L-R: Abiodun Oshinibosi, Vice President, and
AGM Planning Committee Chairman; Kayode Olagesin, Trustee; Tade Adekunle,
President; Bola Oyebade, Financial Secretary and Olurotimi Rhodes, General
Secretary, all of EXMAN at the Experiential Marketing Conference (#EXM2020)
held recently.
Brands
The Experiential Marketers' Association of
Nigeria (EXMAN) has disclosed that organisations inviting experiential
marketing agencies for pitch should prepare to pay N500, 000 as rejection fee
to the agencies not picked.
Meanwhile experts at its Experiential Marketing
Conference (#EXM2020) also called for innovation and collaboration.
EXMAN at its just concluded Annual General
Meeting (AGM) made the resolution that rejection fee be paid to its members
after attending a pitch, considering the level of research, creativity and
funding that goes into the ideas presented to clients. Some members alleged
that some organisations use some of the ideas presented at a pitch without
giving them credit or paying for it.
EXMAN President, TadeAdekunle said “When you
invite 17 or 18 agencies to come and pitch for a business they will only take
one or two agencies and thereafter you will start seeing some of the ideas that
some of the rejected agencies have given. Also, when agencies go for pitch they
incur cost on research, creatives and others.
“So, the association has decided that clients
can ask for the profile of the various agencies, and then they can say this
agency is good enough to work for us instead of calling 20 agencies to come and
pitch.”
Tade stated further that the association has
come up with the resolution that “If you are inviting any EXMAN member to come
and pitch be ready to pay rejection fee of N500, 000 for those not picked”
He explained further that if organisations
write back that they can’t pay rejection fee, no EXMAN member would partake in
such pitch, stating that “If corporate organisations champion corporate
governance, then it will be unethical to ask agencies to wave rejection fee.”
He added that member must have informed the
association secretariat that they are invited for a pitch and EXMAN would write
the client who must have agreed to pay the fee before embarking in the pitch
process.
However, he stated that members cannot say they
don’t want the rejection fee from client, if such happens they would have to
face disciplinary committee. “For our
members, the resolution taken here today, you can’t wave that right and say I
would not collect rejection fee. The association is saying you cannot wave that
right. If you don’t collect it you will face the disciplinary committee of
EXMAN,” he revealed.
In another vein, during the AGM, EXMAN inducted
some new agencies into its association. The new agencies are Bloow48 Invents
Limited, Lilvera Group, Boomerang, Ipanache and Ziing Marketing. Also, Rosemary
Akpo, MD, EXP Nigeria was elected the Publicity Secretary of the association
because the position was vacant while Tade and the incumbent executives were
applauded and members moved a motion that they continue the leadership of the
association.
As part of its programmes for the year, the
association had Experiential Marketing Conference (#EXM2020), a day before its
AGM, to chat a way forward for industry players and the marketing world and had
large attendance from across the world. The conference which was held August 13
on virtual platform, Zoom, was themed, “Defying Gravity: The Future of Customer
Experience Marketing.”
The experts at the conference tasked
experiential marketing agencies, others on innovative consumer experience,
collaboration and others amid COVID-19.
Ose Osundeko, Group Head Digital Marketing,
Fidelity Bank Plc and keynote speaker who spoke on “Using digital to transform
the customer experience” said it is imperative for brands to put customers at
the centre of what they do and deploying the right strategies in the digital
space will further help transform customer experience.
Similarly, Femi Adelusi, President, Media
Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN) and discussant urged
experiential marketing agencies to begin to look at how to leverage on data and
deploying innovative ways to take consumer experience into the digital space.
In addition, Sola Antwi, COO, Divergent MS and
discussant, stated that brands need to be innovative and align their strategy
with stakeholders even when they are thinking digital, adding that consumer
experience is key to the survival of any business.
Matt Davies, a renowned creative brand
strategist from United Kingdom and keynote speaker while speaking on “Using the
power of agile design thinking to transform brands’’ urged agencies to help
their client through especially at this time by coming up with innovative ideas
and not just waiting for client brief.
Thereafter, he explained that innovation
involve strategic thinking and it takes steps which he termed the “Innovation
Wheel” and they are discovering, problemising, solutionising, verifying and
planning.
Innocent Oboh, CEO, Dijo and discussant, on his
own part said the best way to achieve innovation is when practitioners identify
the problem, proffer solutions and go back to the consumer with the solution.
Kehinde Salami, CEO, Ideas House and discussant
stated that they have to be a mind shift from the top to bottom, adding that a
new business model has to come up. He therefore tasked EXMAN members to come up
with HR solutions, also solutions that will help in the area of promotion and
others.
On another note, Alex Goma, Managing Director,
Grand Cereal Limited and keynote speaker while speaking on the topic, “How to
provide transformational leadership in times of crises”said “transformational
leadership is about taking an organisation through change and delivering
results in a matter that inspires trust,” stating that COVID-19 might have
caused a tough time for organisations but overcoming the challenges takes
courage, clarity of purpose, communication, agility and resilience.
Kayode Olagesin, CEO, Towncriers and discussant
said organisations have to build the culture of resilience before crisis,
adding that they are opportunities in the time of crisis.
On her own part, Rosemary Akpo, MD, EXP Nigeria
and discussant said there is power in collaborative thinking, urging
experiential marketing practitioners to embark on collaboration.
Over 500 people linked up and participated in
the conference. While Nigerians made up the bulk of participants, others joined
from USA, South Africa, Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, Kenya and lastly United
Kingdom where Dr.Rotimi Olaniyan, Publisher, ExperientialNG and faculty member,
Nottingham Business School, UK, who moderated the discussion is based. It is noteworthy that some of the discussants
and EXMAN members were on ground at Abelinis, owned by Abiodun Oshinibosi, Vice
president, EXMAN and AGM planning committee chairman, were the technical
support came from.
EXMAN is the sectoral trade body for
forward-looking experiential marketing communications agencies in Nigeria. The
association protects, promotes and regulates the activities of certified
players within the experiential marketing industry in Nigeria and boast of over
thirty billion naira as total billing.
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