Benson: Advertising Business Looks Good in 2019
Managing Director, Culture Communications Limited, a full-service advertising agency, Mr. Yomi Benson, in this interview with Raheem Akingbolu, speaks on business outlook for 2019 and growth in the Nigerian advertising landscape. Excerpts:
How will you describe business in first quarter of 2019?
It has been engaging and rewarding for those who work intelligently and efficiently, especially when we considered the fact that there have been more foreign direct funds coming into the economy. There has been confidence in the economy and the exchange rate has been stable. Diaspora remittances which accounts for about 6.1 per cent of our GDP last year has also continued to flow in, which inevitably means more disposable income to our populace. Also for the first time in years we didn’t see excess cash flying around, with kudos going to this administration and the CBN in particular. In general, fiscal and political stability have been of help to genuine businessmen and entrepreneurs who are willing to put in the hard work with hope. Stability in government and positive macro indices of the economy given the recent cut in Monetary Policy rate that basically sends signals in the direction of government’s intent to support accelerated growth also shows that though Q1 was good, the remaining part of the year looks tantalising if the intent of the economic mangers become reality.
Being an election year, the expectation was high that political advertising would boost ad revenue, was it really so?
It did but not at the level we were used to, given our antecedents in this country. I guess money spending politics was reduced to the minimum, maybe because politicians and even the citizenry now realize that they are being watched, given the anti-corruption stance of the present administration. Gone are the days when you will just donate N100 million to a party without anyone asking where and how you got the money? And moreover rather than having an election I saw it as a referendum on President Buhari and his policies and performance. Do we like what he’s doing or not. We like, we vote stay, we don’t like we vote him out.
Now that election has come and gone, what do you think 2019 will look like for advertising?
Advertising thrives on good business environment. With the way things are it looks like there is confidence in the economy with foreign investments coming and the fact that investors can see what companies like MTN, International breweries etc are doing in terms of turnover. Nigeria being the largest in Africa is by default the pride of would be investors. Therefore, when political stability and relative peace persists investments thrives. And when they come, there is no way this will not have a trickling effect on consumer earning power and disposable capability in terms of income and increase in employment. With a chain like this in place, there is tendency for products and brands to gear up for a piece of the consumer spend, which means competition. Competition leads to the need to make your brands more appealing to particular set target, which then means there will be jostling for market shares. The quality of consumer connection determines what you can achieve in the market place. To connect, you need to be heard. To be heard you need to advertise. When you advertise, the agency business grow…so 2019 looks promising.
How would you assess the state of the Nigerian advertising industry now, compared to the past?
The word ‘past’ in this regard can be subjective because the definition of past is different from one person to another. Because in the fast paced world, where the past is as good as yesterday, the two worlds are intertwined. If I take that, then it suffices to say there has been a dramatic change in the industry landscape. For example, just about 10 years ago, all you need is a strategy that determines the brand position. Nowadays, you must look at brand direction rather than static and stagnant positions, given market and consumer dynamics. Flexibility, driven by consumer demands, wishes and need, determines brand reaction and relevance in today’s world. Consumer attitude and behaviors are so volatile that it moves at almost the speed of not light but close, if you get my drift. As you know we are in the instant generation they want it now and now can be obsolete almost in the next few hours. So to answer your question advertising has been moving at the speed at which consumers move compared to when it was years ago. If this premise is right it then means that industry has evolved with the society. Also the industry has become more open, gone are the days when you had few great ad agencies controlling most of the billings, gone are also the days when you have just one agency handling Media, creative, activation. There are now independents everywhere, media, creative or consultants, smaller faster crazily creative hot shops and hot people, social media or digital experts and activation agencies. There is a whole lot now than it used to be. The Industry has become more specific in its offering and elastic to the demands of both consumers and client. From the government point of view, we are worried that APCON is yet to have a Chairman since Mr. Udeme Ufot left some few years ago. This I believe has made it difficult for industry to have a say or representation in government circles.
How has the business fared since you started operation and do you think it is growing at that pace you wanted when compared with the industry itself?
