Raheem Akingbolu
Players in the outdoor, TV and other traditional media platform have been urged to prepare ahead of a digital revolution if they want to remain relevant. They have also been advised to strengthen their research and innovating abilities to make them be at par with other practitioners across the world.
Speaking at the 34th Annual General Meeting of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria, OAAN, recently in Abeokuta, the Chief Executive Officer of Media Perspectives, a media buying agency, Jude Odia, said with changing landscape, the way traditional Advertising practitioners played it 20 years ago, has changed in today’s market as a result of digital solutions.
According to him; “If spend is increasing on digital, as it is now, it is not because clients are spending more money but diverting budget from other media platforms,”
Looking at the various challenges confronting the outdoor industry, such as media debt, vacant billboards and over-regulation, he said it is not that outdoor is shrinking.
“Globally outdoor is growing but the industry in Nigeria needs innovation to grow. In Nigeria the problem is that Outdoor has not fused itself into the new eco-system; therefore, it is losing relevance and connectivity and value. Let’s get back into the eco-system and be relevant and command, and be active on the table” he said.
With digital transformation changing the game and business, Odia stated that Outdoor and by extension other traditional media platforms can only become relevant through innovation informed by research, partnerships, data, M&As, strong association to constructively engage with regulators and increase the barrier into entering the Outdoor industry.
As advertisers are discovering new cost effective ways of achieving their objective, the media expert advised Outdoor practitioners to ride on the digital trend or face extinction.
“It is important we recognise these trends because they shape our business”, as digital can be integrated into billboards and these boards can do much more to add value.
He said the critical thing in fighting a battle is knowing thyself, know thy enemy and know the weapon available to you.
He challenged the industry to move its mind from problem frame of mind to solution frame of mind.
“Some of the problems we had in the past we still have not found solution to them. We can stop the blame game and think how we can change the tide completely. If we continue this way more debts will pile up. We can stop future debt from coming rather than labouring on debt owed years back”, he said.
