Of Agency Proliferation and Egoistic Syndrome for CEO Title
Emergence of new companies from existing ones is neither a local practice nor associated to advertising industry alone. However, recent findings have revealed that desperate urge to earn the ‘CEO’ title is a major factor for opening businesses for some players in the marketing communications industry. Raheem Akingbolu writes.
Beyond the institutional challenges facing integrated marketing communications industry, it has been established by many critics that practitioners themselves are the biggest threat to the growth of the industry.
Among other self-created challenges, proliferation of agencies appears to have become a bottleneck for the industry. Though it can be explained away that multiplication of agencies was one of the factors that strengthened the local marketing communication practice in the early stage of the industry revolution in Nigeria, but recent developments have also pointed to the fact that some practitioners jump where they should walk and open shops without plan.
Speaking on proliferation, an Associate Professor of Journalism, Lagos State University, Tunde Akanni, said “there’s nothing wrong for an individual who have run an agency as chief executive officer for three or four years to go out there and establish his own and expound the industry.”
According to Akanni, who is also the Director of Digital Media Research Centre of the university, the best thing a professional could do to remain fulfilled is to live his dream.
“To me, I don’t see anything abnormal in a thoroughbred creative man, who has done well for the industry and mastered the business to go out there and open his own shop. As a university lecturer, I hope to remain relevant and contributing to scholarship even after leaving the school. The same way an adman will want to remain creative till the end,” he stated.
Winner-take-all attitude
As found out by this reporter, one of the major factors that daily fuel proliferation in the marketing industry is the greed on the part of many agency owners.
Over the years, the industry has seen many owners of advertising and other marketing agencies not conceding any part of the business to long-serving and diligent staffers, even after spending their productive years serving the ‘master’.
The case study of Comex Advertising Limited is still fresh over 20 years after. Lanre Folorunso had approached Sunkanmi Ajiboye on the need for them to float an agency. Ajiboye agreed and became the de-facto Deputy Managing Director.
The relationship between the duo at the beginning was determined by mutual trust and transparency. But as the agency was growing, sources said certain decisions were being taken behind Ajiboye. He had to opt out.
Having lost out, Ajiboye was left with no other option but to establish his own ad agency known as MartLink.
“At the beginning Ajiboye was privy to all in-flows, but was shut out when the big cheques started coming in,” a source privy to the situation confided in THISDAY.
There was also the case of Tola Bademosi and Dotun Ajiboye, who at the beginning, ran BD-Consult like a joint business but the relationship suddenly went sour and Ajiboye threw in the towel. But rather than opening a PR shop to compete with BD-Consult, Ajiboye was said to have gone into another sector entirely.
Though with little difference, Udeme Ufot’s SO & U was also owned by three practitioners: two men and a woman. These were Gbemi Sagay, Julia Oku and Udeme Ufot. But again, things fell apart and they went their different ways. Perhaps because of the fact that the name has become an established brand, Ufot and his new team didn’t yield to the pressure to adopt a new name. Though Sagay later floated an agency, The Shops, not much was heard of the firm and its businesses a few years after.
Speaking to THISDAY on the issue, an analyst who understands the happenings within the industry, Samuel Ajayi, disagreed that the reason for agency proliferation is as a result of in-fight but genuine desire to run a business.
“I take strong exception to the belief in some quarters that most people that left their previous agencies to set up another firm did so as a result of disagreement. It’s not so.
For instance, Lolu Akinwumi of Prima Garnet and Tunji Olugbodi had perfect working relationship but at a time, Olugbodi thought of starting something on his own and that was how Verdant Zeal was established. Today, the two agencies are employers of labour, adding values to businesses and doing perfectly well,” Ajayi said.
This was also the case of Nucleus Advertising, which was jointly established by Joko Okupe, Taiwo Osunsanya, Ade Olabode and two others. The partners parted ways early with Osunsanya setting up Media Pro while Ade Olabode established Media Specialties.
At the Troyka Group conglomerate, the story is not different but ironically, the group is also the most cited agency whenever the issue of perfect partnership comes up.
At various fora, it is common to hear the story of how Biodun Shobanjo and Jimi Awosika have worked together for decades and still counting. In particular, Shobanjo has received many accolades for being able to manage Awosika well.
Unfortunately, the group has also mismanaged many talents and loyal employees who would have been asset to the brand today. The most recent, are perhaps that of Feyi Olubodun, Bolaji Okusaga and Sam Osunsoko. Young and productive, the three brilliant communication strategists rose through the ranks to head three of the group’s subsidiaries; Insight Advertising, The Quadrant Company and Leo Burnett Lagos.
It is believed that if the group had allowed the duo and others who left after putting in many years; some portions of the business, they would still be adding value and growing the business till today.
In the case of TQC, where Okusaga held sway for over a decade, he was believed to have taken the agency from point zero to a major profit-making arm of the group but he left when he saw the handwriting on the wall that he might not be part of the business and may one day be shown the way out.
Today, TQC, that was once among the top three Public Relations agencies in Nigeria only exist on papers.
But where others have failed, the Noah’s Ark family appears to be getting it right. In the last few years, Bolaji Alausa and Bolaji Abimbola have been the faces of Noah’s Ark and Indigo PR while Lanre Adisa, the owner of the business plays the advisory role.
