A report on the state of marketing expertise and opportunities has been launched. The report which is fallout of a global marketing conference reveals the gap in consumer understanding that local and regional marketers say exists at a global level.

According to a statement issued in Lagos by Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), the report contains the key challenges that all brands face in Africa, notably the lack of reliable data, including media consumption and retail performance, as well as the progress that marketers in the region are making in delivering more effective marketing.

"It reveals the gap in consumer understanding that local and regional marketers say exists at a global level. 55per cent respondents agreed with the statement that global colleagues do not understand consumers in our local markets and only 20 per cent disagreed."

The local versus global debate also applied to local agency partners, with 58 percent of respondents agreeing that local agencies have a superior understanding of local business issues than international agency brands.

Nevertheless there was also a lot of common ground with marketers in other regions with key priorities cited as brand positioning, integration, consumer insights and marketing analytics. This reflects many of the core concerns that a most recent survey of marketer priorities indentified, where integrated activity planning and digital marketing are the top priorities.

President of ADVAN, Mr. Kola Oyeyemi said at the launch of the report that, "It was a week of knowledge, new experiences and new insights into the marketing profession especially as it affects measurement of effectiveness in marketing"

"It was quite insightful to learn from other markets the challenges and proven solutions to key marketing issues, these results are also applicable and automatable for Nigeria. We are back with fresh information to ensure best practice marketing in Nigeria," ADVAN president said.

The event was attended by key stakeholders and afforded players in the industry worldwide, the opportunity to brainstorm on issues affecting its growth.

The new report seeks to unravel Africa's marketing challenge and was done in collaboration with other local bodies such as Millward Brown and National Advertisers Associations in Cameroon (CMA), and many others.