Lanre Adisa is Managing Director / CEO at Noah’s Ark, a top flight Nigerian Integrated Marketing Communications company. The agency which came into existence barely twelve years ago has metamorphosed to become a leading player and prime agency in Nigeria’s advertising industry landscape, having to its credit several award winning creative advertising works created for major multinational organisations across the country. Owing to its prowess in creative advertising, the agency has emerged consistently as winner of multiple industry recognition awards locally and international spheres of advertising. The agency boss examines the critical state of Nigeria’s advertising presently and submits that the industry has evolved over time to the stage where everything about the discipline is geared towards value creation. He spoke in this expose with The New Narrative’s Business Editor, Clifford Amuzuo. Excerpts.
What’s your assessment of the entire creative business enterprise presently in Nigeria?
Well, I mean like every other entity, it will keep taking new forms. We could see that there are new entities coming on stream, new agencies as it were and some of the older ones too are going through some kind of changes, either fading out or finding new forms so to say. The practice itself, the core will still remain all about using what we know, applying all our knowledge into changing the course of business, but the forms and the discipline will keep evolving as it is evolving even now. We see growing influence and power, we could see the growing influence of digital in all that we do, old categorizations and distinctions of the traditional and the digital definitely are going to the dogs, nobody would really care about that anymore, clients are all about what do I get in return, and it’s about value creation more than anything else, so that would not change. It is how we attend to that, how we rise to that challenge that will keep changing and that’s where we are.
There is this emerging trend whereby some traditional management consultants are veering into areas of advertising business. Some have argued that traditional advertising business the way we know it may become really endangered. What’s your view?
Well, I don’t see anything about the industry being endangered. Personally, I think what it does is that it further brings up the need for us to be more adept at what we do and to be able to distinguish ourselves by our services. If we do what we do, what we are best at, they can’t overnight deliver what we deliver, in that regard of creating problem solving solutions, and I will give you an example of what I mean. I am not saying that the marketing consultants can’t try to do what we are doing, but they are not equipped with the creative capacity to deliver what we deliver. If anybody is endangered in our business that means you are going to really work harder at distinguishing yourself in what you do. Are there things they know better than us? Quite alright, and I think that might probably explain why on the global stage Accenture had to buy Dogger 5 because Accenture can’t overnight become Dogger 5, neither can Dogger 5 become Accenture. It’s only when those two forces come together that you can create a difference. So I don’t think there is any need for panic, on a personal note, that’s the way I see it. may be, and I’ve mentioned it at some point, may be you probably see in one form or the other the Accenture Dogger 5 scenario playing out in other parts of the world including Nigeria where people think that when we join forces perhaps it becomes a stronger entity. I mean that’s what I expect to happen. We can’t overnight command all the data prowess and technological prowess of some of these entities but they can’t overnight also acquire all that we have acquired over time in terms of our understanding of the human situation and proffering solutions that are creative. Yes, they may probably employ one or two people from here but the scenario outside of here is that they would probably buy independent agencies or have a big acquisition like the Dogger 5 Accenture scenario and that’s what I see. I may be wrong but that’s what I see. I don’t see anything to be gained anybody panicking about been endangered. This is nature, this is the way we are all wired, when TV came around people were scared that Radio would die, and we are still here with the Radio, and now there is digital and everybody thinks traditional would die, but hey, it’s not going to die, we’ve got to find a way of accommodating one another and moving on.
Some have also often asked the question, what could be the attraction in advertising that is causing the drift. Has there been a shrink in size of consultancy business sphere and how can we possibly stem the drift.
