Olubodun: Marketing Communications is Required to Stimulate the Economy
Chief Operating Officer, Insight Communications, Mr. Feyi Olubodun, whose agency recently powered a forum to further inspire marketing communications practitioners on the importance of digital technology in today’s business, told Raheem Akingbolu why gove
There are those who believe that with necessary infrastructure in place, the marketing communication industry can contribute enormously to the country’s GDP. Do you share the view? The marketing communications industry has always contributed to the economy despite the odds but I share the view that if the industry is accorded its rightful value by stakeholders, especially government, its economic contribution would be boosted. Today, when you look at the separation of industry, marketing communication is subsumed under the services. If you consider the fastest growing sector today in our economy, it is the service sector. If you think about the fact that services and product are things that will go to consumers, then the job of marketing communication is to translate the benefits of products and services to the consumers or population at large. So, for the economy to grow, marketing communication should be seen as helping marketers generate demands for their products, and help consumers to make choices between competitive products. More than before, I think marketing communications has a huge role to play in stimulating the economy at the moment. The whole cycle of generating demands and meeting supply is a major economic cycle that sustains the economy. So, marketing communication plays a very huge role in the demand side of the economic cycle while the brand owners play a strong role in the supply side. The economics of any nation is basically about demand and supply.
Comparatively speaking, do you think the industry in Nigeria is hedging close to what obtains in other developed markets? I think we are almost there. I have said it repeatedly that the mission for us here at Insights is about globalness. But achieving that mission comes by approaching it from the oblique point of view. What I simply mean is that we don’t adopt the direct approach. Marketing communication that we see is global because we are able to tap into the local nuances of their market. We are able to amplify that and bring that to the marketplace. We are right behind them in terms of getting close to the global stature and the globalness that exist in marketing communication globally. Insight is leading the way into bringing marketing communication in Nigeria unto the global platform. We are right on the next step to doing that.
Do you agree with the position held by some stakeholders that the APCON reform which gives advantage to local players to control foreign intrusion should hold sway? I believe strongly in the APCON reform because it is fair and well considered. Look at it this way; if you have a player that is relatively young in an industry, it is important that you give that player an opportunity that he needs to grow. I believe strongly that that is what APCON is trying to achieve with this particular reform so that local players can pull themselves up. If a foreign player comes in and buy 51% of the industry, the local agency will not be able to grow. They need that opportunity to grow, stretch themselves and stand up to play globally. In India, China, Singapore, what is happening in those markets is that it is the local agencies that are rising up and challenging themselves to ply at the global stage. This is the opportunity that Nigerian agencies need. That is why I really believe strongly that what APCON has done make sense. However, the challenge is for the local agencies to rise up to the occasion since APCON has done its part to protect them. By that I mean the local agencies have to prove their worth by standing on the global stage. That is the opportunity that APCON has given us and we have to take its heads on. Insight recently powered a forum which brought together experts from various fields to review the current situation in the global and business environments, especially the impact of digital. What informed it? It is a thought leadership platform called ‘Unscripted’. The intention is to take different industries, topics, and start a conversation around them by constituting a panel that has thought leaders on this topic. So, we labeled each event for the topic we are discussing .The main reason why the first edition was called ‘Digital Marketing Unscripted’ is because we want to talk about digital marketing. Going forward, we will change the topic but the tag unscripted remains. The next one that would be coming up would be about beer market in Nigeria. It will also be called ‘Beer Market Unscripted’. The whole idea is to discuss issues that revolve round the whole gamut of marketing communications, business or brands. It will be done on a quarterly basis treating different issues. As I have said earlier, the next in line will be beer unscripted while sometimes next year, we will be looking at the telcos. Basically, the format will come in form of having thinkers and leaders in that space, bring them together and have a conversation. We are not there to teach anybody anything. We are just there to ask for their views on issues that concern them. With those questions, we then begin to stimulate conversation which was what happened at the digital conference. We had a couple of clients that said we need to understand more about this and that was why we brought in people that could clarify and share some thoughts about what digital marketing is all about.
So, it is safe to conclude that it is all about knowledge sharing across industry, the clients, agencies and industry leaders.
