We also need merger acquisition in Advertising industry – Dele Odugbemi
Concerned about the proliferations of mushroom advertising companies in the industry, a key player in the industry and the Managing Director, MediaShare, a global mindshare media agency, Mr. Dele Odugbemi has advocated for amalgamation in the advertising industry, in Nigeria in order to have a formidable and efficient industry that would make meaningful impact.
Mr.Odugbemi made this postulation in a chat with the Marketing Edge at his corporate office in Ikeja.
According to him, the advertising industry in Nigeria has come of age such that it could compete with its counterpart around the world and for such feat to be achievable, it is of great necessity for merger acquisitions like what was obtainedduring the reform of the banking industry under the administration of Prof. Charles Soludo, former Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, which availed the bigger and financially stable banks to acquire small and less financially stable ones.
“I think it’s about time we do what Charles Soludo did to the banking industry – to consolidate in order to have meaning. Merger and acquisition is what we really need; it makes a whole lot of sense, it would make the industry bigger and stronger, and we would be better for it. The small scale in my own little corner and the other one in his own corner doesn’t make any sense.”
According to Mr.Odugbemi, despite the fact that there are many ad companies in the industry, the resources are so concentrated in such a way that none is really having meaningful impact in the industry, which according to him is the reason why the agencies are not able to compete with each other.He said, “The little fragments we have do not make any meaning. If there are 40billion naira business – the top ten will manage twenty percent, which means that the top ten will now have a sum of N20billion, while the remaining percentage will now go to hire the best hands that can deliver the best job for them – it doesn’t matter where they get the resources from in any part of the world, they can afford such.”
Responding to question on whether the Nigeria advertising industry have beenglobally competitive, the MediaShare executive expressed serious dissatisfaction. He saidthat even though Nigerian ad industry has the talents and what it takes to compete globally, it is quite unfortunate that the industry is too internally focused and at the same time too relaxed in its comfort zone.
“I really find that very sad because we have a lot to offer the world actually but we are a lot more internally focused because Nigeria is a huge market and it’s the fifth in Africa in terms of consumers spend, so that is a lot and it’s a big country. I think in managing our domestic market, we haven’t quite looked at what we could have done in terms of learning from what others have done or even taking from what we have done into consideration, so I don’t think we have plugged in well,” he explained.
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