Experts and stakeholders in the marketing communications industry have rated the past year as a not particularly boisterous for the advertising sector, concerning areas of financial growth. Besides being an election year with its inherent challenges, operators say the influence of foreign agencies’ scramble for indigenous jobs, all made it a rough ride. How did the advertising sector fair in 2019?

JANE CHIJIOKE writes.

For operators in the marketing communications sector, the outgone year was not particularly a brilliant one for the business. While there are no audited reports of the advertising spend under the year in question, an evaluation of business activities in the industry is believed to have recorded little or no growth. This development, some say, was mainly due to the year being an election year in the country.

“It was a very difficult year for the advertising sector. We saw shocking business activities going on. Most major participants in business and enterprise could not do much because of the election. So technically for the industry, we only had six months calendar as we had to wait for swearing in on May 29.

So technically, economic activities kicked off in June and that greatly affected the advertising industry,” explained the Vice Chairman, Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Steve Babaeko. For this and other reasons, Babaeko submitted that “2019 did not fare well for the industry especially in the area of financial growth.”

Babaeko, who is also the Chief Executive Officer, X3M Ideas, a marketing communications firm with bias for advertising and creative arts, the year’s unimpressive performance was further compounded as most of the usual spending that happened within the political circle didn’t go mostly to registered ad agencies, because a lot of backdoor deals, foreign public relation companies, and others got bigger chunk of deals done than the local industry.

“Each time we have some of these activities happening, it hurts the local industry.  Aside economic downturn, this exclusion of the local industry at such periods is not healthy for the sector.  I really love the policy on border closure. I think the government should do an equivalent of that in the advertising sector.

 There should a standing policy to ward off foreign interference.  These are people who do not even know the nuances of our culture and tradition and they are being paid to come and do strategy for campaigns. To be honest, it doesn’t make sense.

Now we are losing money, losing scarce foreign exchange to foreign countries while we have an industry here that employs labour and we are starving them,” he lamented.

He explained that the industry which interacts with big players within the special sectors of the macro economy- from the farmers, manufacturing to fast moving consumers goods and even distributors, is not given due recognition in the economic policies of the country.

“So the first way to check where the wind of economy is blowing is from the advertising space because we know who is reducing or increasing spends. We can also use that to accumulate data to know what happened last year and what is likely to happen this year.

It becomes imperative for government to bring in personalities from the advertising space into government economic planning.  2019 was a bad year for the sector and we are hoping to have a much better year this time so that we can begin to see clearer indications of what the numbers actually are,” he said.

Owing to the economic downturn in the country, and  the closure of the border which resulted to rising cost of food stuffs, he said the consumer confidence index for the year was also low as consumers tend to save more and spend less.

He noted that why there has been more knocks for  the Federal Government on the border closure, was because the government did not apply an effective communication strategy to relate with its citizenry, hence, the  much allusions of  government insensitivity on  consumers plight  which have trailed the closure.

Another area which ended on a bad note for the industry was the absence of a governing board for the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria ( APCON).  For almost four years, APCON which is under the purview of the Ministry of Information, has been without a governing board.

Over the years, stakeholders have continued to raise concerns over the sensitivity of the  role the apex regulatory agency plays in overseeing  the industry, which without a  board  could have adverse effect on the sector.

For instance, since March 2015 when Mr. Lolu Akinwunmi served out his term spanning four years and seven months, efforts to reconstitute a governing board has always been met with controversies.

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At different occasions, stakeholders had kicked against appointment of politicians and non-professionals by the President to chair APCON.  This, they argued, contravened the Advertising Law of Act 55, 1988 (as amended).

In furtherance of their clamour for a befitting council, last year, APCON held its maiden conference in Abuja where among other issues, stakeholders called on the Federal Government to set up a governing council for the regulatory agency to exercise its statutory roles. Babaeko worries that despite effort made, again, the year ended without having a council.

“We have been fighting. The fact that we have not been carrying placards disturbing the whole country does not mean that we have not been reaching out to the government. At least under the leadership of the current President of AAAN, Kelechi Odigbo, we have done alot.

We have met with the Vice President; we have sent letters and reached out to the Minister of Information. But yet, nothing has been done.  The government needs to do something because you cannot leave a whole advertising sector grounded for three to four years without a council.

It makes no sense. There is a government act that sets up APCON and to see that it is government itself that is flouting the act is difficult for one to comprehend,” he said.

Babaeko, however, assured that efforts would be intensified this year and prayed that their demands would be addressed. “I am using this medium to reach out to the government to look into this issue because the future of the industry depends on it.

He was hopeful that the 2020 Appropriation Bill signed last month would have positive effect on the sector.

But all appears not to be bleak for the year. The Registrar of APCON, Mrs  Ijedi Iyoha, said hollistically, the industry did well considering the fact that  2019 was an election year.

She said the industry like most sectors moved at a slow pace except in the area of political  advertising which was expected, adding that the industry gradually picked up after the election.

She remarked that another  take-out of the year was the maiden advertising conference. Iyoha  explained that stakeholders have been meeting in their various sector levels to determine how best to improve the advertising industry and the profession in Nigeria but the conference provided the platform for these various sectors to come together for the first time in more than two decades with the view of charting sustainable course for the future of the industry.

”The conference was a success and we are very hopeful that the outcome of the deliberations will make the desired impact.

“The low point in the year  has always been the continued recalcitrant behaviours of illegal advertising practitioners to yield to lawful provisions made for the regulation of advertising business in Nigeria. Also,  absence of a governing council for APCON in 2019 is another low point” she added.