Happy New Year! And welcome to the month of January.

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: –

  1. 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: –

  1. 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.

  1. b) Ensure that as many agencies as are currently ARCON licensed get their licenses

renewal updated and sorted.

  1. 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

  1. 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,

  1. 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

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