By Princewill Ekwujuru

Stakeholders in the advertising industry converged recently to examine the industry which was seriously affected by the economic downturn. The objective of the gathering was to proffer strategies and solutions for the industry’s survival.

The convergence of the chieftains and top management staffers of advertising agencies, advertisers, as well as other stakeholders agreed at the summit organised by Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) that although advertising  is evolving, the business will only get stronger, the future strength of the industry is dependent on efforts geared towards  advancement of the industry.

Jimi Awosika, Managing Director of Insight Communications,  who spoke during the summit stated emphatically that advertising will not die.  “No matter what trends potters  may have assigned to the shape of the future, the basic fabric of advertising will not change”.

Awosika’s confidence was based on the definition of advertising which is a service structure that exists to meet the need of clients to pitch product ideas at the marketplace.  “It is  clear that regardless of innovations that are changing the world irrevocably, there will always be product ideas, there will always be brand ideas and there will always be service ideas.

The producers of these products, brands and services will always have the need to pitch these ideas either at existing consumers or at prospective ones. The laws of economics will remain in full force – there will always be demand and supply. Brand managers will continue to seek more effective and efficient ways of affecting demand for the available supply of their goods and services. Someone will always have something to sell, and there will always be people who are willing or motivated to buy. For as long as these needs exist, there will always be the need for advertising,” he reteirated.

He  noted, however,  that advertising would continue to evolve in order to remain relevant to the changing marketplace.  This will involve how advertisers practice, the business and how they relate to the media.
This change may have  had significant impact in Europe but according to Awosika, the Nigerian landscape is just gradually absorbing the change.

In Nigeria, the slow deployment of the technology backbone required for a digitally native society is just evolving. Broadband is just about to go mainstream, with the advent of Main One and Glo One. 4G technology is just beyond the reach of daily consumption, he said.

He said that dynamism is needed in the industry to push it forward. Of course, “advertising cannot be practiced the way it was practiced many years ago.”

Awosika’s  worry is  in the face of advancement of the frontiers of advertising in the last few decades due to some efforts of older generation, “can that be said of the future generation,” he queried.