It was angry outburst Friday night at the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) Advertising Standard Panel (ASP) Advertising Best Practice Awards as the Chairman’s welcome address yielded to missiles directed at no one but a leading brewery and its agency for their effrontery to publish an unapproved advert material as published on the front page of the Punch newspapers Friday of Friday 8th Nov, 2013.
The APCON Chairman, Lolu Akinwunmi explained not mentioning the names of the affected brand and advertising agency concerned, volunteered that the material an aspect of a beer brand campaign was said to have been exposed in a way that offended the sensibilities of the Nigerians and most especially the under 18s.
With every Insinuation pointing to Guinness and its agency of long standing, SO& U, the APCON Chairman the discloses that the offensive material was not presented for vetting “The very day the material was published, we had inquiries from a member of the senate and two state governors asking how the council could have permitted such advert to be published in national dailies.
“We had to appropriately discharge ourselves of any complicity” says Akinwunmi adding that the council has formerly written the brewery, its agency and the media houses involved. “Every organizations involved will pay the stipulated penalties while the professionals involved will be penalised” he declares while capping it all that clients and agencies need to comply with advertising regulatory laws put in place by government through APCON.
Back to the Advertising day and ASP Advertising Compliance Awards, the Chairman revealed that he was impressed by the performance of the ASP in their bid to up the ante and sanitise the industry.
In his goodwill message the Supervising Minister, Hon. Labaran Maku, Minister of Information was represented by Peter Damato, expressed his delight with the council as its monitoring and regulatory functions have started to impact on the reduction of unwholesome advertising messages in the mass media and other advertising platforms .
The Minister reinforces the fact that advertising should be used in a responsible manner. He commends the council for the successful implementation of the 5th Advertising reform code adding that he would like to see advertising in Nigeria compete favourably with others in other climes.
Meanwhile Speaking on the ASP Best Practice Award, Chairman, ASP, Ade Akinde says the awards is brought back to identify, recognize, and reward agencies, advertisers and media houses who have painstakingly throughout 2012 complied with the Code of advertising practice and sales promotion and the Laws of Federal Republic of Nigeria pertaining to advertising.
The idea for a compliant award was first conceived during the tenure of Mr. Emmanuel Ekunno as ASP Chairman in 2007 but actually crystallized in 2008 during the tenure of Mr. Sesan Ogunro as ASP Chairman. Thereafter, two consecutive editions were successfully organized. However, it was suspended after the 2009 edition due to unsatisfactory compliance rate, which stood at a poor 38% .
According to the ASP Chairman, when his team came into office in 2010, it embarked on vigorous stakeholders’ engagement activities which yielded results so much that as at the end of 1st quarter of this year, compliance level have risen to above 72%. Hence, the reinstatement of the awards.
To ensure credibility, SIAO Audit Firm led by Pastor Ituah Ighodalo was contracted to consult on the awards as an independent/external assessor. Speaking on the project, Pastor Ighodalo confirms the awards as equitable and fair to all entries submitted. All the 3000 plus adverts submitted for vetting and approval during the period under consideration qualified were considered for the awards spanning the advertising tripod of advertisers, agencies and the media.
In the agencies category Prima Garment led with three awards, carting home compliance awards for telecommunications, Financial Institution and Non-Alcoholic beverages. Insight Communications and Aerial view Communications came a joint second with two awards apiece winning Alcoholic Beverages and Political Advertising; and automobiles and Education respectively.
Other winners of the ASP Advertising Best Practice Awards 2013 in the agency category include Intenciti Media (Oil & Gas); Starcom Media (Aviation); TBWA/Concepts (Restaurants/QSR awards); Oosa Naturalist (Trado Medical/ Herbal); Rosabel Advertising (Computer Electronics); Avant-garde (Body care/Hygene); Bates Cosse (Foods & Bevergaes); and Brand Believers (Medical & Phamacuetical).
In the advertisers segment, Dana Motors; UAC; Nigerian Bottling Company (Coca-Cola) and Nigerite emerged winners of the ASP Advertising Best Practice Awards 2013 in Automobiles, Restaurants/QSR, Non-alcoholic beverages and Household respectively. Similarly, Samsung carted home the award for Computer/electronics, Reckitt & Benckiser (Bodycare/Hygene); Nestle (Foods & Beverages); Airtel (Telecommunications); Emirates (Aviation) and First Bank (Financial Institution).
Other winners in the category are Heneken (Alcoholic Beverages); Oando (Oil & Gas) British Council (Education) and Society for Family Health (Medical & Pharmaceuticals).
The media category saw Channels Tv carting home the awards in the Television segment and Cool FM went home with the award for radio. However, the newspaper and magazines segment failed to produce any winner with the organizers claiming compliance rate in the segment is abysmal.
Meanwhile, eminent marketing Practitioner, Mr. Bola Akingbade had delievered a keynote earlier in the day the main lecture of the 2013 Advertising day with theme: Nation Branding and Marketing: A new Perspective. Download or read Akingbade’s paper here.
Other highlights of the day include the graduation of students of the APCON Diploma in Advertising programme, presentation of prizes to graduating students and induction of new practitioners and upgrading of new full members.
The prizes and the winners include Wetherheads advertising group Prize for Best graduating student in IMC won by Makinde Taiwo; Abiodun Iderawunmi Prize for the Best Graduating Student in Media Management won by Shodiya Adejoke, Insight Communications Prize for Overall Best Student won by Ogbunankwo Uzoma and SO& U Saatchi & Saatchi Prize for the Best Graduating Student in Advertising Copy, layout and Production Techniques also won by Makinde Taiwo. (fcomment)
