In-House PR Departments threaten Nigeria’s PR Industry
In the midst of Nigeria’s economic recession an increasing number of Nigeria businesses now favour hiring in-house Public Relations department for their PR jobs.
This trend has resulted in loss of PR accounts and budget cuts for the PR agencies. Marketing edge findings reveal that this practice is becoming common even among multinationals and major Nigerian businesses.
Companies like Globacom Nigeria, Dangote, United Bank of Africa (UBA) amongst others have refused to contract any agency to carry out their PR duties, preferring staff from their PR departments for such functions.
According to experts, this practice has contributed significantly to the decline in the PR industry in Nigeria, where a good number of the agency now survive on piece meal jobs.
Chief Operating Officer, (COO), Black House Media, Mr. Femi Falodun, explained that one of the reasons responsible for such trend is the evolution of technology.
“All the agencies generally are suffering right now and it is because of the evolution of technology, so with technology, brands can hire some young boys somewhere to make some effective creative for them, get some young talented guys from the agencies put them in-house, let them be the brain behind the communication aspect of marketing” he revealed.
He added that: “With those freelancers and in-house people, brands can create their messaging, get their placement done, and execute the brief which originally should have been given to us as PR agencies”
However maintained that hiring independent PR agencies remains the best option, the in-house PR agencies might be unable to optimally execute the brief.
“They won’t have the best of the finishing that the agency will have, they don’t ]have experience that the agencies has, they probably won’t have the talents that the agency has in executing the brief, so that new option that is coming up for them is becoming a risk and rip-off to the PR agencies” he stressed.
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