‘No Going Back on New Standard of Practice in the Advertising Industry’

Registrar, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Dr. Lekan Fadolapo in this interview, speaks on the need for stakeholders in the Marketing Communication industry to adhere strictly to the global best practice as well as promote policies that can strengthen Nigeria’s economy. Raheem Akingbolu brings the excerpts.

The decision of APCON to introduce a code of conduct titled “Advertising Industry Standard of Practice’’ (AISOP), four months ago, was received with mixed feelings, with a section of the stakeholders calling for its review. How far have you gone with its implementation?
After months of engagement and plans for execution, Advertising Industry Standard of Practice (AISOP) is set to commence a national road show on AISOP, partnering with the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria and other stakeholders to further deepen our campaign. We have gotten to the stage where we will take the new standard of practice to suppliers through interactive sessions across the country. Like every new thing, there could be little resistance because, man by nature, finds it tough adapting to change. But in the long run, what he fears to do might be the best for him and the society. This is the case of AISOP. It’s a well thought-out industry issue that is meant to redefine practice as well as boosting the economy. After implementation, anybody found wanting will not only be sanctioned but will be dealt with by stakeholders.

AISOP is not something that we came up with overnight. It was a lingering industry issue that we had to put to rest once and for all. To achieve that, we came up with a committee of stakeholders chaired by a former President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), who is also the Group Managing Director of COSSE, Funmi Onabolu and the committee put the document together. For so many years, the advertising industry had operated without a code of conduct, hence the need for a new regime. At the end of the day, the committee came up with a document, which aligns with the best practices in most parts of the world, which will make every stakeholder not to be subjected to unfair business practices. The fundamental principle is to ensure we do not encourage or continue to operate in an environment that is like a jungle or an environment where many of the stakeholders feel they are not experiencing any growth.

But it has been described as a retrogressive policy to the economy you claim it would boost in the long run. What’s your reaction to this?
Whoever tags AISOP a retrogressive policy is either being mischievous or not interested in industry growth. Those who are keen about industry growth are daily pushing for the need to do things that will strengthen the practice of the industry and this is one. We need new initiatives that would further open up the industry. To me, the turning point is AISOP. AISOP was specifically set up to effectively tackle the numerous challenges facing Nigeria’s advertising industry, review the advertising code, and to provide the regulatory framework in all critical areas of concern such as Engagement policy, Payment terms and conditions, numeration model, media rates and commissions, disengagement protocols, credit policy, return of advertisement and measurement, and peaceful resolution.

Under media rates deregulation, APCON is saying no sector of the Industry should be allowed to cap or determine what media houses should charge as media advert rates. However, media houses must give at least 30 days’ notice before implementation of a new media rate. It is also provided that advertisers and agencies have a duty to accord Nigeria media houses the same mutual respect they accord foreign media operating in Nigeria and all stakeholders will have to align with best practices. Again, in line with best practices, payment for media and other advertisement services would be done within 45 days. Any payment after 45 days will attract interest at prevailing CBN interest rate.

Advertisers and agencies would have to honour advertising and marketing communications invoice promptly and parties to a business transaction must be transparent in their dealings. Besides, Pitch procedure has become professionalized as parties in the pitch process must respect Nigeria’s copyright Law. Pitch fee would now be paid to agencies that participated in a pitch process in line with best practices while profile presentation, agency visit, meet-and-greet are made free. However, Strategy and/or Creative Presentation attracts pitch fees if the agency participates in a pitch. Then we have an agency disengagement policy. Here, we are saying; where advertisers decide to disengage an agency, an incoming agency, the outgoing agency and the advertiser must reconcile all financial obligations which have arisen during the existence of the business relationship. The outgoing agency must hand over the assets and liabilities of the account to the new agency to enable interested parties track financial obligations and responsibilities.

Finally, under the new regime, all contracts of advertisement, advertising and marketing communications mandatorily expected to be in writing and duly signed by parties involved in the contract. The implementation has since begun from October 6th, 2021 with all existing contracts, MPO, LPO and other POs already on-going were permitted to serve out their engagement terms while any other engagement subsequent to the effective date of commencement of the AISOP must align with the AISOP.

Beyond the need for the new standard of practice, what other challenges do you think are facing the industry?
One of the challenges of the advertising industry is the unbundling of the profession. Advertising is now more of marketing communication. In the past years, we had one advertising agency offering a supermarket of services. In one agency, you would have creative, experiential, Activation, Above the Line(ATL), Through the Line(TTL), strategy, branding, activation, media. Twenty years ago, when MIPAN came, the media independents said they could no longer remain with advertising and they left. Experiential people also left. Creative people are planning to perform off-shore. Account management people are leaving and saying they want to become consultants. So, new professions will come up. Before now, the media was guesstimate.

But now, the media is no longer on guesstimate. You need to do proper media plan, strategy. Buying media now is not because I know you. You need to support it with insights and data. Likewise experiential, when you are putting your money behind activation, you will expect them to come back with a research to the extent that you can ring it up with your ROI. Digital is taking a new shape because our market or profession is now data-driven. We can’t live in the past and think that we can be relevant in the future. Another issue plaguing the industry is the issue of nagging debts and payment cycle bordering on client-agency relationship. Of course, AISOP has taken care of this challenge because we cannot continue to do the business of advertising the way we have done it before. This issue is beyond the media independent and the outdoor. It also involves advertising agencies. Several years ago, there were claims and counterclaims on the real value of advertising debt. Some said the debts stood at N25 billion while there were counter claims that it was N40 billion. I remember a time when a committee, which I was part of, was set up to reconcile industry debts. Presently, we have gone past that stage as the Onabolu committee has addressed it through AISOP.

What are the policies and regulations by APCON to protect local content and expertise in the advertising industry?
We are trying as much as possible to protect the advertising jobs of Nigerians from encroachment by foreigners. Our laws have gone through several readings and public hearings and we are tuning it up now. A situation where a foreign creative Director is hired to work in Nigeria and he is paid N5 million and whereas you have a Nigerian of the same status, caliber and position being paid like N200, 000 is going to be a thing of the past. How do we intend to do that? For every foreigner that is coming to work in this industry, they need to get approval from APCON. This is the only way we can secure our profession. In a similar vein, the Honourable Minister of Information, had some time ago given a directive to APCON and NBC that all ads should be done in Nigeria and failure to which a fine would be served on errant stations airing those ads.

So, we want a situation where our own experts are also involved in the entire communication space so that we do not continue to play second fiddle to some organisations or foreigners, which ultimately leads to capital flight in the industry. We also want to ensure that the environment is conducive for everyone to practice the profession. We will provide a healthy business environment and ensure that the practitioners are also protected. One of the few things we are doing now as part of our corporate licence requirement is to evaluate the remittance of pension by advertising agencies to the government. This means that you cannot employ your staff as an agency without contributing your statutory contribution to the government so that it will be deducted. So, when the staff are leaving, they have something to fall back on. For the employees, we will protect them, for the employers, we will prepare them for the expectation. For the people that are coming to the industry, they can see a better future.