Do we need to check it, and what right do you have to check it, that’s the question. Every business, advertising, marketing consultancy whatever it is, every business will keep looking for ways to grow. Yes, opportunities, nobody can stop anyone. It’s for you to also find your own way of growing. Do you understand, you have to find a way of making yourself to be relevant. Now there was this piece in Campaign Magazine in the UK, talking about the same issue, and I remember very well talking about what used to happen. What used to happen is that management consultants will come to a client and they will tell you how big a mess you are in, and they would proffer the solutions in terms of what and what you need to do and when it came to the marketing communication side of it they would defer to the CEO and say you go find partners to work with, the agencies to work with, but I think they also saw that in terms of the value chain, that there were some considerable sum that was going somewhere, and since they have the ears of the CEOs to it as it were, they are closer to them, reason been that they are the ones that are trying to create value for them in terms of value of the business, things that their board members would like to hear, so you are saving them things, they are the ears, they walk in the corridors of the CEOs, so that is the advantage they probably would have over us. In a world where the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) isn’t as powerful as he used to be, now the average tenure of the CMO is less than two years, unlike in those days, the CMO of then were emperors of sort when it comes to marketing, that is changing and in that regard it would affect the way that we relate with the client. Be that as it may, now the guys felt like You know what, we can also offer this, we can recommend what and what you need to do, and they would listen to them, and we can also bring this to the table, but a good client would be looking for who is the best at telling my brand’s story, and I think that’s where we come in and that’s why some of them will still, those who are sincere with themselves, would look for partners. I mean the Dogger 5 Accenture relationship didn’t just happen, they had joined forces at one point to pitch a business, and it didn’t work out, but they have a chance to size up each other and know what their strengths and capabilities might be, and that was what led to what we saw eventually. it was a big shock to our industry no doubt about it, so I think what it calls for, personally speaking is that wherever you play you need to be the best at what you do, and that’s what our industry is required to do. There is no space for mediocrity.
But is it really a sign of a shrinking size of their business
Perhaps yes, perhaps not. On our part, globally things are changing as well. I mean the days of big budget TVs, big budget this and that and all those things are almost gone in the real sense of it. I mean just take a look at it, some five years ago, you had a lot of productions going to South Africa, or South African folks coming down to Nigeria, how much of that is happening now, you guys are in the industry and am sure you should know. I looked at that in terms of the local things, in terms of where the industry is, and so things are changing, clients are changing, demands are changing, digital requires that you think in different ways, digital probably doesn’t require that I must do a big budget TV all the time, perhaps I need to do a few things here and there, and probably do them a little bit more frequently, and it calls for a different kind of mentality so to say, it’s not as if those things are gone and we will never see them again, but like I said at the beginning it’s all about changing dynamics, and it’s about how you are able to master those dynamics and how you are able to anticipate them ahead of your competitors.
There has been so much delays these days in payments to media owners and other vendors as it were by the multinational clients. How does this apply to you?
Unfortunately I don’t know what’s obtainable in other markets, but I think what we are dealing with here is absurd just to say the least, and I think it’s coming out of the fact that our industry is fragmenting, we are all trying to survive and from the fact that we are in the same industry and I think to me that is a big issue that we all have to deal with. If you were in Abuja for the first national advertising conference, that was a big fact that hit all of us in the face, the fact that we’ve left things to take to care of themselves for too long, and we are in the same industry and the client is having a field day, the client is having a conversation with discipline A, which is experiential, discipline B that’s advertising, the media, and whatever and everybody is striving to be in the good books of the client and so over the time the client became the over Lord having the upper hand and it became a matter of take it or leave it, but we need not to get into a take it or leave it scenario. If we are all together, there is a need more than any other time for a big umbrella body, it doesn’t mean we have to stop fragmenting in terms of the disciplines, because of that specialization, we all also have to realize that all of these fragmentations are nothing but some units of rooms under one big house, and we still live in that same house under the same roof, so whatever happens to any room or unit in that house affects every other person. But if we come together and we come to the same understanding and we say to ourselves but there is a body called ADVAN, we can collectively have a conversation with ADVAN and negotiate what is bearable as opposed to where we are now, and we all stick to that and in doing that we would also know that there must be sanctions for any member of our business or trade that goes against what we have collectively agreed upon. If we all say that 120 days is a no no and we agreed with ADVAN that we would not do anything more than 35 days for instance or 60 days for instance, because they also would have their challenges, so rather than have this unilateral decision and we have a conversation with them, and we agree what is acceptable to us, what is healthy to our business and also their own business as well, then we all stick to it, so if anybody goes behind and said oh don’t mind them, I can’t do it, then we would know, we also find a way of monitoring that, we would know who that person is, who that entity is and find sanctions to deal with such scenarios. I think for me that’s the solution. If they know that we speak as one they will be willing to listen.
