By Princewill Ekwujuru

Advertisers’ Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) has urged Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) and Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN) to close gap in order to contribute positively to the growth of the Marketing Communication industry in Nigeria .

Mr. Idongesit Enang, President, ADVAN, made the call at the ADVAN/Sectorial Group meeting which had in attendance Mr. Kola Oyeyemi, Mr. Walter Okafor, Mrs. Hannah Oyebanjo, Mr. Bayo Oke, Mrs. Ify Edozien and Mrs. Ediri Orogun, the association’s executive secretary/general manager.

On the side of AAAN,  Mr. Funmi Onabolu, President, AAAN, Mr. Rufai Ladipo, Mrs. Bunmi Oke and AAAN’s Executive Director/CEO, Mr. Lekan Fadolapo. From MIPAN, the meeting had  Mr. Tolu Ogunkoya, Dr. Ken Onyali Ikpe.

The tripartite parley was kicked off by Mr. Enang saying that, “ADVAN wants to restore the leadership it has lost over the year by collaborating with other sectorial groups to shape the marketing communications industry but not about who pays the piper detect the tune type of leadership.”

He decried the level of quality in the industry adding that “our brand managers can not write a quality brief hence the number of expatriates in the industry.” The ADVAN president stated that for the industry to take shape data development, collaboration amongst interest / sectorial groups and special attention to intellectual capacity are key.

“We can not plan without data, without data even CEO or director is cooked. We need to come together to form committees on research/data and advertising/creativity and also dialogue on intellectual capacity. If these key elements are not taken seriously and addressed five years from now expatriate must have taken over as lowly positions as brand managers and account managers in this country.” However, Mr. Onabolu, who spoke on behalf of AAAN emphasized on issues of resources, talent, service and awful treatment from brand managers.

He also advocated the reinstatement of Head of Advertising sectorial Group (HASG) as the panacea to addressing some of the critical issues highlighted by the ADVAN president.

Apart from re-establishment of HASG, the AAAN president believe that formation of marketing directors and chief executive officers of agencies forum will go a long way to solving some nutty issues in service delivery. “We believe that there is a need to be a forum like this to sort out service issues before it gets to junior managers.”

Similarly, Mr. Ogunkoya, MIPAN’s leader stated that issues that would be dealt with are not going to be far from each other. He thanked ADVAN for the initiative but said the way to go is not to re-invent the wheel but to benchmark our market to that of a country similar to ours like Kenya . “Instead of benchmarking our industry to that of the UK , let’s do that to Kenya and see they way they do TV, radio and data that is the only thing that can help this market.”

He said, apart from data standard and technology that need great attention, another critical challenge lies 60 days credit allowance given to media agencies. Mr. Ogunkoya said that instead of 60 days credit allowance, there is particular software that drives faster payment process. That in countries like the UK and US, people pay 7 days after campaign and they deploy this technology to the process and he can be achieved in Nigeria ,” he asserted.

It was however, resolved that group like Outdoor Agencies Association of Nigeria (OAAN) should be invited because they are integral part of advertising practice in Nigeria . The three bodies agreed to collaborate for the growth of marketing communications industry in Nigeria .