Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the month of September.
August was intense with the NLC protest, as a fallout of the subsidy removal, inflation trending
at the rate of 24.08% (with food sadly the highest contributor), the highest inflation rate since
September 2005. We hope this September will birth a positive first for our businesses and our
country, and be a September to Remember for us!
Let me make it clear, despite all of these challenges; the opportunities are still there for those
who look harder and experience is still everything! Yes, it may be daunting to create novel
and unique experiences as there are perhaps very small number of twists, turns left. But that
small margin, if executed well will make all the difference and can keep you in business longer
with a fine bottom-line.
It was on this premise, we kicked off our first PRACTICE SESSIONS with Project Management,
it was WOW and the testimonies are still pouring in.
SECRETARIAT
The Training as mentioned above happened on August 24th at the Secretariat in Gbagada, it
is the first Capacity Training/Practice Session. It was one person per Agency and it was FREE;
it was facilitated by EXP Director of Operations – Matthew Salam, experienced and a PMP
certified practitioner.
EXMAN was represented at the 2023 AGM of MIPAN (Media Independents Practitioners
Association of Nigeria), one of the sectoral bodies under the ARCON umbrella. Five new Media
Independent Agencies were inducted into the association this time.
Terms of reference have now been agreed with all chairpersons of the various committees;
thank you for accepting to do this with us. We are confident that you and your members will
commit to driving your bit successfully through the course of the period. Goodluck!
Growing Nigerian brands through meaningful experiences…
Our September Practice Session will be focused on Finance this time and we would be happy
to welcome heads/ nominated persons at our Secretariat for this Knowledge Sharing. Date,
time and link for registration will be shared within the week for participants to register. We
will still maintain one person per agency and it is free.
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
The biggest news cum events that happened in the MARCOMM Industry in August, was the
‘’All eyes on the judiciary’’ Ooh that sprang up here and there; the claim was that it was
meant to call out the need to trust the country’s judicial system and for the bench not to let
down its guard.
ARCON, through its influential DG – Lekan Fadolapo – swept into action; first ordering
immediate removal of the billboards, suspending the ASP top official and disbanding the
entire ASP unit. Recently the Agency behind the work apologized over the usage of an
unapproved advert.
A Committee was set up by ARCON to investigate what happened- the process that led to such
permission and (or) omission as well as the offence. Our own Tolu Medebem EXMAN
president is part of that committee.
We finally got our minister of Information and National Orientation – Mohammed Idris
Malagi, founder and chairperson of Bifocal Group and Blueprint Newspaper. We hope his
reign will do us good.
The Japa brain drain was a subject of discussion yet again, with its attendant loss of key
human resources. Competition for talent is now at an all-time high, but the sudden desire to
develop and grow fresh talents is commendable and it needs to be sustained. From January
to June 2023 around 10,180 Nigerians relocated to Canada, this number is less the number
relocating to other popular locations; UK, America and the less popular ones such as
Germany, Australia, Cyprus and just about anywhere else in Europe. Talent retention has
indeed become a huge challenge, let’s put on our creative hats (don’t worry its elastic enough
lol) as we deal with one more thing in the business of doing business in Nigeria; this too shall
pass.
Growing Nigerian brands through meaningful experiences…
THE ADVERTISING LAW – CORPORATE LICENSE
We are proud of ourselves, being the only sectoral body to have 100% compliance (except for
the new Agencies). Our President represented EXMAN at a recent meeting with the ARCON
DG, there she once again reiterated our commitment to the Advertising Law and its full
implementation. New agencies please call and visit the secretariat so you can jump on the
train, the sooner the better.
BRAND NIGERIA
This is now up and running, watch out for this space. The president and her EXCO will be
clarifying within the next days how EXMAN can be part of this.
STANBICIBTC OFFER
This offer and opportunity brokered by our Values Committee comes with great interest rate
but the bank is asking for more members to sign up for this to kick-off. We request that we
consider this soonest so that we can reap the benefits and not allow them take it off the
table. While at that we will be exploring total value of transactions as a measure of usage as
against just number of agency sign ups.
NMA CALL FOR ENTRY
The Nigeria Marketing Awards call for entry was published and Agencies have been invited
to enter their work (with their client’s permission of course). Our Vice President is the
Secretary of the Award Decision Council of the NMA, we hope that more of our agencies will
enter this time and may the best of us win.
OTHER BUSINESSES
Congratulations are in order for Monetium, they celebrated their Ten years in the business of
creating brand/consumer experiences. We wish them well and hope for a more exciting ten
to follow!
Growing Nigerian brands through meaningful experiences…
In conclusion, the job to be done in retaining our clients is determining what matters most
to them. Sometimes being different does not mean doing more; but rather doing what
matters most better!
Thank you for your time, let’s go get them!