But the 120 days that is operating currently was it agreed upon by industry stakeholders.
Well in fairness I don’t think all the clients do 120 days. So I don’t think there was any such agreement, but I know that once somebody says 120 and you accept it that will encourage others to want to try and who knows may be 240 days. So that I think is what we are dealing with, I think what we need is an umbrella entity that speaks as one for our industry in a way that will let the clients know that we are in this together, we want to succeed as you want to succeed, there is no animosity between us but we have to do it in a way that allows for live and lets live, but where we are now there is too much power in the hands of one party than the other one.
Some also argued that, may be, it is due to lack of funds on the part of the clients or that they just want to hold on to the credit line.
Well, I think they probably do know that at the moment we seem to be in disarray as a unit, so it’s easy for them to try anything and get away with it, it’s just human psychology that if one doesn’t do it I will turn to the other person and once I get somebody to do it every other person will fall in line eventually. Everybody wants to survive and it’s not that people have accepted to do 120 because they are happy about it, may be out of the need to survive that’s why we’ve accepted it. Anywhere in the world trade bodies exist to protect the interest of their members and they even have their own rules, you can’t do certain things because they will tell you sorry that’s against the rule, and the rules would come up based on their own experiences, if we have a rule that says common, 120 days is not healthy for our business, for our industry, if the critical agencies, the agencies that really make the difference were to come together and say stop this is not working, we would want to have a conversation with you guys, am sure they would listen.
Did the national conference on advertising in Abuja address the issue. It appears what we have always had is individual proposals on this matter.
Well I would not expect that we would have a policy at that conference, but we had a meeting of minds so to say, and there was a resolve to take that conversation forward in terms of the sectorial groups really working in the interest of the association and to me that’s a welcome development. I know that the sectorial groups are at the moment talking to one another on a few things, you know, I don’t have the details of what ever that it is, but I know it’s encouraging getting to know that they are talking to one another and that we can take away this silo mentality and know that we are in this together and hopefully in doing that we can push things in the interest of everybody.
Let’s narrow down a bit and talk a little about your agency, Noah’s Ark. Twelves years down the line, how has it been steering the ship of the organization. What’s your assessment of the agency so far
To me Noah’s Ark is an idea. It started as an idea, it is still an idea and I hope it would remain as an idea that would endure long beyond where we are now, and the idea was very simple, that the world of advertising, the world of ideas as it were is one, and we want to be a partaker, we want to join that conversation, we want to bring Nigeria to that table, because we see the world as a stage, you know, and we speak the same language as anybody who is in this business probably would speak anywhere in the world, and that is the advantage we want to give to brands, to want to grow brands in a way that will connect them with the people and also tell good human stories. So that’s why the vision has always remained the same thing, we want to be in the league of the most successful brand builders out of Africa and it’s not just going to happen, it will happen by seeing ourselves as an extension of our clients businesses, so we are not waiting, if you know that brand well enough then you should know what is the best for it by telling stories that can connect the brand with the people and hopefully meet with expectations and surpass the expectations of the client, that’s how we started, that is still the idea.
How much would you say that your agency has lived up to the billings in terms of the mission and visions you highlighted.
I mean the thing is that in terms of living up to the vision I think to a large degree we’ve been trying to do that every passing day and it is dangerous to say that you have achieved it and then you can pack your bags and go home, but we are living it every day, I mean that’s the much I can tell you in terms of what we do, in terms of our mind set, in terms of what we’ve accomplished for ourselves as an agency and also for industry as it were. I am happy about that and it tells me that we can’t afford to rest on our oars, we need to keep pushing in that regard, we need to improve on all these things that we’ve done as regards building an equity for Noah’s Ark, we are work in progress, definitely God has done that for us but definitely it is not enough, there is a whole lot more to accomplish, there is a whole lot more out there, it’s beyond the shores of this country, it’s like I said in the last interview with your team that our take is that Noah’s Ark should grow as an iconic brand, that unprompted, anybody anywhere in the world could say yes, those guys do great work, that’s the extension of that dream as far as we are concerned, the core of it still remains the same, the same thing that powered us at the beginning is still powering us now, no matter what the changes may be we think that it is still relevant as it were, so that remains the most important thing that we should not feel at any point that eh our job is done, no, the job is not done.
