What advertising stakeholders expect from ARCON — Adisa, AAAN President

The President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Lanre Adisa, has called for a dynamic, forward-looking regulatory framework, and equal enforcement for all players in the nation’s ecosystem.

 Adisa, who is also the Chairman of the Heads of Advertising Sectoral Group (HASG), made the call at the Advertising Stakeholders’ Forum, held in Lagos, recently.

 The AAAN boss, while speaking on “Regulatory Compliance: Expectations of Stakeholders from ARCON’, urged the apex regulatory body in the nation’s advertising ecosystem to develop guidelines that would ensure effective regulation of advertising, advertisement and marketing communication on the digital space.

He argued that such guidelines must be clear, distinct from traditional media, and built for agility, and, specifically, for digital advertising.

The Noah’s Ark boss believed the advertising space and its regulatory framework had evolved over the past nine decades, especially with the advent of digital advertising.

Adisa stated that the industry, which, initially, thrived on voluntary self-regulation, guided by professional associations, had become fast-paced, with ARCON now faced with the realities of the transformation.

“This transformation has outpaced many of the traditional models of regulation. The rise of digital-first brands, content creators, influencer marketing and cross-border campaigns has created grey areas in compliance and enforcement,” he noted.

He, therefore,  asked ARCON to adopt the UAE co-regulation models with platforms and agencies, where compliance is built into systems, and not just enforced externally.

“This is the case in the UAE where the regulator collaborates with platforms like TikTok, Meta and Google,” he added.

While commending ARCON on its open-door policy, the AAAN boss would want a continuation of such policy, since it encourages consistent dialogue with the different sectoral groups to improve on the regulatory regime.

Speaking on equal enforcement for all players in the ad ecosystem, Adisa stated that global platforms and foreign agencies, running campaigns in the country, must be subjected to the same rules as local players.

“Global platforms (Meta, Google, YouTube) operate outside the ARCON net, yet dominate Nigeria’s ad spend.

 “Agencies are bearing the burden of regulation, while international players benefit from the same market without obligations,” he stated.

While calling for a consultative, not confrontational industry engagement, the AAAN president stressed the imperatives of ARCON working with other regulators to ensure fairness and close the leakage of ad spend.

 “AAAN (HASG) and ARCON should work together to: regularly update the Advertising Code; create an industry sandbox for testing new ad formats and policies; establish a Digital Advertising Council with representation from sectoral groups, digital platforms and consumer groups; invest in Regulatory Technology (RegTech); and develop automated vetting portals, AI-assisted content classification and faster response tools,” he stated.

This, he argued, would improve transparency, cut down turnaround time, and reduce human bottlenecks.

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