GLOBAL ADVERTISING SPEND SET TO RISE BY 7.1% TO $660BN IN 2020 MARKETINGPromoting the brand idea. Issue 65, February/March 2020 N2000EDGE US$ 6.5 ISSN 1597-1201 FORCES BEHIND THE BRANDS & BRANDS TO WATCH SERIES 1 SBI Media wins 9Mobile media Account AB InBev projects 10% DR. FELIX KING decline in first-quarter profit EIREMIOKHAE: Insight @ 40, stays true to transformation FirstBank’s CEO, Adeduntan Audacity receives Cranfield Alumnus 2020 Award of Hope GDM Celebrates @ 10, unveils new logo Personified Sell your car for 30% More Cash on Cars45 Marketplace How it works 1 Get your car inspected and listed on the marketplace 2 Get connected to a buyer 3 Smile to the bank cars45.com 081 8984 0160 CONTENTS MARKETING EDGE Address all editoral, business and production correspondences to MARKETING EGDE, 11, Fadeyi Aladura Street, off Balogun Street, off Awolowo Way, Balogun Bus/stop, Ikeja, Lagos. Submissions of manuscripts, photographs, artworks, or other materials to MARKETING EDGE should be delivered by hand or via e-mail to [email protected]. While every effort has been made to ensure the correctness of all information, however, MARKETING EDGE is not responsible for advertising, errors or omissions. MARKETING EDGE is a publication on the platform of MEDIA EDGE Limited with ISSN 60 COVER STORY 1597-1201. All rights reserved. Reproduction in full or part of any content from MARKETING EDGE without the prior written consent of the publisher is strictly prohibited. FORCES BEHIND Hot advert lines: 08023243054, 08023039359, 08066879292 THE BRANDS 32 FOREIGN NEWS 114 OPINION 10 Local News Unilever adopts BRANDS: THRIVING AT new marketing and DEFINING MOMENTS advertising principles 24 NEWS FEATURE for children JC DECAUX backs down, . Gets condition for OAAN membership Global advertising spend set to rise by 7.1% 92 SPOTLIGHT MARKETINGPromoting the brand idea. Issue 64, December/January 2020 N2000EDGE US$ 6.5 ISSN 1597-1201 to $660bn in 2020, says We provide a pipeline report of structured support WAR OVER for auto consumers SOCIAL – Mayokun Fadeyibi MEDIA LASAA boss, Mobolaji Sanusi kicked out of office … as industry jubilates MediaFacts rates advertising spend in EXP: Setting the Nigeria abysmally low pace in Nigeria’s experiential market Broadcasters Guild debuts to raise standard WIMBIZ: Winning for industry game for women Interbrand celebrates Jumia opens 20 years of global brand e-commerce platform ranking … Releases top for brands and 100 global brands in 2019 companies to advertise EDITORIAL Industry debts, payment policy as albatross to brand management ig businesses and multinationals have effectively been the agencies and, of course, the media. Often times, clients claim to using smaller businesses as a cheap form of finance by have paid the agencies for works done on their behalf. Agencies on dragging their heels on payments. If you are a small the other hand have often been blamed holding back on payments business or contractor and you’re still waiting to be paid to vendors after they must have been paid by the clients. Agencies for work you completed months ago, you are not alone. allegedly live in denial of having received payments as at when due As a business owner, the last thing you can afford or and end up extending the debts to media owners who bear the Bwant is a client who doesn’t pay you. Receiving late payments or no brunt and coming last on the credit ladder. money at all, can push a business into bad debt or severely constrain But worst still in the debt controversies is the latest development its cash flow. of prolonged delays in payment settlements, a trend that is being The failure of multinationals, governments and private sector championed by the client companies. From the industry wide operators to pay business owners on time is destroying small approved payment terms of not exceeding 30 to 45 days of credit, businesses all over the world. And some clients, especially the big most clients appear to be insisting on a new payment policy of 120 ones, can be very bullish in paying their suppliers in 90 or 120 days days thereby worsening the industry debt problems. as the case may be; and it is destroying a critical part of the business The long delays in payment have more or less brought business chain which is the SMEs. activities in the industry to a near halt giving the agencies even a There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria’s advertising industry justified ground to also hold on to payments to media owners as well has come of age, having evolved through the years encountering as other vendors along the business value chain. different phases and epochs. From the early days of traditional The debt and payment challenges in the industry have more advertising, to the era of specialisation and fragmentation in the or less become the industry’s albatross as they have defied every discipline, and now to the present age of the digital revolution, known solution with the various players in the industry expressing advertising business has indeed gone full circle. helplessness