Brands put more emphasis on digital platforms as awareness rises

Nigerian brands will continue to increase their online advertising and marketing presence in coming years as they steadily come to terms with the realities and opportunities of the digital arena as well as the enormous benefits the platform has to offer, said Daryn Wober, chief executive officer of Ventra Media Group at the Loeries Roadshow and DStv Media Showcase in Lagos at the weekend.

Currently, digital media spend accounts for about 4.5 percent of the entire annual N100bn clients Ad budget. This figure is however expected to grow quickly in no distant time considering the immense potentials inherent online.

Mobile and internet penetration in the country, especially in major cities of Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, is at an all-time high. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, saw a growth in its teledensity, from 81.7 percent in January 2013 to 91.1 percent by the end of the year under review.

57.8m mobile subscribers on the network of major GSM firms use the Internet, according to data from Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). There are over 11.2m active, Nigerian Facebook users, according to a March 2013 estimate.

Wober, said in his presentation, entitled, ‘Content in the Digital Age: A Perspective for Brands’, that “significant, large audiences online’ are ‘engaging with content.”

This further implies that in spite of the numerous drawbacks hindering business productivity and growth, both advertising agencies, brand communicators and clients can tap the potential that the digital arena has to offer. According to him, more people are beginning to accept integrated campaigns as part and parcel of television broadcasting, radio and outdoor campaigns – the three main types of media used in Nigeria. Social media is becoming a driving force of online activity, according to Wober.

According to a recent survey on the top online activities in Nigeria, 72 percent of people interviewed use social networking sites. “It is a critical place where brands need to be to reach their consumers,” said Wober.

The new digital ecosystem presents challenges and opportunities for brands that want to reach consumers. “You can have a cost effective engagement with your consumers. You can prolong the engagement with consumers by moving above-the-line campaigns into online and digital formats,” he stated.

Content, according to him, is such a critical part of brand marketing. “According to a recent industry survey, 78 percent of consumer believe that organisations providing custom content are interested in building good relationship with them. 61 percent of consumer feel better about a company that delivers custom content  and are more likely to buy from them,” explained Wober.

Other Speakers at the event included Fahmeeda Cassim-Surtee, sales director of DStv Media Sales, who spoke of the future roadmap in media and Debbie Shepard, head of Marketing for Nokia West Africa, who shared her experience on making global brands local – or ‘glocal’, as she said in her presentation.

Ben Uzor Jr