The much touted MadeinNigeria campaign which is seen as a key programme of the current administration may not be an economic success after all. The programme may be stimulating production in the SME base of the manufacturing sector, a lot more needs to be done to make it successful across all sectors of the economy. It is indeed sad that the whole communication around the MadeinNigeria thing (or is it BuyMadeinNigeria?) has been reduced to more of consumption than production.
The Case of Marcomms Industry
Perhaps, no industry has felt the deficiency in local content in Nigeria in recent time that the marketing and communications industry. Operators in marketing communications, including public relations, advertising, direct/experiential marketing, social/digital media, out-of-home, media planning/buying etc., now groan under the burden of debt and inactivity as top brands in Nigeria prefer foreign agencies to Nigerian practitioners. They have had to contend with the penchant of some Nigeria businesses to patronise foreign agencies at the expense of operators in Nigerian.
According to an online report relying on an industry insider:
“Not too long ago Union Bank, a wholly owned Nigeria bank travelled to South Africa to get Landor, a brand and communication consultancy, to execute their rebranding project. Nigerian Breweries also snatched away Star Beers creative business from a Nigerian agency and handed it out to JWT South Africa and several months ago, they also did same with Gulder, which was hitherto warehoused at Insight Communication.”
“A number of other top brands doing business in Nigeria are also guilty of this practice. While some have surrendered their complete creative budget to foreign agencies, others like Airtel Nigeria, which is said to maintain multiple creative agencies on its roster, have divided theirs between Nigerian and foreign agencies,” the report further said. Ecobank has a foreign agency based in London which prefers to fly consultants into Lagos for a 15-minute meeting once a week. In the experiential marketing and events sub-part of the industry, Octagon SA and EXP Momentum have nearly taken over Coca Cola, Unilever and a number of other brands which have marketing headquarters in South Africa. Native VML now runs big budget social media campaigns for many brands in Nigeria.
Where are the Regulators?
Not much appears to have been done by regulatory authorities. The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) have no sufficient legal frameworks to discourage the practice. APCON is however empowered to act as a clearing house for the industry, and would not deal directly with a foreign agency. The NIPR has been focusing more on forging alliances with international agencies and professional bodies to improve the practice of PR in Nigeria. It is however sad to note that some brands, in connivance with local agencies may have found a way to circumvent the system for their own gains.
According to the APCON Registrar, Bello Kankarofi: “some Nigeria agencies serve as middlemen to foreign agencies, even when they are not affiliated to them. They (foreign agencies) know that if they come directly to us we will not clear them.”
How to Prevent Domination by Foreign Agencies
One thing to do is to invest in building the capacity of our practitioners in Nigeria to compete favourably with their foreign counterparts. The quality of work in the creative industry in Nigeria must match what exists in developed industry space like South Africa.
At the policy level, all stakeholders must engage the government through relevant channels to make it more attractive for brands to patronise local agencies and by so doing prevent them from ceding businesses to foreign agencies.
The Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria (PRCAN) and Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) need to work harder and in concert with members of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), Association of Corporate Affairs Managers (ACAM) and others who control marketing and communication budget to protect the local industry from foreign domination.
Whatever needs to be done must be done to protect the local industry and preserve the dignity and sustenance of the marketing communications industry in Nigeria.
If we must buy MadeinNigeria, we must make conscious effort to empower our people to produce even more in Nigeria.
