Dear Colleagues,
Happy New Year and welcome to the month of January.
2023 was indeed THAT YEAR! A rollercoaster of activities, lawsuits and so much more BUT in all,
we give thanks. It’s also thankful that we all ended the year together and here we are, starting
off together again.
Apologies ahead as this might turn out to be a long read, do bear with us. There are some
important information and updates we need to pass along.
THRIVE
A quick reminder that our agenda is set under the acronym of THRIVE (which means
blooming/blossoming, Flourishing).
Each letter stands for something that we will be working towards over the next year putting in
our best. They are detailed below: –
Training and Thought Leadership
Harmony (Healthy Competition, collaboration and alliances)
Relationship
Inclusiveness (All agency personnel, New Membership, Women In Exp. and so on)
Value
Engagement – Internal (Colleagues, Committees etc.) and External (HASG, ARCON etc)
Stakeholders.
A quick recap of 2023 (since the THRIVE EXCO took over).
New Exco Elected | THRIVE Agenda Presented | Agency Engagements | 2 Learning Sessions
(Operations and Finance) | Informal meeting / bonding session with Chief Executives of agencies
| Insurance KYC | Ex On The Beach and so many other activities within and around the marketing
communications ecosystem.
December 2023
SECRETARIAT
Student Engagement
Follow up and visit Letters have been sent to various tertiary institutions, with a view to partnering
with these institutions and to ensuring that students are adequately informed about the
experiential marketing space. The University of Lagos has shown interest in partnering with
EXMAN on this, with particular reference to the creative arts department showing keen interest
to engage us this year. We always look forward to avenues to engage our youths, to mentor and
grow these young minds towards a better tomorrow.
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
The National Advertising Conference (NAC) held through the 6th to the 8th of December with the
theme: ‘Marketing Communications as an enabler of National Transformation’ in Abuja.
The conference attracted Marketing Communications professionals and scholars from various
sectors and specializations of the marketing communications industry sharing ideas, knowledge
and perspectives on the new trends and challenges that are shaping the profession and business
across the world, proffering solutions and pointing the way towards healthy growth of the
industry to the benefit of all stakeholders.
Highlights of the conference include the welcome address by the chairman of the organizing
committee, our very own Mr. Tunji Adeyinka, expanding on the theme of the conference
“Marketing Communication as an enabler of National Transformation”. He highlighted that in
spite of the enormous challenges we are currently facing at the micro and macro levels especially
with the economic, social and political problems, our overarching goal should be focused around
how our industry can play a role in resetting the national discourse, fueling unity, social cohesion
and economic growth for our nation.
Speakers at various panel discussions also included our own Mr. Abisoye Fagade – Sodium Brand
Solutions; Mrs.Bukola Majekodunmi – Bosworth Marketing; Mrs. Nana Milagrosa Utomi A.
Biyang – MPXM; Mr.Deji Orunkoyi – iPanache and Mr. Wole Olagundoye – Outori.
The conference was rounded off with a gala night.
ARCON NEWS
HASG MEETING WITH HON MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND NATIONAL ORIENTATION
The Heads of Advertising Sectoral Groups HASG visited the Hon Minister of Information and
National Orientation Alhaji Mohammed Idris on the 15th of December to discuss important
industry issues and made presentations to him. The industry leaders pledged to support
government efforts aimed at growing the industry.
The team was made up of the DG ARCON, Dr. Lekan Fadolapo, other sectoral heads and
Chairman, NAC 2023, Mr. Tunji Adeyinka. The meeting was to discuss the recently concluded
NAC, the GDP Multiplier and Brand Nigeria.
2024 –
The year is starting very early with the industry as you might all be aware. ARCON and 25
professional bodies have been excluded from 2024 budgetary allocations meaning their primary
source of funding would be – registration fees, licensing fees, renewal fees, examination fees,
membership fees and so on as they have been mandated by the government to fund internally
within their sector and obviously this affects each one of us.
To this effect, ARCON whilst working to ensure a conducive business environment for everyone
as well as finding a balance to ensure the continued existence of the parastatal has had to
increase corporate licensing fees by 50% against the 500% as advised by the House of Assembly.
So immediately, there are three major imperatives for 2024: –
- Indemnity Insurance – By now, agencies that were paid up on their annual dues for 2023
have all filled the KYC and they all received the email from the insurance company. The
good thing is, implementation of the corporate licensing regime has been shifted till April
2024, giving us the leeway to: –
- a) Avail more people the opportunity to be included following the payment of the 2024
annual due (you would all have received the notification by now). It would be
appreciated, if we would all please ensure that our dues are paid, so we can
immediately update and action the insurance for the Q2 April start.
- b) Ensure that as many agencies as are currently ARCON licensed get their licenses
renewal updated and sorted.
