Vice president, digital for global public relations leader Porter Novelli, Jesse Soleil who was on a business trip to Nigeria has predicted that Nigeria’s digital marketing industry will grow from the present $2 billion to $10 billion value in the next five years if the right things are done.
Digital marketing which has been growing on the back of huge internet penetration in Nigeria has been complementing traditional media marketing as consumers spend sizeable time on digital media.
Jesse who is responsible for designing cross-platform digital experiences for clients across all practices in Poter Novelli told BusinessDay in Lagos that for digital marketing to expand beyond the present space, digital marketing agencies need to think of what the audience wants and do them.
“I think agencies have been doing the things they want and not the things the people want. Marketing has not changed but the behavior of people has changed. The right things have to happen for digital marketing to take off properly”, Jesse who is said to have a deep understanding of how to reach consumers in ways that are creative and compelling said.
He said digital marketing is really about understanding human behavior and how to structure content. But, according to him, “brands today present their characteristics to consumers on social media but that is not what social media is about. When you are on social media, there should be conversation and consumers should participate but brands don’t get that yet. Some treat social media as broadcast networks and that is why those brands don’t succeed and the programmes are ignored”.
Jesse, who was in Nigeria to help develop core digital capabilities, was confident of the growing trajectory of digital marketing in Nigeria. “From opportunity perspective, there is also an amazing opportunity in Nigeria. The country has a growing market and we think it is really important place to succeed as those opportunities continue to exist”.
On checkmating cyber crimes while engaging on digital marketing, Jesse who has been in digital technology for about 25 years agreed that there is a lot of hacking and conversations on internet about crimes. “Some of these people openly discuss cyber attacks and who they want to attack. There are ways to hear and see what could be possible very early before they happen. It is really going with your eyes wide open”
He also predicted that in the next few years businesses are going to invest heavily on looking at cyber security and how they are going to protect the assets of their clients.
Speaking about digital marketing in governance, he said it is not about marketing but understanding why people do what they do and understanding human behavior. He said this is a powerful tool in any government official hands that could be used to build policy on the back of what people think.
Daniel Obi
