Practitioner lists ad industry pains, hopeful for future
Nigeria’s advertising industry is going through externally and internally induced headaches, but Kolawole Ayanwale, managing director, CentreSpreadFCB, an advertising firm, believes the industry will survive the pains.
The industry, which was seriously hurt by the last economic meltdown, is facing other challenges such as drought of talents, delay payments by clients on contract executed, lack of enough funds for businesses, fierce competition and inadequate regulations.
Assessing the industry that has witnessed exit of some old players like OBM, Grant Advertising, among others, Ayanwale told BusinessDay in a chat last week that “advertising is a business of talent, unfortunately, there are not enough talents and the available ones are poached by banks and telecoms sector.
“If we put an account executive on a job, the client takes him or her over. No agency, no matter how it tries can compete with some clients like telecoms, banks and some multinationals in retaining talents and yet we are not producing enough talents.”
The practitioner who has put in about three decades in advertising business regretted the absence of universities that train advertising people, linking it to policy formulators who do not appreciate the role of advertising in national development and GDP.
Ayanwale, whose agency created the Baba Saka of Etisalat popular advert, identified regulation as another challenge bogging the advertising industry. “In Brazil, advertising is thriving now not because they are magicians but because they are supported by their government by law. Their incomes are guaranteed by law and there are certain things you cannot do by law. I know that APCON is working on ACAPIA and by the time it is signed and given flesh a few of our practices will be regulated better,” he hoped.
ACAPIA is an industry committee responsible for how business should be done, involving all stakeholders like the media, the client and the agencies. Frowning at the unprofessional manner some agencies fight themselves over accounts, Ayanwale, whose agency is affiliated to Draft FCB of USA, said if the trend was not checked it would tear the industry apart, and attributed the fierce competition to the economy that has only few big spenders, hence the scramble for them.
He also identified lack of structure in some organisations which had made it almost impossible for them to attract money for business.
The industry also operates in a close circle with much information, especially on pitching and billing, which Ayanwale said was a problem of orientation of managers of different agencies, also saying it was African nature.
On the future of advertising, he wondered why people fear the future, saying that in spite of the challenges the sector will survive because there is no short cut. It is the oil with which the wheel of manufacturing and service industry can move, he stated, as the main advertising will survive. Those who will survive are those who are making the right decisions now and who are ensuring that their vision lives.
He disclosed further that CentreSpreadFCB, which has other six subsidiaries, was making arrangement to be listed on the floor of Nigerian Stock Exchange, revealing the firm was working towards it and it will materialise soon.
The firm will early next year celebrate its 30 years in business and the managing director said some of the reasons CentreSpread was still relevant “is because of its commitment to assignments and the enormous resources it commits to pitches.”
