Why collaboration is vital for communication management in Lagos – Kelechi Nwosu
By Kasim Bakare
A former President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria(AAAN) Kelechi Nwosu has suggested the need for collaboration between the marketing communication industry and the Lagos State government to help enhance activities for meeting the communication needs of the state.
Nwosu, who is the Managing Director,TBWA/Concept in an exclusive interview with MARKETING EDGE stated that this has become necessary to address the deficiencies caused by inadequate training of state officials on marketing communications.
While appreciating the governor, Babajide Sanwo-olu for his declaration of support for the agency and its numerous programmes including the forthcoming Lagos Advertising & Ideas Festival (LAIF) awards, he noted that the collaboration with the association would no doubt produce a mutual benefit for the two parties.
“We are delighted by the recognition by the governor for our association at the recent Marketing Edge Awards.We are happy about it and I am sure our industry will grab the opportunity with both arms and legs because he’s probably the first governor who has asked to work and collaborate with us. I think it will beneficial to the state. As communication people, we have a lot we can do for the state in terms of pushing the communication agenda of the state.
Continuing he said: “I am sure the Governor will be consulting with stakeholders in the industry through our able President Steve Babaeko. I am sure they would raise a team to engage the governor on that.
He added: “Specifically the governor talked about supporting the Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF) award.LAIF is a landmark event in the creative space in Nigeria. With the governor’s support the event would grow even better.LAIF is not just about advertising it is also an idea Festival. That’s a great opportunity for us and for Lagos to propagate ideas. A lot of us have done advocacy work and therefore this is an opportunity for us to do advocacy work for the government.”
He noted that the collaboration would also be beneficial in the area of providing support for the government effort towards causing a behavioral change among the people of the state.
“On behavioral change campaign ,part of the things we did in that aspect was the spirit of Lagos campaign under the Fashola administration. We were commissioned to do the campaign and it was largely successful. Those kind of behavior change through civic campaign ought to be run by advertising agencies under our purview. Those are the kind of collaboration we are talking about.
On collaboration for training of officials in communication, Nwosu noted that there is a lot of activities going on currently that the government needs to amplify publicity on.
“There is need to train more government officials to help ramp up communication activities for the state. For instance, right now there is a review and update of voters register currently going on in the country.There is no campaign around it. There should be various civic campaigns .
Speaking further on how the industry can leverage the governor’s promise of collaboration and support for the marketing communication industry, Nwosu noted that the industry can collaborate by offering or keying into various campaigns of government aimed at sensitization and national orientation.
“Lately, there is a loss of hope and a loss of faith in the country by so many people. We should have a campaign to restore people’s faith in the country. Not necessarily the “Andrew don check out” kind of campaign. We should have an insightful campaign asking people especially those who have things to offer to say you don’t need to run away, this is the time for us to rebuild the country.
“There are many issues confronting us as a nation at the moment; women/gender issues, discrimination issue etc and so much that can be done as advocacy campaign. With the collaboration and an endorsement from the governor of Lagos State, we can be sure of greater impact in no distant time”. He concluded.
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