The newspaper industry in Nigeria is threatened and it does not take much effort to notice this. The stockpile of unsold copies of newspapers and magazines in the circulation departments of print media houses is a clear indication of this problem. It looks like the golden days of the print media, when leading dailies like Daily Times sold as much as 500,000 copies per day, are gone.
The latest figures in an audit conducted by the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) show that all the current newspapers put together do not boast anything close to this number. The cumulative national sales figure from the industry was put at a little over 300,000 copies daily. With sales plummeting and more Nigerians getting access to free news reports from the internet, it seems that the newspaper market is already saturated as some publications drop out after only a few years of hitting the news stands.
Recently, media observers expressed concerns at the frequency of demise of newspapers and magazines in Nigeria.

Revealing Signs of Decline
Not long ago Media24 Publications, one of the biggest media businesses in Africa, made a bold entry into the Nigerian market. The size of the Nigerian population and its passion for entertainment and sports was a huge attraction for the South African company. So it brought in its money and expertise in the hope of dazzling the Nigerian market, seeing this as a sure way of intensifying its hold on the continent.
Notable publications on Media24’s stable included Kick Off and True Love magazines as well as Goal, a sport weekly. It also ran a robust online sports website called www.kickoffnigeria.com. True Love was the flagship brand, a glossy magazine with Nigerian content positioned as the lifestyle handbook for the modern African woman. Reports have it that its South African version commands over 2 million readers. Commenting at the January 2005 launch of True Love West Africa, Patricia Scholtemeyer, former Media24 CEO, emphasized his company’s belief that West Africa offered huge potentials for the team. “Launching True Love is part of Media24’s vision of becoming the leading publisher of printed material in Africa. True Love East Africa has been a great success and we are very optimistic about this new market.”
Kick Off South Africa boasts over 1.6million readers, making it the biggest sports magazine in Africa. The organization naturally expected greater success in Nigeria given the numerical advantage. The publications indeed quickly stood out, thanks to their superior production quality and in-depth and entertaining editorial content. But the song didn’t last long as the magazines were soon confronted with the harsh realities of the print media industry in Nigeria, and after some years, Media24 shut down its operations in Nigeria, licensing Bola Atta’s Flair Productions to continue publishing True Love magazine in Nigeria.
The media establishment left in the wake of its unceremonious exit an army of jobless Nigerians and huge financial losses for itself. One observer confirms to M2 that the company was forced to shut down its operations because its returns on investment fell far below projections. “Despite the high quality of its productions, all three publications in the stable made less than expected returns,” the source says.
Another magazine that suffered similar fate was National Standard, a bi-monthly established by Christ Embassy church as part of its media enterprise. The magazine, established early 2000, started as the first all coloured, all gloss magazine in Nigeria. It had beautiful page planning and creative editorial but staggered through the years and was temporarily rested last year. Recently the church changed the management of the magazine in a bid to get it back to the news stands.
Duupe Adeniran is another publisher whose zeal for the industry has been crushed by tumbling sales. You get the first scent of the decline when you visit www.weddingplannerworld.com. As soon as you log in, you are told to visit next time because the “site is presently undergoing a phase of re-construction.” But that may not be totally correct as her commitment to publishing Wedding Planners has been punctured by declining sales.
The bi-monthly magazine’s print run steadily declined from about 10,000 at the onset to 2,000 and later 1,000 copies before dwindling fortunes forced the current claims of reconstruction. Media watchers fear the magazine may not be published again after a recent hike in printing costs left Adeniran too discouraged to carry on. Wedding Planner has been off the streets in the last three months!
Adeniran’s frustration is a big reality in even the most notable newsrooms in Nigeria, including Tell magazine said to be struggling to cope with staff wages. Daily Independent, owned by former Delta State governor, James Ibori, is also standing on shaky grounds. In recent times, the company has been shut down twice as staff protested non-payment of salaries. Even the major print outfits have not been very impressive given ADVAN 2009 Report on newspaper sales which puts daily circulation figures in this order: Punch 34,264; Sun 25,632; Vanguard 25,241; Guardian 25,222; Thisday 21,703; and Daily Trust 11,672. Tribune, the oldest surviving newspaper in Nigeria, surprisingly manages to sell 8,314 copies per day.

