A marketing guru and IMC expert, Akin Adeoya, gave the charge in his keynote address at the Iconic Brands and Legends of Marketing Communications Awards on Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at Radisson Blu Hotel, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.
Adeoya, whose career traversed the entire marketing mix with exploits in advertising, media, PR, events and advisory, spoke on the theme; “Marketing Communications Practice in the last 40 Years: Between Technological Innovation and Human Creativity”.
According to him, the fundamental changes and innovations in the way marketing communications was practised began since the arrival of GSM technology in 2002, which closely followed by the widespread availability of the Internet largely ported by the mobile phone.
Quoting Baran and Baran, Adeoya said: "Whenever important new media technologies are introduced, they destabilise existing media industries, forcing
large scale and often very rapid restructuring".
“The traditional media as Marketing communications No 1 ally has been
fundamentally challenged. The Internet and the endless resources and
capacities it warehouses easily relegates any other option to a distant no 2.
As a matter of fact, it is a matter of "align or die," he said.
Adeoya noted that, "The Internet is gradually taking over many functions of traditional mass media viz advertising, news and information.” In that rapidly changing scenario, it is better to align and that is what many traditional media houses have done. This is the unstoppable phenomenon of convergence which is affecting the entire marketing communications and product marketing mix,” he quoted McQuail.
Going down memory lane on the evolution of the marcom industry, Adeoya said: “It all began in l928. A Welsh assistant in the United African company (UAC) had
put forward the idea of a publicity company that was to emerge as West
African Publicity Limited (WAP). As recorded in LINTAS: Fifty Years Growing, it
was tough, grueling and frustrating. LIoyd and his pioneering team could only
hope for a day when their work would come to be appreciated. The client of
the day was of course the United Africa Company (UAC) and few really believed
that advertising had any real commercial value.
“The practice, if it could be thus referred to, was certainly a lowly beginning,
given the current state of advertising in Nigeria. Basically, WAP's function was
mainly restricted to signs and posters which were nailed to railway stations and
trading outposts. Inspection tours were made under very strenuous
circumstances, by an ancient car, on foot, or by canoe through dust, through mud and across dangerous rivers. On a particular inspection tour, Lloyd missed
the boat and was ín dilemma as to how to travel from Cross-river to Calabar. It was a weekend and the rest houses were full. He had no choice but to hire a manually paddled canoe, along with his steward and bags, it took fifteen hours of dangerous paddling to land in Calabar. Somewhat prophetically, he was to
ponder how much the client valued his effort: "I couldn't help wondering if our clients knew of all the trouble we took in seeing that their outdoor displays were properly posted".
For Adeoya, the practise metamorphosed through many years- leading to digitization in the industry which has impacted the market positively with efficiency and speed to market.
“Mobile telephony brought increased reach and accessibility ensuring you could
conceive, develop and run a campaign in a single day and reach an audience of tens of millions. Also, marketers are now able to track campaigns in real time with easily available but sophisticated tools. Thus, allowing for better allocation of marketing costs.
“In addition, platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and other messaging services
allow for real-time communication and engagement with customers. Marketers
can send updates, promotions, and customer service communication instantly, resulting in huge reach, targeted marketing, no barriers, and engagement and interactivity.
In his recommendation, Adeoya advised PR practitioners to be creative as social media with everyone with very little education and wider reach through big
online players like Google or Facebook are fast taking over their jobs.
“The Press release as a PR tool is gasping for breadth and must be allowed to die now for its precious little use. At least not in the manner it has been used.
When President Tinubu wanted to make the most momentous policy
announcement of his presidency, he didn't need a press release, he simply exclaimed "Subsidy is gone". And the world heard. That is the power of social media and citizen journalism.
“As a consequence of the above, public relations practice requires a fundamental redefinition, else the term itself and everything it connotes will go with the wind in a few years,” he said.
