Following a meeting of minds between some Executive Board members of AAAN and the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN) at our Secretariat on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, both bodies decided to enter into a partnership to build a more robust and resilient advertising industry in Nigeria, whilst leveraging each other’s unique strengths—particularly in the areas of strategic communications, creativity, and media clout. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was reached subsequently. It was agreed that AAAN would make available its expertise in strategic communications and creativity, while MIPAN would offer its media relationships and expertise.

The partnership led to MIPAN’s integration into the Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF) 19th awards ceremony in 2024. LAIF expanded its categories to accommodate MIPAN and made provisions for additional media awards hitherto non-existent. There is a strong probability that more media categories will be introduced by LAIF in the future.