The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ADS

  • Ads men tackle recession in creative sector

    Ads men tackle recession in creative sector

    Integrated Marketing communications industry like every other business in Nigeria is literarily bleeding no thanks to the socioeconomic recession. Nigeria lost over 60% of revenue and income base, which was compounded by dwindling oil prices, therefore the industrial and financial base of the country witnessed erosion. Nigerians now witnessing unstable foreign exchange regime, so for an industry like media and advertising, it became the first to be hit and hit worst because almost every impute that comes to it is foreign exchange based, advertising like every other business plummeted but was hit worst because it’s the first budget that is cancelled when there are no sales. Rather than pup up advertising to see if it could add to sales, different is always the case.

    For instance, in 2014 to 2015, the advertising spend stood at about N97billion and of course, but towards the end of 2015, it started going down. By mid 2016, industry recorded less than half of that number. This now calls for serious concern for industry operators as stakeholders charted the way forward.

    Recently, Minister for Communications, Adebayo Shittu called on marketers in the country to deploy modern technologies in delivering marketing pitches and advertising campaigns. This he explained will help the Nigerian marketing community stay competitive in the global business environment.

    He disclosed this at the 2017 Marketing Edge National Marketing Stakeholders summit held at the weekend in Lagos, where he was represented by Akim A. Yusuf, his Special Adviser on Digital Resources Optimisation.

    At the summit, themed “Brand Marketing and Marketing Management in a Recovering but Restructuring Nigerian Economy: Challenges and implications for marketing services providers,” the minister said that marketers have to be innovative in the digital world in order to strengthen the marketing profession in the country and achieve “Globalisation.”

    “The extensive availability of interest services presupposes that the major challenge faced by marketers these days is to create new ways of conducting their functions and extending the thresholds of product research, market intelligence and product delivery. Marketers also need to hearken to the use of these modern technologies in delivering marketing pitches and advertising your products to consumers,” he said.

    He added that on the government side, efforts are on to make Information Communication technology the hallmark of the country’s economic development. This, he pointed will be achieved through the democratisation of access to affordable broadband and wireless fidelity services nationwide.

    A marketing communications expert and former regional managing director, African regional markets, Diageo Ekwunife Okoli during his speech as guest speaker at the summit charge the marketers to begin to look inward during this period and ask whether their consumer segmentation styles valid, which type of brands are they pushing into the market, are their priorities right and what gaps exist in their portfolios. “Do not let recession affects your logic, make sure no business as usual,” he warned.

  • OLX is best classified ads website

    OLX is best classified ads website

    Nigeria’s number one online classified, OLX, has won the best classified ads website of the year at the sophomore edition of the Nigeria Technology Awards (NiTA) in Lagos.

    Receiving the award on behalf of the company, its Business Operations & Finance Manager, Goodluck Ikporo, thanked the organisers of the awards for the recognition. He said though it had been a challenging year for Nigerians due to the economic recession, OLX remained steadfast in providing a safer and secure platform for its users and more options for them to earn additional income on the platform.

    “We are truly honoured to have emerged winners in this category. I want to specially thank our OLX users who believe in us. I will like to dedicate this award to them and to the OLX team.” he said

    NiTA is organised to recognise and reward technology entrepreneurs, innovators, inventors, academics, and policy makers in Nigeria.

    The theme for this year’s award was: Celebrating technology excellence & innovations.

    It was attended by major players in the ecommerce industry across various sectors of the economy.

    OLX is the world’s leading classifieds platform in growth markets and is available in more than 40 countries and over 50 languages.  It sells a wide range of products, including vehicles, electronics, phones, among others.

  • Of new SANs and congratulatory Ads

    SIR: Last Monday September 21, Nigeria’s Supreme Court formally admitted another batch of lawyers into the prestigious rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).  But this was also probably the most little-celebrated SAN investiture in the history of the award, no small thanks to the umbrella body of lawyers in the country, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA). Just a few days to the induction ceremony, the association announced it was forbidding advertisements in any medium of mass communication to congratulate the new SAN inductees. It specifically warned the new SANs to prevail on their friends, family members and acquaintances not to place any such advertisements in the media.

    The NBA, in condemning the practice it said had “gone on for years”, added that it infringed on Rule 39 (2) of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners in Nigeria, promulgated in 2007.

    Rules of Professional Conduct are an important – and interesting – feature of legal practice in every jurisdiction, particularly those that have their origins in the Anglo-Saxon legal tradition such as the United Kingdom, the United States and the member-countries of the Commonwealth.   The rules are “interesting” because they reflect that unique character of most modern professions, especially law: the ability of practitioners to regulate their own conduct, including setting standards for those who practice the profession and disciplining erring members.

