Consolidation may not work out well in Nigeria’s IMC sector, says Osunsoko
An Integrated Marketing Communications Industry practitioner (IMC), Sam Osunsoko, has observed that the consolidation process, against popular beliefs, may not well apply to Nigeria’s advertising industry, same way it successfully worked out in the banking and insurance sectors of the Nigerian economy.
Osunsoko, Managing Partner at Cognito Communications Nigeria was also of the opinion that Nigerian advertising agencies must have to adopt a new strategic approach of product reformulation if they were to overcome current economic adversity occasioned by the continuously evolving digital transformation.
Speaking as a personality guest at MARKETING EDGE on TV program aired on TVC, Osunsoko maintained that there was indeed remarkable difference in operating mechanisms of the banking and insurance sectors as against what obtains presently in the IMC industry.
According to him, whereas the factor of size may serve as advantage in the banking and insurance sectors, the same could not be said of the IMC industry where size may or may not necessarily serve as an advantage, adding that what brands were looking for agencies that are able to service clients across all their needs.
“For me, I will not advocate for the type of consolidation we saw in the banking and insurance industry.
“There is actually a lot of difference in this industry (IMC) than in the case of banking and insurance. So, it may not apply because in the case of the banking sector, size is an advantage, but in the advertising industry, depending on how you see things, size could be an advantage and also a disadvantage,” he said.
He added: “Brands are looking for agencies that may or may not be big. What matters is being able to service clients across all their needs.”
The Agency boss further observed that throughout the industry business operatives in Nigeria’s creative sector were experiencing continuous decline in economic fortunes and this, he said, owed to the fact that clients were increasingly moving away their budgets from the creative sector onto other segments of the business, more especially activations.
Taking a critical assessment of current trends in the IMC sector, especially in the turn of the third quarter of the business year 2019, he noted that the industry had faired not too badly in the period, but added that there were yet other areas where the economy needed to perform better.
“If you are talking about the marketing budget being moved away from above the line advertising, the only solution to that is for practitioners to reformulate their products. The days when clients are going to allocate 60% to 70% of their budget to above the line marketing are gone and are gone forever,” he stated, adding, “reformulating your product as a professional is the way to go.”
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