As a result, he disclosed that the group is making efforts to correct all anti-practice conduct by multinational clients and every other group practising experiential marketing illegally.
“We are not reviewing the code but ensuring that every member of the Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria (EXMAN) internalises it and knows the implications of breaching the code. Our aim is to turn it into a living document,” he said.
Prior to this time, he said EXMAN had sent the code to all members to enhance a robust discussion on the code of practice. “We chose the association’s first annual general meeting (AGM) to do so. We believe that by discussing some sections of the code at this AGM, members who ordinarily wouldn’t have time to read would have done so consciously or unconsciously. To achieve this, we asked every agency to send participants to the AGM to look at some of the key issues in code,” he noted.
Olagesin said the association has taken further step to integrate itself with other groups under Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) in order to address issues such as product sampling children and brand ambassadorship. He said these aspects need to be governed by rules and companies are expected to abide by this when activating their brands.
“The most important sections in the code, which we relate with on a regular basis, have been addressed with the President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Kelechi Nwosu, in attendance. Some of those issues are children sampling, event locations and brand ambassadors and so on. Most of us are not conscious of the fact that there are certain things that should govern children sampling and also how they should be engaged. Brand ambassador is another leg we need to seriously look into. Either as an ambassador or a consumer, there are certain rules that should govern that practice.
“There is so much unprofessional practice in alcohol sampling that some of us are not aware of. Practitioners are doing sampling and all sorts of engagement in outlets they shouldn’t have. But it is our duty through the code to educate and enlighten them on how to go about it,” he affirmed.
He also noticed widespread violation of certain code of practice in the area abuse of activation locations. “On locations in terms of where we do our activities, there are so many breaches at the moment. I don’t think it is right to do sports activation on a street side and after it the place is left littered. Most people don’t take issues of littering into consideration. People put up posters for an event and they are not mindful of the environment; for example, having alcohol activation close to a church, mosque and secondary or primary school,” he explained.
Olagesin, however, hoped that at the end the clients will embrace the code as part of their marketing standards.
“Clients would embrace it because some of the issues raised in the code are issues that they have also addressed in their own marketing standards. There is no reputable organisation that will not have its own marketing standards, the do’s and don’ts. We took inputs from some of those marketing standards that we see in our multinational clients and infused them into what we are doing.
Speaking on what obtains in other markets, he said: “We looked at the code in other markets as well.There are some things that apply to them that don’t apply to us. In some other countries, they don’t necessarily have to get bomb squads but here it has become something we take into consideration. Before, we did not worry about taking the temperature of people coming to events but today we look at it. Those are things we are taking into cognisance and say that our members need to be aware of these issues,” he said.
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