Vice Chairman, Troyka Holdings Mr. Jimi Awosika has urged practitioners in the creative advertising Industry to adapt to the latest technology in order to remain relevant in the business.
This was his advice as the guest speaker to the practitioners at the 46th Annual General Meeting of Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) held at the Orchid Hotel in Lekki, Lagos on Friday, September 20, 2019. The association themed this year AGM: ‘The War Within: Solutions for Survival,
According to the association, the theme of the AGM was aimed at providing new directions and finding solutions to overcome myriad of challenges confronting the creative industry.
According to Awosika, the world is now in the post digital age and that all the things that determine and make an agency very relevant in the pre-digital age have all changed drastically.
To him, the fact that the age has changed equally means that the rules and strategies too must also change as one cannot remain static with old models.
He emphasized with all certainty that the current knowledge in the industry is not good enough because critical thinking to take the industry to the next level is lacking.
He stressed that survival of the creative industry also depend on the level of collaboration among the players because ability to proffer solutions to a problem goes beyond one agency.
He added that there must be consistent relevance by redefining and identifying what they represent and the exact services they render to clients.
“In this post-digital age, we now have a new audience completely different from those of the dark age. And it’s because this audience all now have free access to many things they couldn’t accessed in the past. So, for an agency to prove to be the one for me, it has to understand my audience and the medium that drives them.
“Being aware of them alone is not enough, an agency has to know how to build affinity. It has to have something the client can tap into. That is also a key factor to becoming relevant in this age.”
Giving his welcome speech earlier, the President of AAAN, Mr. Ikechi Odigbo, said the industry and agencies have continually experienced growth despite the challenges they faced.
“Growth can be measured in terms of creative performance, financial performance of the agencies as well as the creative and financial performances of the members of the agencies.
“You can also measure growth in terms of the number of agencies that are becoming members of the AAAN.
He said the association had the agencies in mind and decided to bring to light, the myriads of challenges the industry is facing before coining the theme for this year’s AGM/Congress.
“What informed the theme is the fact that just like other sectors in the economy, 70 to 80 percent of the advertising agencies are having really difficult times in terms of being able to sustain their businesses, meet obligations and at the same time, record some form of growth or the other,” he said.
The panel discussion which consist Mrs Biodun Adefila, Dr Lekan Fadolapo, Mrs Bunmi Oke, Mr Steve Babaeko and Mr Lanre Adisa urged member association to come out of the box and be creative. They said relevance involved dedication, professionalism and daring to do things in new ways.
It will be recalled that AAAN earlier scheduled its AGM for July this year in Asaba, Delta State capital, but had to cancel and reschedule it because of unforeseen circumstances.
AAAN is the umbrella body that coordinates and promotes the interest of Advertising Agencies in Nigeria. The Association was founded in 1973 as a sectoral body within the Nigerian marketing communications landscape. Formerly known as Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria (AAPN), the Association changed its name to Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) on Saturday May 1st, 2004 at Lekki Peninsula Resort, Ajah, Lagos during its 31st AGM/Congress.