•Adewale Photo: Sun News Publishing

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The boss of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), Mr. Segun Adewale, has raised alarm over the activities of quacks in the industry.

In an exclusive chat with Sunday Sun, Adewale, who has logged over 18 years in the industry decried the activities of touts, whom he said had invaded the industry.

He lamented: “Advertising has become an all-comers affair. Everybody now parades himself as an advertising practitioner. We have a situation whereby a lot of other businesses are now eating deep into the budget of advertising.

A lot of people are no more patronising professional and creative advertising agencies because there are a lot of quacks lurking around the corner. Today, a lot of advertisers and companies prefer to patronize roadside business centres, to generate creative designs rather that go to creative agencies. This is giving us sleepless nights. There is no sanity in the industry. That is my greatest fear for advertising.”

He said that before now, advertisers put mega budgets behind adverts but now, budget are shrinking.
Consequently, practitioners have to develop out-of-the-box ingenuity to be able to apply shoestring budgets to answering the objectives of brands.
Implication: He says the days of huge budgets that one could throw right and left are over.

Regulation
Despite the state of the industry, Adewale conceded that the Advertisers Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) was doing a yeoman’s job. However, a lot more could still be done.
“APCON is doing well. We are confident in the leadership of the regulatory body. But what they are doing cannot solve the problems overnight. We need the support of all bodies in the sector in order to get the desired results. They have been doing a lot but they need to do more.”

IMC
According to him, IMC Holdings is a one-stop shop for advertising solutions. It has under its umbrella, Proview Advertising, which is the out of home media agency; 24-7, which is the creative agency for the group; Hurricane Events, the experiential marketing agency of the group; Media Matrix and Feedback, it’s research arm.

“We came up with IMC Holding because we realised the need to bring all this independent company’s under one umbrella, so that we can be answerable to a single board. We are patterning the group along the Troika
Holdings of Biodun Sobanjo. Last year, we were adjudged the fastest growing integrated marketing communications group in Nigeria. Our group is not a one-way, straightjacketed solutions company. We have all it takes to respond to integrated marketing needs of our clients.”

Brand building
From STB Mackan to Centre Spread, from Unilever to VMobile to Globacom, Adewale has built and nurtured several brands. He was instrumental to the launch of Nigeria’s biggest telecommunication Network - Globacom.
He was also central to the launch of Vmobile, after Econet ran into troubled waters and Vodacom pulled out of Nigeria.

He speaks on what it takes to build a brand: “A lot of people think that when you advertise is when you build brands. Others think because I have the name of my product on two or three billboards, I am building a brand. Advertising is not brand building. Brands are like human beings. When you give birth to a baby, you have to nurture it by giving it the right nutrients to grow and the right atmosphere. Both the atmosphere and the right nutrients will make the baby grow. In developing brands, you must continuously work on the intrinsic and extrinsic values of that brand. You must look for ways to create a bond between consumer and brand. It is only when a brand means something to consumers that you can say that you have built a brand.
A brand is not a name. It is the value that you add to the life of a consumer…”

Most challenging experience
According to Adewale, his most challenging experience was as Group Managing Director on the Vodacom account.
“It was the greatest challenge of my life and career. I had to give life to a brand from scratch. It was a traumatic brand that had faced so much trauma. Econet Management had problems and there were lots of court cases. They decided to embrace Vodacom as a way forward but two months into the implementation, Vodacom pulled out against the backdrop of the high expectations of Nigerians! At that point, we needed to fill the vacuum.

“When I took on the account, I surrounded myself with professionals. The Vodacom pullout was going to be a disaster in the hands of V Networks.
In 24 hours we came up with the name Vmobile and the logo. We created about 250 logos under 12 hours and we were able to narrow it down to that vibrant Vmobile logo and we painted the landscape of Nigeria red under
24 hours. It was one of the biggest success stories in brand management in Nigeria. We launched the Vmobile brand in 48 hours.”

Other challenges
STB Mc Can Centre Spread and I have handled the biggest brand in this market. If you talk about manufacturing, I handled Unilever, Globacom for seven years. While I was working at Unilever I groomed from scratch, some of the brands to grow to the enviable status they are today. I also worked with the biggest telecom company in Nigeria while I was still working in other agencies. I also launched Vmobile. I was the Group Managing Director on the Vmobile account. When I was handling the brand, it was one of the toughest marketing exercises that we performed. When Vmobile came I was working to launch Vodacom and suddenly Vodacom pulled out and the while world was almost falling and the world was watching. We needed to develop a brand and the whole world was watching from scratch.

Doing business in Nigeria
It’s been very tough. We run diesel but this is not a factory that churns out consumable items. Power is a serious problem. We pride ourselves as a responsive agency that must deliver to the client’s need at the nick of time. We have invested so much in energy to sustain the business.

First 11
“First 11is a football reality how that was created by our event and experiential company called Hurricane Events. We came up with the idea at a conference in South Africa. We have an affiliate in South Africa called Volcano. A lot of people want their brand to mean something to people. We looked for something unique. We decided to create a football reality show that would encapsulate entertainment and discover fresh talents.

That was how we came up with the reality show that is what is going on now. We had the kick-off of the elimination series in Lagos and it was a huge success. We had the Lagos State government represented by Prince Adeniji Adele. We are bringing our expertise to bear on the project. It is a homegrown football reality TV show. Eleven winners would emerge and would go home with N1million each, a Geely car plus a playing tour of Europe.”