ADISA: AI Not A Threat, Will Enhance Creativity

President, Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, who also doubles as Chairman, Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups, Lanre Adisa in this interview with Raheem Akingbolu speaks about the prospects and the challenges facing the Marketing communication industry in Nigeria. Excerpts:

 It’s been almost 8 months since you took over as the President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), how has the experience been?

I think first and foremost, it’s been a humbling and also exciting experience. Humbling, in the sense that you are first among equals. It’s not because you are the best the industry ever produced, especially when your colleagues unanimously supported you to lead them unopposed.   It simply means that they must have some trust in what you’re capable of doing. That is something that I don’t take for granted. I must confess too that on assumption of office, I met a AAAN with a big difference from what we had when I vied for Presidency 10 years ago.  But there is a way fate plays a fast game on us. I came in when AAAN has become stronger and commands more respect and I think I’m far better prepared too and better experienced to attend to this now than I was 10 years ago. Again, the beauty of it all is that since 10 years ago when I first aspired, I never let go of anything that has to do with AAAN. Within that period, I have served as chairman of the Constitution Review Committee, served in the Membership Committee and  served as Chairman, Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival(LAIF).  

Coming to my experience in the last few months, my team at Noah’s Ark Advertising can attest to the fact that since I’ve taken on this particular role, more than 60% of my time is spent on things that have to do with AAAN and as Chairman of the Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups (HASG), which also fell on my lap almost immediately. So, in that sense, it’s humbling, it’s exciting. It’s also good to serve. As the leader in a group or association, you can see things on a broader level because there are so many issues that the ordinary person may not even be able to see. And I feel very grateful that I’ve been given that chance to contribute my quota to moving things forward.

What does the future hold for the association, I mean AAAN?
One thing you must admit -that we all need to admit, is that like they say, change is still very constant. The environment is changing rapidly. The practice is also changing. So, what is important is; how do we stay relevant in the scheme of things? Technology is making the entry level lower and lower by the day. So, for people in our business, the only way you can justify your role and competence is that you keep getting better at what you do. So for us, the key aim of this particular administration is how do we strengthen the industry? How do we shore up standards to ensure that we are ready for that future? That future is not somewhere tomorrow, it’s here, it’s now with us.

So that is very critical for us; that no matter what changes may occur in the space of technology, something cannot be taken away.

And what’s that?

The fact that we have a great understanding of the human psyche, of their desires, we understand this environment, we understand this country, we understand the dynamics in terms of what will lead to brands staying on top of their game, that cannot be taken away. But we have to also embrace technology. We have to embrace this change for us to stay relevant and effective in the scale of business

What is your view about talent retention in the industry?

 I think for me, you must also take into cognizance the fact that there are some factors that are happening in the macro space that also have an impact on the micro in our industry. What I mean by this is that the general effect of the economy has led to what people now call the ‘japa’ syndrome. So, we see the migration of talent. It’s not just about people moving from agency A to B. Some of these guys are actually moving out of the country and sometimes out of the industry. Some of them are moving to other industries, especially tech or whatever it is, or moving out of the country in entirety. So what it means for us is that retention or even attraction can only happen when we grow talent and attract talent into our industry. It can happen when we constantly train and when we constantly embrace the new thinking that is out there. To this end, a key pillar of this particular administration is to focus on training. Focus on training is not just organizing, perhaps a one off training -it’s more structural than that. Our Academy working group will do a lot to strengthen the association training school called Adcademy. The Academy working group has been reconstituted under the leadership of Dr. Tayo Oyedeji, the Chief Excutive Officer at Publicis Group/ Redefini. This way, we would succeed in institutionalizing the training arm. 

This takes me to the LAIF award, despite the challenges, despite the peculiar challenges of the environment where we operate, AAN has kept LAIF awards going for 19 years. It’s going to be 20 next year. All because it is in the hands of an institution, AAAN. The same thing is what will apply to the Advertising school. Through it, we will be able to groom and train our young ones and retrain even the established practitioners on new trends. When you go out of Nigeria, go to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, go to the Loeries, and other international awards platforms. You will observe that most of the people you see climbing the stage and winning these awards are very young people. Therefore, it is up to us to ensure that we are able to groom the talent that will grow our industry and build that future for us. On this note, that is where that school is very important. The other thing is that we are also contemplating and working on collaboration at the moment. For instance, we’re talking to a South African advertising school -Red and Yellow School, with the aim of having some of their programs for our people to access and even customize for our own needs and all of that. Again, that way, our drive for knowledge is not just limited to our own environment alone. We’re looking at the best of knowledge from around the world to ensure that people get the best.

It’s believed in some quarters that AI will be a future albatross for creativity, do you share such sentiment?

Well, I think it is almost natural that every time there is some new invention, people are scared. We are always scared of the unknown. At a point in time, radio was a novelty. TV was a novelty. It’s like, hey, you know, the prints will die because now there’s radio. Oh, now TV will die. Oh, because now there is the Internet, creativity is in trouble. For me, that natural instinct of being scared is what we have to deal with.  AI is just a way of doing things better, doing it faster, doing it better than a human being could possibly do. But there is still the role that will be played by human beings. So, this is what we have to brace ourselves for and how do we embrace AI in a way that makes our lives easier. But AI on its own cannot do our work without our influence. First, we, as a people, as an industry, we have to embrace AI in ways that will make our work a lot easier to do.  Having stated this, I can say with confidence that AI is not in any way a threat.