- New ARCON License Fees – As mentioned earlier, the fees have been increased to
150,000.00 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) and it’s imperative to note and
update as
- ARCON is now set to applying the law effective April 2024. What does this mean? ARCON
is going out to ensure that clients who are not working with ARCON licensed agencies
would be sanctioned.
SECRETARIAT
Annual Dues – At the last AGM, we all agreed that Annual dues be increased from 150,000.00
(One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) to 250,000.00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira),
it would be appreciated if we could all try and make this payment as soon as possible within Q1
due to all prevailing circumstances as indicated earlier. We also had agencies who had requested
that we lumped last year and this year.
Re – Annual dues, I would like to use this opportunity to appreciate you all, it hasn’t been easy
BUT we have remained consistent. Thank You.
AGM 2024 – The committee has informed us that this will DV take place in Ibadan, in the 2nd
week of July, dates and details would be communicated, this is just for your information as well
as a tentative ‘keep the date’ within said period.
Gateway to Experiential Platform – We have been in contact with various tertiary institutions
and within Q1 and hopefully over the year, we would be reaching out to various agencies to serve
as facilitators as we would be meeting with them during their departmental weeks and so on to
discuss our sector, Experiential Marketing and how they can actually kick start a career. In
addition to this, we would be most obliged if we could get 10 agencies that would sponsor at
least 5 students during this period, the goal is to onboard at least 50 students per quarter, taking
the training through the portal and giving them a taste of what could be as well as the opportunity
to intern with or at any of the listed agencies.
We can only do this with your cooperation and a couple of agencies have signed on to this, we
would be reaching out to everyone and hopefully, before the end of Q1, we would have a good
number signed on.
At the end of it all, it is only to ALL our advantage as we are all currently going through the dearth
/ shortage of talent and what better way for us to recruit, than training them and making them
available for us as they journey through their courses and ‘grow’ with us.
Learning and Development – Our learning series continues this year with the Q1 session being
for client service. This session would be taken by the Vice President – Mrs. Angela Makinwa.
Details would be shared shortly.
Women In Experiential – It is with excitement that we note that the numbers are increasing and
Mrs. Sola Antwi is in charge of pulling everyone together. The women’s month falls within Q1
and we would be notified of the various activities lined up. This is being mentioned here as we
would love for all CEOs / Heads of Agencies to be on call / note that activities are about to kick
off and it would be great that all the female staff within the various agencies are onboard, for us,
no one gets left behind and we would appreciate all the help (to get everyone involved) as much
as possible.
LASSA – We had met with and developed a relationship BUT changes have happened since.
Moving forward, we have scheduled a meeting for mid-January, actual dates would be
communicated. The idea is to ensure that, as we had done before, ensure that the lines are open
between the association and them as well as let them understand what (if any new regulations)
we really do and showcase that we are all law-abiding citizens who operate within the law as best
as we can and implore them to work with us as such.
Pan Atlantic University – We have come up with a partnership agreement / arrangement with
LBS / Pan Atlantic University to run an experiential marketing course – It is Proposed as
Experiential Marketing Management Programme (EMMP) and it is scheduled to kick off this Q1,
- This came about as part of the drive to ensure that Experiential Marketing is recognized
and integrated into all marketing communication trainings moving forward. A press briefing is
scheduled to take place in the first week of February whilst the 1st programme is tentatively
scheduled for March 26th & 27th, 2024 or April 23rd & 24th, 2024. This is to be agreed and
communicated before the press briefing.
Committees – Thanks and appreciation to everyone for their contributions last year, we did it.
It’s a new year, do let’s come together and win!
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
ADVAN and ARCON will be going to court, there will be counter suits and we will all watch, learn
as well as try to wade in, to ensure that the whole affair does not dishonorably affect the
marketing communications practice in Nigeria.
IN CONCLUSION
On a final note, please check your corporate licenses and ensure you are up to date (please make
your payments as due).
Please pay your annual dues, so we can finally sign off our Indemnity insurance and get this
rolling.
Finally on a light BUT serious note.
A quick reminder – YES, we are competition BUT do let’s keep it healthy. The honest truth is that,
keeping it healthy works out as a plus for everyone. Please note, that ALL EXMAN events and
outings are a NO POACHING ZONE, this is with reference to clients and staff. They, clients and
staff, are all available to be poached and prospected, yes BUT NOT AT OUR EVENTS AND
ACTIVITIES.
This is an appeal to all heads of businesses – Please cascade this down the line.
Once more, Happy New Year. Growing Nigerian brands through meaningful experiences…
I pray that 2024 is a fruitful and rewarding year for everyone reading this.
I would like to thank you all for taking time out to read this and wish you all a wonderfully blessed
year ahead.
Best Regards,
T.A.M
4th January 2024
