For better impact, government at all levels has been advised to use experiential marketing, citizen engagement and community relations to market its policies to the citizenry. This was the position of a paper delivered by President of Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria (EXMAN), Dr. Rotimi Olaniyan, entitled ‘Building Nigeria through Meaningful Experiences: The Role of Experiential Marketing in Citizen Engagement and the Marketing of Government policy’ at the association’s 2016 Annual General Meeting (AGM).

He noted, “In communicating government policies, the relationship between experiential marketing, citizen engagement and community relations has a number of dimensions. First, these concepts require the existence of people. They involve efforts and activities aimed at engaging people and they also seek to ensure positive relationships with people.

“Over the years, marketing agencies are usually engaged by the government during elections or for communication purposes. Efforts have not been to employ these agencies to drive government policies through citizen engagement, particularly in the area of pro-poor and community relations”.
[ad]
According to Olaniyan, the time has come for policy designers and implementers to try something new and make use of an industry that though tested within the private sector space, is seemingly underutilized by the government and its agencies. He further said that EXMAN offers the opportunity for government to gain sufficient partnership from the private sector for its initiatives.