and hopelessness about their current situation and Notwithstanding the stages of growth and developments circumstance. The helplessness has no doubt resulted in general recorded in the sector over the decades, one of the major drawbacks business lull and a decline in the fortunes of the industry. in the industry’s wheel of progress remains the nagging issue of A major effort towards resolving the debt issue was the formation, debts and indebtedness amongst players across the various sectoral several years back, of the Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups groupings. (HASG) a forum comprising the leadership of the various industry Affected by this debacle are: the creative advertising agencies sectorial groups with the aim of charting a course on how to settle group under the umbrella of the Association of Advertising Agencies the debt imbroglio. Despite all engagements by the stakeholders on of Nigeria (AAAN), member companies of the Outdoor Advertising the subject, the HASG initiative was short lived as it failed to realise Association of Nigeria (OAAN), members of Experiential Marketers its objectives. Association of Nigeria (EXMAN), and the Media agencies group Several notable industry figures have expressed frustrations under the aegis of Media Independent Practitioners Association of over the negative effect of the debt and payment policy problems Nigeria (MIPAN). on the business and their professions. Foremost amongst industry Business operators in each of the sectoral groups have over the personalities who have commented on the subject is a former years been locked up in one form of debt controversy or the other President of the AAAN, Mr. Rufai Ladipo, who has called for the and with no end in sight. resuscitation of the HASG machinery with a view to revisiting the But at the centre of this entire debt controversy is the advertisers issue. Also speaking on the subject, the Managing Director/CEO, group, generally referred to as the client organisations or the Cosse Group, Mr. Funmi Onabolu has called for the development of paymasters. They comprise of several of the multinational companies an industry wide business model to redefine fresh terms of business who are the owners of brands and major producers of products in relationships across the industry. In a Similar vein, the Managing the market. Director/CEO, Noah’s Ark Communications Limited, Mr. Lanre Adisa The advertisers, coming under the trade group of ADVAN are the has described as an “absurdity” the seeming domineering posture of major custodians of credit. They employ the services of marketing the client companies and called for establishment of a unified trade communications services providers. They are believed to be at the body to address the debts and payment challenges rocking sector. heart of the debt issue considering that they dictate the pace as far How to attain a lasting solution to the debt issue was the major as credit is concerned across the industry. part of deliberations at the just concluded maiden edition of the It is often said that he who pays the piper also dictates the tune, National Advertising Conference championed by the Advertising and as such everything about the debt issue revolves around the fact Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), the apex regulatory body that payments coming from the clients are expected to go to the for advertising industry; and it is hoped that based on general different service providers. engagements by the leadership of the various industry sectoral The truth is that the debt issue in the industry has remained a groups at that conference, a workable solution may soon be reached recurring decimal with blame games flowing between the clients, with a view to resolving the industry debt imbroglio. 6 MARKETINGEDGE / FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020 THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT Packaged in this special edition is our yearly review of Forces Behind the Brands and Brands to Watch 2020. It is the series 1 of a twin edition Publication. PUBLISHER/CEO John Ajayi, fnimn, NGE In this edition, MARKETING EDGE intelligence unit/Brand Audit painstakingly carried out a clinical analyses of the entire Nigeria integrated MARKETING EDGE marketing communications sector vis-à-via market review of the entire Nigerian CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER economy with a view to determining which players and gladiators in the Amos Oladele Nigerian Corporate world and indeed in the entire marketing landscape would MANAGING/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Ralph Tathagata get more than a cursory look in the new year of a new decade. Our findings and reports are outstanding and unique in all aspects and ramifications. The GENERAL EDITOR Clifford Amuzuo publication is not only an exciting dossier and testimony about the Nigerian GENERAL MANAGER (MARKETING) Corporate Community, it is an authoritative, credible and reliable memento Anietie Udoh for all industry operators and starts-ups.