Professional integrity at stake as Oceanic Bank, MTN set for war over campaign
By NETA NWOSU
Wednesday, July 21 2010
Lagos media circle has been abuzz lately with quarrel over the tagline, “Today is a good day”, originally developed for Oceanic Bank by DBB Lagos who until October 2009, acted as the bank’s advertising agency.
The row was fuelled by the bank’s reaction to the MTN Africa United 2010 FIFA campaign which has, “Today is a good day to be African”, among other campaign lines.
The near similarity between the bank’s line and MTN Africa’s, instantly got the bank wary and apprehensive of a likely foul-play. This coupled with an estranged relationship between the bank and its former advertising agency, an issue which has since culminated in a case pending before a court, gave the bank a good reason to suspect that its erstwhile advertising consultants were out to undermine its copyright to the original tagline. So, they moved to protect what they believe is rightfully theirs.
Expectedly, the matter has once again re-opened the whole talk about professional integrity within the industry, creative ineptitude, penchant for plagiarism and practitioners disdain for copyrights. Granted that in an industry driven by a steady flow of creative ideas, it is given that this maze of creative ideas could sometimes criss-cross and bear close resemblance with each another, some industry commentators on the matter insist that the copies similarity in this case is too close to wish away, given the fact that the agency in question has a strong relationship with the local branch of the South African client that commissioned the job.
They went as far as insinuating that a former Director of DDB, who took a job with MTN Africa, must have been responsible for the seeming creative sabotage.
But the executives of DDB Lagos and their client, over the weekend defended their ethical conduct, professional propriety and client/agency relationship. First of all, the agency made it clear that “Today is a good day” campaign was not developed to manage Oceanic Bank’s image in the aftermath of the CBN-induced putsch of banks managements and boards, a ground breaking exercise which took its toll on the industry’s corporate brands, image and integrity. Following a competitive pitch in which DDB was successful, the campaign had already been packaged for the bank by January 2009 before hurricane Sanusi swept through the nation’s banking sector.
The agency denied that it has a hand in developing the FIFA South Africa World Cup campaign that has drawn the ire of its former client. The campaign, DDB stated was developed by the agency, Ireland/Davenport in collaboration with Switch Branding and Design Agency, all of whom are based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The integrated and multi-phased campaign, commissioned by MTN South Africa, in addition to the contentious line has other slogans like “We can’t wait, let’s Go 2010!”, “Let’s get behind African football”, and “United we score”. The campaign which commenced in June to coincide with the World Cup, ran in all the eight African countries, Nigeria inclusive, where the MTN Group has a branch.
Its objectives, according to the agency, were to intertwine the cultural nuances and human truths that exist in the different countries across the region. And hype the fact that we are Africans making history not only by hosting the World Cup for the first time on our soil, but also by upstaging MTN as the first and only global African organization sponsoring the event.
Reacting to the controversy, the Managing Director, DBB Lagos, Ikechi Odibo, said his agency has no hand in developing the MTN FIFA 2010. He explained further, “We have been in business for several decades and have worked with multiple global and blue chip organizations that cut across several industries. In all of our work for our clients, both past and present, not once have we confused or duplicated campaigns and neither do we intend to do so in future. It is not the way we operate. DDB was founded on creativity and humanity. Our values dictate certain acceptable behaviour.”
Regarding the insinuation that its former director who now works for MTN Africa would have facilitated the creative flair, Emilomon Aikhoje, the agency’s Communications Manager, told MARKETINGmatters that the executive being referred to worked with the agency till June 2010 after the campaign had commenced. She noted that her agency’s partnership with MTN is intact as the client is privy to the facts and sees no wrongdoing, ethically or illegally, on the part of the agency.
These comments seem to be complementary with the views of the client, MTN Nigeria, on the issue. General Manager, Consumer Marketing, Kola Oyeyemi, who stated that MTN has an implicit confidence in DBB Lagos’s creative abilities. “They stop at nothing to deliver world class ideas. Their work on MTN brand has made it the most awarded brand ever in Nigeria. The agency has been for us a worthy and most dependable partner in the championing of the MTN brand not only across the country but on the global stage. Thus far, the four year relationship has been very successful and yielded several feats, and was in fact recently extended for a few more years,” he added.
Following the successful conclusion of the FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa, MTN Nigeria, has instructed its outdoor contractors to dismantle the Africa United advert materials preparatory to launch a post-World Cup campaign. One can only hope that the impending campaign will not raise fresh dust.
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