Kayode Olagesin, President of Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria (EXMAN), the youngest sectoral group in Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC), expresses hope that multinational clients would adopt the EXMAN code of practice to enhance marketing activation.
Senior Correspondent, GODDIE OFOSE, recorded his take at the first annual general meeting of EXMAN in Lagos.
Reviewing EXMAN code
We are not reviewing the code but ensuring that every member of the Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria (EXMAN) internalises it and knows the implications of breaching the code. Our aim is to turn it into a living document.
Prior to this time we had sent the code to all members but we needed to have a robust discussion on it and we chose the association’s first annual general meeting (AGM) to do so.
We believe that by discussing some sections of the code at this AGM, members who ordinarily wouldn’t have time to read would have done so consciously or unconsciously.
To achieve this, we asked every agency to send participants to the AGM to look at some of the key issues in code. The most important sections in the code, which we relate with on a regular basis, have been addressed with the President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (ADVAN), Kelechi Nwosu, in attendance.
Some of those issues are children sampling, event locations and brand ambassadors and so on. Most of us are not conscious of the fact that there are certain things that should govern children sampling and also how they should be engaged.
Brand ambassador is another leg we need to seriously look into. Either as an ambassador or a consumer, there are certain rules that should govern that practice.
There is so much unprofessional practice in alcohol sampling that some of us are not aware of. Practitioners are doing sampling and all sorts of engagement in outlets they shouldn’t have. But it is our duty through the code to educate and enlighten them on how to go about it.
On locations in terms of where we do our activities, there are so many breaches at the moment. I don’t think it is right to do sports activation on a street side and after it the place is left littered.
Most people don’t take issues of littering into consideration. People put up posters for an event and they are not mindful of the environment; for example, having alcohol activation closed to a church, mosque, and secondary or primary school.
Expected response from clients
Clients would embrace it because some of the issues raised in the code are issues that they have also addressed in their own marketing standards. There is no reputable organisation that will not have its own marketing standards, the do’s and don’ts.
We took inputs from some of those marketing standards that we see in our multinational clients and infused them into what we are doing. We looked at the code in other markets as well. There are some things that apply to them that don’t apply to us.
In some other countries, they don’t necessarily have to get bomb squads but here it has become something we take into consideration.
Before, we did not worry about taking the temperature of people coming to events but today we look at it.
Those are things we are taking into cognizance and say that our members need to be aware of these issues.
If these things are adhere to members of the public, clients and the government will see that there is a difference in the way some jobs are executed and they will know that the difference really has to be people from EXMAN.
Effecting the code
We launched the code August last year. So, already, it has been circulated to all agencies. We started our engagement almost immediately after the executive committee was inaugurated.
After circulating the code over the past couple of months we are expecting that everybody will imbibe it.
Compliance among members
It varies from one agency to another. We found out that a number of our members have taken it on board and level of compliance is what we want to raise.
When we first did the code we had it circulated through all the heads of agencies to their respective companies and they are supposed to cascade it down the system and even up to the point of their brand ambassadors.
In May this year, we had our training programme which dealt with the issue of compliance. We then felt that if we are having our AGM rather than getting someone to speak on social principles why don’t we address what concerns us.
At the session we enlarged the number of those who will be exposed to this code to include operations people, people in business development and brand ambassadors, and we believe it will help improve compliance.
Incentives for compliance
There are incentives for obeying the code and sanctions for breaching it. We have a disciplinary committee. When a member of the public or client reports an infringement by our member, the committee will address it.
If it is something that requires sanction, it will be applied. The benefit comes from the totality of what we get by being a member of EXMAN, which means when certain issues occur, rather than dealing with them as a person or agency, you can use the entire body of EXMAN to engage on your behalf.
One of such is that we are engaging regulators on behalf our members. We have had discussions with the Lagos Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA), which resulted in having some very good concessions for our members.
We are taking this to other states where they also have bodies such as LASAA that our members are contending with. If you look at the issues of taxes and a lot of harassments that some of our members have had to contend with across Nigeria you will know that an agency cannot achieve it alone.
You have a joint tax board that says ‘if I pay in a particular state or local government it should cover me all through Nigeria’, but you find out that what you pay in this local government somebody is expecting you to pay in another local government too.
If we have issues where our members are harassed when we are performing our legitimate duties and we have paid the fees to government bodies then we will take up such issues, including taking legal action.
On NLRC regulation of sales promo
There are things we will definitely do. The first is that we have to organise ourselves internally, which is what we are doing, and also coming up with the position paper on what we believe is the right thing to do.
We are also looking at the world to see what the best practices are in different environments. We will engage the CPC (Consumer Protection Council) at the appropriate time to say this is what we believe to be standard behaviour from a practitioner’s stand point.
Lottery is a bit more complex because it has to do with law. Some of these issues are being discussed in certain forums. We will lend our voice to what we believe should be the appropriate thing to do.
The point really being made is that it’s a sales promotion, not a lottery.