MIPAN Controls Over N102b Advertising Spend

MIPAN Controls Over N102b Advertising Spend BRANDS ARE MAKING BOLD STATEMENTS IN NIGERIA WITH HUGE AD SPEND

President of the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), Dr. Ken Onyeali Ikpe has disclosed that as at 2014 the association controls over N102billion of annual organized advertising spend in Nigeria.

This is an indication of growth in foreign direct investment which has resulted in intense advertising/marketing war as brand seek bigger market share.

This figure which amounts to more than 85 per cent of total annual advertising budget of the Integrated Marketing Communications sector, does not capture those adverts that are not monitored like change of name, trado-medicine adverts and the likes. “We have a lot of trado-medicine people who do a lot of advert and media placing that may not be captured properly,” Dr. Ikpe said.

The veteran adman who is the Managing Director/CEO of Lagos based Mediacom Nigeria, has however warned that there could be a slight drop in total advertising budget this year as clients adjust to the economic downturn which analysts have said might last through 2016 to maybe 2017. Many companies have been forced to do a drastic reappraisal of their marketing budget, as the effect of the huge dip in global prices of oil ripples across every sector of the Nigerian economy.

The Federal Government faced by the reality of dwindling resources has called for citizen to prepare for tougher days ahead as it battles to get the country out of the present financial quagmire. But Ikpe has said that despite the red flag, there should be no need for panic as the fundamentals of the economy remains strong.

He also insisted that despite the negative economic indexes, the media advertising sector may not be affected much. “I don’t see anything that is going to change, even though we are going to earn less. The government and private sector must be disciplined enough to channel resources into productive use,” Dr. Ikpe said.

“The President is not saying that the fundamentals of the economy have collapsed,” he said, referring to FG’s warning of tough days ahead. “What I hear him say is cut out the frivolities. If you are disciplined enough to cut out the frivolities and face your business the way it should be done, then you should be fine.”

Analysts have said that despite the dip in national revenue and seeming instability in the polity, there has been sustained influx of foreign investments, as Nigeria still remains the hotbed for FDI in Africa because of its huge population and steady economy. This development obviously augurs well for the media advertising sector in Nigeria and guarantee sustainability despite the downturn.

MIPAN was registered in 1999 by seven agencies with an agenda to develop and improve the media advertising function in Nigeria by paying close attention to the discipline with a view to offering quantifiable value to the industry. The association which now has 22 members also encourages the entrenchment of merit based reward systems in the media advertising function in order to ensure continuous improvement.