The President, Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAN), Mrs. Bunmi Oke, has decried the low patronage, of her members by public institutions, especially the government, lamenting that last year was challenging for the advertising industry.
According to her, only 20 per cent of AAAN members got public sector jobs while the remaining came from the private sector, including the multinational firms.
She said 20 per cent got the few government-funded creative campaigns jobs during the year.
“Generally, 2013 was a very challenging year for the advertising industry. It was a case of the Pareto principle at play where 20 per cent of our members got 80 per cent of the jobs from the private sector, including multinational clients and 20 per cent of our members got the few government funded creative campaigns jobs available,” said Oke.
She noted that for the industry to be strong, it needs the government patronage in order to boost employment and increase the industry contribution to the economy.
She said: “We just need other organised forms of the government, parastatals and local governments to help fast-track the implementation of these professional standards by utilising only AAAN members and registered APCON (Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria) practitioners for creative campaigns/consultancy work ( as the majority of our business is from the organised and structured private sector clients in banking, telecoms, manufacturing and service companies and others).
“If the government spending extends to AAAN members in a professional manner, not only will the right messages grow the economy and re-orientate our citizens, we will create jobs for a lot more of our citizenry as has been done by the private sector.”
Oke affirmed that AAAN will continue to sensitise the government on the role of advertising in driving government policies.
“There is a lot more consciousness of the role of AAAN and the impact of advertising and marketing communications in the society. In 2013, there was an elaborate discussion on advertising created by the celebration of AAAN at 40 and the APCON reforms. This consciousness will continue in 2014 as AAAN has activities lined up through seminars and constant dialogue with other sectoral bodies in the marketing and communications industry,” she disclosed.