Multinational Brands bag compliance award at ARCON conference

By Godwin Anyebe

Multinational brands across different sectors of the economy have received the most coveted industry award, the Advertising Standards Panel ASP Award at the just concluded National Advertising Conference in Abuja.

The maiden edition of the award which was held as part of activities lined up for the 3-day Conference was an initiative of the apex regulatory body to uphold the highest ethical standards in the advertising industry by rewarding those who complied with all the stipulated guidelines of the Advertising Standards Panel, ASP.

Speaking to newsmen, the Director General of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, ARCON, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo stated that the award aims to discourage violations by stimulating competitiveness among industry players adding that the selection process was thorough and credible.

“An independent auditor was invited to audit the process for integrity purposes. The award will stimulate competition among the stakeholders” he said.

On her part, the Chairperson of the Advertising Standards Panel, ASP Omowunmi Owodunmi while commenting on the rationale for the introduction of the awards, asserted that the body is saddled with the responsibility to ensure that stakeholders in the industry maintain the highest standards of practice by submitting marketing communications materials for vetting and approval before exposure and that the award aims to encourage compliance.

“Over the past year, specifically 2021 to date, we have been observing those advertisers, our clients, as well as the agencies who have done a fantastic job of adhering and complying with our Advertising code of practice. What we mean by this is that when sending applications, we ensure that those applications are actually sent in for vetting and approval before exposure to the public.

“So over the past year, we have observed all the applications that have come in. Unfortunately, some had to be dropped because the violation is a big issue for us at ARCON and ASP. So, part of the applications even though they did adhere, for the most part, they violated at some point in time over the course of the year. So we had to drop those applications” she explained.

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According to her, the level of compliance has increased over the years which are an indication of improved awareness about the vetting of advertising materials in Nigeria before exposure.

The Compliance Award had 17 categories which include the Automobile category, Restaurant & QSR category, Non-alcoholic Drinks category, electronics category, Food & Beverage category, Telecommunications category, Aviation & logistics category, Oil & Gas advert category, Education category, Medical & Pharmacy category, Alcoholic Beverage category and Commercial banks category.

The winners were Bajay Boxer, Genesis, Pepsi, HP, Hollandia Evaporated milk, MTN, Ethiopian Airlines, Total Enegies, U Lesson Mobile App, Emzor Products, Bedmate and Jumia, amongst others.