Advertising regulatory body holds stakeholders meeting on OOH Standard Operating Procedure
Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) has concluded plans to organise a one-day Stakeholders Forum with a view to agreeing and drawing up Standard Operating Procedure for Out-of-Home advertising in Nigeria.
The Stakeholders Summit scheduled to hold Wednesday this week at Lagos Sheraton Hotel & Towers is the first of its kind in the annals of the competitive and glamorous Nigerian Advertising.
The summit, expected to draw participants from members of all the advertising sectoral groups, is aimed at engaging in conversation with all relevant key stakeholders in the industry. These are members of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Media Independent Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), and Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN). Other Stakeholders are members of the Experiential Agencies of Nigeria (EXMAN), Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria and Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON).
A Statement in Lagos signed by the Acting registrar of APCON, Mrs. Ijedi Iyoha, enjoined all key stakeholders to use the opportunity in supporting the regulator by coming forward to lend their voices and experience towards creating a mutually beneficial and acceptable procedure for the Out-of-Home advertising business in Nigeria.
In her words: “The meeting will deliberate and adopt a Standard Operating Procedure to guide the conduct of Out-of-Home advertising in Nigeria”.
Guest Speakers at the proposed meeting are Dr. Onyeckachi Onubogu, a member of Council of National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN) and former President of MIPAN and Group MD/CEO of OMD Media Reach, Mr. Tolu Ogunkoya; Mr. Atilola Oludare, MD/CEO of Gems Communications and former Treasurer of OAAN as well as Mr. Emmanuel Ajufo, the Current OAAN President.
It will be recalled that the OOH sector which used to be the cynosure of all eyes in the integrated marketing communications sector in Nigeria has become a caricature of some sorts, having lost its glamour and essence before the advertisers. Though a primary medium, the sector has suffered terribly from both internal and external manipulation and machinations. Worse of all is the ever hostile and multiple regulations by different agencies of government at different tiers of government.
The sector has, in the last one decade, found itself at wits end while the supposed regulators have suddenly become operators. Yet, there continues to evolve the preponderance of quacks and hawks that go into the practice uncontrolled.
In the past, APCON used to be a listening foster ‘Father’ to the OAAN, the umbrella body of all registered Out-of-Home practitioners, but the advent of Lagos State Advertisement Signage Agency (LASSA) has put a wedge between APCON and OAAN.
Like the proverbial hunger bitten father, APCON sold OAAN to the formidable LASAA when it lost its voice on regulation affront the moment APCON came with registering and certifying almost all the entire workforce of LASAA overnight under the then “Controversial Window of Opportunity”. Having been practically emboldened through the Controversial Certification that caught industry practitioners with mouth agape, LASAA went on the streets of Lagos erecting its own billboards indiscriminately. It was an anathema as a regulator had turned a practitioner and a very formidable competitor by all standards. This act left many OAAN agencies gasping for breath as their strategic billboard locations were taken over by fiat by the “Almighty” LASAA overlords while regulatory impunity became the rule rather than the exception. This painful and awkward incursion led to several outdoor companies closing shops as LASAA reeled out high tariffs impossible to remit by the weak agencies ostensibly to send them packing from Lagos State. Indeed, the logic worked, even though it was warped!
However, the current effort by APCON to hold joint stakeholders meet between OAAN and other Sectoral groups is a welcome development. It is also a big achievement for the new OAAN exco whose past leadership had made several unsuccessful attempts to arrive at Standard Operating Procedure through a joint Memorandum of Understanding that had proved tough. Not only did OAAN try unsuccessfully to come into workable business agreement with the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), it also failed to get the buy in of MIPAN. Between MIPAN and ADVAN members reigns a regime of huge and self-induced indebtedness to OAAN members.
To worsen the relationship, OAAN members who are media owners have been reduced to mere under-dogs who are being dictated to on how they should price their products.
The situation has never been this bad. At the end of the meeting slated for last week of February, there are high expectations that the industry will know relative peace if all stakeholders could listen to one another in one accord through an industry accepted conversation mid-wifed by APCON. And if at the end of the day any sector still fails to play by the agreed terms, APCON may not have an option than to wield the Big Stick.
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