Industry practitioners must confront their AI, tech fears, not submit to them —Lanre Adisa, AAAN President

The President of the Advertising Agencies Association of Nigeria (AAAN), Lanre Adisa, in this interview with AKIN ADEWAKUN, bares his mind on the association’s forthcoming Annual General Meeting, the evolution in the nation’s marketing communication ecosystem, and the imperative for industry practitioners to frontally confront the AI fear, being secretly nursed in the industry, rather than succumb to it. Excerpts:

One year after being elected president of AAAN in Abeokuta, how has it been?

I have every reason to be grateful for an opportunity to serve. It’s been one year of a different experience entirely. I’ve been involved in the industry at different levels, but when you are at the highest level of leadership of an association like AAAN, with a lot of history, it’s a different thing entirely. Very demanding. But, the fulfilling part of it is that one is able to work together with others to chart the path forward for the industry.

This year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association is tagged: “Charting Bold Path forward”. What would you say informed the thematic focus?

The truth is that the business landscape is changing all over the world, and also in our business, advertising. But we are in this for the future. We are in this to stay. We believe the only way you can stay strong in this game is to be forward-looking at all times. We have the opportunities. But, maybe sometimes you don’t see those things as opportunities. But, instead,  see them as threats. For instance, technology. There are people who are scared. ‘Oh, AI will take our business away’. But it’s about looking at the opportunity as opposed to submitting to the unjustifiable fear of what tech can do. How do you stay relevant and meaningful? It is about being able to see things and express them in a way people never thought possible. So there is a lot in that regard. It is about the staying power of our industry, about leveraging technology, leveraging talents, leveraging everything to find solutions to go forward. 

But how are you allaying the deep-seated fears among some practitioners in the industry that the advent of AI, and other technologies will take away jobs in the industry?

That is the point, and I think the more of that we do, even from the training we had.  We have dedicated trainings for AI. Before then, we had HASG, which was about unpacking things about the AI Phenomena. You know we can not submit to fear, or what we don’t know. You have to understand first. If you don’t understand the tool, you won’t know how to use it. Yes, AI is here to stay. It’s not just about our Industry, it applies to every industry. But it is about knowing what is possible, and knowing how you can add value.  .At the end of the day we need   tool, and we must see how we can apply that tool in far more efficient way than any ordinary person on the street, that is how clients will value what you do.

Can you give us an insight into the shape the AGM is likely going to take?

After declaring the conference open, there will be a keynote address to be done by Mr. Idowu Akinde, the CEO of Impact Hub, and there will be panel discussion. There will be another Keynote Address by Bolanle Oshitelu of Airtel as well. Then there will be panel conversations that will follow just to unpack it and get the audience involved in that conversation, and the hope for us is not just to make it a talking shop, but from these things we can actually come up with action that will be of help to our member agencies, and help them be at their best, looking at this current situation and the future. Of course it’s not going to end at that conference. It would result in actions like I said. And those actions will be in form of some trainings, on our parts as an association, to help members take a good advantage of all the tools out there.

We are through with the first half of the year. How has the industry fared?

I think unlike last year when there was a lot of uncertainty, there seems to be a little sense of stability, I’m looking at the macro now, and I’m also looking at it in relation to our clients. A couple of our clients last year were recording losses back to back. That is changing now, which is good for our industry. At the micro level, we can’t see much of a drastic change, people still grapple with income and all of that, prices are still up there. But, we are in a better shape, technically, compared with what we had  last year. But we still need to see some trickle- down effects of those macro policies on the common man.

The new tax reform where does it leave the industry?

I think for starters, it is commendable for government to have taken another look at tax generally. It’s  a big problem in Nigeria, I think one of the things that they’ve set out to achieve is harmonise the so many levels of taxation, at federal, state and local government levels. That’s the objective of that particular committee that led to the tax law. So it’s quite commendable, because businesses hurt from the way matters of taxation are being executed. Yes, there is also that provision that if you earn a particular amount of money as an individual, or corporate entity, you will not have to pay tax. This is fine. But of course, you know that in our business, we play beyond that level. But I think for us, it’s not so much in the law itself, but more in its execution. The intention is very clear, highly appreciated, but the hope is that in executing it also, there  would be a lot of efficiency that can move businesses forward. For us as a business, it is ensuring that the business environment is much friendlier.

In the next one year,  what’s the agenda like?

The agenda remains the same. Remember I came up with the REV Agenda, it’s not what one achieves in one year. We started this within one year, which we have to build on the following year.  One key issue for us is talent development, we have a training programme in May, that lasted for a month. It’s never been done for a long time. We even had agencies from Cameroon participating in this training programme, and from clients as well, and that’s just the beginning. The ultimate aim for us is convergence in the advertising school which we are going to be launching very soon.

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