Just in twelve years the agency has emerged to be a common brand name in the industry. What has been that competitive edge and the current brand positioning of the agency.
Nothing has changed, I mean like I told you we are still the agency that we were twelve years ago, we believe in the supremacy of the idea, we’ve always believed in that, we see ourselves also as a brand in our own right and I think that has inspired and influenced people in our industry in terms of how do you see yourself, you build brands for people, who are you, what kind of animal are you as a brand, that has not changed and it would not change, and that is one thing, if you work hear from day one you feel that energy from the beginning, we laid it, so it‘s about that, it’s about the brand , it’s about the fact that anybody in our team, anybody can think up anything as far as it advances the course of the brand, I mean that’s how we are, so there is a lot of proactive work that goes on around here, works that clients has not briefed because we had a good understanding of the brand situation, we can think up whole, we think we should do this, we think we should do that and it has always worked, clients have always welcomed that as one of the things that differentiates us as a team, we are all about the brand and like we say to ourselves, we go wherever the idea takes us, that’s who we are.
You’ve participated virtually in every award both locally and abroad. In all of these you have consistently make impacts. What has been the winning streak. How have you always make it happen.
Like I said at the beginning, for me it’s about a good understanding of the language of brand building if I can say it that way, as in how would any professional advertising person, what discipline would they bring to the table, how would they see the issue, starting from the consumer how do you understand the consumer, how do you understand the brand challenge, you can call it anything anywhere in the world but that is a fact and how do you bring a solution that simplifies that problem in a way that people can connect with it, that will bring about resonance, that will be relatable, that I think is what you would see consistently in all these things that we do, and it’s not done with the sole aim of oh, this is bound to win something, no, the most important thing to win is the soul of the consumer, it’s for the consumers to be able to speak for you, for me, yes it’s good to have those awards and all that but the occasions where I have had course to interact with consumers and to see them talk about the things we’ve created, to see people even in your industry say, oh, we like what you are doing, for instance there was a piece in Why Naija, late last year or early this year about Chude saying something about a hundred people or so shaping culture in Nigeria, and we were listed, where they used my name but it was more of the agency than anything else, we were listed as one of those people that are making people love advertising again, for me that is more than the award, the fact that we are creating a kind of movement that is helping brands to speak, helping brands to have conversations with the audience and getting people to feel like oh, this is not just about advertising because advertising is trying to sell somebody, something as opposed to trying to connect somebody with something bigger than just selling or buying, yes, that is the expected result of what we do but you’ve got to first engage the mind, out of respect for that mind, that would make that mind feel like yes, I can feel what you are saying, and would eventually lead to somebody saying hey, I can part with my money for this brand, I feel the worth of this brand, to me that is much more important than the awards really.
In building brands do you have a define approach, a model that makes things work. What is your approach to brand building in general.
There is no secret source. It’s basically what I told you before, you need to understand what are we dealing with. Hind sight said it had one hour to save himself, so you spend the first 45 minutes trying to understand the question, exactly what are the issues you have to deal with, so the same applies to brands, sometimes you look at some piece of communication and you ask yourself what exactly are they trying to say, we should not leave consumers in the lush so to say. It should be clear to the consumer oh I never saw it that way, so it comes from understanding the brand situation, what is the communication challenge first and foremost, once you understand that, then you can come back and say what is the best way to bring this to the fore and what solution can help resolve that problem.
You emerged as Creative Agency of the year and as advertising leadership personality. How does it make you feel each time you are mentioned at such instance.
