Game on: “The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) has sued Meta Platforms Incorporated, owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms, for showing unapproved advertisements to the Nigerian audience…. In the lawsuit ARCON is seeking N30billion in sanction for the violation of the advertising laws and for loss of revenue as a result of Meta Incorporated’s continued exposure of unapproved adverts on its platforms.”
ARCON has been decimated. In 2018, one of the largest PR/OOH/advertising empires in Nigeria flew me into Nigeria to present an expert analysis of its sector to the Board. I made a 3-hour presentation and concluded that “this industry is imperiled because the disintermediation is unbounded and unconstrained by geography and none of the industry players possibly will be able to build a moat to protect the decades-old castle. Your competitors are in America and your customers are already with them”. Read here
This is not a bad lawsuit: it is necessary for the developing world since we do not control any of these platforms which are mopping all the opportunities in markets. Yet, I do not see how you can win it in Africa with our evidently weak positioning.
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Comment: Sovereign agencies need to get to understand that there is now a virtual environment that breaks down sovereign barriers and homogenizes markets globally, but at the same time, has a drill down function to target niche collections of individuals.
This new ‘Wild West’ isn’t going to change. It is no longer possible to get protectionist in a specific geo market. The way to respond is to come up with a gorilla strategy to counter the perpetrator by contesting them at their core.
But just as ARCON feels the heat from Meta. Meta is still a dinosaur compared to blockchain enterprises, and its trying to find new clothes as quickly as it can.
That’s a hint for ARCON. Ndubuisi
My Response: “Sovereign agencies need to get to understand that there is now a virtual environment that breaks down sovereign barriers and homogenizes markets globally” – indeed, They are eating all the pizzas leaving locals with nothing
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