Impact of election on adspend over-rated -Oyeyemi
By Oghale Mafuru
As the 2023 general election gathers momentum, Kolawole Oyeyemi, Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Axiom Intel Nigeria Limited, a leading marketing communications company has posited that the electioneering activities will have minimal influence on advertising spend this year contrary to speculations.
The renowned marketing professional with over two decades of experience stated that the general belief that the coming elections will stimulate economic activities that will spur advertising spend in 2023 is unlikely given the fact that the preceding months had not witnessed any upbeat of activities involving professionals of the Integrated Marketing Communications Industry.
His words: “I think this whole hype about the impact of the elections on brands is over-rated because we are looking at two critical months in a 12 calendar month year. The reality is that normally, the build up to the election should have been in November, December, or January for an election that will happen in February. So if we have not seen the kind of aggressiveness thus far, I am not expecting a breath-taking, disruptive spending in 2023.
According to him, while politicians continue to fund campaign initiatives, not much is accrued to agencies or the media.
“They may be spending on the streets but not on the media as you would expect it to be. The thing is that a lot of what you are going to find is that the law that the government is going to roll out in terms of financial regulations is also going to have some impacts on how much money these guys have to spend because a lot of the money they would have spent are not monies that will go through the banks. With what they have done right now, we are now forcing them to go through the banks and account for those monies and explain the source. That is a very difficult thing for many of the people that you expect to spend any money lavishly.
“So, from my point of view, I don’t think we are going to see anything extraordinary than what we have seen right now. Be as it may, we will still see some spending” he stressed.
The highly cerebral marketing professional, stressed that the fundamental requirements necessary for marketers and brand managers to win under any economic or social climate are precision, thoroughness, insights and a smart strategy that aligns with creative work.
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“What is important really is that you have first, strategy that is clear and focused on your consumer or customers depending on which sector you’re in. Then have your strategy and creative aligning because one of the biggest issues we have in the industry is that you have excellent strategy but poor execution in terms of creativity.
There must be a connection between the strategy and the creative work. The third one for me is creativity that breaks parity. You must be heads and shoulders above your peers and competitors in terms of your creative deliveries. These fundamentals are regardless of whether there is an increment in the environment or high competition. These are standards that you must focus on anyday, anytime. So for me, if you keep those three things in sight and you are driven by sound insights, with your eyes on the ball with regards to your customers, your strategy aligns with your creative work and your creativity breaks parity, I don’t think you
lose sleep over the worth of political ad spend” he said.
The 2023 general elections is about eight weeks away and the polity is agog with campaign activities as aspirants continue to sell their manifesto to electorates across the six geo-political zones of the country.
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