Culture Communications is doing fine. The truth is it surpassed my expectation, my realistic expectation not the visionary one. By God’s grace we had to work with international companies with international brands since our inception in 2010. We have demonstrated that a local agency can come up with great campaigns that do not just win awards but propel the brands we handle to enviable positions. We are currently the fifth best agency in Nigeria, judging by the last LAIF Awards. And in conjunction with Abinbev, we have Trophy Larger that has been the defining beer brand in terms of Market share and even communications and creative share. It has become the defining beer brand that other known brands now emulate in terms of intent, content, actions, speak and execution. KFC is another great example; In general, we basically grow brands. And we have become a force to be reckoned within the advertising scene. There are one or two brands we are working on that came to us because of our success story in turning brands to leaders. Give us a year or two we will again shake the fast food category with new great brands and also reshape leadership positions or directions in the food-seasoning category with Ami food seasoning. What else can we ask for in the industry when we are among the best five in an industry that has over 200 registered practitioners and millions of pseudo practitioners.
If you are tapped unexpectedly, can you think of one striking campaign your agency has successfully delivered and connected the targeted audience?
The Trophy Honorable campaign comes to mind instantly. The campaign is and was so successful that for the first time in my career. I saw a brand almost 100 per cent brand health rating last year, to the extent that consumers started asking that we add honorable to the brand name. That is why you have the brand carrying “Honorable” on its label and cans. In retrospect one won’t belief that a brief for new label intro can become the defining campaign for the beer category in Nigeria.
Culture Communications is deeply involved in the brand building process of the Trophy brand, how has the experience being?
Turbulent but rewarding. I can easily recollect when we got the brief about six years ago. The brief was meant to test our competency or to put it better as a stopgap before the client gets a better agency to handle it. Like I said it was more of a new label intro brief because the brand was being rejuvenated by the then owners SABMiller because it has lost relevance in the Nigeria market. But we felt we had to push the boundaries. To us this was an opportunity to turn this brand into something great. To do this we went to the consumers for immersion for 3 days and nights in 10 different locations. We slept, drank, and played, discussed and partied with them. In doing so they gave us the soul and the name that will eventually resonate with them, Honorable. Taking our brief beyond client’s expectation was new client and there was natural resistance. Our strong belief in the campaign and our persistent resolve in putting our ideas forward eventually yielded result we are seeing today. One great South African Commercial Director AndréLube eventually approved the campaign and the rest is history.
The brand was until two or three years ago, popular only in Osun, Oyo and some parts of Ondo State. Now it has become a regional brand and making inroads to other market, what is the magic wand?
From the beginning of our ideation we knew the brand though had it’s root in the Western part of the country Ilesha, to be precise but its journey lies in the minds of those who belief in great beers and who understand that honour is germane to the success of mankind. Money helps but honor sustains. So you see the DNA was bigger that any location or a particular set of people. It appealed to an idea, an idea that is almost universal and enduring. That is why it’s going places. You see it in premium bars and in premium hands and with great consumers who took to the brand with pride. This is because whenever you hold that bottle of Trophy it is beyond a drink to you, there is a soulful spiritual connection between you and the brand. When a brand achieves this, it becomes limitless.
The promoters of Trophy recently unveiled two additional brand ambassadors. Don’t you think this is odd, especially when the brand was still doing well with the existing one?
Well is relative. Excellence is our mantra and future is our destination. Remember we have a great tasting larger, and our consumers are yearning for more, because of these we needed to take our consumer desires forward. Femi Adebayo connects to our honorable 30s and above and he has done extremely well for the brand. But we needed to move further and connect with younger audience, that is where Falz came in. You will agree with me that Falz is a singer, rapper, comedian, socio political honorable activist, and a guy who speaks the minds of our teaming youngbut above 18 consumers. Yobo a former super Eagles, and Premiership player on the other hand represents the greatest sports passion this country ever had: Football. Whilst not forgetting our exploits and our love for current football events our interestfortunately lies in raising honorable great footballers in the future and that is why Yobo and other brand ambassadors championed the Trophy 5 aside competition. So you see we already are thinking years ahead. Like our elders say a tripod can never spill the pot of soup.