Steve Babaeko, Chief Creativity Officer/CEO X3M Ideas is the Publicity Secretary of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) and also Vice Chairman of embattled Lagos Advertising & Ideas Festival (LAIF). In this interview, Steve while assessing 2016 and projecting into 2017 in his usual candid and dispassionate style touches on knotty issues in the industry such as client’s high expectations from agencies despite the shoe-string budgets, the vexatious issue of an APCON without a Chairman, a LAIF gasping for life and how the agency can remain relevant to the client in this trying times. Excerpts.
How would you assess last year vis-à-vis the economy and business?
Last year was perhaps the most challenging year that I have ever witnessed from almost the beginning of my career, it was a very challenging year. The reason is not farfetched, from an economy slow down, we went into a recession. The client was badly affected then it invariably affected the market communications industry, so it turned a very challenging year for the industry. It was a year that most of our colleagues found it difficult to meet their obligations to staff, companies even outside of the marketing communications industry had to cut salaries and some others deployed a number of practical measures to survive the year so it was a very tough and rough year for the economy in general.
In view of these challenges, are there any good sides to it especially in the marketing communications industry in 2016?
The good side is that despite the low budget which characterised the year under review, a number of good creative works came out last year not minding the challenged economy. As far as awards are concerned, I think Nigeria has better showing at the global level than previous years. A number of agencies including our agency, X3M Ideas had wonderful showings winning laurels at the continental level. This gives the industry – advertising practitioners and clients, brighter rays of hope for the future while it is also a confirmation that the practice is moving in the right direction, at least our creative can hold their own on the international arena.
Now budget has shrunk drastically, it’s now marketing on shoestring budgets, what must agencies do to survive?
I think for agencies to survive in this downturn, as practitioners, we have to be more creative. They always tell us about thinking “outside the box”, coming from 2016 and its economy recession, this year we have to rip the box apart, there should be no box for the big idea. Beyond this, I can see the agencies now looking for other ways to survive, it will no longer be the usual routine. Agencies must review their business models and tweak their operations to evolve some innovative products line. This is necessary because as the agencies, we are not going to close shop because clients’ budgets are drying or have dried up. This does not mean we should go out of the business. I can see serious agencies becoming more creative in terms of pushing out their own products line that will help them survive even if clients are not spending as before. The more they do this, the better for the industry.
Getting the agency products line up and running is just the obvious way forward, the vast opportunities in the digital space more than enhance this possible choice. This will ensure that the agency survive beyond the crushing recession. As practitioners, we travel a lot, we see what others people are doing in other markets so Nigeria can’t afford to lag behind for so long.
In your interview with the New York Festival magazine, you decried the spate of in-house agencies by clients as a minus on the industry, why this position?
The way it will play out in the industry in Nigeria is that it will favour the agency at some point. In the interview you referred to, I maintained a position that agencies cannot become manufacturers of the consumable products that the client produces. Similarly, some clients have shown that they are not also good at marketing communications. Therefore, it is only proper to give room for specialization – let the agencies focus on marketing communications – creating branding and marketing communications for clients’ products and services while the client focuses on producing good quality products. It is better to keep these separate. For clients who fail to keep them separate, experience tells us that they are not any better than the clients who have the good sense to employ top-notch agencies.
But we see some clients have excelled at it especially as they are able to hire needed resources from the established agencies?
I don’t think so because Advertising is a highly specialized profession even when companies pull the resources, there is a corporate culture that govern this field of specialization. If you are a client and decided to assemble “an all Star-team” together yes they may be good but that environment may not allow them to “fly” the way they are wont to on the agency’s side. Those are the issues, unless you are able to create that enabling environment, you find out that the in-house agency idea is not going to fly or work effectively for the client.
For almost two years, the Advertisers Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) government body that regulates advertising has been without a Chairman, how has this affected the industry?
It has affected us in a very significant ways because this is like saying for instance, the board of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) is scrapped, who regulates the practice? Yes, the Registrar/CEO, Alh. Garba Bello-Kankarofi is doing a great job, to have kept the place running but it is necessary to have a Chairman. The current President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN, Kayode Oluwasona, as an APCON board member as unequivocally stated that the Council Chairman has to be appointed by the government to help us manage all the issues currently plaguing the industry. This current rudderless situation in the industry is like a plane flying without a good control tower. APCON is similar to a control tower that makes sure plane coming in and taking off are able to do so without any mishap. This is an urgent situation that sure needs an urgent solution! I am hoping the government will look in this early enough in the year because it is very critical to the efficient functioning and growth of the industry.
Why do you think the government’s Hon Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed will ignore the industry, is it deliberate or it’s because the advertising industry is not pulling its weight?
