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Merit Ibe
The Chief Executive Officer of Media Stamp, Mr. Feyisola Olukoya, has expressed worry over the state of advertising industry in Nigeria, particularly under the current economic meltdown.
Olukoya, whose media outfit is into strategy, acquisition and planning, expressed the fear in a chat with Daily Sun, saying that the economic strength of a nation determines the growth of businesses, because a challenged economy would automatically breed a challenged industry. He added that if nothing was done to salvage the situation, the industry might go into extinction.
He said advertising, which is a big contributor to economic growth is being threatened by the intense pressure on the economy. “When the economy is down, companies reduce their marketing budget, which affects advert inflow and rates. This ultimately brings about retrenchment of workers. Now, more than 50 percent of the agencies can’t operate as expected. Advertisers have changed profession to other businesses; radio jingles and television adverts have reduced drastically. The big companies don’t spend anymore.
“If the economy is buoyant, advert booms; sales increase, taxes are paid, companies perform their corporate social responsibility and more workers are employed. The place of advertising in the economy cannot be over emphasized,” he said.
The advert guru and media professional also berated the regulatory bodies of the industry, saying they were just existing and not defending the cause of the agencies in terms of rates of adverts and presentations. He decried a situation where quacks were allowed entry into the industry without due process of registering as associate members; a situation he said gives the quacks opportunities to get better benefits than registered members.
