Advertising agencies brace up for 2019 election
As another election year draws closer, advertising agencies in the country are positioning themselves to make the most of the season, to boost their billing profile for the year.
Most advertising heavyweights are hopeful that when the political campaigns eventually kick off, it will galvanize growth in the sector as well as create an increase in ad spend.
The Managing Director, DKK Nigeria, Mrs. Temitope Jemerigbe, said, the political race is going to define a lot of things in the advertising sector adding that their will be a lot of spend for advertising during the political campaigns.
According to her, it is our hope that a lot of our businesses would also be able to leverage and be part of the electioneering process. She said:”I think the political race is going to define a lot of things for the industry. It is also one of the things that have influenced most clients. Clients are a little bit skeptical about the political terrain and what it will bring, that is what will actually shape the future up to the first quarter of next year.”
“There will be a lot of spend for advertising during the political campaigns; it is our hope that a lot of our businesses would also be able to leverage and be part of that.”
Speaking in the same vein, the Creative Director, Leo Burnett Lagos, Sinmisola Hughes-Obisesan, said, apart from the revenue that politics would bring to the industry, it beholds on ad agencies to participate in it.
According to her, taking part in politics is a sense of civic responsibility on the part of advertising practitioners in putting the next president in power.
Sinmisola, however, stressed that some advertising practitioners do not engage in politics because of their belief or philosophy.
Meanwhile the Managing Director, Ladybird advertising agency, Mrs. Bunmi Oke, said her agency is gearing up to take part in the forth-coming election, stressing that it would help to boost the agency’s revenue drive.
Oke noted that she is interested in political advertising especially for women that want to contest and for any political party that requires the kind of skill sets that the agency has.
She said:“I think it is really about what you want but not everybody wants to do political advertising because in our terrain; the strategies and the structures are slightly different from what operate in country to country.”
The Ladybird MD, however, decried the failure of politicians to pay ad agencies what is due to them after their campaigns have been executed.
According to Oke, this is the major reason why most advertising agencies are restraining themselves from politics, pointing out the scenario that played out in 2014 where most agencies ran campaigns for politicians only to be denied payment for their works.
“We will all be jostling for political jobs and the process of electioneering in Nigeria if politicians often pay us what is due after executing the campaign, because we had a situation in 2014, a lot of people did political campaigns and there was nothing in the kitty.” She said.
On his part, the Managing Director, X3M Ideas, Mr. Steve Babaeko, said, most politicians are still living in the past in Nigeria.
Babaeko pointed out that because of this, they end up giving their campaigns to unprofessional people to run for them, noting that most of them don’t even know how to build their brand as politicians.
According to the X3M Ideas boss, he is hopeful that the situation would turn around for good in the forth-coming election as that would also bring advertising businesses to the industry.
“I am hoping that more politicians will be more enlighten this time around and engage the services of professional agencies to build their brand for them.”
“I am also hoping that people will really seek for us in the right places because it is not just advertising, it is about advertising with qualified advertising agencies registered with the AAAN” he said.
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