The Ad Man and National Honours
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All nations need role models, people to hold in high esteem. For this reason I find Nigeria??™s National Honours Award a national heritage worth sustaining. It was created by the Founding Act No.5 of 1964, which empowers the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to make provisions for the award of honours, decorations and dignities.
The award is best appreciated against the backdrop of an appreciative nation striving to recognize and honour the outstanding feats and achievements of its citizens. The Award is therefore Nigeria??™s highest acknowledgement of the contribution of individuals to the socio-economic development of the country.
However, I doubt that since 1964, there has been any advertising professional who was bestowed with even the least of the Honours. For an industry that is fairly receptive to modern global marketing communication trends, and which has, consequently, made a positive impact on virtually every sphere of the nation??™s economy, the Honours list is, surprisingly, a 40-year old jinx that is yet to be broken. I am also aware that the industry, from an initial billing figure of less than N1 million in its formative years now does well over N16 billion. So what is the problem?
Firstly, the structure of the industry may not bring out its full potential. Advertising in Nigeria is still a personality business. It is sad that to date, there is no Nigerian publicly held advertising agency. As at 1968, FCB was the only public agency in the United States and it started with a very small group of owners, most of whom were its employees. Today the picture is different; of the top 20 U.S agencies listed in 1980, 18 (including FCB) have now been bought by the four major holding companies, which include WPP; the other two no longer exist. These four companies account for 82% of the advertising in the U.S and 50% of the World??™s advertising. Which government would not hold these players in reverence?
It was not a surprise when in 2000 Martin Sorrell, founder and chief executive of the WPP group received knighthood and became Sir Martin. WPP is one of the top three communication service providers in every market of the world. The company had very humble beginnings in 1985 when Sorrell and a partner bought a controlling stake in a British company known as Wire and Plastic Products for $676,000; the company produced wire shopping baskets, filing trays and assorted oddments. Sorrell had been financial director at Saatchi and Saatchi where he managed the agency??™s takeovers of companies in the U.S and the U.K.
As at the time Sorrell was honoured, WPP had become a corporate giant which owned, among others, Ogilvy and Mather as well as J. Walter Thompson, and had sales of nearly ??10 billion each year. WPP??™s clients include most companies in Fortune Global 500 and the NASDAQ 100.
In his book, ???The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism,??? Daniel Bell posits that economic power now lies in organizations whose CEOs cannot pass along their power to the heirs and who, increasingly no longer possess the traditional natural rights, justifications and legitimacy in the exercise of that power. Unfortunately, our advertising industry, like many Nigerian-owned companies, is yet to grasp this ???mystery.???
Secondly, the industry lacks creative foresight; we are still not identifying an audience and communicating with that audience. We do not have any point of reference other than other people??™s advertising. Our messages do not show that we are out there in the real world affecting consumers and returning with real new ideas that are founded on consumer behaviour. These new ideas, according to Joe Cappo, former IAA World President, will come from how people live their lives and not how we create sleek advertisements. The messages should start with the audience and not with the client.
It is a pity that we are still creating multi-million naira advertisements that are not consumer-driven. The most important thing that advertising people can do is to be innovative. At the height of the Vietnam War when Americans almost lost faith in their country??™s superior power, Helmut Krone (1925-1997) of DDB, New York, embarked on an advertising campaign for Avis confirming their second place status. To admit to being number two was a professional risk undertaken by Krone, who believed that people would not misconstrue the ???We??™re Number Two??? headline as a failure. Rather, he hoped it would be understood as a determination to work harder to be the best. Helmut is remembered and honoured for his innovative approach to advertising.
John H. Johnson is a lesson for Nigeria??™s advertisers; publisher of Ebony Magazine, he greatly influenced advertising agencies in America to change their marketing to speak directly to Black America. Consequently, he opened up endless opportunities for African-Americans in marketing communications. It was only natural therefore that the hard-working man be awarded the highest American civilian honour, Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Hal Riney, founder and creative leader of Hal Riney and Partners, one of America??™s most respected creative agencies, created ???Morning Again in America,??? an image campaign for Ronald Reagan in 1984. It is considered a memorable campaign because it was attractive, it was well executed and it got the attention of almost every American. Because of its factual basis, it earned its place of honour in American advertising and political history.
Lastly, our industry suffers a ???Role Model??? problem. In a 1995 survey of teenagers by MORI for City and Guilds, a vocational awards body, the result showed that Richard Branson (knighted alongside Sorrell) was one of two role models for young men; an earlier MORI poll in 1994 for BBC Radio One had asked young people which celebrity they thought was the most qualified to revise the Ten Commandments. Behind three globally respected religious figures came Richard Branson. Perhaps our ad practitioners should understudy the characters Sorrell and Branson and unravel what it is that makes them tick!
In 1967 Ms. Shirley Polykoff was named National Advertising Woman of the year in the U.S. In 1980 she was the first living woman to be elected to the Advertising Hall of Fame. Her career in advertising spanned 55 years, while her contributions to the industry continue to be admired by creative enthusiasts. When asked specifically how she did it, Ms. Polykoff gave a four-point answer the first of which was ???Humility.??™ Ironically that is a rare quality in our industry, where everyone sees him/herself as a ???Guru.???
If Sir Martin could refer to himself as a ???dull, boring little clerk,??? then Nigerian ad men should spare media the trouble of having them branded ???mavericks??? because there is simply none in our industry! Ogilvy in his life-time described Riney as the ???the best copywriter??? he had ever known, while Riney on the other hand would openly remark that David Ogilvy had so much influence on his work. Who was better? This is a good example of humility.
Hall Adams was known as one of the only executives in the industry who always answered his own phone. This is humility personified! As a matter of fact, his phone number was retired when he retired as chairman and CEO of Leo Burnett Company, Inc., in 1992. Adams, like many other recognized achievers, devotes considerable time to volunteering for charitable organizations.
I conclude with Phil Dusenberry, former chairman, BBDO North America; he was described as a mentor and source of inspiration, always encouraging his staff and young talent to exceed their perceived creative limits.
Could it be that our practitioners suffer from inferiority complex, which can be attributed to poor remunerations (compared to their counterparts in client-companies), low quality education (including highly capital-intensive but scandalous MBAs which is now the fad), etc.?
I do not have a mentor or role model whatsoever in Nigeria??™s advertising industry though I respect so many of them, who have consistently remained focused in spite of our unpredictable and hazardous economy.