Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo is the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria. In this exclusive interview with Brand Communicator’s Publisher, Joshua Ajayi and Correspondent, Jeremiah Agada, he shares his vision, plans and challenges. Excerpts:
Relationship Between AAAN and APCON in the Past Few Years
AAAN is the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria. One of the APCON recognized sectoral groups in the industry. The relationship with APCON has been very cordial and mutual. Do not forget that AAAN is a self-regulation body of the advertising agencies while APCON is established by an Act of Parliament and Laws of the Federal Government.
There are two types of regulatory systems in the industry: government and self-regulation. Nigeria is the only country in Africa that practices dual regulation, where you have both government intervention and the private sector self-regulatory mechanism or system. Before now and even up to now, all the subsectors/sectorial groups have always looked up to APCON for leadership, direction, and regulation.
We also have the sectoral groups which come together to form the HASG-Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups. The HASG is the highest self-regulatory organisation in the industry. Membership of HASG include AAAN ADVAN, MIPAN, OAAN, BON, NPAN and EXMAN, However, there is the APCON which is the government regulatory agency. The relationship between APCON and all these regulatory organizations is more of a supervisory role. If there are issues that are not resolved by these self-regulatory bodies, these are brought before APCON which then intervenes by bringing the law to bear to this effect.
Fostering Cordial Relationship Between Agencies and APCON
The relationship between APCON and its various stakeholders, agencies inclusive, has always been very cordial and friendly to the extent that it has impacted positively on the industry. APCON has always sought the input of these self-regulatory organisations in policy making for the industry. Don’t forget that each of these sectoral groups are well represented on the APCON Governing Council; and where there is no council, the Registrar is always in touch with these sectoral groups to ensure that they are carried along in policy-making and regulatory framework decisions for the industry.
Settling In As APCON Chairman/CEO
I count myself quite lucky that I am not new to this system. I have served on the APCON Governing Council and Committees for more than 20 years before my appointment. I was on the council when Late Dr. May Nzeribe was the Chairman of APCON. I was also on the board when Mr. Chris Doghudje was the chairman. The same when Mr. Lolu Akinwunmi and Udeme Ufot were chairmen. So, I have had a very good experience and relationship with APCON prior to my appointment
Coming from the association, I have also had very good cordial relationship with heads of agencies. These are some of the things working in my favour. Practitioners and Stakeholders can pick up their phones to call the Registrar directly because of established relationship that has been ongoing for over two decades.
I have worked and serve at the HASG level which has made me closer to current and past presidents of the sectorial groups.
I was the longest servicing head of secretariat in the industry. This makes it a lot easier to relate with practitioners and other stakeholders across sectors and levels
Rationale Behind Some Campaigns APCON Recently Launched
The campaign is part of our strategic effort to augment, and support the efforts of sectorial groups in promoting ethical practices, use of APCON licensed agencies and heathy business environment
One of the things we don’t want to do as brand custodians and communication managers is to leave our perception management to the public. We know that for us at APCON, stepping up and engaging our public is not an option. For example, one of the campaigns we are executing now is about encouraging advertisers to work only with APCON licensed agencies.
So far, we have received support from our licensees i.e AAAN, OAAN, MIPAN and EXMAN in particular and the advertising community in general. One of the things that we keep telling the advertising public is that, if you use APCON licensed agencies, when you have problems with them, APCON can easily be called upon to look into it to mediate. As much as we have been trying to clean the industry of unethical practices over the years, there are still some people practicing unprofessionally. Some of these people are still getting jobs. That is why we need to step up our communication and engagement to enlighten people on the dangers of using unlicensed and unprofessional agencies in executing their jobs. Interestingly, this has garnered support from the advertising community, the sectoral groups and from the public.
