National Advertising Conference 2025: ARCON Set To Chart New Course For Business Growth, Economic Transformation

The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) is set to chart a course for business growth and economic transformation of the country with the 2025 National Advertising Conference (NAC).

The Director General (DG) of ARCON, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, made this announcement at a media briefing held last Friday in Ikeja.

In his welcome address, the DG stated that this year’s theme, “Marketing Communications: Transforming Businesses and Creating Growth in Challenging Times,” and the lineup of discussions featuring over 50 distinguished speakers from various sectors across Nigeria and beyond, will drive business growth and transformation in our economy.

According to ARCON DG, over the years, NAC has remained a thought leadership and advocacy platform that seeks to deal with critical industry issues, and this year won’t be different, as the speakers will be tackling topical issues affecting the advertising industry in the country.

Unveiling the lineup of activities for this year’s conference, Tunji Adeyinka, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the National Advertising Conference, noted that NAC 2025 is a must-attend event for industry leaders, young professionals, innovators, and visionaries in the marketing communications industry in Nigeria.

Speaking about the reason behind this year’s theme, he said, “Though there are indicators that show that the economy is stabilizing and it is also growing, transmitting this growth to consumers is not happening yet, so growth in every aspect is a very critical discussion, and that is what this year’s conference is about, transforming businesses and creating growth.”

He further noted that the PwC report two years ago has shown that the marketing communications industry is a catalyst for economic growth in the country, hence the conference is set to have discussions centered on the economic growth of Nigeria and the growth of businesses.

Industry leaders present at the even include Lanre Adisa, President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) and Chairman, Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups (HASG) ; Dozie Okafor, President of the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN); Tolulope Medebem, President of the Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria (EXMAN; Sola Akinsiku, President of the Outdoor Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (OAAN); and Greg Odutayo, representing the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), Omirin Adeniji, the president of Electronic Media Content Owners Association of Nigeria ( EMCOAN). They all pledged their support for the success of the conference and assured that their members will be mobilized to participate actively in the industry’s flagship event in Abuja.

Conference chairman,Tunji Adeyinka,  disclosed that the three-day event promises to be bigger and will take place from 12th November to 14th November at the prestigious Abuja Continental Hotel.

He gave a breakdown of the activities of the event. He also announced  the topics, panel discussions that will take place during the conference.

According to him, the conference will kick off with a Fireside Chat, themed ‘A different generation, a different industry’. The panel will include Dr. Bolajoko Bola-Ajayi, President of the National Institute of Marketing in Nigeria, Anthony Eigbe, the Creative Director of Tecno West Africa,  and Bello Yusuf, Business Director 3-IPOD. Maryam Amuda, Junior Level Marketing at Aster Integrated Marketing Limited, will anchor the fireside chat.

The formal opening of the conference will be on the 13th with the opening ceremonies. Mr. Oluwasegun Zacchaeus, a Partner and Lead Strategy at PriceWaterhouseCooper ( PwC), will tackle the economic outlook, growth, and how industry players can break things down at different levels.

This will be followed by a panel session to discuss more on the economic outlook. Oluwasegun Zacchaeus; Dr. Tayo Oyedeji, CEO, Publicist Group Nigeria, and Mr. Steven Onaivi, Managing Director of mediaReach OMD, will be on the panel.

“Driving Business Growth in Challenging Times.” The plenary is going to be taken by Dr.  Cherry Eromosele, Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Interswitch Group.  Then followed by a panel session, Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka, the Chief Marketing Officer at MTN, will join Eromosele in the panel.

Mr. Jack Bulger, Co-founder, Group CEO of Up and Up Group South Africa (Formerly called M&C Saatchi Group South Africa), will speak on “The agency business in tough times: Boom or bust”.

The Topic “Developing The Next Generation Of Marketing Communications Professionals” will be led by Steve Babaeko , CEO / Chief Creative Officer, X3M Ideas and President of the International Advertising Association (I.A.A), Nigeria Chapter.

The next topic would take a look at artificial intelligence, “Transformation: The Technology Advantage”. The organizers said the speakers would be announced next week.

The conference will also spotlight opportunities in tourism using a case study, Detty December as a catalyst for city branding and tourism growth in Nigeria to Subnationals and state governments, looking to build tourism as a brand.

On the last day, 14th, there will be a masterclass handled by Mr. Udeme Ufot, Udeme Ufot, Group Managing Director, SO&U, and the Board Chair of LEAP Africa on Destination Branding.

There will also be a presentation of a research paper on Data from Nigeria by Professor Uchena Uzo from the Lagos Business School.

The conference will feature four breakout rooms. One of the breakout rooms will be dedicated to academia from the beginning to the end, a session for destination branding, a look at public sector marketing communications practitioners and how careers are growing, a Master class on artificial intelligence, among other topics.

The conference will also feature a Town Hall, the ARCON DG, and the sectoral president of sectoral groups. The conference will close with a dinner party and an after-party.

The Chairman of the Organizing Committee also noted that early bird tickets will go for N250,000 until the end of October, after which the ticket price will increase to N350,000 starting from November 1.

He added that the committee is also partnering with Ibom Air and hotels in Abuja to reduce the cost for early registrants attending the conference.