Revisiting Nigeria’s marketing communications industry: Progress, challenges, and the road ahead

By Zion Rufus

The second half of 2024 signals a promising trajectory for Nigeria’s marketing communications industry, with projections suggesting the sector will generate $2 billion by 2025 and contribute 1.08% to the GDP by 2028. This optimism is bolstered by PwC’s forecast of an increase in advertising spend from ₦605.2 billion in 2023 to ₦893 billion by 2028. However, beneath these positive projections lie systemic challenges and discord that threaten the industry’s stability and potential.

In 2022, key industry leaders identified critical issues requiring urgent attention, including the influx of unqualified practitioners, the need for stricter regulation, and the imperative for collaboration. Two years on, this article revisits those concerns, assessing progress made and identifying emerging challenges.

Issues highlighted in 2022, comments, and suggestions

Raising Barriers to entry, Reducing number of agencies, Influx of Unqualified Practitioners

A significant concern in 2022 was the influx of unqualified practitioners and the proliferation of ad agencies.

Seni Adetu, Chairman and Group CEO of Primus Group/Algorithm Media Limited, addressed the issue of fragmentation in Nigeria’s media, advertising, and marketing ecosystem at the 2023 National Advertising Conference. Adetu, a vocal critic of this trend, described it as a significant threat to the industry’s success.

“Unfortunately, our industry is set up for failure, and it’s because we are too fragmented,” Adetu stated, highlighting the lack of scale as a critical flaw in the current system.

He further argued that the current structure of the advertising industry is predisposed to chaos unless significant reforms are made. To combat this, Adetu proposed a consolidation of the industry, suggesting that Nigeria should have no more than ten advertising agencies. This, he emphasized, would help reduce fragmentation and improve competitiveness.

Steve Babaeko, President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) and CEO of X3M Ideas, reported efforts to address this issue by enforcing stricter membership criteria. While these measures have yielded some results, the proliferation of agencies remains a significant challenge. With over 100 registered agencies, industry leaders contend that this has led to coordination problems and diluted brand messaging.

In the field of public relations, similar concerns were raised by Jaiye Israel Opayemi, President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria (PRCAN) and CEO of Chain Reactions Limited. He criticized the low barriers to entry that make it easy for individuals to establish PR firms without proper qualifications.

“We need to address the issue of the barrier to entry. The barrier to entry needs to be raised significantly. At the moment, practically anybody can leave a media organization and set up a public relations consulting firm, and this remains a major challenge,” Opayemi stated during a 2022 conversation. “Are you qualified? When you say you are a consultant, it implies that you have the requisite expertise and training to advise clients on reputational or image issues. We need to ensure this is sorted out.”

Assessing progress

In response, regulatory bodies have initiated public awareness campaigns and planned crackdowns on unqualified practitioners. Where ARCON introduced a new vetting regime in 2022 to ensure only licensed organizations could apply to the Advertising Standards Panel (ASP) for vetting, the PR sector also kicked off 2024 with a public awareness campaign from January to March, followed by strict enforcement from April.

2.Legal and competitive challenges

Despite appearances of calm in the industry, the long-standing dispute between ARCON and the Advertisers’ Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) remains unresolved.

ADVAN recently withdrew from the Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups (HASG), citing concerns over deviations from its objectives. In a formal letter, the association raised issues around transparency, accountability, and inclusion in recent HASG activities.

In late 2023, ADVAN took legal action against ARCON, seeking to protect its members’ interests and maintain the integrity of Nigeria’s marketing profession. The association argues that certain provisions of the ARCON law are unconstitutional and conflict with global best practices, claiming the law empowers ARCON to overregulate advertisers.

“We are committed to ensuring fair regulations for our members and upholding the integrity of the marketing profession in Nigeria,” ADVAN President Osamede Uwubanmwen stated in an interview with Marketing Edge.

As both parties push for the sector’s growth and development, the ongoing legal conflict also highlights broader tensions within Nigeria’s advertising industry, particularly concerning regulatory oversight and industry relationships.

3. Absence of Collaboration

From Udeme Ufot, Group CEO of SO&U, who emphasized the need for the industry to transition from its current disconnected and informal model to a more structured and interconnected one, to Otis Ojeikhoa, Managing Director and CEO of Brands Optimal, who advocated for healthy collaboration to establish structures, mechanisms, and co-creation while avoiding excessive competition, leaders in the marketing communications industry continue to call for greater collaboration.

“Collaboration will be very important going into this year (2022) and in the years to come,” Lanre Adisa, CEO of Noah’s Ark, told Marketing Edge in 2022, stressing unity and collaboration as essential for growth and excellence in Nigeria’s marketing communications industry.

This sentiment has been echoed by other industry leaders, including ARCON DG, Dr. Lekan Fadolapo; Managing Director of Starcom Media Perspectives, Jude Odia; Group CEO of Livespot360,Deola Art Alade; and Jaiye Israel Opayemi, CEO of Chain Reactions Limited.

Art Alade highlighted the critical role of collaboration, up-skilling, formal training, and increased investment in advancing both local and international industry growth. She stressed the need to redefine competition and foster cooperation among players.

Odia called on practitioners to collaborate with existing players in the ecosystem to enhance their value offerings and revenue-generation channels.

“We must redefine competition because, sometimes, the people you perceive as competitors are the ones who come to your aid when you need help. It’s about innovating and understanding that today’s competitor isn’t necessarily tomorrow’s enemy,” Odia remarked in 2022.

Opayemi also emphasized the transformative potential of collaboration, noting that it could elevate the Nigerian PR sector to international standards. He advocated for reforms in public relations laws similar to those implemented by APCON (now ARCON) to sanitize the industry and ensure mutually beneficial outcomes for stakeholders.