It was about learning, sharing ideas and coming up with action plan that can move brands and business forward. It is a quarterly thought leadership platform launched by Insight to engage the market. It is about creating discussion in the marketing communication space. It is something that we will do, record and put online. We are doing this to ensure that people have access to it. In addition, we are creating it to also engage stakeholders through various social platforms. It is a conversation starter more than anything else.
For some people who think Nigeria is still an emerging market, do you think the country is ripe to embrace digital marketing? I think Nigeria has embraced digital completely. I think it has grown a lot more significantly than we think .
If we heard what was said on the panel, the fact that there were infrastructural challenges in the country but we believe that challenge has been overtaken by technology. People have been using technology for the things they will do physically. Take for instance, if I wanted to ask after your health, normally, I would come and visit you but now I don’t need to. I can send you a whatsApp message and you respond because by the time I think about making the journey to where you live together with the traffic, it will consume time and the purpose may be defeated. So, what is happening is that even though our environment is a bit difficult from an infrastructural point of view, digital is allowing us to take on the opportunity available. Digital has now opened up a new vista of opportunity for clients to engage with their brands differently. So, Nigeria is not trying to catch up but has entered the digital age.
There are discussions in several quarters saying the advertisers are trying to cut down on budget with a view to give a new direction to their spending. Going forward, do you see digital marketing taking a large chunk of ad spends? I think two things are happening. One is because of the economic realities in the environment. The clients and marketers are reducing their budgets in order to respond to what is going on globally. The other thing that is also going on, which is why digital comes in play, is that they want to get more result for the investment that they put in. And one of the beautiful things about digital is that it is easily measurable. When you put it out there, you can measure the level of engagement immediately. Because it is typically low cost, it is easy to pull out what you are doing and correct it, and then repeat it. These are the things that are making digital attractive to client as an option behind which they can put t budget. And that is something I see that is going to continue .It is not so much of client wanting to put money behind digital, it is more about client wanting to do the kind of communication that is low cost and high imp[act and volume. For us, whatever we do going forward, client want to do something that is low cost high impact, high volume.
Do you share the view that digital marketing is out to take over from the conventional means of marketing? Honestly, I don’t think that is going to happen because Marketing is going to follow consumer behavior. Anyone that says that digital is going to take the place of TV, for instance, is wrong because consumer will still continue to watch TV. The same thing applies to radio. Consumers are still going to listen to the radio. There are people that will still read the newspapers. However, what I think is that digital will come in to augment what these other platforms are doing by amplifying the impact that they have. Digital is here to redefine the mix. That is what is going to happen. It is not going to take over the traditional.
Do you see government at all levels embracing digital to connect with the people and promote their messages? I think the public sector is also going to embrace it because it gives a lot more reach. In a country where 70% of the population is below tech age of 35, if the public sector wants to really engage with that population, they need to embrace digital. If you look at the last election, both political parties, particularly in Lagos state, were very active on the digital platform trying to engage voters. So, the public sector is going to embrace it. It may be a bit slower than the private sector but it is still going to be embraced. The reason is because the reach is faster, and wider.
What do you have to say about the dearth of talents in the creative industry? I think the answer is both ways. We still have the talents out there but I think we are not looking in the right place for the creative business. We are looking in the traditional places which should not be so.
I also think no because today, it is the combination of not having talents both on the agency and the client sides. This is because whatever creative works goes out there, it is collaboration between the two. There used to be days when we had different kind of talents on both the agency and the client side. These were people that were daring, ready to take the brand to the next level. But now, we don’t have that number of talents available anymore. So, I think there are number of factors affecting the dearth of talents within our industry which is not localised in the industry alone.
What future lies ahead for Digital marketing? I can tell you that digital marketing is here to stay. It is an integral part of marketing communication and not an optional part. As you heard some of the panelists and participants say, from now on any brief sent to agency will always have a digital part. It is no longer an addendum. It is not something you will send a separate brief on. Once you send one brief, it takes care of everything. Today and in the age we are already in now, Digital is just like TV. There is no way you do marketing communication without including TV. The same will also apply to digital.