Richard Salvador-Adebayo, founder and CEO of Digisplash in this interview with BusinessDay’s Frank Eleanya speaks on the growth in companies’ budget allocation to digital campaigns. He also speaks on how his company is positioning to provide the best in class service for brands.
What is Digisplash all about?
Digisplash is a content driven integrated marketing communication agency. We deliver world-class creative ideas with people empowering brands. We help brands stand out and move forward in a crowded media ocean. We call this to #thinklikeashark
What does it mean to think like a shark?
It’s basically our motto, which drives our approach to brands and campaigns. To think like a shark means to be:
Disruptive – We are skilled hunters, carving out fresh ways to shred clichés like prey, disrupting existing ideas and adding value, displacing established norms of the advertising world. We always go for the kill.
Wavvy – We are trendy. We are social. We are always online and immersed in social culture. We create content that trends and use them to increase and generate new traffic for brands. We don’t just flow with the waves, we also create them.
Intuitive – With deep research , we are able to foresee future trends based on insights and analytics from consumer behavior and new technology. We know where the audience is and where they want to be.
Daring – We see where others don’t and go where others won’t. We are audaciously bold and adventurous. We use conventional guidelines as a framework and break the rules set in the media space.
Read also: Three ways Nigerian CBN, others can overcome digital currency challenge
What is your view of the content creation market in Nigeria?
With the constant rise of different content creators on social media, it’s safe to say that content creation is fast becoming the most effective form of marketing for brands, because the use of storytelling has helped customers see brands they love as relatable. Brands with large budgets can’t get away with just awareness, we have a generation looking for more. Brands must be in tune with the social behaviours within their online communities, cultures and subcultures.
And what is the level of adoption for digital marketing
According to the most recent report by Hootsuite, Nigeria’s total digital ad spend was $233.9 million. Also there was a 22.3 percent increase in internet users, taking the total to 104.4 million total internet users in Nigeria. It was formerly said that digital is the future, now digital is reality. Brands have no other option but to be and think digital. We are seeing brands allocate a higher percentage of their marketing budgets for digital campaigns. Nowadays, it’s very unlikely you would find a campaign that does not have a digital leg to it. Digital adoption is at an all time high.
What is driving the growth in the market?
COVID-19 has accelerated digital adoption. Nearly all organisations, whether traditional companies or startups, are reorienting their business models to be more digital as a direct result of the impact COVID-19 has had on changing consumer behaviours. The increasing use of technology to work, play, and stay connected have shaped new digital habits. Online became the default purchasing channel for many consumers during lockdown and as a result consumers are shopping more online today. Secondly, consumers have turned to online for things they may not have used digital channels for before, or to a lesser extent, such as training, meetings etc. Whether for transactional, educational, or personal purposes, people have turned to digital channels for many aspects of their lives. As a result, consumers are no longer expecting only the experience they were offered before, instead they have developed much higher digital expectations. This is why all businesses, regardless of vertical or size, need to accelerate their digital adoption and transform their operations to meet consumers where they are now — and give them the experience they expect. The world has also become a global village, the internet and social media has created a world where a tweet in Ibadan can become a trend in Japan.
How does Digisplash approach audience engagement?
At Digisplash, we ensure that every idea created is hinged on stories and insights our target audience not only find relatable but will enjoy, and this is achieved through adequate research. By understanding the target audience we have for our different brands, getting to know their likes, dislikes, interests, and what keeps them up at night; we find a way to tie these things we’ve learned into creating memorable campaigns that our audience would love to engage with both traditionally and digitally.
What are the challenges you face in the market?
Some challenges faced would be from the sales. We’ve had instances where we see our audience actively engage with our communication, and go the extra mile to get the product or service, but end up complaining about the non-availability or their dissatisfaction of the product or service in general. At the end of the day there’s really little good communication or campaigns can do for a brand that doesn’t live up to expectations.
Another challenge faced is the fact that brands tend to be channel specific. In as much as we understand that the digital space is fast becoming the channel every brand wants to be on; we believe that great campaigns should not be channel specific. Instead, effective campaigns should be content driven and can cut across all forms of communication channel, because are not channel loya, but content loyal, they will shift from device and platforms. As a brand, we make sure that our content is hinged on the interests of our target audience first, and whatever is created from these interests, is communicated through every effective channel, whether it’s traditional or digital.
How would you describe 2021 for Digisplash?
2021 has been a great year for us, in many ways. We grew the company, invested in our people and took some strategic alliances. I’m really proud of how the past year played out. It was mostly a year of growth. We increased our clientele and started managing our first global account in Phoenix browser. Our staff strength increased from 12 to 19. All this resulted in an increase in our billings by 5 times what it was in 2020. We also moved to a new office at Allen,Ikeja. So it was a milestone year for us thanks to the brands who trusted us to partner with them and of course our amazing team.
What are the trends to look out for in digital marketing in 2022?
Digital marketing is always changing and evolving, but 2022 will likely hold some dramatic changes. Here are a few trends we believe will shape the digital marketing landscape:
The Metaverse – Microsoft, Google and Facebook are betting big on the Metaverse, which is a term for virtual and augmented experiences. Businesses and marketers should begin to look for opportunities for their business in these spaces.
Social Currency – Experiences are a top social currency. As the advertising landscape becomes more competitive and noisier. Earned media and word-of-mouth will become more important to break through. Good content will become a necessity and no longer a luxury for brands. Businesses will need to focus on creating experiences at every stage of their interactions with customers to earn social media word-of-mouth.
NFTs and crypto in social media ecommerce – The rise of NFTs and online currencies have been near impossible to miss over the past few years. With social platforms like Twitter taking steps to integrate cryptocurrency payments, and a rising trend for display tools that showcase in-app NFT purchases, Facebook is already promoting the use of NFT display options and avatars. Now is the time to consider how your brand can jump on the bandwagon. Organisations need to think about how to sell their brand beyond physical products and services, and potentially the brand itself and the ethos it carries.
What is Digisplash planning for the market in 2022?
We currently have many projects in the works, and we would launch them over the course of the year; so stay expectant as we unpack and reveal them in our usual fashion (Daring, wavvy, intuitive and disruptive).