You are currently combining the leadership of the AAAN with that of the Chairmanship of the Head of Sectoral Groups, don’t you foresee a clash of interest?

I don’t see a clash. That’s going to be the case forever because the HASG chairmanship is rotated among the members. All the sectoral groups are represented. The next chairman might be from maybe the Experiential Marketers’ Association of Nigeria (EXMAN) or maybe from the Out of Home Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN). That person will still be the president of his or her association. But the thing is, it is actually complementary because it makes life easier in terms of your roles that you can have an insight into what you do in your sector and also have an idea of what is going on other level and depending on what drives you, it makes life easier for you to actually get stuff done and I think for me, the beauty of taking on that role is also looking at HASG and seeing how relevant it can be. It is a very potent body if we really apply our minds very well to it, because it represents all of us. Yes, we’ve had specialization but at what point do we come together and look at ourselves, that we’re in the same ecosystem and that’s what HASG offers you.

What does Advertisers Association of Nigeria’s decision to pull out of the group portend for the industry or are there moves to woo the association back?
I was waiting for this question. Let me put on record, this happened before I took on the chairmanship. But even at that, I’m aware of what’s been going on. I don’t think we should look at ADVAN pulling out of HASG as ADVAN having a bone to pick with HASG. I think it was borne out of displeasure on certain decisions and certain items under the Advertising Industry Standard of Practice (AISOP). I think they thought that the only way they could express their displeasure was to get out of HASG. I don’t think they have a problem with HASG, as it were. But having said that, the HASG position has always been that we would like ADVAN to reconsider its position. We don’t gain anything from pulling apart. You cannot also solve a problem by walking away from the table. You have to come back. Even when countries go to war, where do they end the war eventually? Around the table. So, we’ve approached ADVAN. I need to put it on record and still use this opportunity to appeal to the leadership of the association to reconsider their stand. They should come back to HASG so we can look at the issues together and find solutions together as well. They seem to be open to it, but the process is a bit slow for now. But I won’t give up on that. As we go into 2025, we hope that we’re able to arrive at something in that direction.

OAAN wielded the big stick recently by championing the sponsorship of a bill to establish a fresh regulatory body, what is your position about the new development?

In context, the OAAN issue is a development that we- AAAN family and a couple of other members of the HASG, at least one or two, are not in support of. I know I can speak of the position of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON). and I can speak for EXMAN. The Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria is a little bit neither here nor there on the matter. For those of us who are against the move, we feel that it is necessary for OAAN to reconsider their position because yes, we admit that they may have some points concerning protecting their business interests but that has always been protected and it can be strengthened under the existing platform. We all need to protect our business interest but we don’t think that getting the nod of the government or national assembly for another regulatory body with specific focus on outdoor advertising will do well for our industry. So, the optics don’t look good in that regard. It means that if tomorrow AAAN feels like, hey, I’m not getting the expected satisfaction, what do I need to do? Or EXMAN or MIPAN, the next thing is to approach the government for another regulatory body.  Oh, let me also go to the national assembly and seek to get a bill passed, so I can have my own regulatory body. Marketing communications is a small industry and it requires cooperation and collective responsibility. Now, when we go splintering for this or that reason, what is left? We are not against OAAN as an entity in terms of their aim to protect their business interest but the latest approach is not healthy for the industry. Having said that, we are with OAAN for their business growth but not for any step that will further create industry challenges. Apart from the fact that I was misrepresented after our appearance at the National Assembly, which we’ve corrected, our stand is still very good.  We are ready to work with OAAN, provided we are working as one unit, not two separate regulatory bodies. I’ve read their bill and I think they can work within the existing regulatory framework.

How is Noah’s Ark without Airtel?
I can gladly tell you that Noah’s Ark is still sailing and sailing smoothly. Airtel was a good opportunity, no doubts. We’re proud of our relationship. It lasted nine years. And it’s beyond Noah’s Ark. I think we were just lucky enough to be given the opportunity to do something that the entire industry can be proud of. For me, that is a great honor. We are very proud of that because this is what we commit ourselves to as an agency. Rather, we see ourselves as growth partners. At Noah’s Ark, when we partner with clients, we put ourselves in their shoes. We see ourselves as an extension of their businesses and we’ve been doing that with other brands. By the way, everybody likes to tag us as the Airtel Agency. Nobody talks about the things we’ve done with Indomie or with Three Crowns. Only a few people knew Three Crowns until we started working with that client and turned it around and the brand became a market leader. There are many others like Airtel that our team is currently partnering for growth.   

Yes, Airtel was the most visible, no doubt about it. And the stories we conceptualized for the brand were stories that people could relate with. We initiated storytelling campaigns that resonated with Africans. Within and in Diaspora, Nigerians, especially felt happy and proud to be Nigerians watching those campaigns. Beyond the shores of Nigeria, I’ve met people from other parts of Africa who related with the stories in ways nobody could imagine. I mean, when we won the agency of the Year at the Cristal Awards in 2018, the jurors were excited and they expressed it. Ironically, it was from the Mama Rainbow campaign which was in Yoruba language. They said they could relate with the story even though they did not speak the language. So, we are proud of that but there’s no regrets whatever that we are no more on the account. The brand owners reserve the right as A business to say, oh, it’s time to move on, find somebody else to work on the business. We’ve also moved on in a good way and we’ve been able to attract other businesses. That is the way life is.