"Marketers have played an important role in sustaining
the brand called Nollywood.” This assertion was made by Mr. Azuka Odunukwe, the
CEO of Ulzee Nigeria Ltd. While speaking at the October edition of the
Filmmakers’ Forum of the GTBank Nollywood Studies Centre. The theme of the
event was ‘The Marketer in the Landscape of the Nigerian Film Industry.” Mr.
Odunukwe, a biochemistry graduate that established his marketing company in
1998, explained how the role of the marketer developed in the Nigerian video
film industry.
According to him, “There was nothing like the marketer
at the beginning.” In other words, there were no established channels or
persons specifically dedicated to the distribution of video films. The early
sales of video films were carried out by electronic dealers that sold the films
alongside their other products. These dealers, the Ulzee CEO noted, had already
built a base of selling pirated foreign films. This group eventually focused
solely on the sale of video films; thus the marketer arose.
From merely serving as a conduit for films that were
brought to them, the marketers began to commission filmmakers to produce films
for them. However, Mr. Odunukwe stated, the marketers suffered various
disappointments from filmmakers; their trust was abused by some filmmakers, and
they lost a lot of money. The solution for the marketers was to take on the
challenge of producing their own films, and thus was born the
marketer-producer.
The poor development of a distribution structure, Mr.
Odunukwe stated, has its roots in this reality. According to him, by taking on
the task of filmmaking, the role of the marketer was distorted. The dual role
meant that funds that should have been dedicated to marketing were diverted
into production. The lack of sufficient funds for establishing the relevant
structures thus undermined the growth of a distribution network.
In response to the charge that marketers are only in
filmmaking for the money, Mr. Odunukwe stated that the facts indicate that one
cannot generalise on this point. Certainly, he agreed, there have been
marketers whose sole interest was the money, but with the present condition of
falling sales such people have long since moved on. Many of the marketers, he
said, have a true passion for filmmaking; otherwise, one would not be able to
explain why they continue to engage in the business in spite of the poor state
of the industry and the fact that they have lost a lot of money.
Going on to speak about
piracy, the Ulzee CEO said that it had led to a lot of losses for the marketer.
He bemoaned the fact that the government agencies were not doing enough to deal
with the problem. On this point, the intervention of the Director/Zonal Manager
of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), Barrister Chris Nkwocha, during the
question and answer session, led to a very interesting discussion.
Barrister Nkwocha noted that
it was not accurate to say that government agencies were not doing much to
combat piracy. He drew attention to the various initiatives that the NCC had
put in place and pointed to its various achievements in recent times. One of
these was the arrest of a suspected piracy kingpin, Anthony Onwujekwe. The NCC,
Barrister Nkwocha affirmed, was determined to obtain convictions of those
confirmed to be pirates, and he pointed to the 45 convictions that the
Commission had obtained in the last two years as a proof of this.
He also indicated that the
forthcoming amendment of the Copyright Act would introduce more stringent
penalties as a deterrent for piracy. Barrister Nkwocha however stressed that
the filmmakers needed to cooperate more with the NCC by protecting their works
with the security measures already introduced and reporting the pirating of
their work. The Forum ended with a cocktail that made for further interaction
among the participants.
Source: GTBank Nollywood Studies Center, Pan-Atlantic University
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