AAAN Honours Industry Leading Lights At 48th AGM

Four luminaries of the Advertising industry were, on Friday, honoured by the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) at the body’s 48th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Congress.

The three-day event, held at Golden Tulip Hotel, Ibadan, Oyo State.

At the dinner/ceremony, the quartet of Chief Ayo Owoborode of PAL Advertising, Nnenna Onyewuchi, co-founder, Yellow Brick Road, Messrs Kelechi Nwosu of TBWA and former AAAN President, Henry Akpede, Country Manager and Chief Creative Officer of Oglivy Africa, received awards.

Owoborode and Nwosu were honoured with the Lifetime Achievement and Special Recognition Awards respectively, while Akpede and Onyewuchi received Trailblazer Award.

Akpede was present to receive his award. The others had their awards received on their behalf.

The AGM/Congress, which had as theme, “Doom, Gloom, Doom! Where Do We Sit, examined the practice and business of advertising, especially with Covid-19 ripping through finances and evolution of the consumer.

In his opening remarks, President of the association, Mr. Steve Babaeko, noted that advertising agencies will be well positioned to, despite the slide in the business occasioned by the contracting economy, take advantage of the boom that lies ahead if they collaborate.

 Michel Elegbe, CEO of Interswitch, who presented a paper that assessed advertising from the outsider’s perspective, noted that business is being taken from agencies because of the ease with which consultants in other fields go into the industry. He advised agencies to focus more on technology as a way of clawing back the advantage lost.

Also speaking, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman, Managing Director of Sterling Bank, observed that agencies are losing their hegemony because of the skill gap in technology and the tendency of their clients to poach talents in their employ.  He advised agencies to rethink their operations as a means to taking advantage of the potential boom.

In his presentation, Mr. Iyiola Aboyeji, Founder, Futures Africa, also urged a rethink of the advertising practice and advised that agencies should collaborate more. He also advised that agencies that want to play in the finacial technology sector need to develop familiarity with the area to understand the needs of clients in the sector as well as specialise.

The 48th AGM/Congress was the first since the new leadership of the association came into office.