ADVAN, others midwife new research for marketing challenges in Africa

AT the recently concluded Global Marketing Week 2015 in Marrakech, Morocco, organised by World Federation of Advertisers and co-hosted by the Moroccan Association of Advertisers (GAM), Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) alongside other trade associations in Africa released a new research into the state of marketing expertise and opportunity.

President of ADVAN, Kola Oyeyemi, Executive Member, Kachi Onubogu and Executive Secretary, Ediri Ose-Ediale led Nigeria’s association to the global marketers’ conference.

According to Oyeyemi, the new document, which seeks to unravel Africa’s marketing challenge was in co-operation with Millward Brown and national advertiser associations in Cameroon (CMA), Kenya (MSK), Morocco (GAM), Nigeria (ADVAN), South Africa (MASA) and Zimbabwe (MAZ).

The association said that the results were based on 82 responses from marketers working for well-known local and global brands at a country or regional level. The results highlight the key challenges that all brands face in Africa, notably the lack of reliable data, including media consumption and retail performance, as well as the progress that marketers in the region are making in delivering more effective marketing.

They also reveal the gap in consumer understanding that local and regional marketers say exists at a global level. 55per cent respondents agreed with the statement “global colleagues do not understand consumers in our local markets” and only 20 per cent disagreed.

The local versus global debate also applied to local agency partners, with 58per cent of respondents agreeing that local agencies have a superior understanding of local business issues than international agency brands.
Nevertheless there was also a lot of common ground with marketers in other regions with key priorities cited as brand positioning, integration, consumer insights and marketing analytics. This reflects many of the core concerns that WFA members globally have identified in the most-recent survey of marketer priorities, where integrated activity planning and digital marketing are the top priorities.

Oyeyemi, on the importance of the conference to the Nigerian market said, “It was a week of knowledge, new experiences and new insights into the marketing profession, especially as it affects measurement of effectiveness in marketing.

“It was quite insightful to learn from other markets the challenges and proven solutions to key marketing issues. These results are also applicable and automatable for Nigeria. We are back with fresh information to ensure best practices in Nigeria”.

Onubogu stressed that the GMW 2015 provided the participants the opportunity to gather relevant knowledge and understand the local industry more. “Local marketers found the conference useful in many ways and the ripple effect would enhance our operation and add value to what we do.”