New ARCON’s laws will bring forth credibility, transparency —Agenmonmen

In this interview with AKIN ADEWAKUN, former President, National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN) and Convener, Nigerian Marketing Award, Mr. Tony Agenmonmen, talks about his forthcoming Nigerian Marketing Awards, and the new set of laws, regarding Awards, recently released by the apex regulatory body in Nigeria’s ad space, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), insisting they are needed to bring sanity and credibility to the Awards-weary space. Excerpts-

WHAT informed your decision to come up with another award in an industry where stakeholders are getting awards-weary?

What informed my decision is based on what you’ve just said. Why are professionals, getting awards-weary? The OSCARS, the Grammys, the EMEAs of this world, have been there for decades. But, are the people there getting weary of them? No. if you look at competitions all over the world; whether in sports, arts or other areas, are the people there getting awards-weary? No. Why would anybody, therefore, be weary of another award, which is supposed to be a celebration of outstanding excellence? The answer is simple: while not running any Awards down, generally some of the professionals see them as you kind of buy them. You buy a table, and you get an award. You sponsor and you get an award. But how many times are you going to be sponsoring? How many times are you going to be buying tables? And if you buy a table to get an award, at the end of the day, you, yourself will know that you are not getting it on merit. That was why we said ‘look, we should be able to define the standard, by having an award that people will look forward to, that people will win through merit and not because they sponsor’. So that’s the primary reason for doing that.

What’s the response of the sponsors when you tell them they can sponsor the Award without necessarily winning in any of its categories?

Out of all the ones I’ve interacted with so far, none has told me that they would not be able to sponsor because of that position. So, to a large extent, I can say confidently that nobody on that account has come directly to say, we are not going to sponsor you.

Recently, you sought and got an endorsement from a UK-based Independent Awards Standards Council (IASC). Interestingly, some have continued to wonder whether that was really necessary for an Award happening on the local space. Why did you decide to seek for global recognition for the Award?

You already said people are Awards-weary. They are Awards-weary because they are not sure of the credibility of these awards. So we wanted to do everything from our side to make sure it’s credible. We also wanted to test our system with what obtains, internationally, by subjecting our processes, our systems to verification by an international body that is known for accreditation of such Awards. We have been on this since February, this year. It is after that rigorous process of verification to be sure that the award is actually genuine, honest and transparent, before giving us their seal. By giving us their seal, it means they are putting their names on the line.

And where does the endorsement leave the Nigerian Marketing Awards?

If you read the statement for the accreditation, they said the Nigerian Marketing Awards is indeed the first, not just in Nigeria, but in the region so accredited. Remember our policy statement is to be the biggest and the most transparent of the Awards, so this is part of the drive towards that.

What are your views on the new ARCON’s law, insisting on Awards being certified by the apex body before organizing them?

I’ll say I have no objections to the new law because it aligns with our basic principles. In fact, that’s why we didn’t wait for any law before seeking for endorsement from then APCON, now ARCON. We also wanted to secure the support of other sectoral groups such as the NIMN (National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria); AAAN (Advertising Agencies Association of Nigeria); EXMAN (Experiential Marketing Association of Nigeria); ADVAN (Advertisers Association of Nigeria); MIPAN (Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria) and OAAN (Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria). We didn’t need

any law to do that, because we believe that we need to carry the whole of the industry along. It’s also part of the drive towards credibility and transparency for Awards. You raised the observation that people are Awards-weary. They are Awards-weary because awards are neither here nor there. So if we have a regulatory body, regulatory law, designed to ensure transparency and credibility of these awards, I’ll support it. It can then ginger the entire industry. So I support the regulation if that will cleanse up the whole space and ensure that the person that wins the awards actually merits it.

How do we best market the nation’s potential to enable it be a major economic super power in the world?

I think that’s one of the earliest projects that I did as NIMN president. Unarguably, we have challenges, but challenges are there to be overcome. If you still look at the country, regarding all the challenges, you see a beautiful country, with a lot of positive stories to tell. I think what is important is that we really need to come together as a people to say ‘yes, these challenges, we will conquer’. I think that is the Nigerian spirit. The Nigerian spirit is always being positive, saying yes, we can do it. If you know the number of very beautiful tourist destinations in the country, you’ll be amazed. Yes, the security situation might not allow one to visit all of them at this time, yet while the security challenges are being tackled, we should continue to expose the opportunities there, because these tough times that we are in will not last forever. But people should not wait till everything is cool and calm before we start talking about the beauty of our country. Nigerians actually go abroad and excel. That’s a positive story. We are not saying we want to lose all our professionals abroad, but our people go abroad and make impact, and contribute to global economy. So it depends on which angle you want to take it from. Nigeria has such a huge opportunity, but we also have a huge number of challenges. But, we can only make progress if we harness those opportunities to conquer our challenges.

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