Efforts at Repositioning Advertising Business
The problem has always been about APCON’s positioning in the past. For example, we are the government agency that license advertising agencies. We are the regulatory body for advertising business in this market. How have we been able to engage government parastatals, agencies and ministries to encourage them to use APCON licensed organisations? Immediately after my assumption of office, one of the things we have done is that we have engaged all relevant government agencies. For example, I met with the DG OF NBC, DG OF NPC, DG of Public Service Reforms. We pitched to them that they cannot be doing reforms without having the right communication professionals onboard. Fortunately this has yielded impressive result as the DGs has promised to collaborate with us.
This means that, if they are doing public sector branding/public sector business, they are going to patronise APCON licensed advertising agencies. It may also interest you to know that there is a procedure through which government businesses are given out. There is an agency that is empowered to issue out government projects, and that is the Bureau for Public Procurement. We have reached out to them and any moment from now, we will be able to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with them. They will soon give APCON recognition the way they recognize the NBA, ICAN and other professional institutes and associations. What this implies is that if you are not an APCON licensed business, government business will not be given to you.
Currently, we are partnering with the National Orientation Agency. This is also huge because you cannot talk of orientation without communication and engagement. We, as APCON have already engaged them and currently we are working together on projects. We believe that by the time they need advertising agencies to execute those projects they will give it to APCON licensed agencies. We are always looking for ways to bring APCON licensed agencies into government business. This is because, in the past, our agencies rarely feature when it comes to government businesses. We are engaging all the relevant government regulatory agencies to see how we can do this.
Recently we had a meeting with the Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Kabiru Gaya. We are also reaching out to INEC soon for the same reason. We have noticed from our research that a large chunk of political advertising is done by non-professionals. You can imagine the leakage in income and job creation. We are exploring every avenue to see how we can bring APCON licensed agencies close to government businesses.
Media Debts
Fortunately for me again, I have sat on different advertising industry debt resolution committees in the past. The last one was the one that was set up by Mr. Chris Doghudje during his tenure as Chairman. We called the committee ASCOMDi. The issue of debt has been a major challenge in this industry. While I am not holding brief for advertisers and agencies, I believe that all players are culpable as far as this issue is concerned.
Many advertisers have taken agencies for granted. There are situations where agencies have also taken the media for granted. There are instances where the media has taken agencies and advertisers for granted. Now, what do we do? Before now, there are three mediums of this business: we have the print media, outdoor and the electronic/broadcast media. The print media, newspaper houses have been able to resolve their problems as they are now doing prepayment.
Now, for the Outdoor business, there is a major problem as far as this issue is concerned. We are talking with OAAN as part of the Industry Standard of Practice and business framework that will improve the Out-of-Home advertising practice.
Now, for the broadcast media, we are in talks with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation and we are at the verge of signing an MoU. The aim of the MoU is zero tolerance for debts, meaning that, you cannot owe NTA and move your products to Channels or owe Radio Nigeria and move your product to Radio Kwara. We want a situation where everyone can see that there is sanity in the industry. A situation where the advertisers, agencies and media can sit down to do proper reconciliation and all players will respect the terms of trade and engagement. Within the next few months, we will come up with an industry business framework that will guide relationship as relates to payment policies and industry debts.
Social Media Regulation /Digital Media Advertising Regulation
There are plans by APCON to regulate advertising content on the digital media space. The challenge we have now is our establishment Act. We need our laws amended to strengthen our monitoring and enforcement power of this space and other lacuna earlier identified. Already some regulatory frameworks are in the advertising code. Don’t forget that we cannot do all this in a day. It will be a gradual thing. Those we banned not to advertise on traditional media for ethical reasons have gone the way of digital. Most people who sell products which they claim can cure HIV, COVID, cancer and a host of other illnesses without any substantial evidence are currently abusing the online media space to market their products. For instance, some of the adverts you see on social media are against the principles and ethics of advertising. Though, there is little we can do now, we are monitoring the situation as much as our code empowers us.
Don’t forget, advertising spend is not growing, however, there is a shift in spend from traditional media to new media. While the spend on digital is steadily growing, there is a distressing decline on spend in traditional media. Basically, we cannot close our eyes to what is happening in that space.
