ADVAN is key to the AISOP equation— Sir Steve Omojafor
By Zion Rufus
On the premise of peace, unity, and backing the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) in its quest to ensure that stricter rules and regulations are applied in the industry, advertising legend, Sir Steve Omojafor has submitted that the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) is an inexcusable part of the Advertising Industry Standard of Practice (AISOP).
It should be recalled that AISOP, the industry reform promulgated by APCON was rejected by ADVAN on the basis that AISOP makes an unconstitutional attempt to infringe on the rights of private entities to determine their contractual terms.
Omojafor said: “From what I heard, ADVAN has not cooperated at all in terms of enabling the new reform to work. They are very key in the equation, and I will move to talk with the APCON Registrar to find out exactly what kind of headway they have made with ADVAN. I will always say to them that we all can come together and approach ADVAN and get them to understand.”
Backing its decision to reject the newly introduced standard of practice, ADVAN in 2021 revealed that AISOP was void of critical elements that protected the rights and interests of the ADVAN community, nor did it serve their collective interest, but rather permits unfair authority of certain parties over others and creates an unfriendly business framework.
“We don’t want to hurt anybody,” Sir Steve continued. “What APCON has attempted to do for now, is still to ensure that stricter rules and regulations are applied in the industry. Take the rule for instance, when an agency works for you, in 45 days, pay their bills. But what are we getting, 90 days to 120 days. When they sell their products, it is cash and carry, but when it comes to paying for services, you tell me 120 days. I mean for goodness sake, We must jointly fight this fight and ensure that we get some good results,” he urged.
Where stakeholders under the aegis of Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups (HASG), an umbrella body for all professionals in the Nigerian Integrated Marketing Communications sector, and the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) have pledged their support, solidarity, and total agreement by endorsing the full implementation of the new AISOP guidelines, ADVAN kicked against the reform, requesting that in all instances, the condition of the mutually agreed terms by both parties be upheld and not only as it applies to expectations from advertisers.
However, on this standpoint, Jibe Ologeh, 4th President of the Electronic Media Content Owners Association of Nigeria (EMCOAN) begged to differ.
Speaking during the MARKETING EDGE Quarterly Virtual Summit which held in November, the President, emphasizing the need for “one industry” noted that the industry can only be one when every body of the industry has compassion for the other.
She said: “Speaking of AISOP, it has been repeatedly said that all the sectoral bodies were well represented; everyone was carried along. ADVAN wasn’t left behind either. In fact I want to appreciate the fact that APCON as a regulatory body is saying look, this is the right way to go; set up a committee and everyone agree this is the right way to go and some other people are saying no. So do you want to stifle other stakeholders just because you want your business to thrive and others to die? If it was in the law that it should hold for 45 days, and that law was not upheld, APCON isn’t even prosecuting defaulters for the fact that they have not been adhering to 45 days. The body isn’t even retrospectively saying that those who have been offending in this policy should be prosecuted, they are just saying, stop doing what you are doing so that everybody can survive. As a content producer, I know how many of my members have lost themselves as a result of financial crisis that rose from them being owed, some even lost their lives.”
The Advertising Industry Standard of Practice (AISOP) which took effect on 6th of October, 2021, was specifically set up to effectively tackle the numerous challenges facing Nigeria’s advertising industry and to provide the regulatory framework in all critical areas of concern such as Engagement policy, Payment terms and conditions, numeration model, media rates and commissions, disengagement protocols, credit policy, return of advertisement and measurement, and peaceful resolution amongst other regulatory industry protocols.
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