Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) has expressed its willingness to partner with Chini Productions, the representative of Cannes Ads Festival in Nigeria, to raise the bar of creative work among Nigerian advertising agencies.
Under the partnership, if consummated, APCON will encourage all its accredited institutions to send a team to participate in the Roger Hatchuel competition category, a creative competition among young advert executives and undergraduates where winners represent Nigeria at the Cannes Festival.
Speaking at the just concluded 2014 national competition across various categories which climaxed the Cannes Lions Nigeria Dinner and Awards in Lagos, Garba Bello-Kankarofi, registrar/CEO, APCON said efforts geared towards spotting creative abilities among pupils from secondary schools will elevate Nigeria’s status and tendency to berth winning works at the Cannes just like Brazil and India are currently making their marks on the global creative map.
Although, Nigeria is yet to win an award at the Cannes, the APCON boss believed there is light at the end of the tunnel for the industry especially as the country’s cultural and language diversities could inspire great ideas that could cut through the clutter to berth world class awards winning works.
Noting that an agency is as a good as its client, Bello-Kankarofi partly held the client responsible for the stemming of creativity. “If we have bolder and daring clients, more could be achieved in berthing winning works. For instance, the ideas that win here today are very simple but world-class. Simplicity and contemporariness are very important ingredients in creating winning works,” he said.
In his welcome remarks, Nnamdi Ndu, CEO, Chini Production, representatives of the Cannes Festivals in Nigeria and organisers of the event reveals that it is been a busy week of competitions for the Young Lions, Roger Hatchuel Academy and the Miami Ad School Scholarship candidates and their handlers.
However, he is consoled by the fact that the organisers and the various juries are encouraged as the quality of materials received and judged keep going up every year, a great sign that the industry is making progress.
For him, “We must stop seeing world-class as Western. I must say that judging from what we’re seeing from materials created by the Young Lions and even students in Roger Hatchuel Academy, there is hope.
“Year after year, we see bolder and more creative presentations from our youth. I hope that as the world gathers in Cannes this year, our voice will sound stronger and louder and our story will come through the clutter,” he declared.
As we make preparations to attend the 2014 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June, Ndu reasons that ‘storytelling’ should be the focus. “Even in our digital age, this ancient art is well and alive. And that is because it’s an expression of our humanity,” he said.
The young winners who will be representing Nigeria at the Cannes Festival of creativity holding in Cannes, France in June include X3M Ideas’ team of Idirigbe Omaga Isaac and Onuwabhagbe Jessica Ehinomen, who won the Young Lions Design Competition.
Similarly, Ibekwe Ophylia Temidayo and Eguko Efetive Oluwadiya of Chain Reaction PR won the PR Competition and will represent Nigeria at the Young Lions PR Competition at Cannes.
The Young Lions Media Competition was won by Fakayode Joshua and Ogunwede Rotimi representing MediaReach. The duo will contest at the young Lions Media Competition
In the same vein, Etuodi Communications’ team of two – Yusuf Olanrewaju and Sanni Oluwatosin, emerged winners in the Young Lions Film Competition and will therefore, represent Nigeria in that category at the Cannes Festival.
Adenike Akinbisehin and Arthur Mazi of SO &U and Banjo Bankole were winners of the tickets to Miami Ad School, Europe while in the students’ category, Dimtang Bishmang of the Federal University of Technology, Minna is the Roger Hatchuel Academy winner.
Daniel Obi
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