Sola Akinsiku, President of the Out-of-Home Advertising Association of Nigeria, OAAN, has said the association is gearing up to deepen its identity within the integrated marketing communications ecosystem.

The veteran professional said this does not signify an attempt to isolate itself but to deepen its identity by initiating a definite professional niche for its members that will define their unique offerings as media owners, and not advertisers as people assume them to be.

Stating this in an exclusive interview with MARKETING EDGE, he pointed out that, instead of being known with the generic term ‘advertisers ’as perceived by many, the defined identity will help project OAAN’s distinctive niche, role, characteristics and goal orientation in the marketing ecosystem.

“What we want to do is to ensure our sector is clearly identified as who and what we are and treated as such. We contribute immensely to the global economy in Nigeria and then to the advertising sub-sector because it relies on our platforms to a great extent.”

Akinsiku further affirmed that businesses across sectors are evolving and the events of the last few years have shifted the paradigm. He stressed the need to align in the new business realities by ensuring that members are identified with their core roles as media owners operating in the out-of-home space, whose responsibility is to expose advertisements done by creatives.

“I like to emphasize that we are a media sector. We expose the advertisements as created by the creators of the creative and then having had them approved by the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON). then they can be exposed on our platform. So, in the main, we are media owners. We are into out-of-home media to that extent. I need to say this because there is this confusion of whether out-of-home is advertising.

“Yes, we expose  in the main, created advertisements, we don’t create. Some of us have the experience of creative advertising. We expose what has been created. Ours is just get advertisements that have been approved by ARCON. We must be seen as media platform owners and must also expose within the limits of the law.”

The OAAN president added that this identification is not a confrontational move as the association still remains under the leadership of ARCON as the apex regulator of the advertising industry. He said this strategic step does not mean that OAAN will be working in isolation within the ecosystem but will continue to respond to various environmental demands.

The OAAN boss reiterated that the leadership is committed to ensuring a more unified association with a common purpose and goal for the expansion and growth of the association.

He gave assurance that members of his team are resolute in building a more professionally recognized practice with readiness to get rid of charlatans.

“It will allow for only people that are seriously business-minded to be in the industry. We may not be able to completely throw out charlatanism. But we will be able to control to an extent, to ensure that it is only recognised registered professionals that have entry into the space. We want to be able to control our members while working in partnership with government, including ARCON. It may require that all engineers that will work on all or any platform must have one certification by the relevant engineering association or governing council in Nigeria to foster professionalism among practitioners.”