Advertising Practitioner, Buchi Johnson, Applauds New ARCON Law

Mary Nnah

The new advertising regulation law, which transformed the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) into the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) has been applauded by some practitioners in the country as one of the best initiatives by the government for the advertising industry in Nigeria.

One of the leading practitioners in the industry and chief executive officer of Lilvera Group, Mr. Buchi Johnson in a recent chat with the media stated that the new law setting up ARCON has prevented a capital flight to the tune of N120 billion.

According to him, “The law provides that, with effect from January 1, 2023, advertisers must use a cumulative 75% of local content in all ads and marketing directed at the Nigerian market. This is exciting because the country has been losing about ₦120 billion annually due to capital flight in the sector where ads targeted at Nigerians were produced externally creating jobs in other economies but not in the targeted economy, Nigeria.”

Johnson said this law is expected to create over 500,000 jobs annually. So, this will lead to more multinational brands using Nigerian talents, agencies, and producers in commercials targeted at the Nigerian market.

“On a personal note, I look forward to Lilvera playing a key part in ensuring that the quality that these multinational brands get from local agencies is at par if not even higher than the quality they would get elsewhere,” he said.

Speaking on Lilvera’s audacious moves to make a giant stride in the industry, the CEO of Lilvera mentioned that the agency has designed an effective tool to aid its execution and implementation of clients’ briefs. The tool is tagged 5Rs which simply represents responsiveness, relevance, receptivity, recognition, and relationship.

On the potency of this tool, Mr. Johnson said “Our focus is to continue to deliver on the 5Rs that drive Integrated Marketing Communications such as Responsiveness: ensuring rapid and high-quality response to clients’ needs, Relevance: keeping our client communications highly targeted and relevant, and Receptivity: maintaining open communication lines with clients”.

He further stated that “Recognition is about prioritising brand building and distinction to keep Lilvera the preferred brand for integrated marketing communication in the Nigerian market for multinational and local businesses and Relationship: we are nothing without the key relationships we have with our team, vendors, and clients so this is a vital area of focus for us in 2023 and beyond.” 

Highlighting some landmark accomplishments of the agency, he said perfection eludes humankind yet we strive for it and will accept nothing less than the perfection that is within our reach at Lilvera. “So, we deploy every resource within our capacity to ensure the very best outcomes for our clients and our business. Our achievements in the last year are a testament to the hard work and creativity of our team, the trust of our clients, and, of course, God’s grace and favour. We acknowledge Him as our helper and source for everything, even the inspiration that we receive to deliver a great experience to clients.”

He stated that “One area where we need to keep growing is customer relationship management. We have built great client relationships in the past years of our business that we must continue to deepen, and we look forward to building new relationships that we will nurture, grow, and blossom.

Our clients are at the heart of our business so we will continue to focus on this area to ensure the very best experience for them as they continue to choose us for their integrated marketing communication projects,” he added.