How N13.4bn media advertising fund got unaccounted for in 2016 – Report

BESIDES  being denied a functional board  that can provide  it with clear policy direction, a major challenge that plagued  Nigeria’s advertising  space, last year, and which, unfortunately,  remains unresolved, till date, is the issue of  crippling debt and unresolved advertising spend.

A report, released by a marketing communications journals, the Marketing Edge, recently, revealed that an estimated N13.4 billion, representing 54 per cent of total media advertising spend in 2016, were neither executed at all, nor implemented on time.

The special investigation, conducted in the first quarter of this year, 2017, by the  magazine’s Intelligence Desk, further revealed that the amount,  which would have been paid, was either misplaced, that is advert not carried as planned and ordered, or unaccounted for (that is advert not monitored to be sure it was carried in the first place).

According to the report, the situation  was further compounded by allegations that some media monitoring service providers might  have been conniving with some radio and television stations as well as media agency employees to issue questionable media compliance report over the years.

“Marketing Edge can authoritatively reveal that a radio station in the North claimed 100% compliance in the month of January 2017, but  back checks by a leading media monitoring service provider, proved the claim otherwise” the report stated.

The Report also revealed  a situation where  a media monitoring service provider had given a zero compliance on a media campaign that none of the advert spots, earlier booked by an advertiser, was carried at all or on time, as planned and ordered.

According to the Report, it took the intervention of another media monitoring service provider to resolve a dispute involving a media agency, a broadcast station and a media monitoring service agency, in February 2017, through its audio-playback facility, a development that confirmed earlier fears of a tripartite conspiracy in the Nigerian media market.

The lack of standards in the media monitoring space and the resultant abuse and fraud are, unfortunately, not limited to media monitoring service firms and broadcast organizations and their employees.

The Report also cited the case of a Finance Director of a leading multinational company, who summoned the Head of Marketing of his organisation and a media monitoring service provider, whose reports allegedly resulted in huge savings on the company’s media spend, for verification.

At the end of the meeting, there was evidence that the marketing executives of the said company, in collusion with the interfacing officials of the broadcast organisation, had been creaming off media spend.

In his reaction to the report, a practitioner, Mr Abiodun Robert, would rather attribute the negative development to laziness and ignorance on the part of some business owners.

“If you have your business, you should devise a strategy for ensuring that every kobo spent is for whatever project it’s meant for.

Honestly, it is a very great disservice to the industry,” he added.