MARKETING EDGE editorial on Ad Age’s latest introduction of 2023 Marketers of The Year
There is a new media phenomenon that is changing the face of journalism. It appears on practically every news platform’s website and social media handles. It features basically as lists or rankings with incisive and insightful details about brands, agencies, industry professionals, any topic or subject under the sun. It is called a listicle. A listicle can make use of different formats, including top 10, 50 and 100 lists, how-to-guides, titbits, best of compilations, tips and tricks articles among many others.
It’s, however, important to note that a listicle is not entirely a product of digital journalism’s attempt at producing different types of content such as rankings, video-encrypted pieces, image slideshows or lists. The listicle has evolved from print staple to a staple of digital journalism that feeds the contemporary ‘news snacking’ consumer, especially millennials.
In fact, what determines the perceived credibility of listicles and differentiates them from traditional articles is the level of viral engagement they garner online, especially among millennials who have been adjudged to retain more information from a well-constructed listicle than a traditional article containing the same information.
From Ad Age’s Top 100 Players in Advertising History (1999), Creativity 50, Marketers of The Year, to ‘Time 100 Most Influential People’ and to The Sunday Times ‘100 Best Companies’ to Buzzfeed’s, listicles are easily embraced, particularly in the digital age for their compact information format and online vigour and vitality.
What’s more? Ad Age, a global media brand focusing on curated creativity, data, analysis, people, culture, innovation and forecasting, recently announced its 2023 Marketers of The Year. According to the iconic publication, “as 2023 comes to an end, it’s time to look back at the best marketing of the year, not just the campaigns that gained buzz, but work that drove revenue and set up companies for future success.”
The foregoing further underscores the fact that a media organisation does not require the permission of any agency or institute to make a listicle in any sector of the economy or industry. Its informed and sagacious editorial judgment is enough to do so.
Where then does the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), under the hare-brained leadership of Mr. Idy Enang, derive its powers to question the audacious editorial wisdom and authority of MARKETING EDGE in its listicle of Top 10 Marketing Professionals and Digital Marketing Professionals in Nigeria? This question becomes more germane coming against the background that MARKETING EDGE has been following in the tradition of these global media brands. Indeed, discerning members of the Nigerian marketing community should suspect sinister aim and object of a few maniacal cabal wanting to hijack NIMN for selfish and evil agenda.
What’s more, since 2016, Ad Age has been running an annual award called Creativity 50 honoring the 50 most creative people in the advertising, marketing, technology and entertainment industries, in addition to top creative campaigns and the most innovative advertising. Past winners have also included entertainers such as Beyonce, David Bowie, Stephen Colbert and even author Kelly Oxford among others.
Ad Age published in 1999 a list of the Top 100 Players in Advertising History and has been listing Marketers of The Year till date. It has not, to the best of our knowledge, sought the permission of the American Marketers Association (AMA), the industry leader in providing members with expertise and knowledge so that they can stay ahead of the most current developments and trends in marketing. AMA has not asked Ad Age to explain how it came about its rankings either.
For lack of ideation, innovation and industry agenda, Idy Enang, having wasted his tenure as NIMN president, has been making a mountain out of a mole hill over MARKETING EDGE’s listicle and other industry achievements of the leading publication for reasons best known to him and his clueless gang.
With Mr. Enang as NIMN’s President and Chairman in Council, one doomsday scenario stands out – the dearth of the marketing profession in Nigeria.
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