Professionals differ on low-profile campaigns at Easter
By Felicia Nwosu
Annually, Easter is a time of renewal of engagement, connection and celebration between brands and consumers, as it offers brands the opportunity to connect with their audience through compelling and engaging media campaigns.
This year, unlike several years in the past, witnessed a low-profile campaign display even though several brands still launched interesting and innovative campaigns. However, scarcity of varieties of campaigns as it used to be created some dull moments in the atmosphere unlike the previous years.
The silence that greeted the season across diverse channels during the recent Easter celebration propelled MARKETING EDGE to seek the views of professionals in the Nigerian marketing communications industry.
For Osamede Uwubanmwen, President of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), the issue has become like that of the hunter and the Eneke bird, which says, “if the hunter learns to shoot without aiming, the Eneke will learn to fly without perching”. This also is in line with another popular saying: “once beaten, twice shy.”
Attributing his reason to the impact of the various regulations, the ADVAN President submitted that it is crucial to introduce regulations that do not impede sectoral development and growth.
He said lots of brands are becoming cautious in their moves with seasonal campaigns to avert being caught in the regulatory web of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) and the hard backlash from the side of consumers themselves.
“We have warned that it will get to this point, in which people will see regulation as harmful. People should be encouraged to adhere to regulation not forced to do so. If regulation becomes something that makes it able to prevent a backlash against my brand or help my brand grow or create an enabling environment, l will obey regulation. But when regulation becomes something that is harmful in such way that l don’t even believe, there are ways that regulators will tell you that you have erred, and you admit and apologise.
“There are lots of ways you can do marketing. I have said it in the past that advertising is not compulsory, especially when advertising becomes something that will make your company to face a panel.”
Omokehinde Thomas, Digital Marketing Lead, Seven Up Bottling Company, who also shared the same opinion with the president of ADVAN, added that it had nothing to do with economic pressure, but that brands are trying to stay off being penalized.
“Who wants to get penalized and asked to pay money? So brands would rather do nothing or just go generic. Also, we have become more sensitive across religions.
“To be honest, I think the reason why brands are being more careful. Remember the Sterling Bank saga? And because creative expressions are subjective, it’s best to just go generic or not do anything,” he said.
Olukayode Oluwasona, the Chief Executive Officer of 1201 Brandsway Limited, a Multi-Channel Marketing Communications Company, hinged the reason on the global economic headwinds affecting the economy.
“Businesses are under serious pressures in the current economic situation of the country. Inflation at over 30% official and about 100% unofficial is killing businesses. Sales volumes must drop. So clients are being extremely careful and are saving every Naira possible to shore up their bottom lines.
“In a situation like that, affinity campaigns are not likely to rank highly on their priority list. Sales are down for most of the advertisers. Don’t be carried away when you see high (er) figures in the financial reports. Most of them are just nominal, and not real growth. The actual volumes are down. In summary, clients that battling for survival can’t think of ‘season’s greetings’ campaigns now. They will rather push their products and spend on promotional campaigns.
Corroborating Oluwasona’s opinion, Okpe Mathias, Managing Partner/Creative Director, Badger Creative Limited, exempted regulation from being responsible for the low campaigns during Easter, but instead attributed it to the prevailing pressure on foreign exchange and other economic factors.
“I think what actually happened is that the dollar and price increase have created a lot of shock at both consumer and brand end, so brands are restrategising. All of those things took away the Easter vibes and everything. A lot of brands are actually in between the dollar crisis and trying to hold a grip of product sales, let me just say there’s a whole lot of low sales out there. Brands are actually planning sales activation instead of running existing campaigns already. It is not like brands were not intending to campaign, but they were not looking at Easter to campaign. They’re actually looking at a more holistic campaign that would actually help them get sales and drive demand.
He explained that it has nothing to do with vetting, religion or culture as brands are willing to do the right thing.
“It is not even about vetting, because I don’t see that as a problem because brands don’t have that as a challenge. Religion has nothing to do with it; it is not backlash at all. Because if you look at it, this is actually a good time to take advantage of campaigns. This isB because we have Ramadan going on at the same time. How about the brands that are actually doing something about Ramadan already. But if you ask me, a lot of brands are actually experiencing losses right now and they are asking questions. What is the way forward? How can we get this to survive? It’s not about the season right now. It’s when you have steady demand and supply.That’s when you now talk about tacticals.
Over the years, the advertising industry has continued to witness unpleasant experiences with marketing campaigns going sour or awry while trying to demonstrate emotive and inspirational connections that surround the season across various channels.
It has come to a stage where brands will have to devise new ways of leveraging the golden opportunities to engage with their audience when they integrate thematic marketing ideas that can significantly boost visibility, drive sales, and foster a deeper connection with customers in a creative and meaningful approach.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Comment
No comments found.