I want to give the government the benefit of the doubt, I won’t say is a deliberate attempt to sideline the industry. I think it may be in the light of the current realities they have to cope with. A lot of things are happening in the country at the same time, especially the economy and the financial system, I am sure these are giving the government a sleepless night – the value of the naira versus major foreign currencies among others are burning issues. However, the government should realise that among those burning issues is also APCON, it is not less important. If we say “we are serious about the economy, we want to get the economy out of recession”, it implies every segment has to be up and running. As it is now, the market communications segment is running on one engine at best except the government tackles the issue of the APCON board by appointing an experienced and capable Chairman.
Being a Jury at the New York (Advertising) Festival, what is your assessment of the Lagos Advertising & Ideas Festival (LAIF) in view of the last outing and what needs to be done to restore the growing LAIF brand?
From the organisation of the 2016 LAIF award and matters arising, it becomes clear that we still have a lot of work to do in terms of looking for better ways to organize ourselves and bring more transparency into the award especially at the jury level. I am sure those are the issues the President is trying to address and I have confidence in present leadership of the association to make sure that all the loose ends are neatly tied up.
How do you mean?
For instance for the position of the Jury, the organisers should source people who are good creatives but are no longer actively working for any agency to fill that all-important positions. If this is done, partisanship can be reduced if not totally eliminated. This is necessary because when you select the jury from creative directors of agencies with entries as it’s currently being done, partisanship becomes inherent in their ad ratings and judgments. There are quite a number of solid creatives who no longer work for any agency, some may have even moved to client side but they are solid creative regardless of the changing of garbs, so if you get them involved in this process, they shall be fair and independent minded, they are likely to make a good job of the process.
Secondly, most of the complaints against 2016 LAIF awards have to do with “self promo” ads. The current idea of using one self promo ad to win across several categories should be reviewed. These are just a few, when we take a more critical look at the issues, we will discover there are a couple of other areas we need to improve upon. Honestly, regardless of all the issues and protests, I still think the industry is better off with LAIF than without it. This is because we have something that inspires people to focus on creating good works.
Surprisingly, some insinuate that LAIF after its 11th edition has proved a failure and therefore should be scrapped. What’s reaction to this?
That will be like throwing away the baby with the bath water. There are many things we’ve done in this country as a people; there are some that worked while we are still trying to perfect some. Our experience at Democracy for instance is still flawed with so many issues, we won’t because of these challenges let go of Democracy and call in the military! As a people we will continue to improve the process. All the advance countries you see today became advanced by continuously improving their processes. This is what we should be doing as well. Yes, LAIF award has challenges, there are issues surrounding it, we should keep improving on what we have, I am sure when the award is 20 years, hopefully some will sit back and say, “yes, we stumbled but we have finally made it”
Technology has taken over in media and Advertising what do you see this in 2017?
Technology is the engine room for everything that we do, the era of internet of things, it is going to get more intensified. There is always going to be a new dimensions to technology, the window is usually about six months so what you know now will probably get stale in six months’ time if you do not update yourself. It is going to get even more rapid, changes will happen at incredible speed. Technology is going to be at the centre of all we do, either we like it or not. Take a look at the music industry, no one is talking about record sales, it’s now about streaming and downloads. The advertising sector too, is no exception. All the platforms and tools are becoming more digital.
The print media too will have no option than to go digital. I am sure if you talk to some young people they will tell you that they have not held a newspaper in their hands in the last two years. Now, every news is consumed on their mobile so if nobody is buying it, one has no choice than to change. Consider what played out between LindaIkeji and the soft-sell magazines, you can see clearly that Linda did not do anything different than to take the content to the digital platform. She came there, had an early comer advantage over others and that made the difference.
Moreso, for traditional print publications, we can have good titles in printed formats with people rushing over themselves to buy it, but when it comes to online, it is a strictly a different ball game. The question of ‘how to optimize for easy use both on desktop and mobile is critical to the publishers considering the fact that bulk of the traffic to the web in Nigeria is via mobile. So, it’s no use having a news platform that is not mobile friendly, easily accessible and fun to navigate – you will be doing your title and the organisation a great disservice. Publishers should take note of this because it is more about the consumer. Don’t assume that we have a popular off-line title, well known and respected therefore readers will naturally flock to our online portal. No!
Finally, in view of the huge expectations from the client not minding the dwindling budget, what should the agency watch out for or do differently to be successful despite these challenges?
You have to think differently, don’t assume that you did something last year and it worked so let’s continue with it this year, no! Of course, through research, you have to find new and more exciting ways of executing the brief. In Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”, the Authour wrote “Since the hunter has learnt to shoot without missing, eneke the bird, has learnt to fly without perching”. This statement is more relevant and so apt especially in the industry today than when Achebe wrote the book. As long as technology is changing and the audience too is not static, you have to find new platforms because the one you used six months ago may no longer be relevant. Whatever it is you are doing your big ideal should plug-in to the new platform so is all about inventing and re-inventing of oneself through training and re-training of our people. It is a difficult job, I dare say but it can be done and the benefits are immense. {fcomments}
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