Stakeholder’s Speak
The report also shows that other newspapers including Compass, Daily Independent, Leadership, National Life, New Nigeria, Mirror and the Westerner could barely make 1,600 copies in daily sales. If circulation revenue is the only source of income for the sector, “they will be all history by now,” says Ramon Nasir, a Corporate Affairs staff of UBA.
Nasir maintains that given the economic climate in Nigeria, a newspaper or magazine will need to do 200,000 copies daily or per print run to survive, hence the rush for advert income. Other stakeholders blame the trouble on Nigeria’s poor economy. “Not that people don’t want to read the papers but they can hardly afford three square meals in a day. So, how do you expect them to buy newspapers?” Iromuanya Elvis, a vendor asks.
Iromuanya says that “poverty among the people has resulted in some people wanting to read newspapers and magazines free to the detriment of the business of vendors.” According to UNICEF, majority of Nigerians are poor, with 71 per cent of the population living on less than one dollar a day and 92 per cent on less than two dollars a day - just about the price of two editions of Punch or Thisday newspapers.
Concerns over the challenges confronting the print media have also been attracting government attention in the USA. On May 6, 2010 the US Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet held a hearing to review the plight of the newspaper industry to better understand new media and the new model emerging, and to assess the role that government should play in the media as it evolves. The future of journalism hearing was presided over by Subcommittee chair, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who called the hearing in response to the threatened closure of his local paper, the Boston Globe, and the troubles facing newspapers across the country as advertising and circulation decline and the internet quickly replacing traditional media.
The intervention, according to the former US democratic presidential aspirant is, “to preserve the core society function served by the independent and diverse media and sustain the values of professional journalism the way the newspaper industry has.” The House, during the hearing, considered a Newspaper Revitalization Act which proposes a nonprofit, tax-exempt status for newspapers.
Nigerian lawmakers have also considered legislation to revitalize the print media in Nigeria but it appears the documents have been rejected due to some controversial portions that could undermine the freedom of the media. The most recent was the Abike Dabiri Journalism Practice Bill dismissed by stakeholders as obnoxious.
Media marketing experts opine that operators have to cut down their cover prices to command improved sales. “If newspapers are more efficiently managed, the cover prices will not be more than N50 and this will result in bigger sales.” says Dele Sobowale, former general manger, Marketing, in Vanguard newspaper.
Sobowale’s opinion is supported by Ekenyerengozi Chima, CEO of International Digital Post Network, who also thinks that millions of Nigerians will prefer to pay less to read fewer pages of newspapers and magazines than to pay more for more pages because most of them will read only what attracts them and skip or glance over the adverts and other uninteresting things before dropping the newspapers and magazines.
Elucidating on topics that may interest the reading public in Nigeria, Chima says, “Most of them are interested in reading sensational breaking news on politics, crime and social gossip, romance or erotic scandals. The millions of applicants prefer to look for vacancies and that would be all. Therefore, I can bet that a newspaper of only 10 pages on these topics selling for as little as N50 will sell thousands of copies more than Punch or Guardian of 50-100 pages. In fact, they regard most content as garbage and the less garbage or page fillers the better for them.”
Given that PM News and Complete Sports do more sales that most of the big newspapers, Chima’s opinion is perhaps apt.

Re-positioning or Re-packaging the papers?
The story of Broad Street Journal (BSJ) is particularly interesting. BSJ was founded in 2006 strictly as a business weekly magazine with Ibim Semenitari as editor. In three years, writers from the magazine clinched about 10 awards in both the Nigerian Media Merit Awards (NMMA) and Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME).
Findings by M2 reveal that staff of the publication have been coalesced into TELL Magazine, a sister publication. One of them while trying to justify the resting of the magazine says, “I’ll like us to put records straight and in the right perspective too. Fine, Broad Street Journal started in hard copy form but that does not mean the management cannot innovate or be dynamic, which is what they have done.”
In further defense of the management’s decision to rest the hard copy version of the magazine, he asserts, “They’re convinced that the next level to take the business to was to go online. You’ll agree with me that online is the way forward for every serious print media and we’re doing the same thing but we are not duty bound to do it the way other people are which is why we are restricting BSJ to an online version alone.”
The source maintains that restricting BSJ to online publishing is not tantamount to resting it, charging that those who consider it so are myopic. He discloses that the current decision is backed by research findings. “Another fact that people are unaware of is that a greater percentage of BSJ readers are those who have access to the internet, so you can see that it pays to reach them via the faster and seamless media.” He concludes.
Mileage, like the BSJ, claims it is not rested but ‘repackaging’ into a pullout inside another publication, News Star. Mileage covered the marketing communications industry and was believed to be widely followed by practitioners in the industry before the sudden repackaging exercise.
Industry watchers are askance at the rationale behind Mileage’s absence at the newsstands. Efforts to speak with the pioneer editor of the paper, Ntia Usukuma, who now doubles as the Business Editor of News Star, were unsuccessful as he could not be reached on phone.
According to Yinka Akande, Director of Brands and Communications, Etisalat, the dwindling advertising revenue - a trend not exclusive to Nigeria - is the reason why some publications are thinking out of the box in their bid to augment their revenue base.
“All over the world advertising revenue is shrinking. Marketers are driven to place adverts in media that they are convinced they can reach their target markets through. That’s why you see newspaper houses going into events and other thought leadership programmes,” he says.