He worried that, the end of the print media is near, because of the speed of dissemination of news and information on the mobile phone and the movement of marketing budgets from traditional print and electronic media to new digital platforms like Facebook and Google in addition to the declining readership of hard copy, even as he also charged the advertising practitioners to review what now constitutes a value loaded, particularly, “a generation of practitioners who drive to work writing copy and creating ‘great art’ for campaigns may have to make way for a new generation who can spin a video commercial using simple and cheap apps without leaving their bedrooms”.
In that new dispensation, he pointed that one does not need an office or all the
paraphernalia of the agency. “All you need is your imagination and a clear vision,” he emphasised.
Adeoya pointed that, the one industry sector that seem immune from the threat of the internet is the outdoor sector. Which he said does not see any threat to the original platform of yore.
He however called on ARCON, the umbrella regulatory body for advertising practitioners, to approach the emerging era with caution lest it demystifies itself, “battles must be selected. Knowledge is key”- he advised.
“Our top regulator must be abreast of best practices all over the world and when it makes a pronouncement or a move, that must be a pointer for everyone. The botched suit against Facebook, withdrawn after two uneventful years after the great deal of dust that was kicked up was, in our opinion, an unfortunate incident. It suggests that the regulatory body acted in haste”.
“Can we begin building something around that? Because technology will do the rest in a few years down the line! It has started already,” he added.
Corroborating Adeoya’s position, during the panel session, Kayode Olagesin, CEO Town Criers, said the industry has evolved thanks to technology.
“If there is anything that we will find in this our industry that is constant is change and as such one will find that a lot has changed but not much has changed in the sense that ultimately, all we do is to try and pass information on and influence behaviour in terms of one idea or products.
“The way in which it has been done over the years in Nigeria has evolved, here we talked about postals, then evolving into radio and television then streaming and along the line came experiential, PR and the rest so if you look at this environment, one can see visible change.
Citing the growth of the market resulting from telecom innovations Olagesin said: “We know that MTN/Airtel made a headstart in the industry but when Globacom came, they were able to introduce a proposition that changed the game and was hinged on the strategy of per-second billing and so even though they were late starter, they caught up with the rest of the market with the proposition that they had and the way that they gave it a very strong Nigeria-centric feel.
“So, brands will always come and we will always get new brand that will able to thrive as long as they get the strategy right and they are able to communicate it in a way that they make the right connection.
“As sure as day becomes night and vice versa, we will have new brand come in and take the market by storm,” he assures.
On his part, Daniel Obi, veteran brand journalist and Chairman, Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria (BJAN) disagreed on the notion that the print media will fizzle rather, it will continue to satisfy certain market, he opined.
“The print media will not fizzle but will continue to remain relevant even in the face of digitization. We should not forget, that was the same way it was said of radio and perhaps the television but they are still around servicing the consumers,” he pointed.
“We cannot run away, we are now in the age of technology, how we play, how we work- everything now evolves around technology,” says Muyiwa Akande, Group Head, Corporate Communications, Sifax Group.
According to him, as practitioners, this is where we need to play, we cannot use the old ways to achieve new results in the present technological age.
“Our industry must be sponsoring research and the tools that are available, because it is key. If we don’t do this, we will eventually discover that we don’t have any business and will be left behind and the future will be bleak,” he said.
The event pulled stakeholders from the marcom industries to celebrate legends of the industry for their contributions toward the growth of the industry.
Veteran journalist and Convener of Iconic Brands and Legends of Marketing Communications Award, Samuel Ajayi, said the event was conceived to celebrate industry icons within the marcom industry.
According to him, for a long time, people know brands and iconic campaigns but do not know the people behind them. Hence the event was designed to celebrate the people behind the campaigns.
Some of the icons celebrated were Lolu Akinwunmi, Group CEO, Prima Garnet Africa, Jimi Awosika, Vice Chairman, The Troyka Group, Udeme Ufot, MD, Saatchi and Saatchi and Funmi Onabolu, CEO, Cosee TTL who bagged the Lifetime Achievements Awards.
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