MIPAN elects Femi Adelusi as new president

The Managing Director of BrandEye Media, Femi Adelusi, who was recently elected as the Executive President of Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), has vowed to contribute his knowledge to the growth of Nigeria’s economy.

Adelusi, who emerged the MIPAN new president during the association’s 21st Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at its Lagos corporate headquarters recently took over from the immediate past executives led by Dr Ken Onyeali-Ikpe, who piloted the affairs of the association for four years.

In his acceptance speech, Adelusi noted that unique as the year has been, the association still marked its 21st anniversary, adding that the global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted businesses, livelihood and people’s ways of lives globally and, as such, they must find the right balance as one cannot exist without the other.

“We must face the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly-changing consumer and marketing landscape by finding new insights and pivot continuously to leverage new opportunities,” he said.

On a national level, he added: “As a nation, we must face these changes boldly and creatively leveraging our non-natural resources, that is, the intellectual capital, creativity, youth population, technology adoption, resilience, hard work and can-do-spirit as we know; ‘Naija no dey carry last’.”

While looking forward to working with the new exco in moving the affairs of the association to next level, Adelusi shared the pillars on which his vision for the association would be anchored. Articulating his vision under the acronym THINC, Adelusi said the five pillars under which his agenda would be anchored include technology, data and innovation; human capital development, developing MIPAN associates in media, digital and the marketing communications industry through its academy; webinars and training; industry thought leadership and inclusiveness and collaboration

The new MIPAN boss assured that his administration would take steps to change audience measurement, deploy scientific planning tool as well as leverage the power of consumer cum media data for effective delivery of clients’ solutions. Besides putting to effective use MIPAN’s academy, he disclosed that his administration would be actively contributing to the building of a knowledge economy that helps to shape policies, strategies and regulations.

In what looks like a response to the current situation in the industry, Adelusi said: “We will break all barriers, both real and imagined, that limit the optimal self, drive gender equality and equal opportunity at the work environment. We must reach out to the digital agencies to join us in building a robust association. We must support our agencies to succeed and go beyond our niche to other sectoral associations in the industry for a sustainable and growth-oriented ecosystem.

“While the journey ahead may not be always smooth, we will be courageous to forge ahead and with the support of the new exco, the Working Committees (not Standing Committees), we will go further by not going alone.”

Adelusi called on all MIPAN members to join hands to build a strong and thriving association irrespective of their size and annual turnover, whether they are part of a global network or a part of a WhatsApp network.

He commended Dr Onyeali-Ikpe’s immediate past executives, the Executive Secretary Mr Eki Adzufeh, members of MIPAN Standing Committee and MIPAN Heads of Agencies for their continued support in driving the affairs of the association.

While giving an account of stewardship of his team earlier, Dr Onyeali-Ikpe called on members to brace up to the new realities such as low purchasing power, which has led to a reduction in consumption and clients cutting costs to survive thereby leading to reduction in marketing communication budgets.