Na dann, gut Licht!

Your Yetunde

When the economy is bad, competition heats up. Companies do everything they can to keep their customers and employees do whatever they can to keep their jobs. Downsizing has become a survival tactic for companies not only throughout the United States, but throughout the world as well, which means no job is safe from the chopping block.
“That doesn’t mean, however, that your professional destiny is out of your control,” says John Tschohl, founder and president of the Service Quality Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and author of several books on customer service. “Just as companies differentiate themselves from their competitors through customer service, employees can do the same. Employees who go beyond what is expected of them stand out and solidify their places on the company’s payroll.”
No matter what business you are in, Tschohl says, customer service is a critical element of your job. Mastering the skills necessary to provide exceptional service to your customers - both external and internal - he adds, will set you apart from your coworkers and make you an invaluable member in your organization’s team.
“In his book, I Inherited a Fortune, the late Paul J. Meyer offered six recommendations for employees who want to get ahead,” Tschohl says. “Those suggestions are timeless and especially relevant today as employees wonder from day to day whether or not they will continue to have jobs.”
These are the six steps Meyer recommended:
1. Do more than you get paid for. Make yourself visible.
2. Overfill your place. Management will notice you.
3. Learn what the company does. And learn what the competition is doing.
4. Ask for more to do. When you expand your involvement in the company, your income will increase.
5. Ask for more responsibility. Show that you are capable and willing to contribute more.
6. Cross train. Learn other job functions and responsibilities in the company.
Tschohl, in agreeing with those suggestions, adds:
1. Feel good about yourself. “When you feel good about yourself,” he says, “you will perform better. You will have a confidence that others will notice.”
2. Invest in yourself. “Set a budget of $40 a month and use it to purchase books and self-improvement programs,” Tschohl says. “And learn everything you can about customer service, particularly service recovery, and the skills you need to provide it. Every company, no matter how good it is, occasionally will make a mistake. How you handle that mistake will determine whether or not that customer will continue to do business with you - and how your superiors will see you.”
3. Associate with successful people. “Stay away from people who pull you down instead of push you up,” Tschohl counsels. “You know who they are. They hang around the coffee pot complaining about the salary freeze or their workloads instead of tackling the work that needs to be done.”
4. Practice habits of courtesy. “It takes no more time or effort to be nice to a customer than it does to be dismissive or rude,” Tschohl points out. “Call customers by name, thank them for their business, and treat them with respect.”
5. Make empowered decisions. “When a customer has a problem with you or your organization, do whatever is necessary to handle the situation and to make that customer happy,” Tschohl opines.
6. Master speed. “Do everything faster than your boss, your company, or your customers expect - and do it with accuracy,” Tschohl recommends.
While many employees are feeling somewhat helpless in the face of the current economic condition, Tschohl maintains that they do have the power to ensure that they retain their jobs. “That,” he says, “means taking responsibility and going above and beyond to perform and produce to their highest levels.”