We are currently building capacity as this involves monitoring and enforcement. We are currently engaging I.T companies, platform owners, blog owners and digital space owners to see how we can bring everyone together on the need to regulate the digital space. Within the next few months, we will have some results to show.
There is strength in collaboration and partnerships – we are working on this. For example, there are Google and Facebook offices in Nigeria. The fact that Nigeria is a very big market, makes the two big IT companies established their presence. It will cost us nothing to sit down with them to discuss on how we can collaborate. I am sure that there is none of them that is not ready to work within the ambit of the law. Also, the National Assembly is currently looking at our laws to see how they can further strengthen us in the areas that are currently missing.
For capacity building, we intend to build our capacity to effectively carry out what we intend to do to ensure we are able to manage the media space. We look forward to collaborating with some of these tech companies to help build the capacity of our people in addition to our other efforts
Lingering Issue of APCON Council
I am aware that the Honourable Minister of Information, Alh Lai Mohammed has written to the President on this issue. I am also aware that everything that needs to be done has been done and all relevant documents have been sent to the Presidency. Basically, what we are doing now is awaiting the President’s revert on the approval for the governing council. There have been nominations and names were approved in the past. The problem was that those names were not in line with APCON laws. This was the reason why the council was not inaugurated.
I can assure you that the Hon Minister has engaged the Presidency on this, and he is on top of this. We are currently awaiting approval from the President. This can happen any moment from now.
Other Challenges So Far
One of the first major problems I met on ground when I assumed duty is that at this age and time when the world has gone digital, APCON’s operation is still analogue. One of my priorities is how to digitalize our operations such that a registered practitioner can access our site, vet ad online, request for invoice, update profile information, make payment, etc. with minimum human interface through the use of technology. From the comfort of his/her room access and engage APCON on our mandates. Also, we are working on how to integrate our offices across the country. These are some of my immediate challenges. We are currently working on capacity building for our workforce in other to upgrade and update their skill in line with global best business practices.
There has also been the issue of positioning between advertising agencies and the government. They have not been able to find it easy getting government business. A huge chunk of their billings come from the organized private sector, not the government. Imagine what is spent at all levels of government from the federal down. What we are trying to do is to see how we can engage government at all levels. Vertically and horizontally to ensure APCON licensed agencies get patronage.
Impact of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on Advertising Practice
I don’t think there is anything in the AfCTA agreement to worry about. This is an agreement to boost the movement of goods and services across Africa, ensuring that capacity is available within the African market as well as encouraging Africans to develop Africa. I don’t think there is much for us to lose sleep over. However, there are statutory requirements for every practice. For example, if you are a medical doctor in Nigeria and you want to practice medicine in Ghana notwithstanding the fact that you are practicing within the same region, you still need to be licensed by their medical council of Ghana. Again, the tax regime in Ghana and Nigeria is different. If you are a chartered accountant in Ghana, there will be some things that are common and also some that are specific to both countries. I don’t think there is anything for us to lose sleep about. It is opening the Nigerian market space, especially for our agencies here.
In recent times, one of our member agencies here in Nigeria established an agency in Southern Africa with plans to expand their continental frontiers. This is a welcome development. If someone is coming into Nigeria to practice advertising, inasmuch as there is free trade, free movement of goods and services, there are still laws they will need to comply with. Remember also that the President recently issued ease of doing business by reducing the process and procedure to start a business in Nigeria. These will all grow our market.
No government across the world encourages free economy with regulatory framework. No government will throw up its hands and allow its economy to be overrun by foreigners and other economic variables. If you look at the entry requirements for the industry, there are rules and regulations guiding this. I don’t think there is a cause for alarm. I know that you cannot just go to Ghana and open an advertising agency even though they have no government regulation agency, you will need to fulfil basic government and industry requirements.
