IMC experts weigh industry’s challenges
Ibidunni Banjoko
Experts in the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) industry have weighed the challenges affecting each sector that needs attention for the growth of the business.
This was expressed by stakeholders in the industry who spoke with MARKETING EDGE on recent development in the IMC industry.
Commenting on the challenges, Steve Babaeko, President Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) stated that infrastructure has been a major challenge for every SMEs starting from power. Agencies fall within the SME space. The cost of power to run operations in a day is so high and it is because of the passion that we have for our profession that makes us continue in business.
He also noted that human capital is another issue. “You will train young people hoping that they can work with you for at least two to three years but their mind is far from that. All you will hear is that they are on their way to Canada or somewhere else. We can’t blame them because they feel the country is not conducive for them and this keeps increasing every day. All these have a negative impact on the business.
On his part, Emmanuel Ajufo, President Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) said: “The major challenges affecting the industry are, multiple taxations, billing for vacant billboards, registration of non-ARCON or OAAN members by the signage agency, the planned concessioning of 7 major roads in Lagos and the lack of LASAA board that will oversee and monitor the activities and transactions between the Lagos State Signage Agency and Outdoor agencies and the pulling down of billboard structures of OAAN practitioners by LASAA.”
Rotimi Bankole, CEO, SBI Media believes that financing is a challenge for many agencies. Clients have long pay cycles that hamstring start-up agencies from funding other projects. Also, professionalism is being gradually eroded. The barrier to entry in many aspects of our business is extraordinarily low.” Those are just the major issues.”
He continued: “The first one can be better fixed through better management of cash flow and financing. A lot of organisations try so hard to hold on to as much working capital as possible because it is insanely expensive to obtain financing from banks. That’s why their invoice processing often takes as long as 90 days or 120 days. Now, if they don’t pay agencies, agencies struggle to serve other clients because money is tied up in multimillion naira projects that are yet to be paid for. When agencies are buoyant enough to serve more than just a couple of clients, that’s when agencies can truly grow.
“As for the second challenge, rather than create a closed system that may restrict new people from participating, let’s follow the tech industry’s example and make the latest knowledge available to as many people as possible, on both the agency side and the client side. Then the buyers of the service we provide must insist on global best practices”.
In the same vein, Eniola Mayowa, COO, Stepcraft Associates stated that PR practice is yet to attain its place, noting that in developed countries, PR practitioners relate with their clients like doctors.
“We need to take the profession to the enviable height where it is respected. PR is the ability to predict the trend, not the client telling the practitioner what to do.
“For a lot of us, we are just waiting for a client to tell us what to do. No, I should scan through the environment and tell you what is trending. PR is the ability to predict trends, it is not about getting clients in the news. I always tell people it’s about the ability to predict trends. What happened last year? What influences what happens out there, what are the behavioural patterns of people and how do they respond?”, she asked rhetorically.
She mentioned that NIPR as the regulatory body needs to project the practice, and do more in terms of education and exposing practitioners to global best practices.
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