Femi Adelusi leads new MIPAN Exco, assures on contributing to knowledge economy

Femi Adelusi, the Managing Director of BrandEye Media, has been elected as the Executive President of Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN). The election was conducted during the association’s 21st Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at its Lagos corporate headquarters recently.

Adelusi took over from the immediate past executives led by Dr. Ken Onyeali-Ikpe, who piloted the affairs of the association for four years. Joining Adelusi to pilot MIPAN’s affairs  in the next two year are  Executive Vice President,  Mr. Dozie Okafor, who is the Managing Director of PHD Media; Financial Secretary, Mr. Samson Oyebamire, Financial Secretary, who is the Financial Controller, Intenciti Media Limited); Mrs. Yetunde Adegbite, Assistant  Secretary, whois the Managing Director of Postersope (Mediafuse Dentsu Aegis Network); Mrs. Akam-Ekpo Enoch, Assistant Publicity Secretary and Mr. Henry Ononiwu, Publicity Secretary, who is the Business Development Manager, PHD Media. All members of the new executive council emerged unopposed.

Ex officio members who will be bringing their wealth of experiences to the table to support the new EXCO achieve their mandate include Mr. Tolu Ogunkoya, (Regional Managing Director, Media ReachOMD), Mr. Emeka Okeke (Group CEO, Media Fuse Dentsu Aegis Network), HRH Oba-Ayodele Kupoluyi (Managing Consultant, Ashmaukups) and the immediate past president, Dr. Ken Onyeali-Ikpe who is the Group Managing Director/CEO, Insight REDEFINI.

In his acceptance speech, Adelusi noted that unique as the year has been, the association still marked its 21st anniversary, adding that the global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted businesses, livelihood and people’s ways of lives globally and, as such they must find the right balance as one cannot exist without the other.

“We must face the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly-changing consumer and marketing landscape by finding new insights and pivot continuously to leverage new opportunities,” he said.

On a national level, he added: “As a nation, we must face these changes boldly and creatively leveraging our non-natural resources, that is, the intellectual capital, creativity, youth population, technology adoption, resilience, hard work and can-do-spirit as we know; ‘Naija no dey carry last’.”

While looking forward to working with the new exco in moving the affairs of the association to next level, Adelusi shared the pillars on which his vision for the association would be anchored. Articulating his vision under the acronym THINC, Adelusi said the five pillars under which his agenda would be anchored include technology, data and innovation; human capital development, developing MIPAN associates in media, digital and the marketing communications industry through its academy; webinars and training; industry thought leadership and inclusiveness and collaboration

The new MIPAN boss assured that his administration would take steps to change audience measurement, deploy scientific planning tool as well as leverage the power of consumer cum media data for effective delivery of clients’ solutions. Besides putting to effective use MIPAN’s academy, he disclosed that his administration would be actively contributing to the building of a knowledge economy that help to shape policies, strategies and regulations.

In what looks like a response to the current situation in the industry, Adelusi said: “We will break all barriers, both real and imagined, that limit the optimal self, drive gender equality and equal opportunity at the work environment. We must reach out to the digital agencies to join us in building a robust association. We must support our agencies to succeed and go beyond our niche to other sectoral associations in the industry for a sustainable and growth-oriented ecosystem.

“While the journey ahead may not be always smooth, we will be courageous to forge ahead and with the support of the new exco, the Working Committees (not Standing Committees), we will go further by not going alone.”

Adelusi called on all MIPAN members to join hands to build a strong and thriving association irrespective of their size and annual turnover, whether they are part of a global network or a part of a WhatsApp network.

He commended Dr. Onyeali-Ikpe’s immediate past executives, the Executive Secretary Mr. Eki Adzufeh, members of MIPAN Standing Committee and MIPAN Heads of Agencies for their continued support in driving the affairs of the association. He also commended the leadership of the Chairman of the 2020 MIPAN Election Committee, His Royal Majesty (HRM), Kabiyesi Ayodele Kupoluyi, the paramount ruler of Temidire Ekiti, and the election committee for putting together a successful election

While giving account of stewardship of his team earlier, Dr. Onyeali-Ikpe called on members to brace up to the new realities such as low purchasing power, which has led to reduction in consumption and clients cutting costs to survive thereby leading to reduction in marketing communication budgets.

“I wish to let you know that this is not the end. If anything else, it could just be the beginning for those who will retool their business models as they take some learning from the bad situation to bring out something good and great out of it. It shall be well,” Dr. Onyeali-Ikpe assured.

Chief among his achievements was the birth of a revised MIPAN Constitution and Code of Conduct.

“We made sure that more concrete structures were established and the Executive Council became more mobile. More members accredited as efforts were also made at creating more awareness for MIPAN, and the advertising industry felt more impact of the association.

“More of our people got invited by APCON to sit at her Council and some of her stakeholders. We have been able to set clear-cut standards for MIPAN. The association became more vibrant, dynamic in its activities and noticeable in the industry thereby pushing it a notch higher than ever.

“This is also the period that we started elections of Executive Council based on the adopted MIPAN constitution when the current Executive Council members were voted into office for the first term of two years and re-elected in 2018 for another term which comes to an end during this AGM.

“Within this period also, we ensured that all our Standing Committees became more effective in their activities. I must mention here, particularly, that our technical team has been working assiduously for the past three years to birth a new Media Audience Measurement system,” Dr. Onyeali-Ikpe explained.

Laudable as his tenure was, there were other issues that were left unresolved such as finding a more agreeable funding model for all stakeholders, quackery in the industry, unprofessional and sharp practices, bringing more agencies into the fold, making more revenue for the association to be able to purchase landed property and having official car (cars) for the use of the secretariat, among other things.

Photo caption: Newly elected President, Media Independent Practitioner Association of Nigeria, MIPAN, Mr. Olufemi Adelusi (middle); Permanent Secretary, MIPAN, Mr. Eki Adezufeh (left); and new Publicity Secretary, MIPAN, Mr. Henry Ononiwu at the Annual General Meeting, 2020 AGM, recently in Lagos.

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