A Boost for Nigeria’s Advertising Industry

Raheem Akingbolu reviews the 2022 Rankings of ‘Good Report’ which was produced in collaboration with WARC and concludes that the listing of a campaign by one of Nigeria’s creative agencies as one of the top 40 is a boost for the local Marketing Communications industry.

Until a few years ago, the ambition of an average Nigerian agency was to get a mention in global rating.

The last 14 years appear to be the defining moments for the industry because of the global attraction a few agencies and practitioners have received. From DDB to Noah’s Ark, Insight to X3M Ideas, the global feats being recorded have been encouraging, considering the long years of aspiration.

For instance, in 2012, one of the creative works from DDB Lagos, won ‘Luerzer’s Archive Print Ad of the Week. But in recent times, two Nigerian agencies; Noah’s Ark and X3M Ideas, seem to be re-writing the nation’ s advertising story with the works and accomplishments of their founders.

In 2018, Nigeria’s advertising industry received global applause and recognition when Noah’s Ark, hauled three major awards at the Loeries Creative Week held in Durban, South Africa. Same year, the agency’s Chief Creative Officer Lanre Adisa, emerged the first Nigerian to make the list of Juries for the world’s biggest Advertising Festival-the Cannes Lions Festival. Around the same time, X3M Ideas, also brought a spur to campaigns and marketing communications in Globacom as it recorded three awards at the African Cristal Advertising Festival, held in Marrakech, Morocco. The three awards coming courtesy of X3M TV commercial tagged ‘Unmatched’ won in the categories of Media, Telecoms and Brand Entertainment, for content in TV/cinema and coasted home with a bronze for each category. The agency’s Chief Executive Officer, Steve Babaeko was also on a panel at the Cannes Lion International Festival, held two months ago. He was also on the jury of the New York Advertising Festival in 2016, 2017 and 2018, as well as a judge at The Loerie Awards in 2017.

The Report

In collaboration with the West Africa Research Centre (WARC), 2022 Good Report released its global report and listed a campaign by X3M Ideas as among the best 40 most successful campaigns promoting good causes.  The Good Report is produced in collaboration with WARC, worldwide authority on marketing effectiveness and publisher of the WARC Creative 100 Rankings, a global benchmark of creative excellence in advertising.

With the tagline, Best campaigns, agencies, and advertisers promoting Good, the organisers stated in their mission statement that they believe that, “Advertising has a major responsibility in educating and raising awareness, and we are proud to celebrate the campaigns that best fulfill this role. These campaigns allow important messages and values to reach larger sections of the public, and therefore deserve to be celebrated, which is why we created The Good Report.”

The Process

According to the rewarding institution, the corpus covers all social and environmental campaigns created for a non-profit, public sector or commercial brand identified during the year by the publication’s editorial team.

The Good Report ranking is calculated by combining: the results of the WARC Creative 100, the global benchmark for creative excellence (scoring the campaign’s performance in awards shows. 

ACT Responsible initiatives including; great Ads for good exhibition, care awards, one minute of responsibility, TV program – all Tributes (public vote) and Good Ad Gallery views.

The publication emphatically stated that, “There are no complicated categories or criteria, just great work for good! In 2022, a total of 1029 campaigns produced by 658 agencies for 897 advertisers (non-profit, public sector, and commercial brands) across 77 markets were evaluated for this latest Good Report.”

Of the Best 40 campaigns featured in The Good Report 2022, 20 are for non-profit, 17 for commercial brands (including 1 produced in collaboration with non-profits) and 3 for public sectors. A total of 39 agencies (27 are part of 11 networks and 12 are independent) across 24 markets are represented.

The Best 25 agencies are made up of four independent and 21 networked agencies (of 11 different networks) covering a total of 13 markets. Of the Best 20 networks, five are independent and 15 are owned by holding companies. The Best 10 brands include seven non-profit, and three for-profit.

According to the Head of Content, WARC Creative, Amy Rodgers, “Creativity as a force for positive change is more important than ever. WARC is delighted to collaborate with Act Responsible to continue shining a light on the brands, the NGOs and the agencies that are creating breakthrough ideas that truly matter to society.”

Nigeria’s Creative Industry

While congratulating the management of the X3M Ideas agency on its outstanding performance in this year’s report, the organisers stated that the agency’s campaign ‘The grow project’, earned the 34th place in the top 40 ranked campaign

In his reaction to the global feat, the Chief Executive Officer, X3M Ideas, Steve Babaeko, commended his team for putting up a very strong work that could compete favourably at national, continental and global markets.

“We have done this consistently for over  10 years and we do not intend to rest on our laurels. I also thank our clients for always supporting and challenging us to do our best work. Of course, our team also owes the international publication huge commendation for its diligence to encourage excellent works,” he said.

With the new rating, 3XM Ideas, and by extension the industry it represents, have thus recorded another feat in the global space, which confirms the country’s agencies recent victories at local and international creative awards.