APCON, practitioners chart way forward in the new normal

Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) has organized a virtual meeting among advertising practitioners and other regulatory agencies to discuss pertinent issues concerning the industry.

Top on the agenda was the dwindling fortunes of practitioners amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the need to position the industry for life after the crisis. The theme of the meeting was ‘Marketing Communications Business Sustainability in the post Covid-19 Era’ and the virtual session had panellists such as George Thorpe, Emeka Okeke, Lolu Akinwunmi, the C.E.O of Prima Garnet, Ifeanyinwa Onokwuba, an Out of Home Advertising expert and Dr Kachi Onubogu, a sales and marketing expert.

In his opening remarks, Mr Akinwunmi highlighted the impact of the pandemic on the global economy, positing that the local economy had also been worse hit, considering the reduction in economic activities due to the nationwide lockdown.

In his words: “The agencies are seriously affected because clients’ businesses aren’t doing very well. The people’s spending habit has also changed as people were more concerned about surviving and were only buying essentials.”

He also suggested that the regulatory agency should invest in technology in order to be in tune with current realities.

“Efficiency plays a major role to shape the relationship of clients with the practitioners. With a lean financial purse occasioned by the pandemic, most brands will properly determine a cost-benefit analysis for the project. The client’s needs would go a long way to determine the cost negotiation. As a result of the pandemic, there will be job losses and in dealing with their retained staff and agencies, a lot will be expected from them,” Mr Akinwunmi said.

Also speaking, Dr Onubogu noted that agencies should try to find out what a client needs and what they are doing to determine the cost.

“The out of the home sector of the marketing communication industry enjoys some foreign innovation in doing its business. This innovation has come with a huge financial toll on the clients that may not be affordable to them during this period, hence the need to look inward and use local tools,” Dr. Onubogu said.

On her part, Mrs Onokwuba said the outdoor sector would have to brace up as there would be job losses occasioned by changes in their business structure.

Ohaneze women’s wing seeks castration for rapists

Mr Okeke, in his in-depth analysis posited that agencies would have to think out of the box to key in into the innovation that became a norm as a result of the global pandemic. Change, he said, will have to be backed up by strategies of survival.