Why FG’s change begins with me campaign may not fly —Expert

A marketing communications expert, Mr Kelechi Nwosu has attributed the near-zero impact of the newly-introduced national campaign, Change Begins With me, on the citizenry to lack of proper engagement of the citizenry.

Making this observation in Lagos, over the weekend, at the Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF) seminar, organised by the Advertising Agencies Association of Nigeria (AAAN),  Nwosu, who is also the immediate past president of the association, argued that instead of targeting nigerians at the grassroot, the campaign had only succeeded in resonating with the people at the top.

He added that since its launch, on Thursday, September 8, 2016, the campaign, whose goal is to instill discipline and patriotism in Nigerians, had not recorded significant increased engagement because the federal government had not explored other information channels such as the social media, to effectively disseminate the message.

“What we are seeing is a campaign that is designed from top down instead of bottom up. We have only one manager, in the person of the Information Minister driving the campaign. Other information personnel, at the other tiers of government, the state and the local government that should have been involved are not.

“So when you have such, it will  be very difficult to really drive home the message, especially to the people at the state and local government levels, who are the real targets of the campaign,” he stated.

He however insisted on the need to open a new frontier for the campaign for it to be able to achieve its desired effect.

Nwosu also believes marketing communications experts had not really explored communications on the religious terrain, adding that since communications had continued to change, in every sphere of life, religious communications should not be treated as immune to such change.