A source within the group confided in THISDAY that the relationship between Adisa and his two ‘captains’ are chummy and cordial -at least for now.
Over Ambition
While one can blame some big agency owners for greediness, findings have also revealed that some employees are irredeemably ambitious and often turn out to be their employers’ albatross. For instance, there have been cases of client service directors, who went behind the door to hijack their employers’ businesses simply because they knew the value of the businesses and they were the ones relating with the clients.
In some cases, the former agencies died and in some other cases, they struggled to survive.
The most common cited case by practitioners in this regard is the case of Sir Kehinde Adeosun’s Promoserve. Adeosun was said not to be a grounded advertising man when he established Promoserve and appointed Alan Olabode as managing director.
Unknown to Adeosun, Olabode was only feeding his own nest. Before Adeosun knew it Olabode had fed fat on Promoserve. He threw in the towel and instantly established 21st Century Advertising Limited. In fact, the agency was the first to start operations from its own property at Ikosi area of Ketu along Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
After Olabode’s exit from Promoserve, Daye Oruwari was appointed MD but he repeated the same thing and quit to establish Admix. Promoserve didn’t survive the onslaught.
A recent example was the coup masterminded at Centrespread by the trio of Sola Adegorioye, Doyin Adewumi and Wale Akintunde. As the faces of Centrespread within and outside, the three young men had almost successfully cornered the agency’s business but they couldn’t go far before the bubble burst.
Unknown to Ayanwale, there was a certain Creative Zone, which was registered by proxy by his employers to hijack the then Skye Bank, Eko Supreme and other businesses. Though they managed to strike a calendar deal and other businesses, the major account of Skye Bank, which they targeted didn’t move due to the resistance on the part of some of the bank’s top management officers.
Another early challenge they had was an in-fight among the three, which forced Wale Akintunde to retrace his step and returned to Ayanwale like the biblical prodigal son.
Instigation from Clients
Outside the practitioners, there are cases of some brand promoters who often sell the idea of owning agencies to friends within the agency. This practice is common in a situation whereby the brand managers have no friendly relationship with the agency owner and some sharp practices could not be carried out.
However, experience has shown that after the initial businesses, such agencies crumble and throw employees back to the labour market because there is always no long term planning before the establishment.
By and large, the issue of proliferation of advertising agencies in Nigeria has remained a subject of debate. While some practitioners believe that it is a positive development provided that clients get the best services they desire, others opine that the proliferation was undermining creativity and hindering growth.
In a recent interview with Marketing Edge, a marketing journal, the President Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Steve Babaeko, said that the proliferation of advertising agencies in the face of the dwindling economic realities in Nigeria was not the right way to go.
He pointed out that it was ironic that while the number of advertising agencies are on the rise daily, the clients that they are jostling to work for are reducing by the day.
“I think that proliferation on its own is not necessarily a bad thing because it means that more people have the opportunity to come and show us what they can do. But when proliferation becomes proliferation for proliferation sake that is where we have a problem.
And that is where we are now. It flies in the face of economic reality that we have more agencies opening shops everyday but even the clients that we are all jostling to work for; they are reducing. They are closing factories.
So if you are now opening your agency today, which client do you want to work for? lt makes sense in the face of economy realities for agencies to merge; come together and become a bigger platform with a bigger voice, with bigger muscle and bigger strength, so that is what I will recommend.”
Managing Director, TreeWater Retreats Limited, Mrs. Julia Oku Jacks, agreed with Babaeko.
She stressed that it was paramount for advertising agencies to cooperate and rely on each other for strength. Jacks claimed that Nigerian advertising agencies have to become stronger agencies through effective collaboration to withstand competition globally.
According to the former co-founder of SO&U Advertising: “I think measures are important but you have to look at everything on a case by case bases and you look at where, maybe you are lacking in some strength, where you can leverage on each other’s strength and then become a stronger agency.”
Former Marketing Services Director of Nestle Foods Nigeria, Mrs. Iquo Ukoh, said the crave for money and prestige as the Managing Director of an agency are some of the reasons why advertising agencies are opening shops every day.
She stressed that such experience may not last long because big brands love to work with agencies with affiliations, depicting the need for collaboration amongst them.
“Having little shops here and there is not giving agencies the leverage that they need to pitch to big clients. We live in a world of collaboration, the more you collaborate with your competencies the better because partnerships work.”
Managing Director, Ladybird Limited, Mrs. Bunmi Oke, has a slightly different opinion, as she believes that the proliferation of advertising agencies is not the problem because the market is diverse. According to her, agencies have the opportunity to choose which segment of the market to service.
She added that what is important is the ability for agencies to meet the desires of their clients should be the paramount issue at play.
“I believe that everything in life is in phases. There is a time when you consolidate, there is a time when you cooperate, there is a time when you isolate and there is a time when you reposition and re-strategise. I think it is a reflection of the time and season. I don’t think that you should generalise that proliferation is bad; you have to watch how the waves go, you have big waves, you have small waves and how we tackle it by ourselves is different. Let’s just take it as a welcome development as long as we are creating the jobs and the services. We have clients that are happy and they are also building the economy” Oke added.
