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Business Boom for Marketing Practitioners [analysis]
[September 25, 2014]

Business Boom for Marketing Practitioners [analysis]


(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) With a few months to the 2015 general election, marketing communications practitioners are gearing up for the business ahead, Raheem Akingbolu reports.

Business community was full of hope in January that the year 2014 would be a year of record bumper harvest. Businesses were expected to boom three years after the last election and a year before a fresh one, because business managers are full of expectation that the business environment would have been very conducive while those eyeing political post next year would be willing to touch lives. For players in various sub-sectors of the marketing communication industry, the story was not different. As communication experts, they foresaw better patronage from the political class, because of the need to take the message to relevant stakeholders.



Then the story of the country's new Gross Domestic (GDP), which put Nigeria at an advantage. Since the news about the rise in GDP was made public, the economy has suddenly attracted global attention, with heighten expectation for more foreign investment. To effectively serve the possible influx of businesses that might come with the various developments, practitioners in both Public Relations and Advertising industry have begun a repositioning movement and campaign to agencies to invest in training.

Build-up In what looked like a build up of marketing activities that would herald the next year's elections, the advertising community recently converged in Abuja to discuss issues related to political advertising. They saw this year's Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), as an ample opportunity to open up on their relevance to national development. For years, the professional body has been grappling with the burden of not being appreciated as a major contributor to the economy. Members of the body are also not happy that government and its agencies are not patronising professionals in the industry. Though the topic of the seminar was 'Political Advertising, Perception Building and Voter Education', at the end, it achieved more than that.


Stakeholders in the political and advertising sectors present at the event, including the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku and the chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Atahiru Jega, advocated for involvement of experts in the design and handling of all political campaigns ahead of the 2015 elections.

They observed that Nigerians would continue to be inundated with provocative campaign messages unless advertising experts were engaged to formulate such messages. Maku stressed the importance of information in any genuine electioneering process, noting that politicians must take issues relating to advertising and perception building seriously. The keynote speaker at the event, Mr. Craig Smith, said the success of any political process would largely depend on well formulated political messages that address issues and ideologies rather than personalities.

Sharing the experiences of his country, Britain and Europe generally, Smith said formulating clear cut messages that would address the needs of voters and their environment was paramount to electoral success. Level of preparedness Speaking on the preparation for the election year, the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) told THISDAY in a recent interview that APCON is gearing up for a very proactive regulation of political Advertisements which usually increase during election seasons.

"We have been engaging with political parties and politicians on the rules of engagement and explaining the necessity and benefit of professional handling of their political Advertising campaigns. We are optimistic that, as aspiring leaders, they will show good examples by playing by the rules and secure necessary approvals for their Advertising messages before exposing them to the public," he said. On whether Nigerian practitioners are up to the task or not, the Chief Operating Officer of Bluebird Advertising Limited, Mr. Kayode Ebatamehi, said Nigeria has all that are required to work for both local and multinationals.

"Locally, I think we have what it takes. One, we understand the market and you find the finest of practitioners among Nigerian advertising industry. Practitioners that can hold their own in the international fora, they are good, knowledgeable and sound. And above all -they understand the terrain. Also, given the style of our economy and the huge human talent we have in this country, we can manage it.

This notwithstanding, Ebatamehi saw the need for training and upgrade in the industry. "I think what we need is training programmes that would expose our people to new trends at local and global markets. I included the local market because Nigeria consumers are becoming more suave and sophisticated; you can throw just anything at them and expect them to appreciate your campaign. We should not also forget that advertising is a multi-disciplinary profession. All you need to do is go through the proper training, registration process with APCON and once you have the passion, you can practice. So I think we have the talent, but we need to do a lot more in the area of knowledge acquisition, screening, exposure of our people because the profession requires being opened to the trend around the world,|" This is also the position of the AAAN's president and Managing Director, TBWA, Kelechi Nwosu, who pointed out that advertising practitioners need to work with the media to encourage the political class to work with tested and experienced communication experts in Nigeria and from Nigeria . According to him, such move would help with resonant messaging and make the campaigns effective.

He said. "We are prepared for the business opportunities that could come with this new GDP regime and the 2015 election. We have enough expertise and know where to get if the demands expand exponentially. Remember that we have had an industry that has lost some of her good talents to other auxiliary industries. I can assure you that you will have a boon to the talent base if the industry gets more attractive and has more investors : foreign or local," he stated. To the CEO of the Quadrant Company, Mr. Bolaji Okusaga, poor recognition for professional Public Relations practitioners is affecting the country and her economy in the negative sense.

According to Okusaga, "There is urgent need for government and players in the Nigerian political space to change from their colonial mentalities and move in the same proportion with the rest of the world. It is only in this part of the country that foreigners who have nothing to show for local content would be briefed on domestic issues without any partner within. It is retrogressive and unpatriotic," As the general election approaches, Okusaga wants Nigerian politicians and government to begin working with the professionals to help them spreads their messages to relevant stakeholders.

INEC Position For the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the recent international seminar was timely and relevant to the current situation in Nigeria. Its Chairman, Jega, therefore urged political parties and their candidates to follow best practices in their advertising ahead of the 2015 elections.

Jega said: "As we approach the general elections in February 2015, no effort should be spared by stakeholders in promoting civic enlightenment among the electorate and global best practices among the political elite. One of the major requirements of liberal democracy is mobilisation and participation of the people in the process. We should learn about international best practices in grassroots mobilisation, perception building and voter education." The INEC chairman said the commission had revised the regulations in its Code of Conduct for political advertisements and campaigns to ensure strict compliance among parties and their candidates.

He said: "It is very important that we regulate and sanitise our campaigns. A lot of that sanitation can be done without regulation, if only politicians can change their attitudes and mindsets. But we in INEC have revised the regulations governing campaigns and we have already shared a draft of those guidelines with political parties. "We hope to finalise it and, very soon, we will put it into effect so that political parties will know clearly where to draw the lines and the sanctions that would apply, if they do not act according to the rules and regulations," he stated.

Copyright This Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

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