MIPAN inducts new members at 2021 AGM
By Abimbola Mohammed
Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), the umbrella body for media planning and buying agencies in Nigeria, has officially inducted three new members into its fold at its 2021 annual general meeting(AGM)/ business meeting.
The new members of the association- Ubiquity Media, Havas Media and ADTRADERS Media were inducted at an event held on June 19th, 2021 at Riviera Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The event, which had as its theme, “Building an Enduring Organization in a Fast Changing World” had in attendance the MIPAN president, Femi Adelusi, Registrar/CEO, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, MIPAN members, as well as representatives of other sectoral bodies in the marketing communications industry, such as the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria, OAAN, and Experiential Marketing Association of Nigeria, EXMAN.
While welcoming his members, guests and other attendees to the event, MIPAN President, Mr. Femi Adelusi, urged agencies to work in synergy as working together would help them to withstand the challenges of this time.
In his words: “This meeting is very important at times like this when we have a very challenging economy, we have gone through the COVID-19 Pandemic and 2020 is still fresh and we have a lot to recover from. There is a lot we can do together as we continue to engage among our partners and work together to leverage our capabilities in order to withstand the challenges of the time.”
He emphasized that as agencies there would always be competitions, winning pitches and losing some; but relationship is the most important to survive through ups and downs.
Said he, “As agencies we’ll continue to compete and pitch every day, if you have stayed long enough in the industry you will understand that pitches are part of life, some businesses will come and some will go. It is important that the relationships will be enduring and we can continue to circle through our ups and downs.”
Speaking on the theme of the AGM, the guest speaker, Mr. Emeka Okeke, Group CEO, Media Fuse Dentsu International, pointed out that despite the challenges in Nigeria and the world at large, some agencies were still thriving while some perished.
Okeke queried: “Why do some media agencies thrive in challenging times while others perish? Why do some marketing communications networks survive despite strict measures and environmental disruptions?”
He offers the following to the above posers: “The one answer, among so many answers, is ‘Perception’; because the way we see things are different and change is the answer to the question. If change is what makes the difference it therefore becomes imperative that businesses have difficult choices to choose from. I am saying there are too difficult choices because it is not easy to adapt, it is not easy to stay ahead of the curve and also it not easy to predict in other to stay ahead but it takes a lots of discipline and stepping out of your comfort zone to adapt but we must, because the consequences of sticking to old ways will mean disruption for any agencies or networks. ”
The media communication expert added that enterprises that do not adapt are in for a lot of trouble, citing examples of big firms that didn’t follow the trend when technology, innovation and time to change came but later went into extinction.
According to Okeke, “80% 0f fortune 500 firms that existed in 1955 are gone or they have been acquired, merged or they found themselves as weaker partners and couldn’t meet up with the new trends. Examples of such firms are Kodak, Nokia, Tops’Rus and Blockbuster as they fail to identify the power of technology, innovation and adapt to change in time.”
Continuing, he said, “There are major changes that we are seeing in our space, we have witnessed top disruptive events shaping our world today and some of them are COVID-19, digital and technology acceleration, climate change, social movement and so on.”
He added that clients and consumers no longer care about the reach and frequency, what they want is user experience and user interface.
He then advised that media planners/buyers should be concerned about how to be solution providers and not just planning and buying as big networks like Publicis, Dentsu International and GroupM are restructuring as a result of these changes, responding and acquiring smaller agencies. Nigerian marketing and communication agencies, he opined, should do this by offering different services, cautioning that if the industries in Nigeria fail to change they might suffer the faith as the big firms.
Significantly, the event had as its diamond sponsor, HippoAD, a global mobile and intelligent marketing service provider which is committed to helping companies expand the global market through its comprehensive one-step services empowered by performance marketing, branding and localization.
HippoAD is a global mobile and intelligent marketing service provider committed to helping companies acquire global users, build brand awareness and monetize inventory.
In recognition and appreciation of its support, HippoAD went away with an award for its Diamond sponsorship of the event; other awardees included PHD, Insight Redefini, Media Fuse Dentsu International and Algorithm Media
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