Lanre Adisa urges Nigerian agencies to compete globally
Nigerian advertising agencies have been implored to develop good adverting campaigns of international standard as that was the only way for them to favourably compete in regional and international awards.
Speaking on the low level of participation of Nigerian agencies in the just concluded Loeries Awards in South Africa and the Cannes Lions Awards in London, Managing Director, Noah’s Ark, Mr. Lanre Adisa, wondered why Nigerian agency refrained from competing for honours at international awards like Cannes Lion and Loeries.
Adisa stated that although Nigerian agencies were craving for global recognition that he was disappointed to find out that most agencies officials only attend international awards as if they were tourists.
He argued that for any agency to travel so far to attend the Cannes Lions Awards such firm could easily pay for the entries for the awards, stressing that it could be that the agency was not confident of its creative works or in the judges at the awards.
Adisa said: “I found it very strange and sad when the Representative of Cannes Lions Advertising Festival in Nigeria Chinni productions told me that only one Nigerian agency entered for this year’s Cannes Lions Awards and that was Noah’s Ark and I found that very disturbing for a country, for an industry that is craving for international recognition, so why should we go there as Cannes tourists rather than being participants in the real sense of it. The same is true of the Loeries Awards that just ended, only one agency again entered for the awards.”
The Noah’s Ark boss also decried the low level of competition among the advertising agencies coupled with the poor standard of education, explaining that, that could be why most advertising campaigns were shoddily executed.
According to him, the standard in the advertising industry has fallen from what it used to be when he joined the industry in the early 90s.
“I think the commitment to living up to that standard is not commensurate with the consciousness. When I started my career, I saw a lot more competiveness among agencies in terms of who was doing what and who was trying to do this and that but there was also a lot of attention to craft, so you could see that in the quality of creative, in the quality of the people working in the business.”
“As a result of the falling standard of education and interest in craft as well, we can see that unless we have a system in-house that is ready to train and retrain people, you have a big mess in your hands. So that is a big industry problem, being able to mutually agree on a minimum standard quality otherwise is a big concern.” Adisa stressed.
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