• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Increasing focus on consumer engagement signposts big business opportunity for experiential marketers – Experts

consumer engagement

Operators in Nigeria’s experiential marketing, a segment of Integrated Marketing Communication industry that is going through excruciating times have been told to redefine themselves and leverage the opportunities associated with the increasing focus on consumer insight and engagement by companies.

Today, the primary concern of businesses is to connect with the consumer and this resonates with what experiential marketers do.

Therefore, speakers  at the Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria, EXMAN 2019 Business conference recently in Lagos said the industry should  not  complain of business lull but tap into the opportunities presented to them by the market demands.

“You are better positioned than other agencies in assisting businesses achieve their objectives, given where we are today”, Mike Ikpoki, CEO of Africa Context told  EXMAN whose slogan is ‘growing Nigeria’s brands through meaningful experience’

Mike who was the first Nigerian CEO of MTN Nigeria said if the management is saying connecting with the customer should now be a priority and they need to do that speedily and engage their organisations around it, that is what you do, then why are you complaining about tough business, he said.

“You are in the golden age of business of experiential marketing. That is what the businesses are saying that they want to understand their customers and connect with them. You should be driving that course”, he challenged them.

He also challenged them to bring more value to the table through deriving data, insight and intelligence from customers when they organise events.

“By virtue of connecting with the customer, you can unlock some data and that will make you more sought-after agencies. This means you are bringing something to the table”.

In view of projections of slow business growth, technology disruptions, need to engage with the consumer and short tenure of CEOs, Ikpoki said marketing agencies need to understand how CEOs are thinking and therefore connect with the realities of where they are today.

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Ikpoki who is now a consultant also advised EXMAN members to expand their existing market spaces and think out more ways of serving the client like proper organisation of customer forum and employees engagement to internalise their brands. “You already work for big organisations but you can develop new markets, the SMEs and new industries trying to break new grounds. There are more opportunities with small businesses than established businesses”, he said.

Citing the example of Uber business which shifted the paradigm from taxi drivers’ dictates to passenger control, Ikpoki said businesses can take such model and present CEOs what they never knew they needed.

Also speaking at the forum, Feyi Olubodun, the CEO of Open Squares said that understanding cultural nuances plays important role in marketing success.

In his view, George Thorpe, Chairman, MarketSpace who also cited the initial high price of GSM SIM cards at  said unique service and product can sell for any price.

Supporting Ikpoki, Thorpe told the experiential marketers to position themselves correctly in the minds of consumers of agency services as the future  in the market place will be different.

He advised agencies to define where they are going and make conscious efforts to move in that direction.

 

Daniel Obi