BrandiQ Report
At a time when it appears the marketing communication industry players are taken for granted, one of them, the Experiential Marketing Association of Nigeria, EXMAN, has made a bold step to halt the groove and change the tide. Before now, organizations that wish to hire a marketing communication agency to consult for them simply gathers a horde of the consultancies in a pitch to make its choice. Most times, this exercise is at the cost of the agencies – who spend much money preparing for the pitch. There are also occasions when the sight of many agencies at the reception hall of the hiring organisations become a spectacle.
A company executive who had once experienced this happen in her office considers it demeaning – gathering agencies in the glare of staff and visitors – just for a pitch. Some other industry professionals consider it absurd. “Why would companies behave that way?” queries Ola Oluwa, a staff of a company that had once called for a pitch in that manner. “They invite all of them at the same time.” An executive of an agency who does not want to be mentioned said “On such occasion we appear helpless. We, somewhat, litter their space as people get curious and ask questions. Who are these people?” According to him, why can’t they just invite us at different times to make our presentations? Perhaps, it doesn’t cost them anything, so they can afford to invite people at random, and at their leisure, to come and while away time. I believe one day things will change – the day they start paying for the cost of inviting plenty agencies and paying rejection fee,” he quipped.
It seems that day is here!
The 2020 Annual Conference of the Experiential Marketers’ Association of Nigeria (EXMAN) came to a grand close recently with a resolution from the trade group fixing pitch rejection fees at N500, 000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) forthwith.
Specifically, and in line with the association’s new resolutions, client organisations inviting experiential marketing agencies for pitch must be ready to pay N500, 000 as rejection fee to agencies not picked at the end of pitches. During the event, EXMAN President, Tade Adekunle explained that agencies incur huge costs on research, creativity and other things on a pitch, but lamented that, at the end of the process only one or two agencies are picked out of the pack of about 17 to 18 agencies. He maintained that some of the ideas presented by agencies rejected are often put to use by the client.
Highlights of the new resolution by the association’s leadership include that clients must formally request for the profiles of different agencies and then select the best to work with – based on the profiles presented rather than invite a bunch of 20 agencies to come for a pitch. “If corporate organisations champion corporate governance, then it will be unethical to ask agencies to wave rejection fee” He added that where a client writes back to reject payment of rejection fee, no EXMAN member would partake in such a pitch. He further said that member agencies invited for a pitch must pre-inform the association’s secretariat about such invitations following which EXMAN would write the client who must have agreed to pay the fee before embarking on the pitch process.
If this association is serious with this resolution it means that the days of gathering agencies to waste their time would have gone. But, can the agencies including AAAN, PRCAN, MIPAN, NIMN, etc. act out the script? Time will tell.
…Calls for Agency Collaboration
The association at the end of its Annual General Meeting (AGM) which held virtually charged member Experiential marketing agencies on the need to constantly form strategic collaborations and to creatively innovate so as to thrive well and overcome current business challenges occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
EXMAN Inducts New Members
The event witnessed the induction of new corporate members into the association’s fold. They include: Bloow48 Invents Limited, Lilvera Group, Boomerang, Ipanache and Ziing Marketing.
As part of the AGM proceedings, Rosemary Akpo, MD, EXP Nigeria was elected as Publicity Secretary of the association while the Trade Adekunle led leadership of the association received members vote of confidence to continue in office.
EXMAN is the sectoral trade body for forward-looking experiential marketing communications agencies in Nigeria. The association protects, promotes and regulates the activities of certified players within the experiential marketing industry in Nigeria. It boasts of over thirty billion naira as total billing.
