The proliferation of mobile devices would eventually be the primary channel for consuming media services and could be the death of traditional media organisations that fail to adapt to new realities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experts at the Masters of Marketing Series, organised by BusinessDay acknowledged that the media landscape in Nigeria is at a critical time in which existing players should learn and implement new strategies as quickly as possible or face an existential crisis.
The lockdown which took effect from April saw huge growth in the consumption of music streaming, movies streaming, online gaming, social media activities, podcasting, etc.
This is not entirely surprising as consumption of these services has on the rise even before the lockdown was imposed said, Femi Adelusi, Group managing director of Brand Eye, who spoke on one of the panel sessions.
The growth went over the roof during the lockdown because consumers’ appetite for entertainment surged as people looked for ways to distract the boredom of being asked to stay indoors.
“Many media types such as radio listenership, print have seen a significant decline in this period,” Adelusi said. “It is important for these challenges to involve new formats, new content pillars, and new financial models in the view of changing demographics and growth of the mobile and internet across Nigeria.”
He sees more big changes coming for the industry, hence the need for businesses to quickly move to understand consumer dynamics and prioritise sustainable business areas that optimises their strength as well as explore new opportunities that unlock market growth and also involve business processes that reduce expenses and overhead.
In the new reality, the primary way of reaching the consumer is through their mobile devices. It is important to also note that 30 percent of these mobile devices across the continent are smartphones, which also throws in the dynamics of mobile applications, vice, and connections.
“So, in one smartphone, you can potentially have a minimum of 10-20 connections because every app that is connected to the internet or cuts to the internet on a monthly or weekly basis is a connection,” said Elo Umeh, CEO of Terragon Group.
The ubiquity of mobile devices does not however imply that traditional media platforms are going away, the stakeholders argue. In essence, offline would continue to be relevant. But profitability would be the result of adapting to the online market and maintaining a strong print front.
The past four months have also seen a significant change in the attitude of media consumers, the majority of whom have moved online. Kachi Onubogu, CEO of Frutta Juices said what this means is that in terms of value, cost patterns such as what consumers hold dear and viewership, have all fundamentally changed and
“If marketing is about connecting your consumer or shaping your consumers’ perception then the important thing is to understand who the new consumer is and how you reach him, appeal to him and what matters to him,” Onubogun said.
Advertisers are among the worst segment in the media industry. Between April and June, several of them were forced to cut down significantly in the advert spend.
Lampe Omoyele, MD, Nitrol 121, projects that the first-half numbers of the advertising sector would show there has been reduced spend across board, as long as FMCGs were hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today’s advertising landscape would require players to be intentional when targeting the audience. Akintunde Marinho, CEO of Utopia Media Group said it helps to understand who they are, how they are, what their influences, what they like. Although these are basic advertising tenets that most serious players live by, consumers expect more adjustment to what is more important to them as a result of the negative experience they have gone through as a result of the pandemic.
“I think this is an opportunity for traditional (media) players to adapt because there is a threat,” Abas Idaresit, CEO, Wild Fusion said. “This is the time for you to digitse your businesses, innovate as a traditional player. So, there is an opportunity for both traditional and digital media players. So we should not waste it.
Yinka Adebayo, the executive director, Media Investments OMG WeCa, said a show of empathy could go a long way to convince consumers that players in the industry care about how they feel. Hence, it is increasingly becoming important for media experts to be close to the media they buy.
