AAAN: A focus on consulting, tech firms

Year in year out, the advertising practitioners in Nigeria converged under the umbrella of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) to chart a way forward on how to have an ideal society.

This year’s edition was not different. But, unlike previous editions, what makes the 2017 Annual General Meeting more interesting is the incursion of consultancy firms and tech companies on advertising industry.

At the event, operators expressed fear that on a regular basis, ad agencies are losing their territory, as advertisers are finding alternatives to traditional advertising models. These new advertising channels, which are mostly tech companies are seen by clients to be more affordable, precise and even faster and they are now gradually relegating agencies to spectators on their own very turf.

The situation is so dire, that it dominated the Annual General Meeting. It was obvious from the meeting held recently in Lagos,that the industry has been pinned to a bad corner; and they needed to find a way out of the quagmire, which though, has existed for long, but has been made even worse by the economic recession.

Some of the stakeholders feared that the industry has very limited options. It must either innovate or die, they said.

The guest speaker, Bayo Adekanbi, an MTN Nigeria employee, set the ball rolling when he said; “I think there is hope. But the fact is that there must be a deliberate effort to package and build ourselves to the level of respect. There is a lot of capacity in the industry, but we must make a deliberate effort to build the practice.

“A lot has to do with the agency leaders. I am going to give a classical example, when I was an Executive Director at DDB, we had a session where I needed to do a presentation, I am bringing to the agency, engineers, first class scientists, physics graduates. It didn’t make sense, but I give all the kudos to my chairman, Mr. EnyiOdigbo, who said, ‘Bayo whatever is needed to do, go and do it.”

He said, “Then, we recruited lot of first class guys. We built the first data base of historical advertising, PR analytics. As an agency in 2008, what did that do for us is, it did not bring money, but it made clients to respect us. We sent detailed report to clients free of charge and they were impressed. There must be a deliberate effort to invest in things that will count for the future even when it does not make money now. At least, it will earn us the reputation and respect of the industry.” He said.

On his part, Dr. Rotimi Olaniyan, CEO Advantage/ the President of Experiential Marketing Association of Nigeria (EXMAN) said; “the reason marketing communication is dying is because of one truth- what is the question that we answer when we go to meet the client? The consultant answered one of the most important questions that operates at the CEO level, or indeed, the board level- and that is growth.

Because they go in with that answer, they will always be on the pecking order ahead of us that go in to answer questions about brands.

“If we want to move our value up, we have to step further up. A lot of people in our industry are seen as tactician and not truly strategists.

The truth is that the strategy has been done in London or US or even Johannesburg. What they tell us to do here is adapt strategy.

That is not strategy, that is tactical. If you truly want to be strategic, you actually have to question the fundamental basis of their business in the first place at the level of the business model.

Therefore, there is a need for us to have knowledge based creative thinkers in all our agencies.”

According to him, “the history of marketing communication in this country is the history of entrepreneur who slaved to build their businesses; and with it, they have attachments to their businesses.

But the future of this industry is going to be about institutional ownership.

We therefore can’t run away from mergers for value. The sooner we answered that question the better for all of us.”

On his part, Tunji Olugbodi, Executive Vice Chairman of Verdant Zeal Group, pointed out that; “we have to create our own narrative by coming together, and becoming more cohesive in our approach. We also need to understand that Lagos is not the only market.

Stories by Godwin Anyebe