As 2010 unfolds, it is increasingly clear that a new era has begun for the marketing communications industry: It is now fashionable to review IMC budgets downwards; clients are leaning in favour of performance based business relationships, no matter how short, over traditional long term retainerships; and even previously conservative advertisers are experimenting with novel practices in an effort to derive more value for budget spends.
In the post 2009-economic-crunch world, agencies that are fortunate to still hold enviable accounts will have their ingenuity stretched to the limits as marketing directors “do what needs to be done” to squeeze more value from every kobo spent.
It is very likely that a greater chunk of IMC budgets will go the way of public relations as it has proven to yield more long term dividends than other IMC tools. A wiser, more cost-conscious public will gladly embrace it for its relative affordability. PR will especially come handy for many corporate brands following the image battering and corporate governance crises that tarnished - and in worst case scenarios, buried - public goodwill toward businesses.
Advertising will also have its say. As both corporate and personal brands re-invent, re-package and re-brand themselves with sturdier offerings, the launches will be accompanied with the requisite razzmatazz to stimulate a lethargic market. However, it is important that advertisers get it right this year.
One way to get it right is to ensure that all efforts channeled towards product or service launches are backed by thorough market research. Summary insights into the target market may not be enough to ensure that a product or service achieves its projected share of the market.
While giving due recognition to other IMC tools, serious businesses will do well to particularly maximize the benefits innate to PR and advertising. PR plays an invaluable role in new product development and offers a good platform to repeatedly communicate brand fulfillment to consumers while advertising - below- or above-the-line - is a brand’s lead channel into the market’s consciousness.
Above all, understanding the essential role of the brand in the life of consumers is as important as communicating this to them as often as possible. As brands continue to battle for a share of a leaner recession ravaged purse, positioning has become the prime decider of the game. Like Indomie noodles, continually imbue the target audience with the reasons why they should buy your brand. Scream the benefits from the rooftops. Add more nutrients and continually invent fresher perceptive to the benefits.
Practitioners who wish to tower above the competition this year must, in addition to traditional functions, actively partner with clients to drive sales. This has become a pre-requisite to successful client-agency relationships in the new era. The industry is awash with sterling creativity in the areas of mind awareness and recall, product recognition and superb campaigns. This is the time to change the status quo ante. Let clients know the relationship goes beyond interpreting the brief but that you are really passionate about their success.
As a notable business leader points out, “the industry still awaits players who judge the quality and proof of their work on the basis of business value such as sales, consumers coming through the door or revenue growth, directly as a result of their efforts.”
Perhaps, you have heard all these before. So, the biggest strategy for 2010 will be to proactively put them into practice.

Aforonwa Chinedu is a Sub-Editor/Proof Reader for M2 Magazine.

Sillanpaa, an internationally recognized sustainability leader and practitioner, has held pivotal roles at The Body Shop International, KPMG and Accountability. In her 20 year career in this field, She has made pioneering contributions in the areas of strategy development, stakeholder engagement, supply chain management, reporting and assurance. In this on-line interview as precursor to her CSR speaking engagement in the country, she says CSR offers significant opportunities for real market differentiation, innovation and increased competitiveness.

How are you looking forward to the Nigeria experience from March 22-26, 2010?
There seems to be real enthusiasm in Nigeria for the topic - Positioning the 21st Century Corporation through Sustainability Learning and Development. I am looking forward to interacting with Nigerian executives to push this agenda forward. There is a change agenda in the global market place at the moment. And it is catching-up on emerging or even expanding markets as well. With the growth showing in the sector in Nigeria, I see Nigeria becoming a place to learn or study how CSR and sustainability is shaping stakeholder engagement and how that in itself is having a positive influence on the bottom-line.

What is your current view on the CSR sector in Nigeria?
It is clearly emerging fast judging by the interest being shown by various sectors and commentators.
However, I think the key everywhere is to see that CSR is not just a compliance agenda but an innovation agenda. Good CSR is not just good for reputation and risk management but it offers significant opportunities for real market differentiation, innovation and increased competitiveness.

How do you think CSR practice in Nigeria rates with other parts of the world? How come we don’t get many best practices signposts coming from the African region?
In many countries where CSR is perhaps further down the track than in Africa, it may well be that this is due to three factors: consumers have been demanding it from companies for longer and more forcefully, regulators have been pushing it by both carrots & sticks, the media and civil society have been campaigning for long to effect requisite change. I also see that the Nigerian situation is very interesting. Regulations haven’t exactly been pushing for compliance. And if they have, it must be a recent development. But I am impressed by the number of companies willingly taking-up interest with issues of governance and sustainability and the need to do what is right. Playing at this level I see a situation where very soon, we will begin to see best practices from Nigeria and the continent.
Besides that, I think that knowledge sharing between evolving sectors and developed sectors will also help to bridge the gap. And I am happy to work with TruContact who I can see are spearheading the cause in Nigeria at the moment.

