In a recent stakeholder engagement with the media, Mr. Lanre Adisa, the newly elected President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) and Managing Director of Noah’s Ark Communication, shared his comprehensive plans and vision for the Nigerian creative advertising industry. Adisa has also assumed the role of Chairman of the Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups (HASG), a position he inherited based on the rotational leadership of the body. This follows the term served by Dr. Femi Adelusi, the immediate past president of the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN).
As Adisa takes on these dual leadership roles, he addressed several key issues facing the sector and outlined his strategies for growth, improvement, and cross-sectoral collaboration.
When asked about his plans for resuscitating dying or struggling agencies, Adisa acknowledged the challenging nature of the business but emphasized the importance of support, especially for younger agencies. He proposed several initiatives, including implementing mentorship programs to guide emerging agencies and facilitating knowledge sharing among experienced professionals across the industry. Adisa also plans to expand the role of the AAAN secretariat to provide comprehensive support and consultancy services, as well as extend the existing welfare committee’s scope to include business support and financial advisory.
“We need to ask ourselves: How can we support you as a business? How can the secretariat be of help? Can it become a form of consultancy that can help businesses in some areas?” Adisa stated. He added, “One of the things we did in the last administration is the setting up of the welfare committee, just to check on one another. Now can we extend that welfare also to businesses?”
Adisa also expressed his commitment to developing the long-discussed Advertising Acadamy – -AdAcademy, emphasizing the need for a homegrown approach. His plans include building a local foundation before seeking international partnerships, leveraging local talent, including professionals who teach at institutions like Pan African University, and exploring sustainable and cost-effective training models. He also aims to develop a curriculum that addresses both creative and business aspects of advertising.
“The talent is here,” Adisa asserted. “Our people are the ones going to Pan African University (PAU) to teach Advertising, when we can actually find a way of using them within our own environment.” He stressed the importance of making the academy financially accessible, stating, “Such foreign partnership is not even sustainable if you look at the exchange rate when you do business with any outfit outside Nigeria. If they say it’s $500, when you look at it, how many agencies can you send from your end?”
To further enhance industry standards, Adisa proposed the formation of professional guilds for writers, directors, and other specialized advertising disciplines. He believes these guilds can set their own standards and contribute to events like the LAIF Awards, ultimately raising the bar for the industry. “Guild of Writers, Guild of Directors and others, and have them work within themselves, set their own standards and fix all of that into LAIF Award, and you will be surprised at the results you are going to get,” Adisa explained.
Recognizing the need for more frequent and diverse engagement, Adisa plans to study and implement practices from similar associations in other countries, increase the frequency of industry events and activities (including smaller, focused gatherings), foster more conversations around industry-specific topics and emerging trends, and collaborate with other sectoral bodies under HASG to organize cross-disciplinary events.
“We don’t have to do only big events. I believe people will take us seriously when we start having conversations around what we do as an industry,” he explained. “Just looking at their websites shows that there is a whole lot that we can do and we’ll try to ensure we step up on our activities.”
Also, to combat the issue of talent scarcity and poaching within the industry, Adisa emphasized the importance of training. His strategy includes increasing focus on training and development programs across all levels, creating a larger pool of skilled professionals to reduce poaching, collaborating with educational institutions to develop industry-ready graduates, and implementing retention strategies beyond just competitive salaries.
“If you train, there will be less poaching. It is because there is a shortage of talents that we have poaching,” Adisa pointed out. He added, “Even when you send somebody abroad, some people will still leave, but it will not be poaching. It will be the person’s decision to say, or leave. The solution to that is to ensure that we train.”
Adisa expressed openness to the idea of AAAN taking stands on important national issues. This includes providing advisory opinions on matters related to advertising and media, engaging in public discussions through media appearances, and collaborating with other HASG members to present a unified voice on industry-related policies.
“Yes, we have to, if we want to be relevant. Taking position doesn’t mean we are against government. We can take position but we must be seen to mean anything more than what we are doing now,” he stated. “It can be advisory. There is nothing wrong with a TV Station inviting members to come and do that.”
To elevate the quality of work produced by Nigerian agencies, Adisa outlined a multi-faceted approach. This includes encouraging agencies to balance profit-making with creative excellence, promoting the value of awards like LAIF to both agencies and clients, implementing peer review systems to maintain high standards, and organizing workshops and seminars focused on creativity and innovation.
“You can make money and also make a living,” Adisa said, emphasizing that creative excellence and commercial success are not mutually exclusive. He shared an anecdote to illustrate the importance of creative recognition: “In fact the only reason we were invited to pitch Airtel back then was because of our consistent feats at the LAIF Awards. Those are the things that build the industry.”
In his capacity as the new chairman of HASG, Adisa emphasized the importance of collaboration between different sectors of the advertising industry. His goals include fostering better communication between agencies, media buyers, and regulatory bodies; addressing industry-wide challenges through collective effort; promoting ethical practices across all sectors of the advertising industry; and organizing joint training sessions and knowledge-sharing platforms.
“As HASG chairman, my goal is to ensure that all sectors of our industry are working in harmony towards common goals. We need to leverage our collective strengths to address the challenges facing our industry and to seize new opportunities in the evolving media landscape,” Adisa stated.
With a focus on support, training, engagement, and cross-sectoral collaboration, Adisa aims to address the challenges facing the industry while pushing it towards greater heights of creativity, relevance, and ethical practice.
His dual role provides a unique opportunity to bridge gaps between different sectors of the advertising industry, potentially leading to more cohesive strategies and a stronger, more unified voice for the Nigerian advertising community. As the industry watches with keen interest, Adisa’s tenure promises to be a period of development and transformation for Nigerian advertising.