Why Conversations To Resolve Knotty Industry Issues Have Not Yielded Results- Uwubanwmen, ADVAN President

The President of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria, ADVAN, Osamede Uwubanwmen has revealed that lack of team spirit, passion to ignore or dominate other groups, and poor understanding of the prevalent business environment of advertisers are responsible for the lingering cold war among different sectoral groups in Nigeria’s advertising industry.
Speaking exclusively to Brand Communicator recently, Osamede Uwubanwmen highlighted the initial efforts he made to facilitate a convergence of views and opinions.
“When I was elected President of ADVAN the first thing what I did was to use my first one month to meet with all the Presidents and the Excos of other associations because I felt we could reach a middle point, especially with the Heads of Advertising sectoral Groups (HASG). My thought was that we should lay down our arms.
“The last time we met, it seemed some attendees were in a warlike mood as someone forcefully declared that Advertising Industry Standard of Practice (AISOP) has come to stay, and added that only a court order can stop AISOP. It was not conciliatory in any way.
“To be honest, we have spent quality time trying to deal with issues in the industry but things are not really moving forward because some top players have been behaving as if they have the license to do anything they want. Why should we have an industry conversation that refuses to grow? Why are we always talking about wanting to save this industry? Who is killing the industry? I am even wondering, is this not the industry I have spent almost all my working years in?”
In Osamede’s views, lack of understanding by some sectorial agencies and stakeholders on how most brand owners and manufacturers operate might be one of the reasons why they are yet to have a headway in various conversation organized by ADVAN and other sectoral groups.
He explains further, “the energy I have spent in trying to get the industry to understand how things work on the side of the advertisers has not yielded the expected response.
‘’I told our industry players why they need to spend time with clients. You are just one vendor, and there are many vendors in the system. How can one vendor try to change the entire system? Can you imagine the chaos if all vendors come up with their unique requirements? When you are a vendor, you need to study the payment system and flow with it.
“I am challenging the agencies to come and stay with the clients they are servicing to understand the system. Sometimes, it is one guy that will pay all the invoices in the marketing unit. It is either the marketing assistant or whatever they choose to call him or her. Every system has the amount of money you pay at any stage. If you are not close to the Financial Controller, you may not know. Sometimes it is N500million or N300 million every week.
“We need to ask ourselves, why do you think some brands are paying the way they do? There is something in accounting that is called cash flow analysis. It shows you how many days it takes to collect from your debtors. And how many days you must ask from your creditors.
“For example, when I was in Guinness, distributors will get drinks for four weeks, they don’t pay. That is a whole month now. When they come back, these distributors will still not pay in full but will still pick up more goods. The company cannot just say no because they want to offload the warehouses and remain in business. So they will have to benchmark how much time their debtors would need to pay them with what they can get for their creditors. That is how they arrive at those payment days. They do not just wake up and say payment will come after 45 or 50 days, it is calculated so that they can remain in business” he said.
Another vital issue pointed out by The President of ADVAN is that all advertisers or brand owners are not the same. He explains, “The likes of telecoms can pay quickly because their financial turnover is fast and regular. Those people are on pre-payment. So, their money can come in by the hour or daily. You cannot take the entire body of advertisers as one and give them a fiat payment term without being scientific about the payment term. You cannot lump Telcos with manufacturers
“Another thing we need to note in the industry is that the payment policy of any organization is a board policy. It does not originate from the accounts or marketing unit. The money you are paid belongs to the owner of the business who is a member of the board. Is AISOP telling us to go and do a board resolution to pay agencies on a special level, instead of the one fixed by the organization?
“When I was in Guinness a marketing manager prepaid a vendor and that is what led to his sack. If they are paying us after 50 days, they are also paying others 50 days. We should know that brands are in a toxic environment now. Nothing is really moving. Payments these days are automated. When I was in the Standard Bank, they were seeing all payments from SA. If all vendors come out with this kind of payment terms, brands will not exist anymore’’.
The President of ADVAN also took a swipe at agencies taking hardline positions on AISOP, “I am trying to let the industry know that things are not done the way we are going. We are quick to reel out statistics from the US, The UK, and South Africa. Are we close to their standard?
“I was talking to an Executive Director, and he was lamenting that all the agencies they invited for a pitch had an extremely similar template. The creative director in agency A moves to agency B in two years’ time and as he leaves, he takes the template there. The same thing is replicated everywhere as they move aggressively in search for greener pastures. When you sit down at presentations, you virtually hear similar things from all the agencies. If you tell them, let me pay you this amount of money, they will say no, AISOP says you should pay me N I m or N1.5 million for the one-hour presentation. And They will still talk about intellectual property.
“Even when they grab all the money, it hardly makes any impact across the industry as most executives and middle-level managers receive crumbs, and with little training. It seems the comfort zone remains only for the Directors and agency owners who are massively obsessed with buying properties in the US, Europe, and Canada. No industry can grow this way. It will not stand”.