Sustainability in CSR programs seem a key issue in the sector in Nigeria. How would the training in March address this?
The training is strongly focused on helping executives understand the business case for CSR and to design robust management programmes to make CSR stick. CSR is not a series of ad hoc initiatives and goodwill gestures. It needs to be managed strategically and systematically like any other corporate issue. Otherwise it won’t add value to anyone. This will be the key message at the training and our aim is to enable Nigerian executives to do just that. I believe I have a lot to share with the executives of Nigerian businesses. I featured at the core of setting up the AA1000 Assurance and the Stakeholder Engagement Standards and I am currently on the technical advisory committee of Global Reporting Initiative. I also was involved in the crafting of ISO 26000 on Social Responsibility. I believe I have a lot to share with the Nigerian business class, and also to learn from them as well.

Could CSR be a veritable tool in positioning a corporation favourably in the eyes of its stakeholders in a world where crisis of confidence in business leaders has become the bane?
Sure! Evidence is mounting on this from all corners of the globe. Good CSR is simply good for business but good CSR doesn’t come without a genuine commitment to make it work. It takes thoughtfulness, sincerity and true support from leaders. Otherwise there is a danger that it becomes a sticky plaster and won’t serve as a facilitator of true change and journey towards excellence.

Having won exclusive concessionary rights to operate advertisement subscription on Lagos State owned BRT buses and the Rivers State Metro Buses operating in Port Harcourt City, Ad-Mark Nigerian Company has not only expanded the scope of its business but has also taken mobile marketing and the marketing communications industry in Nigeria closer to the level of practice in more advanced countries.
Mobile marketing, described as a thriving advertising platform, enjoys huge patronage from A-list advertisers across all sectors in western countries. Being a mobile platform, the mileage it gives a brand is massive. Take BRT buses as a test case; the huge number of commuters that daily use the medium positions it as a vehicle to reach very large numbers of consumers. In addition, products advertised on the buses with attractive, bold and clear messages have the capacity to put the brand, product or service in the faces of consumers along the routes the buses ply. Repeated display of the ads has the potential to spur prospects into trying out the product or brand.
According to Joel Bamigboye, an APCON member and PR and promotions practitioner, the platform presented by the buses goes beyond advertising established brands as brand strategists now have yet another tool with which to build a brand.
“BRT buses can help the industry beyond ads alone. It is a good platform for building a brand from scratch. It can be strategically used to create brand awareness for even a product yet to be launched. PR practitioners can use it to whet the appetite of the target market of the product before the actual launch,” he points out.
Meanwhile, many practitioners applaud Ad-Mark for the deal with the Lagos and Rivers State governments. They say that the company shows initiative and good business sense by taking the innovation beyond Lagos into a city like Port Harcourt. They also agree that the oil rich city is a goldmine waiting to be explored.
In an interview with M2, Awosanya Adejola, CEO of Ad-Mark discloses, “Our clients include MTN Communications Limited, Cadbury Nigeria, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever Nigeria, Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue Service, Western Union, Eco Supreme, FrieslandWamco, Dangote Group of Companies and Lagos State Government, among others.”
He adds that Ad Mark is also pleased to explore the Port Harcourt market. “We are very happy with the arrangement and taking it to Port Harcourt is really a ground breaking move and it will offer advertisers in the city a good quality mobile medium to reach their target markets in line with what obtains in many mega cities around the world including Lagos .”

