Young people in media and PR actually emerged winners at this Pitcher Award you just held. What does that say about the industry?
When you say young people winning awards, it’s a very small representation of the entire industry. It doesn’t mean that if one or two people won awards, the industry is healthy. The industry still requires a lot of growth.
The Grand Prix Award was won by an advertising agency in Ghana. Does this, therefore, mean we are having an emerging creative power from Ghana?
Yes. Even if we can not generalise because we are talking of one agency in Accra, but it is saying there is an agency in Accra to watch.
What would you say is the motivation for the Pitcher Awards?
It is not just an award; I want people to see it from the value aspect. The major reason for the award is that we want to take African creativity to the world. We take materials that are good from here and put them in the face of our colleagues in other parts of the globe. It’s not just for us, but to help us get known around the world. So the aim, simply, is to find good work not only in Nigeria, but Africa, and project this good work to the international community; because if you don’t do this, then they will never believe in the things that come out of here. But if we find the best of the materials from here and we put them side by side with the rest, they will respect them. And fortunately, we have the structure to do that, being part of the Cannes Lion network and part of the Luzer’s Archive network. So we are in the position that the material that we put up can be seen by people all over the world. So we had to use that for the benefits of our region.
But with this emerging threat from Ghana, what is the future like for Nigeria?
The future is good for everybody. When you see that your brothers are doing well, it inspires you to work harder as well. I don’t think we should worry that Ghana is winning because we are brothers. But on a more serious note, I can tell you the creative industry is in a better position than the PR industry in Nigeria. So the PR industry requires urgent attention and we expect them to embrace opportunities like this because, instead of running away, it’s a way to enhance the industry.
So I don’t think they should stay away because they think that there are some inadequacies. They should use the opportunity that platforms like this will avail them, because they must get better. If they don’t get better, other people will encroach on the industry.
We can’t always depend on legislation to keep foreigners away. So, we have to get better; and the only way to get better is to challenge ourselves and make sure that we are at par with others, not only in our region, but the world.
and then