Tony Ajero: We’re Driven by the Mantra “Public Relations for Good”

Foremost strategic communications firm, C&F Porter Novelli, recently introduced a Purpose and Legacy service. In this exclusive interview with MARY NNAH, C&F’s Group Accounts Director, Mr. Tony Ajero, speaks on the service, state of the industry, the nation and more

It is said that the marketing communication industry is the worst hit in economic downturn; what is the situation in Nigeria, considering the economic situation?

That’s very true. Marketing communication for some CEOs is secondary, so it is the first to go in challenging times. But for discerning organisations run by the more enlightened, global-quality MBA, CEO-type, crisis and downturns require even more, or should I say better, marketing. They understand the opportunities depression offers competing brands; but survival-focused, short-term brands cut marketing.

It takes huge courage though to dive deeper into the market during depression when volumes are down and margins thinned out. Yet, as is the case in life, crises are opportunities for those who understand it, are prepared for it, and navigate it with the end in sight. Isn’t it said that “every cloud has a silver lining?”

There are a number of organisations that are positively navigating this epoch particularly through latching onto what is for me the greatest change agent of our times – digital technology.

Now, the traditional PR practice has given way to digital tools, realities, and players. Let me give you one example. Influencers have taken over the public opinion space especially in the middle class. Where columnists and opinion moulders were in charge in the past, influencers of all sorts now hold sway. That’s why one blog owner commands tens of millions in naira for a single comment on a brand, basically endorsing that brand with his/her followers, who repost with their own networks ad infinitum.

Specific to your question, these are trying times for us in Nigeria. COVID-19 plus two recessions in five years, plus the dwindling value of the naira, plus the internal security challenges, aaah, these are very, very trying times indeed! The average CEO runs a pen across marketing budgets right now. Hence, communications firms, and this is true for other sectors too, are laying off at best, or closing shop entirely.

So, how come you are introducing a new service in these “very trying times” to use your words?

Remember that in answer to your first question, I was reminded of the wisdom in the saying that “every cloud has a silver lining”, and “every crisis is an opportunity”. Life is not so much what is thrown at you, as much as what you do with what is thrown at you. The former is not within your control but the latter is in your power.

At C&F Porter Novelli, we are driven by the mantra “Public Relations for Good ”, so we are constantly seeking ways and means to improve the society through public relations. Our strategy is always bounded by, and rooted in, the multiple bottom lines of people, planet, and profits. Like Rotary International’s four-way test, we look at our work through the lens of its truthfulness, fairness, goodwill and holistic benefit to all concerned.

We are constantly asking questions around, and seeking answers to, societal challenges and development. We have a process for interrogating briefs from clients, and our internal brief “PR for Good”. This is called the PN Way which stands for the Porter Novelli Way, used in 60 countries and 100 offices where the Porter Novelli network serves its diverse clients world over.

By the way, PR purists have always believed that the practice is about doing good and telling it well through quality narratives. Unfortunately, many now go about telling, even when no good has been done. Of course, the castle built in the air will always be burst by the wind.

At C&F, we believe that our challenges as a nation provide an opportunity to seek how Public Relations can assist in building the better nation of our dreams. The Purpose and Legacy service is a product of that.

Your new service “Legacy and Purpose”, what is it about?

You want me to divulge our trade secrets? Actually, we really don’t mind for “the sky is wide enough for a million birds to fly without any accident” as that African proverb reminds us. Indeed, as a knowledge-driven organisation, we are willing to share with anyone who wants to learn.

The Legacy and Purpose service enables discerning brands, both corporate and individual, to go beyond the muddle to defining their Brand Purpose. This, in turn, develops a unique and cross-generational Legacy that impacts their products and services making them even more profitable and making the society a better place for us all. While this is a bespoke service, we have had great responses from every organisation and individual we have presented it to.

It is interesting that as we were signing on one of Nigeria’s premier brands to the service, three eminent Nigerians: Uche Orji, the MD and CEO of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority; Ibukun Awosika, founder of the Chair Centre Group; and Arunma Otteh, the University of Oxford academic scholar, who was formerly Director-General of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission were appointed to join a global Impact Task Force under the United Kingdom’s 2021 Presidency of the G7.

The simple way to define their work is harnessing private capital for public good. Please note that that capital is primarily intellectual before material. Look at these three, their appointments are based on the wealth of ideas which of course is able to produce the wealth of money and materials.

Part of the activation of this Purpose and Legacy Product is the recent sign-on of Chinedu Ikedieze brand (Aki of the Aki and Pawpaw fame) by C&F PN to design and execute a branded Purpose driven initiative(s) with brand Aki. More corporate and individual brands are also in the pipeline.

Do you think Nigerians are still interested in ideas?

Good questions, the latter even more so as it over arches over the first through its historicity. I will take them one after the other.

Yes, it is true that we are witnessing an ever-growing deafening loudness of the type only crass materialism and obscene squander mania can produce. However, everywhere you look you see great Nigerians doing great things, both locally and globally. Good always triumphs over evil. In Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare says “the evil that men do lives after the…”

In other words, it is their legacy forever. Their generations will forever carry that albatross. Like all men, they will have to account to God for their deeds. Even though Alfred Nobel built the Nobel Prize with a larger portion of his bequest it hasn’t and can’t erase the notoriety that his wealth came partly from the dynamite. Yet, the man had over 350 other patents to his name!

I mean I have just pointed you to three of our citizens who in the midst of all our national foibles were singled out from across the waters to sit with the world’s best brains. Every year, we read of Nigerian students breaking academic records at entry or/and graduation. Didn’t you notice the number of Nigerians flying the flags of, and winning medals for, other nations at the just concluded Tokyo Olympic Games?

To then answer your second question as to if we are an ideas-driven people, absolutely yes. Our African proverbs tell you it is our way of life. For instance, the Igbos say “onye ajuju adighi efu uzo”. The one who asks questions (knowledge seeker) can never get lost. Our folklore is filled with wisdom as exemplified by the tortoise. Unfortunately, we threw away our heritage with the advent of western civilization. Only now, are we beginning to say, “Wait a second, our culture is better in this area!”

One of our campaigns “Spirit of Lagos” under the cerebral Governor Tunde Fashola spoke to this attitudinal change. While social amenities are good, it is the people’s mind that determines the quality, usage, and durability of the roads, taps, houses and all what not. It is about restructuring the infrastructure of the mind.

How do you see Public Relations in the near future?

In my secondary school class, I think Form Five – this was in the early 80s before the era of junior and secondary school formats – there was a statement on top of the board which occupied most of the front wall. That statement rings true in answer to this question “take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” That statement is from the Holy Bible, Matthew 6: 34.

Yet, it is said that “he who fails to plan has already planned to fail.” Public Relations will be more and more technology driven. There will be a return to the fundamentals of “PR for Good” at all times. I see PR playing a huge part in charting the Nigerian renaissance.

In addition to enlarging the core tenets of PR for Good, we envisage a PR practice that is totally informed by data and analytics, activations (physical and virtual) to create the Reputational Capital that most brands desire.