Raheem Akingbolu
With the current stage of the economy as an indicator, there is no signal yet that the fortune of the marketing communications industry in Nigeria would improve in the last quarters of the year, top Marketing Communications practitioners and scholars have predicted.
Specifically, they have linked the decline in marketing budget to the fall in consumer spending as a result ofinflationary trends that are not abating.
Chairman of the2024 NationalAdvertising Conference(NAC),Planning Committee, Tunji Adeyinka, in an interview with THISDAY, said contrary to the norm that the end of the year is always a booming period for marketing industry, 2024 may be different, given the downward trend of the country’s economy.
He said: “If we use the economy as an indicator, it is likely that spending in the marketing communications industry will not grow this year. The last quarter of the year has always been a period characterized by higher spending on marketing communications but unfortunately, it may not be so this year for obvious reasons.”
Adetunji, however, disclosed that this year’s NAC is examining how the industry can navigate the disruption and changes in the economy and the entire marketing industry, and the need for greater efficiency and accountability.
This is also the position of a former President of the Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria (EXMAN),Kayode Olagesin, who admitted that the industry is in dire straits, which according to him, is also a reflection of the economy. “When advertisers are facing challenges, it will impact their advertising spend. However, having said this, I think it impacts different sectors of the industry differently. The impact is probably more severe on some than others. Also, the impact varies from agency to agency,” Olagesin said,
He expressed doubt that the industry was growing in real terms even if billings have surged in some cases, and linked the gloomy atmosphere to inflationary trends. “There was a level of business optimism earlier in the year that has tapered down. So far, I don’t see enough evidence of growth in advertising spend in the last quarter given that consumer spending is further negatively impacted by inflationary trends that is not abating,” Olagesin said.
In his view, a Communication Lecturer in the Department of Mass Communications at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Dr. Oludare Ogunyombo, also agreed that Marketing communications have suffered a major blow recently.
According to him, while the operating costs of many companies are increasing due to increases in ancillary costs, forex downturn and others, consumers’ purchasing power is also dwindling.
“Most manufacturers are now more interested in curing their core production costs with the funds they have before thinking of marketing communication activities. Although we cannot deny the fact that organisations still need to shout and put their voices out for people to know what they do, what we have now discovered is that most of them are getting more “creative” at communicating their products, less the huge advertising spends and experiential activities that we are used to in about six to seven years ago,” he stated.
