EXMAN will engage FG on leveraging the body’s strength for national development

Operators in the experiential marketing had early in July, 2013 came together to form Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria. Kehinde Salami who is also the CEO of Ideas House Marketing Communications Limited is the third President of the 40-member body. In this interview, Kehinde who had served as both financial secretary and general secretary of the body spoke extensively about the association, benefits to members and how government could leverage the capacity of EXMAN members to drive its programmes. Excerpts

You served on the last two excos, what are the things you could point to that the EXMAN has achieved in the last 4 years.

When this association started we needed to brand it. We carved a vision statement which is to be a respected force for the growth of Nigeria’s brands through meaningful experience. Unfortunately, experiential marketing has been seen as those party people that organize events. There are two things that endear in a relationship and firstly is mutual respect and also trust. Over the last 4 years, EXMAN has been able to gain significant trust of the clients and respect.  Some clients now demand that only certified members of the association  be part of pitches. The first exco built the foundation, the second exco created awareness of the association and our job is to build on the success of the past.

Experiential activity appears to be limited in scope, how then do you incorporate mass publicity in experiential marketing?

One of the core values is for clients to be able to pinpoint the cost per contact. Experiential marketing offers standard, speed and scale. We have agencies at different levels but the value offers are not negotiable. Sometimes if you are having experiential in Nassarawa, clients expect the same in Gombe and Calabar and Owerri with same standard. This can be amplified with social media, radio hype and digital. Experiential marketing is  marketing communication that touches on five senses – see, taste, smell, feel and hear. That is why clients are focusing on that area now. Experiential is also important where literacy rate is about 50 % and the ability for people to ask questions and sample is critical.

It is argued that your fees are higher when compared with other platforms, do you agree?

We don’t get in to the notion of comparing our financial modeling processes. This is because the nature of our businesses is completely different. Every agency has processes and they use different models for charges depending on resources deployed on strategies. In our industry we deal a lot with third party suppliers as there are other parties plugging into the cost. But more importantly is that experiential offers direct engagement and offers return on investment. We also invite specific target audience to events. I must say that we are not cheap and we are not expensive, it depends on the brief and the objective.

How can you drive government projects and add to national interest

We have met with House Committee, Commerce and Industry of National Assembly where we presented how we can be of value to Nigeria. Unfortunately we have not gotten too far. We also wanted to showcase the value we can offer. We thought that the proposed school children feeding was an opportunity to engage EXMAN agencies in terms of logistics support, execution, standards and project monitoring. As EXMAN, we have foot on the ground in this country.  Our plan is to re-engage government on leveraging on our strength for national development. This is because government does a lot of research and programmes to educate and enlighten the grassroots. We are looking to partner government to carry some of these tasks.

About how much would you put the value of experiential marketing?

There is no science to show the worth of the industry, but we believe it should be about N30 billion.

How do you manage area boys in your business?

We face them every day. It is an item that must be taken care of as part of issues.