For me as a person and as an agency, as an entity, we feel humbled by that because we can’t take things for granted, we can’t assume that oh, no, don’t worry it will always be like that, it means I have to work harder to sustain that, to maintain that, it means that people respect what we do, so we have to keep respecting what we do as well by respecting ourselves, because we know that this is not the only agency in the industry and we must not come to the point of arrogance where we say, oh it must be us or nobody else, no, so it is humbling. It also reminds us that yes we are been appreciated now, would you be able to sustain this, will you be able to do it continuously going forward.
So what would be your advise to younger agencies, new start ups in the industry who are yet to find their feet.
I think the first and most important thing is you must know why you are doing this because the road will be rough, even if you were promised a couple of juicy accounts and all that. It’s one thing to have those accounts, it’s another thing to hold on to them, so the road will be rough, so you need to know why you are in this, it is more than putting food on the table. For me the motivation was more of leaving a legacy. I mean I had a choice of staying put and earning a good salary and not having to cut down and earn some allowances for some years or even a job offer outside the country which did come by the way, it was bigger than that. For me, I try to envisage ten years or there about when this stuff came to my mind, and I want to know where the industry would be, and I can look back and I feel grateful and happy from within that I did not shy away from that thing tugging away from my heart to say go do XYZ, not because I was equipped to run a business in terms of oh, you’ve been trained to be a business man, do all that, no, I was a creative and still a creative. But I thought there was a bigger reason to do that for our industry and you can look at where things are in our industry today and try to emerging if there were no fourth generation of agencies, just try and imagine that, where would we have been, I mean I don’t enjoy it when I hear it from people from outside Nigeria disparage our industry when they say oh, Nigerians are this and that, I don’t because this is what I have done all my life, this is my entire life work and so if anybody were to say anything bad about that industry I have reasons to feel bad or perhaps event take up such a person. So we all owe it to ourselves to sustain the trade, so it is very sad where we are that some of those legacy agencies so to say are either in a bad shape or they’ve moved on as it were. That is not a good thing for us, but on the other side the hope is in the fact that a couple of other new names are springing up and hoping that we can do more of that. But I think that a whole lot of that with all sense of modesty and humility came in from the fact that agencies like ours came on the scene back then twelve years ago that gave people the confidence to say that hey, we can do that as well and so for me, it’s more about legacy, it’s more about creating more competition because the absence of competition is not good for anybody, it’s not good for the agency, it’s not good for the clients, it’s not good for the brands, so competition is welcomed, even now we need more competition. I think the industry can afford to be a little more agile than where we are, I don’t know, you guys should have a better feel of the industry but sometimes I feel like things are a little bit quiet sometimes, we need more of that energy, we need more of healthy competition, healthy rivalry. When we have that we have a thriving industry, the more of that we have the better, so anybody coming into the scene today you should think beyond just bread and butter, the question should be what am i bringing to the table, am I adding to this conversation, am I moving the narrative forward, if you are not doing that you are just wasting your time seriously.
And lastly the reader out there would want to know who is Lanre Adisa. Tell us a little bit about yourself
Am a very private person and I would like to keep it very private. I stumbled into advertising, it was not something I spent a lot of time hoping to become an advertising practitioner, no, I didn’t even know jack about advertising all through my stay in the university, all I wanted to do was write, I was into creative writing in school, I was into acting, I was into campus journalism and all that stuff, so I just wanted something that would allow me to do that and advertising never fitted but while I was serving one thing led to the other and I met one or two people and I picked my first job in an advertising agency called MC & A Saatchi and Saatchi within the first three or four months of their establishment then, in fact my last month of service was spent at MC & A and that was it for me. I think it’s important that you start on a good note, start on a note that widens your horizon and kind of give you a global perspective. That was what MC & A Saatchi and Saatchi did to me and we believed that we were in the same world of any Saatchi & Saatchi agency anywhere in the world. Anybody who was active back then would know that MC & A was in the real sense of it an agency you could not dismiss, we were really on top of our game and that was where I started from, the first lunch pad you could imagine and that’s it.
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