By Princewill Ekwujuru

With 2015 coming to an end in few days, it is imperative to take a glimpse at the events that shaped the year in the Integrated Marketing Communication, IMC, industry which have gone a long way in determining the course of the industry. As an election year, it slowed down activities in various sectors of the economy without exception of the IMC industry.

However, those that benefited from the political advertising era were not even from the nation’s advertising sector. The politicians capitalized on the situation to employ the services of non-professionals who threw caution to wind dishing out uncontrolled adverts that negates advertising principles which wrecked havoc on the industry which attracted an advertorial from Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON, body saddled with the responsibility of regulating and controlling  of  advertisements in Nigeria.

The year saw the eventual resolution of who becomes the APCON chairman. The ad industry was embroiled in crisis over the appointment of a non-professional: Ngozi Emioma to manage the affairs of the industry even though  the law establishing the council had stipulates that the person who becomes the chairman of APCON should be a practitioner and s Fellow of the advertising profession.

However, the eventual resolution saw the emergence of Udeme Ufot, Chief Executive officer of SO&U becoming the APCON chairman. Unfortunately, the coming on board of a new government threw spanners in the waters with the resultant dissolution of board of parastatals and Ministries which paralysed the functionality of APCON.

A new Information Minister

The appointment of a Minister of Information was  considered critical to the industry in the last few months. Aside heeding stakeholders’ call for a professional to occupy the position ,the appointment of Alhaji. Lai Mohammed was also seen by many as a development that would see to the quick resolution of the crisis, the current dissolution of APCON council seems to be generating in the industry.

‘We believe since the new man is a professional, he will definitely know where the shoe pinches and would therefore not delay in sorting out some of those problems plaguing  the industry,’ argued a practitioner, while reacting to the appointment.

Fines and infractions

The handing of  $5.2 billion fine to MTN Nigeria communications for infractions by Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC marked another milestone in the annals of regulating agencies job in 2015.

While some analysts were of the view that this might scare off foreign investors from the country, others would however see this as a positive development since it simply means it is no longer business as usual, especially for those who are not ready to play by the rule. Interestingly, the question on stakeholders’ lips is whether the latest development will shrink the brand’s advertising spend in the coming year.

New LASAA boss

With coming of  a new administration in Lagos, brought with it some changes at the helms of affairs of the state’s ministries, agencies and parastatals, a development that saw the appointment of Mobolaji Sanusi, a columnist at the The Nation  Newspaper as the helmsman  at the Lagos Signage and Advertising Agency, LASAA. Nothing would have been unusual about the appointment, but for the drama witnessed in the first few days of his resumption at the Alausa Office of the agency. For instance, his first day in office saw a sizable number of the agency’s workers locked out for coming late to work.

LAIF and the emerging creative trend

The recently-held Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF),  no doubt provided the opportunity for stakeholders in the industry to have an idea of where the pendulum of creativity is likely to swing in the next few years.    For instance, against the all odds, a relatively new creative agency, Noah’s Ark emerged the winner of the Grand Pix at the Award, organized by the Advertising Agencies Association of Nigeria (AAAN) to reward creativity in the industry.