    Rule 39 (2) of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners in Nigeria is the Rule against “Improper Attraction of Business”; it is subsumed under Section E of the Rules, which governs advertising and client solicitation by Nigerian lawyers. Rule 39 (2) is further divided into five sub-sections (a-e), which inter-alia admonish a lawyer in Nigeria not to engage or be involved in any advertising or promotion that “…is inaccurate or likely to mislead; is likely to diminish public confidence in the legal profession, or the administration of justice, or otherwise bring the legal profession into disrepute; makes comparison with or criticizes other lawyers or other professions or professionals; includes any statement about the quality of the lawyer’s work, the size or success of his practice or his success rate; or is so frequent or obstructive as to cause annoyance to those to whom it is directed”.

    While this multi-layered rule patently tries to fulfill its duty of regulating how Nigerian lawyers advertise their practice and solicit clients, the NBA (or, presumably and more appropriately, the Body of Benchers in Nigeria) misses the point when it also deploys the same rule against friends, family, acquaintances and even clients of the new SANs.

    The legal profession enjoys self-regulation in most jurisdictions around the world precisely because its practitioners commit themselves to protecting the public from the excesses of lawyers or all others involved with the legal profession, or in the administration of justice (i.e. judges.) It stands to reason that in protecting the rights of members of the public, lawyers – or those charged with regulating the profession –cannot then proceed to violate same. This is precisely the sad result the directive clearly achieved.

    As one assumes the intent was to act in the true spirit and scope of the profession’s rules, those who regulate Nigeria’s legal profession should have directed all lawyers – and lawyers only – to refrain from taking paid spaces in the mass media to congratulate those being honoured.

    Banning all adverts placed by non-lawyer members of the public to congratulate new SANs affect the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of people who do not belong to the legal profession and have thus not impliedly agreed to abide by the rules that govern how lawyers practice their profession.

    The NBA, Body of Benchers and all those charged with regulating the legal profession in Nigeria and enforcing the rules of professional conduct should rightly be concerned with ensuring practitioners uphold the rules and standards therein.  However, legal regulatory bodies in Nigeria must come up with more creative, effective and constitutionally-sanctioned ways of tackling the issue, rather than trample on the constitutional rights and privileges of those the rules are meant to protect in the first place.

     

    • Akeem Soboyede Esq;

    akeem.soboyede@comcast.net

     

  • ‘Omisore is desperate for attention’

    ‘Omisore is desperate for attention’

    The Osun State government has described criticisms of its education reforms by a governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyiola Omisore, as “a desperate call for attention.”

    It said Omisore was suffering from Attention Deficiency Syndrome (ADS).

    The party was reacting to Omisore’s claims that only 900 pieces of the Opon Imo (Tablet of Knowledge) were distributed to pupils.

    In a statement by the Director, Bureau of Communications and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, the government said it was surprising that Omisore did not know that, at least, 1,473 tablets were distributed to pupils in Ile Ife, his country home.

    Okanlawon said this showed that the aspirant lacked basic information about what affects the people in his constituency.

    He said: “If 1,473 pupils have received the Opon Imo in Ile-Ife alone, that explains how many tablets have been distributed in the state, which has 30 local government areas and an area office. We advise Omisore to visit the Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife; Community High School, Olugbode; Moremi High School, Ile-Ife; Aderemi Memorial College, Aye-Oba; Ifesowapo Community Grammar School, Egbejoda; Olode Grammar School; Irepodun Grammar School, Aye-Arode; Community Sec. Grammar School, Ajebandele Fadehan; Community High School, Alabameta; St. David’s Grammar School, Ile-Ife and others to see how many tablets are in those schools and how far removed he is from his constituents.”

    The statement reminded the people that only 50,000 units of the 150,000 tablets required by pupils was brought into the country, adding that the remaining 100,000 units would be assembled at a plant being built in the state.

    The government faulted Omisore’s attempt to discredit the education reforms of the Governor Rauf Aregbesola administration, when he said only 11 of the schools that were demolished had been rebuilt.

    It said: “If, at least, four of such schools have been completed in Ile-Ife alone, how can Omisore’s claim that only 11 schools have been completed throughout the state be taken serious by right-thinking individuals?

    “How ridiculous can the campaigns of calumny get? If Omisore chooses to be blind to the ubiquitous spread of these new, massive and colourful schools across the state and the population of pupils who go about with their Opon Imo tablets, Osun people are neither gullible nor blind.

    “We are used to Omisore’s inveterate capacity to muddle up facts, concoct lies and deceive the people. We remind him that Osun people’s eyes are wide open and they are not as gullible, uneducated, unenlightened and hopeless as the like of him would prefer they remain for ever.”