Vanguard, MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 2014 — 39
Advertising, Media & Marketing
Mixed fortunes trail advertising in 2013 …Online stores record increase Stories by PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU The advertising industry in 2013 experienced an unprecedented decline in media advert in various media vehicle penetration. This was due to the economic recession witnessed globally few years back which trickled down to Nigeria. The recession took a toll on the advertising industry as many companies could not carry out their primary duty of pushing their products to the market through advertising, even though the broadcast industry enjoyed a major share in the industry, a sign that brands and companies relied basically on the broadcast industry to draw the attention of their target audience. Majorly, Out- Of-Home, print advertisements dipped in terms of exposure of creative advert as a result of the argument that mobile advert has gradually crippled the flow of advert to belowthe line, BTL advert spend. APCON: The Advertising reform embarked upon by Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON under the chairmanship of Lolu Akinwunmi revolutionalised the industry, thereby curbing the unnecessary incursion of foreign advertising agencies into the country’s advertising space gave Nigerian models the opportunity to be involved in advertisement shooting, locally and internationally. E-Commerce: The relatively new market in Nigeria, online shopping recorded major increase. The CEO of Adibba.com, David Allison, who had valued online shopping business in Nigeria at billions of dollars, noted that online shopping business is being facilitated by CBN’s cashless policy. “With the new cashless policy being gradually implemented in Nigeria, things are looking up. People are getting warmer towards the idea of doing transactions online with several platforms springing up.” Allison calculated that Nigeria is over 50 per cent ready for e-commerce. He said although there are scepticisms about e-payment solutions, the business is growing and will continue to grow as there are over 300 registered e-commerce sites presently. Allison who recognised that
e-Commerce market in Nigeria is relatively new said that the online platform was borne out of the desire to satisfy ever growing needs of shoppers. “Our Product categories vary from electricity solutions to fashion, phones, computer and electronics, food and drinks, games, toys and kids and Africana. Recently it was reported that total investment in Nigeria’s online shopping market by both local and foreign investors is worth over $15 million (about N2.4 billion) with analysts predicting that the figure will double in 2014 as more investors see opportunity in the new sector.
Market watchers who assessed the growing industry strongly, believe that more online businesses will open in Nigeria in the next few months signaling a belief in the Nigerian economy. NIMN: The story was not the same in the marketing and management professional industries: Like in the National Institute of Marketing Of Nigeria, NIMN, where the leadership tussle in the institute was settled with the assumption to the helm of affairs at the institute by Ganiyu Koledoye, when he assumed the position of President and chairman of council of the institute on the instance of Chief. Luggard Aimiuwu who over stayed his reconciliatory tenure.
From Left: Mr. Charles Inochiri, Brand Manager, PZ Cusson’s holding Morning Fresh, while Mrs. Ipaye Modupe, Miss. Chioma Emeghara and Mrs. Esther Paul watch at the Morning Fresh promo activation at Ojodu Berger, Lagos state.
Optimum Exposures goes digital … instals digital billboard
T
he digital revolution in the Out-of-home, OOH industry is set to go full circle in Nigeria with the most prominent billboard, Optimum Exposures’ majestic hoarding at Adeniji Adele, Lagos is set to go digital. The Chief Operating Officer of Optimum Exposures Limited, Engr. Bayo Adio disclosed that his company has partnered with global leaders in digital billboard, Daktronics to digitalize the Mega billboard in Nigeria, so as to serve the market better. He said, “Standing majestically at the beginning of the Third Mainland bridge outward Lagos Island, this billboard is well located to deliver the greatest number of eyeballs in Nigeria. We are truly pleased to have it digitalized to meet the demands of our ever evolving market.” To digitalise the billboard, senior officials of Daktronics
flew into Nigeria from the United States of America for a preinstallation visit on December 10, 2013. General Manager, Ahmad Dahmash and Andrew Michael Gorder, Project Manager both of Daktronics made the visit. The Optimum and the Daktronics team also met with the management of Mediacom, Carat Media Perspective and Starcom Media. According to Dahmash his company is delighted at the opportunity to impact the Nigerian market with the state of the art technology which he says “will open the billboard to more brands on a regular basis. With digitalization, billboards become lively, more interactive; viewer friendly and engaging thereby helping brands exposed therein to gain more mileage and justification for spend.” Adio is convinced that digitalizing the largest billboard in Nigeria will be of immense benefits to all stakeholders as it will deliver more value for advertisers and entertainment to the public.
Telecom Service Quality: The Customer Perspective
T
he press was recently awash with the news that the Minister for Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, has warned telecom operators in Nigeria to improve their service quality or face sanctions. According to the reports, from 2014, telcos that fail to meet agreed key performance indicators (KPIs) will face penalties including fines, withdrawal of licences and five-year jail terms. This sounds like good news. For too long, customers have suffered poor telecom services delivered with impunity, without any decisive intervention from industry regulators. That’s why customers lug about three or four mobile phones, hoping that at least one will work when required. With dual-SIM phones, the stress is less. But before anyone shouts “Hallelujah!,” we need to ask some questions. Who measures the key performance indicators? How and when are they measured? If the telcos are fined, who benefits from the fines? How will the customer be compensated for poor service? In short, how does the customer feature in the entire plan? After all, the customer bears most of the cost – monetary, time and psychic – for service failures. Whatever else they do, regulators must ensure that customers are duly compensated for service failures, except when customers are informed of service disruptions for routine maintenance. Compensation should be mandatory for services with short validity periods such as data bundles, Blackberry subscriptions, etc. As an advocate of service excellence, I find the service delivered by telcos in Nigeria very appalling. Barely two weeks ago, my Glo line went dead for 48 hours although I had enough airtime and a valid data subscription. All I could get on a line I had registered four times was: “This call cannot be completed. Please contact your mobile operator.” Four times, I called the Glo customer care – that was the only number I could reach! Four times I received canned, monotonous responses from customer care representatives who couldn’t identify what was wrong. The only help they could offer was to say “sorry” and report the issue to “the appropriate department.” It wasn’t amusing. At the time of writing, I am yet to receive any explanation or compensation from Glo for such inexplicable service failure. The point is not to demonise Glo. Only recently, I stopped using the MTN Blackberry Service (after four years) because of poor service. At various times, I have also used the services of Airtel, Etisalat, Visafone, Multilinks and Starcomms. At best, they all deliver average service. This is why I find number portability amusing. Beyond retaining one’s number, I can’t see any other benefit! Telecom operators need to up their game. Many of them have excelled in executing laudable corporate social responsibility projects, but they must not forget their core mandate: excellent telecom services. That’s what we pay for. Interestingly, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reported that there were over 121 million active lines in Nigeria as at September 2013. About 98 percent of those lines were GSM. Yet, we have only four GSM operators. Is it surprising that service fails often? Is it not time to licence more GSM operators or are there no willing investors in the sector anymore? Considering that many Nigerians have two, three or four GSM lines, it is likely that there are only 50 to 60 million subscribers, leaving a huge population unserved. As a people, we love talking. We’re now also pinging and surfing a lot. It’s time to lower the entry barrier and license more operators.