As the year 2011 gradually grinds to a halt,  it is not unusual for individuals and corporate organisations to take stock of their activities in the last twelve months with the aim of celebrating their gains in the year and looking for ways of blocking loopholes in  the coming year.

The nation’s integrated marketing communications (IMC) industry is no exemption in this regard. No doubt, the past twelve months in the industry have been quite eventful and interesting for an industry that has been described as one of the fastest growing industries in the country,  but with its abundant opportunities still at minimal optimisation.

Though the sector is yet to recover from the global economic recession that had plagued economies in the last few years, since its fortunes are largely tied to those of the nation’s economies, not a few have also attributed the downward slide in fortune to the fact that practitioners in the sector have refused to up their games.

The Chief Executive Officer of Nosak, Mr Nosa Uwadiae, believes  the industry is becoming increasingly fragmented, resulting in more specialist’s activities; it has also recorded an influx of practitioners who are not trained in the whole process of integrated marketing communication.

‘There is no way such practitioner that is not well grounded in the whole process will be able to perform when the chips are down’, he noted.

He, however, attributed this to the fact that clients are increasingly imbibing the traders mentality, since they are no longer interested in adopting a long term marketing communication strategies.

“All they are interested in now is a marketing strategy that would give them returns in the shortest possible time, and this is why we are witnessing an upsurge in the number of direct marketing and promos nowadays. So the desire of building a brand is no longer there,” he stated.

Corroborating the above claims, the  Principal Partner of Camwoods Brooks, Mr Austin Udueni, believes the industry is still in doldrums, since the nation’s economy is yet to  recover from the recession.

“The industry is still in the doldrums, we have not really done much. I don’t even see any sign of recovery yet because everything is tied to the nation’s economy. Perhaps, if the policies of the Federal Government  are able to revitalise the real sector of the economy and bring companies back to shape, then we might be on course.

“For now, no production is going on, we are all simply trading. Unless the economy picks up and there is  production, we cannot be talking of marketing because if you don’t produce, you can definitely not market. We are presently simply bringing things into the country to sell and I don’t see any economy run like that,” he added.