Insecurity: Ad Spending Drops as More Advertising, Experiential Practitioners Avoid Northern Markets

Raheem Akingbolu

More Advertising and Experiential companies, who are serving clients in the North Central, North East and North West, are currently at crossroads over their operations in those markets as a result of threatening insecurity challenges that have become complex with the activities of bandits and kidnappers, THISDAY check has revealed.

While other sectoral bodies appear to be heaving a sigh of relief after the hardship experienced during the Covid-19 lockdown, when clients suspended most of their projects, the activities of bandits and kidnappers have thrown another challenge on the laps of the outdoor and experiential practitioners, because of the nature of their businesses.

According to industry sources, most of the out-of-home and experiential agencies that operated in the North East while the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents were at full gear are yet to come out of the psychological trauma and financial loss they experienced within those periods.

President, Experiential Marketing Association of Nigeria (EXMAN), Tunji Adeyinka, admitted in an interview with THISDAY that the problem of insecurity has indeed affected consumer spending and marketing activities adversely, especially in the northern part of the country.

He said, “Specifically, in the area of experiential marketing, physical activations have been seriously hampered in the regions where banditry and crime have been high. There are regions where our members have not been working because of insecurity. It is sad that we are experiencing this at a time when we should be reaping the gains of our investment in technology to meet clients’ demand during the lockdown.

“Remember, there was a drastic loss in consumer spending which affected the revenue of most of our clients. To survive, we needed to retool our thinking caps and we came up with ingenious ideas for consumers to still experience the brands irrespective of cultural nuances. By now, we should be reaping the reward but again, we are being cautious of movement in some parts of Nigeria.”

Similarly, President of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), Mr. Emmanuel Ajufo expressed concern over the future of the outdoor industry in the midst of various insecurity challenges hampering its growth in Nigeria.

“It will seem as if there is no end to what our sector has to contend with. We are still battling with the various State Signage Agencies over their lack of understanding especially in the area of charging on vacant sites and also the debt issues from our clients and as if these are not enough, we now have this insecurity issue that has never been this bad before.

“As you know our business is mostly outside and also in various towns and cities in the country. Before now, there was very little challenge in moving from one town to another. This is now very difficult and our members in striving to satisfy our clients have to now hire more hands that are now resident in the towns where their hoardings are. So where one person could have conveniently covered five cities, you will now need five persons. This obviously adds to the cost of Operations, ”he stated.

Speaking further, he pointed out that the timing of service delivery has been affected as the logistics companies that help in interstate haulage of their materials have had to also adjust and are no longer sure when the materials agencies send through them will get to the destination.

“In summary, the insecurity issues in most parts of the country have greatly affected our business as we are concerned about safety of our personnel, extra cost of Operations and reduced delivery of Service to our clients,” the OAAN boss added.

A senior fellow at the School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Dr. Josef Bel-Molokwu, had recently declared that despite the dwindling revenue and other socio-economic challenges faced by Outdoor advertising in Nigeria, the sector has done well in contributing to economic growth of the country and advertising at large. He spoke at the 36th annual general meeting (AGM) of OAAN recently held in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

“The Outdoor (Out-of-Home or Third Space) advertising business is today a major stakeholder and operator in the Nigerian economy. OOH has indeed grown to become the second top advertising subsector by revenue, after television, ”he said.
He posits that Outdoor has done well in Nigeria and that the industry hasn’t been left behind by other advertising subsectors.

“However, it still has challenges that relate to safety of sites; accurate measurement systems (metrics); expansion of business scope; investment in digital tools; R & D in execution apps; and exploration of format innovations, ”he stated.