The Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups (HASG), a sectoral group made up of integrated marketing communications professionals, has urged the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed to engage the industry players and practitioners more and explore collaboration on issues critical to the industry before making pronouncements.
The body made the remark following federal government announcement that advertisers will pay fine for advertisements placed on CNN and other foreign owned media channels and production of content abroad.
Recall, news platforms reported that the Minister made the comment during a discussions on the NTA Good Morning Nigeria show recently, stating that brands that produce their advertising materials abroad will pay a fine of N100, 000 each time such adverts are run, adding that advertising materials promoting Nigerian brands must be directed and authored by Nigerians inside the country.
He also said that Nigerian brands who run adverts during foreign matches must compulsorily advertise during Nigerian Premier Football League games.
In a joint statement issued by AAAN, ADVAN, MIPAN, OAAN, BON and EXMAN; HASG stated that the world is a global village and no one can work in isolation today as Nigerians do not just live within the physical boundaries, stating that advertisers put their money where eyeballs of Nigerians are. It explained further that more Nigerians watch the foreign channels, adding that the country’s music and entertainment industry for example did not emerge and become global by forced legislative fiats, but via organic growth and creativity of the practitioners.
“First it is important that the Minister should understand that advertisers put their advertising investment where the eyeballs of Nigerians are. The media decisions are driven by the consumers’ interest, passion, inspiration and aspirations. CNN and other international news channels are watched by Nigerians locally and internationally, the world is now a global village and Nigerians do not only live within our physical boundaries. Nigeria based news channels and contents developed locally are also consumed across many countries beyond our borders, with no special fines and levies imposed on companies who place adverts within them.
“While there are some merits in the bid to encourage and support local production of contents in a bid to support the local industries, the Minister must understand that these have to be allowed to develop organically. Also, many leading
“Advertisers are multinational companies who rationally seek to explore economies of scale in the production of materials, negotiation costs and broadcast of their contents which run across many countries. Even with this said, empirical information and trended data shows clearly that investment on local broadcast stations still outweighs that of foreign channels.”
HASG explained further that there are many others ways the government can support the advertising industry, “There are many areas where the government can support the industry to grow, this includes funding in the areas of technical infrastructure, content development grants, and investment in tools of measurement of advertising effectiveness & efficiency etc. With the right support for the marketing communication industry, content development. Local media investment and media infrastructural development will grow and improve organically,” the statement reads.
