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Glen Lomas is the President, DDB for Middle East and Africa, MEA. During his recent visit to Nigeria, he interacted with BusinessDay on the reasons for his visit, challenges of the creative industry and trends that will define the creative advertising business. Excerpts
Tell us about your trip to Nigeria
Nigeria is one of the places I like to visit. I have been visiting Nigeria since I met Enyi Odigbo, Chairman, Casers Group. There is something about the hustling nature of Lagos. It re-energizes you; the city has got a lot of formality and respect compared to other cities where I have worked. Also, there’s the feeling of we will make a plan, we will get it done. The sort of energy behind what’s going to happen is amazing. Specifically, I have come on this trip to grab inspiration and share thoughts with the guys here. I have not been here for about 3 years which is quite a long time. DDB Worldwide is on a massive growth drive; thus we thought it fit to share knowledge in terms of winning new business and related matters that will help DDB Lagos do better. I’m here so we can inspire one another and remind ourselves that we’re quite a close family.
The industry is going through change. The world is equally engulfed in the atmosphere of change. How does change affect advertising as a business?
I’ll sort of slightly turn the question and say that one of the things that I try to do when I go around is to emphasize the need to stop concentrating on what’s changing and proffer concentration to what’s not changing. Fundamentally, the factors that drive motivation have not changed. If you listen to any song being produced over the last 50 years, 95% of them are about love and relationships. The things that motivate us (fear, love) don’t change. Things that change include how we potentially communicate with one another about issues. There is great stuff happening in this regard. Phones and digital technologies have influenced interactions with our clients. Broadcast media is still incredibly important in my mind. All of the things that people keep saying, TV is dead or print media is dead is actually not totally true. It’s still as important as it was back then. It’s easy to get so much data about somebody to project what I want you know about the person. My brand can be whatever I want it to be. There is danger in that. That personalization of the brand stops the brand from having its own identity and the identity of that brand starts to become your identity. That’s a big worry.
I still think broadcast media is important as it ever was in terms of saying this is who I am and take me as I am. We’ve had a lot of changes. However, let’s be clear that humans have not changed that much over the years. We have to maintain our interactions with the consumer and leverage on communicating with them persuasively.
Three years ago, you observed certain things about the Nigerian economy and advertising agencies. What are the changes you’ve noticed three years after?
The biggest change I have seen is that Nigeria is no longer different to anywhere else in the world. The challenges you are facing here are the same challenges being encountered elsewhere. The most worrying of the challenges is how to attract really bright, creative people into the advertising industry. The need to inspire loyalty towards brands is still very relevant. When we started off at DDB, we were quite keen on doing great jobs with great companies. It’s sort of motivating to work with a company that challenges and allows you to succeed. That is in short supply now. The most disturbing part is not only that those companies no longer exist; the desire to succeed doesn’t exist anymore. Of course, success means a lot to different people. As an industry and as an agency, attracting great talents into this industry is quite difficult. It’s very difficult to motivate people the way we have been used to in doing a great job and aspiring to be better.
You have shared your views about dearth of talents in the creative industry. How will that define the advertising industry and other industries?
Talent defines our industry. To be very frank with you, I think we have to remind people of the power vested in creative talents. We have to remind people that advertising isn’t just a service industry. People perceive advertising as being an unvalued part of the economic chain. It is a vital part. Most people fail to realise that every single business depends on sales. Our successes revolve on the ability to project ourselves. Also, the more creative you can be in terms of how you position others and yourself, the more likely you will become an effective force. The main thing is to stop the industry itself of being belittled by its necessities and its roles and remind everybody that growth in whatever form, from the economy to individual lives is incredibly important. Persuasive communication is the vehicle that will drive that growth.
The digital era is influencing creative messages these days. Clients rely on agencies to create messages for digital marketing. But, it appears some of these messages don’t resonate in terms of dearth of talents. How do we create messages that will make digital marketing work?
Mismatch of data can create so many troubles in this regard. This brings our previous conversation into the picture. That I like a green car doesn’t mean I will desire a green kitchen. Data is an amazing thing, but we need to be equipped with the interpretation and management of data. If you don’t have real experts in terms of understanding human behaviour, your data won’t have a module to which you can apply it. Data is very important but an observation of how humans behave is the key to unlocking that data. If we don’t do the first bit which is seen in some ways as old-fashioned, the second bit wouldn’t work. We will be served with messages that feel irrelevant to us. It will only make sense to an algorithm but it won’t make sense when that algorithm is applied to a real human being with the emotions involved. Data can allow you to be a lazy marketing professional or it can allow you to be a really defined and precise marketing professional. It all depends on the person handling the data and how the person applies it.
Should there be domestication of global campaigns in line with local marketing?
Personally, I prefer creating individual advertising messages for individual markets and groups. Advertising ought to be as relevant and resilient as possible. When working with a client that has the same brand in about 200 countries, there is always a pressure on them to reduce costs. For instance, Unilever creates multiple adverts for Lipton tea to ensure consistency. The key to success in local marketing is to come up with an idea of the role brands play and its relevance to people’s lives. I love creating different works for different markets. That is when it becomes more touching.
How does your group rate the contribution(s) of DDB Lagos to the entire network?
Nigeria is one of the engines of Africa. Many of our clients see Nigeria as important. We need someone in the market that absolutely understands creativity, drives the brands to the communities they really have to target and build a relationship of trust. We have a good relationship with DDB Lagos which is quite beneficial to the network.
