Experts Highlights Benefits of Digital Advertising
Contrary to the view in some quarters that the growth in digital advertisement will negatively impact traditional advertisements in Nigeria, top advertising practitioners and communications experts, including the President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Mr. Ikechi Odigbo, have predicted a boost in the nation’s economy as a result of digital advertising revolution, if well harnessed.
Recent survey put Nigeria’s internet users at close to 100 million.
Also, a survey by Statista, a Statistics Portal, had shown that the year-on-year internet advertising revenue in Nigeria grew from 2013 to 2016, with a forecast until 2021.
According to the estimate, mobile advertising revenue in Nigeria increased by 73.3 per cent in 2016 compared to previous year. It had been projected that in 2021, mobile ad revenue growth will slow down to 15.9 per cent.
The total internet advertising revenue is expected to reach $157 million.
Speaking on the new trend in the marketing and communication industry, the Communications & Public Relations Manager, West Africa at Google Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, told THISDAY that marketing and branding executives have started hiring developers and creating beautiful, interactive apps to deepen their relationship with consumers.
The Google Africa Chief, however stated that the advent of web-based adverts has had a large impact on offline advertising.
“As marketing and media move headlong into a digital future, Nigeria’s marketing communications industry will have a unique opportunity to build a future that helps drive our economy, and the web, forward,” he said.
He stated that the world was changing in line with new communication trend and that it has changed the way brand owners are reaching out to consumers.
“Social platforms are empowering citizen journalists worldwide and hitherto quiet brands are becoming content creators. One of the major fac- tors driving this change is the fact that Web is being adopted faster than we’ve ever seen, and through different channels.
“Mobile is one example: devices are smarter and more powerful than ever. Time spent on mobile devices increased to over three hours in the US, in 2016 alone. As wireless connectivity and digital screens proliferate, so does digital media and online advertising,” he said.
To keep up with millennials, the expert stated that advertisers have been moving as fast as consumers in adopting new technology, hence the noticed spilt in advertising spend between offline and online channels.
On his part, Odigbo, though admitted that in the past seven
to 10 years, there has been continuous erosion of value within the advertising industry where most clients have begun to divert most of their marketing styles towards activation and also digital campaigns, he argued that the situation would only complement the role of traditional advertising practitioners in the country.
According to him, creative agency still controls the space as promoters of other platforms rely on them for contents.
“It’s the same creativity that is required for your campaign on the mass media that will be required to also be effective in terms of digital advertising.
“To me, the important thing is that ad agencies need to think even beyond just beginning to dominate the digital space to begin to see their business more for a holistic point of view. “Today, the time requires that we begin to see ourselves not just as agencies but as creative business solution providers.