Engaging Younger Professionals on Advertising Practice
One of the reasons why APCON began running campaigns is to create Top-of-Mind-Awareness. We are going to embark on programmes like advertising exhibition, job fair and others which we have approved for the year. We are trying to organize a national competition for APCON accredited schools. We will be visiting institutions to encourage students to consider careers in this industry before leaving the university. By this, we will be attracting young talents. These are some of the things that we intend to do to engage the gown.
In the past and currently, we partner with Chini Productions where we sponsor at least, three students to Cannes Awards every year. In addition, we are also looking inwards by organizing competitions for students in order to attract talents to the industry. Most of these things would have been done before now but the COVID-19 pandemic slowed us down. I am sure that before the end of the year, we will be having our job fair and our inter university competition.
Advice to Practitioners on How to Operate Within the Ambit of APCON Regulations
We need to come together and build our practice. ICAN did not get to where they are in a day. As at today, if ICAN members are having their functions, you still see Pa Akintola Williams in their midst, same for NBA and other professions. It is now time for us to come together rebuild our industry and reposition our practice. At APCON, we are doing many things now, parts of which is setting up a committee to review the business framework in terms of agreement and engagement between agencies, clients, media-everybody in that value chain. We are going to create a very conducive environment for the practice of advertising. We want to encourage everybody to support APCON. We want everybody to practice advertising within the framework of the law. We want them to look at the code and be good practitioners, good ambassadors of the practice. At the end, we will all benefit from it.
Mortality Rate and Sustainability of APCON Licensed Agencies
The advertising industry is not immune to what is happening in the larger economic space. For example, globally, agencies are shutting down. Our own market is even better because of our emotional relationships. In other climes, once an agency loses an account, everyone on it will be fired. But here, these persons are integrated into other accounts and this makes staff turnover in Nigeria better here than in other parts of the world.
However, the economy has not been favourable to agency practice because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other related issues. In recent times too, business has not been good. We are hoping that business will open up in the second quarter (Q2.) We are hoping that agencies and advertisers will also bounce back. The economic outlook forecasts states that business will start opening up in the second half of the year.
APCON may not be able to do so much in arresting mortality rate in the industry but we can ensure best global business practices in this market. We will also encourage healthy business environment that will encourage agencies to thrive. If agencies do their businesses professionally and are able to collect their money as and when due, if agencies understand that they need to take money from client and pay the media as and when due, and if all these are in place, we would have fulfill part of our mandate.
Relationship with the Minister and Legacies after Your Tenure
Let me conclude this by appreciating the Hon Minister of Information. Alh Lai Mohammed who has been a pillar of support to APCON. Before I was appointed, the perception was that the Hon Minister was anti advertising agencies and industry. This I found out to be untrue. We have gotten approvals for some of our proposals and prayers after presentation to him.
He has also offered advice, counsel on how to improve the advertising practice in Nigeria.
The first approval I got from the Hon Minister was the full implementation of the Advertising Industry Reform Report. The office of the Hon Minister has also been incredibly supportive on our Law review through the Presidency and the National Assembly.
As much as possible, I will love to be remembered for establishing a framework for the standard of practice. For example, setting up the framework of practice for the advertising industry. That is very dear to me. Before now, we have been talking about the practice of advertising whereas most aspects of the business of advertising have not been covered.
Also, we are working on the law review of APCON. I want to leave a stronger APCON. Look at what happened to CPC. The laws governing the body were changed and they were given more powers with which they were able to perform their statutory functions and mandate. If we are also able to get the National Assembly to review APCON’s laws and give it more powers to perform its mandate, that will be one of the things I will love to be remembered for.
I want to leave an APCON that can be equated with the statue of the CBN to the banking industry. I want to leave an APCON that is a step ahead of the industry it is regulating in terms of knowledge, working tools, training, positioning, etc. I want to leave a well-motivated staff force behind. I want to leave behind an APCON that everyone will be proud to identify with. In short, I want to leave APCON better than I met it.
