing advertising industry will again remain prostrate without the direction of the Council, which is the policy-making body and the arm that provides direction for the industry.
“Second implication is that the APCON reforms which required and agreed to revitalize the industry, restrain quacks and throw the industry into new lights, is now stymied by the absence of a Council. That certainly has caused a loss of revenue and respect for the Nigerian advertising industry and even for Government (directly and indirectly),” he opined.
Recall that a reform was set in motion by the short-lived Udeme Ufot led council before President Mohammadu Buhari stampeded them out of office in July 2015. Since then all effort by operators through it different sectorial bodies to restore the council have proved abortive. Unfortunately, this latest development is coming on the heels of an 18 months period of council crisis, which resulted from government’s uninformed decision to appoint a non-professional as council Chairman.
APCON operates through a governing council composed of the Chairman who is appointed by the President of Nigeria from among the Fellows of the profession as well as nineteen other members who represent the key stakeholders in the advertising industry and other interests.
The Governing Council sets out broad policies and guidelines for the operation of APCON and generally supervises the implementation of its mandates. This is what has been missing in APCON in the last 12 months that it has been operating without a governing council or a chairman. But perhaps the biggest frustration of stakeholders stems from the body language of the minister which communicates a lack of understanding of the matter at hand or the seriousness that it should commands.
This is why some of the operators have persisted in their call for government to hands off APCON and allow practitioners full control of the outfit, so that APCON can function like other professional institutions like Nigeria Bar Association, Institute of Chattered Account of Nigeria, Nigerian Medical Association etc. “I am still very unhappy that APCON hasn’t taken it rightful place within the industry which again has to do with political issues here and there,” Sir Steve Omojafor, Chairman STBMcCann said in an interview with MARKETING EDGE.
“I wish we could pull APCON out of government funding. Funding enables them to appoint Chairperson and for me, that is not the best. I strongly believe that the industry can fund APCON and make it independent. And then when we talk, the government will listen,” the veteran adman said. This same argument was canvasses by Mr. Ufot who also argued that the industry was suffering because government is yet to appreciate the role it played in the society.
Some of the operators that spoke to MARKETING EDGE have said that their biggest frustration is the Minister’s body language which communicates a lack of understanding of the urgency and importance of having a council in place as soon as possible and the lost opportunity that accrues as a result of the vacuum. But stakeholder can hold fast to the tiny glimpse of hope offered by the Minister when he promised to implement recommendations made by practitioners at the recently held APCON Advertising Summit. For now, all the industry can do is wait.
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