Assessing Progress

Despite widespread acknowledgment of collaboration as the future model for the ad agency ecosystem, the industry continues to grapple with internal strife.

Dr. Lekan Fadolapo, then Registrar of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and now Director General of the Advertisers Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), previously appealed for unity among stakeholders. He identified internal divisions as a major challenge.

“My appeal to operators and stakeholders in the industry is this: let us come together. We’ve experienced banters, accusations, and counter-accusations. As a regulator, I must say every sector in the industry shares the blame. I am not promoting disagreement or unethical practices,” Fadolapo stated.

In the current landscape, Lanre Adisa is running for the AAAN Presidency under the slogan “#StrongerTogether,” championing collaboration among stakeholders. Meanwhile, Emmanuel Agu, Group Marketing Director of JOTNA Nigeria, serves as Chairman of the Advertising Standards Panel.

Industry leaders have also highlighted some barriers to collaboration.

Tolulope Medebem, President of the Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria (EXMAN) and CEO of Aster Integrated Marketing Limited, explained that many agencies hesitate to collaborate due to concerns about protecting their businesses.

“They believe they are safeguarding their interests, which is understandable. However, long-term collaboration can lead to better campaigns and outcomes for clients,” Medebem stated. She added that while rivalry and bickering may still occur, especially as new agencies emerge, clients might be better served by fostering integration and cooperation among creative teams.

Similarly, Otis Ojeikhoa, Managing Director and CEO of Brands Optimal, noted that while collaboration is often discussed, it is challenging in practice.

“Collaboration has become a buzzword, but how do you collaborate without exposing your competitive secrets? It’s easier said than done. The reality is, we all face an existential threat from competition, and if we don’t resist or address it, it could consume us,” Ojeikhoa remarked.

4. Audience Measurement

Brila FM Chairman, Dr. Larry Izamoje, and Femi Adelusi, President of the Media Independents Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), on their part highlighted the need for advanced audience measurement tools.

According to Izamoje, audience measurement in Nigeria must evolve with changes in the industry.

“Calls for specialized stations ratings is something we think will eventually happen because even the Nigerian government through the Ministry of Information and Culture is unhappy with the kind of audience measurement we have in Nigeria.”

Adelusi validated Izamoje’s point.

In his comment, the MIPAN President revealed that “Although the Media Planning Services (MPS) has provided the industry with tools to do audience measurement, the industry has not been widely covered and this has elicited criticism from key stakeholders.

“The rate and pace at which things happen more frequently, the time frame and all others, we need a tool that provides media information at regular intervals,” he said.

Assessing Progress

In June 2024, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, formally launched the Audience Measurement System for the broadcasting sector to generate accurate and reliable data of television viewers and radio listeners in the country.

Idris, who performed the launch in Abuja acknowledged the importance of the Audience Measurement System in ensuring that broadcasting endeavors are not only impactful but also did not reflect the true picture of what and how many people were watching or listening to a particular content.

Femi Adelusi also assured stakeholders of new tools developed by MIPAN to provide accurate and current data, enhancing return on investment for clients and advertisers while speaking at the 2024 media sales conference.

5. Distinguishing Between Practice and Business of Advertising

In 2022, ARCON DG Dr. Lekan Fadolapo, Doyin Adewunmi, Managing Director of Creative Xone Limited, and Dolapo Otegbayi, then Specialized Nutrition Director at FrieslandCampina WAMCO, highlighted the need to balance the practice and business of advertising.

Dolapo Otegbayi had said, “The practice and business of advertising are two sides of the same coin. The value of advertising is in the practice. The authentic practice of advertising delivers value for the client, brand, and the agency. Unfortunately, there are many people parading themselves more as businessmen and women, with little or no added value and benefit to brands.”

According to Otegbayi, this imbalance has continued to create gaps and challenges within the industry.with calls for renewed focus on both areas.

Fadolapo on his part had pointed out that If we don’t look at the business of advertising and concentrate only on the practice of advertising, there is going to be a major challenge.

“I looked at these issues basically from those two standpoints and I concluded that we need to do things that will strengthen the practice of the industry from those two areas. This challenge has created a lot of gaps and big issues for practitioners and operators within the industry.”

Doyin Adewunmi also opined that “A lot has happened to the practice of the business of advertising, which has impacted negatively on the professional aspect of it. It is a profession because we have values that we are supposed to deliver to every brand, we are supposed to build brands, we are supposed to peak brands.”

Unfortunately, little progress has been made in this area, with many practitioners still blurring the lines between professional and business interests.

6. The PR Industry Must Move Beyond Traditional Press Releases

In 2022, Yomi Olaniwun, CEO of Bold Brand Buzz, highlighted the need for agencies to innovate in strategy, content, and measurement. Stanley Olisa, a media consultant, echoed this sentiment, urging PR practitioners to focus on strengthening client relationships and demonstrating tangible value. “PR is all about connecting people with brands through storytelling, so we have to shift the narrative to reflect what people need and want,” Olaniwun had said.

Stanley Olisa also said in his letter to Nigerian PR practitioners: “Telling your client you’ll get them published in the dailies and on blogs doesn’t really cut it anymore. Selling press release syndication as your only value-add to a prospective client is no longer a sustainable approach. Your client is now interested in how your PR campaign will help them strengthen relationships with their key stakeholders and engender supportive behavior. There is a growing need for PR practitioners to embrace the reality that the demands and expectations in the business world are changing, and the business environment is also becoming more complex. These changes are adding new ramifications to the PR profession, as it is coming under intense scrutiny by CEOs, especially as they pose questions which impugn the value of PR practice.”

Sadly, not much has changed.

As we look ahead, it is clear that while some progress has been made, significant challenges remain. The industry must continue to address these issues to achieve sustainable growth and development.