Local elements must play a role in advertising – APCON Registrar
By Felicia Nwosu
Dr. Lekan Fadolapo, Registrar, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), has revealed that the Council’s future agenda in driving industry growth is to ensure that local elements play a role in advertising by attracting more investments through localization of contents and diversification of the sector.
The regulatory leader stated this in a one-on-one chat with MARKETING EDGE, while noting that every industry reform introduced by the Council is geared towards growth, professionalism and also to resonate with the global community.
“If you look back at the industry, how many local production houses do we have? We believe strongly that promoting the localisation policy by APCON will encourage all the service providers and content creators within that ecosystem of advertising. They need to add value, and as well, get enumerated to the value they are bringing in. If all regulators align with the federal government policy, and are able to develop their own sector, then you can imagine the implication of that to the Naija mantra,” he said.
Dr. Fadolapo explained that the industry is growing and evolving, and called for more players and a chart for new pathways of investments.
“We need to encourage more players, we need to attract investments. This is the only way we can grow the industry. We are trying to promote a policy called localisation. Our local elements must play a role in advertising by conquering or by conquest; it must resonate with the community. It must promote religion, culture; it must recognise the people for what they are.
“We are still getting to the point of imported advertisements. In other climes for example, modeling and voice over are huge businesses, but what happens to our own modeling industry?” he asked.
The veteran advertiser emphasised the need to look inward to harness the various opportunities and endowments that abound within the advertising industry.
“It is time to look at how we can develop the modeling and voice- over artiste sector. These will help create more job opportunities for us in that ecosystem. This whole thing is targeted at the federal government policy of inclusive growth for the Nigeria economy. We need to understand the roles that the advertising agencies play within the SMEs sectors. This is to encourage inclusive growth. As their regulator, we need to ensure that we continue to see how we can engage every other person to have a win- win situation,” he said.
He reaffirmed the benefits of the various initiatives to the advertising practitioners while encouraging them to align with the reforms and policies for a greater industry growth.
“We are regulating the development of the industry. Some of the policies we are ruling out now may be needed. They may look at it and say, ‘what is it all about?’ But as we make progress, it will be clear to them. We are doing this for the best interest of their business, the economy, and that of the larger society. It may be very challenging for them to see the need for that now.”
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