Advertising chiefs blame sector’s lack of growth on low entry point
By Felicia Nwosu
Some practitioners in the Integrated Marketing Communications sector have averred that low barrier of entry has become a threat to growth of the marketing and advertising space in recent times.
These notable advertising icons, who cut across diverse sectors, stated this in separate interviews with MARKETING EDGE ONTV, where they called for more collaborative efforts among stakeholders to tackle the challenge.
Victor Afolabi, Founder, GDM Group and Curator of the Art of Technology Lagos, while evaluating the industry in the face of economic challenges, affirmed that the experiential industry is highly fragmented and competitive due to the fact that barrier of entry is extremely low. He explained that building barriers to entry is critical to increasing business value.
“Not until recently, it was not well organised or even recognized by the regulatory body. I think in the last few years the recognition in bringing in some standards is increasing. What we do expect is that it will evolve a bit more where you begin to see some level of innovation, and this will begin to distinguish agencies. It will be able to add some value and respect to the kind of quality of work that has been produced which has not been the case before now.
“The case before now has been an all comers’ affair to a large extent, close to zero in terms of professionalism, but these things are changing. Again, it is beginning to attract a crop of people who we think should ordinarily be there. We are seeing people who, before now, were just industry people who had been in the industry. People who had worked on rigs and there were not so many intellectual powers and capacities being brought to bear, but things are evolving. We now see new entrants bringing so much dynamism challenging the status quo and that’s what we think will bring the innovation we expect.”
Yinka Adebayo, the Group Executive Director of Omnicom Media Group, West and Central Africa, affirmed that with low barriers to entry, more and more people are aspiring to be identified with the industry, thereby declaring themselves practitioners, which he said fosters unprofessionalism. He then called for measures to ward off encroachment in the sector by non-registered practitioners.
“Unfortunately for us, the entry barrier to this sector is so low. That is the only sector that you can have somebody wake up as a medical doctor and tell you I’m practicing advertising. There should be some level of sanity. And I’m happy about the fact that the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) is ensuring that only registered practitioners are participating, which is good. But it should get to a level where just like a doctor will not feel fulfilled until you have become a member of Nigeria Medical Association, accountants will not feel fulfilled until you become a member of ICAN. A practitioner will not feel fulfilled until you become a member of ARCON, and it is all about positioning. I’m happy about the regulation because if we fail to regulate ourselves, what will happen at the end of the day is that we will not have people who are not professionals in our industry coming to regulate us. The earlier we do the regulation, the better.
Otis Ojeikhoa, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Brands Optimal, also attested to the low barrier to entry, stating the need to institute factors that can prevent or impede non-registered members from entering the experiential marketing sector.
“Low barrier to entry is also a big challenge, because there is the haste to deploy, to practice and that is affecting the industry. People don’t wait to go through the gestation period of the learning curve, so that is beginning to diminish the quality and, of course, the relevance of the practice itself. I don’t want to call it quackery, but there is also that sort of dearth of knowledge in the sector. People are not investing in knowledge acquisition, they just want to go into practice.”
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