It is a pretty difficult terrain in Nigeria for businesses. People who desire to start small and grow their ventures face an uphill task. The problem of roads, power, trained manpower, inconsistent government policies, multiple taxation and many more are among the challenges confronting businesses. Theses problems are not limited to the small businesses, the multinationals and big indigenous corporations also have them to contend with
Finance, the livewire of business has become very scarce, no thanks to the global economic meltdown. But while many businesses in Nigeria continue to grapple with the problems of infrastructure and cash, Olufunke Alabi, after some initial setbacks, seems to have found a way through. Alabi, CEO of Mercy Link Mother and Superstore, specialists in importing baby and maternity wears, is a testimony of the wonders of digital marketing. Yet, she started-off on a frustrating note, probing every nook and cranny of Lagos in the bid to market her products to reluctant buyers.
In over a year of intense marketing her efforts paid off very little, but all these changed as soon as she embraced online marketing. “We had about 5500 pieces of clothing items and for like a year we were trying to sell. There is no area I have not been to in this Lagos - Abule Egba, Sango and a lot of other places. Sometimes, my car will get bad because of bumpy roads, yet, people will tell you stories. To the glory of God when I met them (Wildfusion, a digital marketing company) in like a month we sold over 4000 clothing items. We have less than 100 left,” Alabi happily enthuses.
Alabi’s business has been helped by Google search engine which makes it possible for her to reach her target market directly without spending a fortune. So, every time the code word pregnancy is searched on Google, Mercy Link Mother and Superstores appears as one of the sponsored links. And when you click on it, her internet website immediately opens. This model of marketing is still an abstract concept for most business owners in Nigeria. Most businesses are still holding tight to the traditional marketing channels, wondering if digitalization really works.
In America and other civilized countries, digital marketing has become a huge business culture with millions of people logging on to the internet to transact various forms of businesses on a daily basis.
A few weeks back Facebook, a social media and one of the most visited internet websites, crossed the 400million subscriber mark. Social networking sites have become a huge obsession all over the world. Other social media like Twitter, Hi5, Myspace and Google Answers also have huge followership. Many foreign companies are already utilizing these opportunities to enhance their relationships with their customers and grow their trade. Some of the companies that have made remarkable successes of this are Coke, Starbucks, Nike and several others.
In Nigeria, the internet marketing buzz is also creeping in. Despite the country’s poor infrastructural status and slow internet access, there is a surge in the number of Nigerian internet users. “We have about 11 million Nigerians online and this is a modest estimate. Nigeria is the second largest online audience in Africa after Egypt according to internetworldstats.com research,” Abasiama Idaresit a senior consultant with Wildfusion, the company managing Mercy Link’s account on Google says. Google is one of the most popular websites in the world, so is Yahoo.com, Facebook and Yahoo.

Nigeria’s Expanding Digital Market
The fast growing interest in the internet is already causing some of the top web companies to look in the way of Nigeria. Idaresit believes the possibilities of digital marketing could increase significantly in a short while as soon as more Nigerians get online and the state of infrastructure in Nigeria improves. Recently Wildfusion announced a deal which allows it to exclusively represent Facebook in Nigeria. Wildfusion, which also represents Google, MTV, MSN, BBC and BBC mobile, told M2 that the launch of Facebook Nigeria is scheduled for April 2010, alongside BBC and MSN.
“As soon as Globacom finishes laying its cable, internet access will become cheaper. By that time we’ll have 30-40 percent of our population online then you will be talking about a very huge market. But for now the market is still growing. By next year am sure Nigeria will be the biggest audience in Africa and that is a great opportunity for digital marketing,” Idaresit says.
In 2007, Yahoo also made a bold entrance into the Nigerian market picking Seedmedia, led by Dominic Essien, as its Nigerian representative. Nigeria is regarded as one of the biggest Yahoo user communities in Africa with an estimated online presence of over five million users monthly.
Perhaps, the greatest advantage of new media is not the large volume of user communities, but the ability to directly reach target markets and measure the success level of marketing campaigns. This is achieved by a Google analytics solution that gives rich insights into customers’ website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Leo Omoregie, one of three Google analytic experts in Nigeria says, “This initiative makes it possible to write better-targeted ads, strengthen marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.”
Besides it is even cheaper because customers only pay-per-click. “It is cheaper than advertising in the newspapers because here you get to the direct target. When you advertise in newspapers, you are not sure who will read it,” she maintains. Besides, Google’s analytical tool even allows for more exciting possibilities like geo-targeting which allows advertisers target people based on their geographic location, for example, male Nigerian or female Nigerian age group, according to Omorgie.
Idaresit is also a Google qualified professional. As Google analytics, Omoregie and Idaresit are licenced by Google to derive codes which allows for study of online traffic, making it possible to focus campaigns in the direction of traffic. Omoregie explains that “If you have a target market - like some products are highly targeted - what we do is to install the codes and that helps to trace where traffic is coming from.”
Despite its prospects, the popularity of new media is low. But with the problem of cash cost and the rising cost of using traditional advertising, many companies are already looking for cheaper ways to get across to the market. Femi Adeniran, Head Corporate Affairs of Guaranty Trust Bank, confirms this saying that the global economic meltdown has created a squeeze on the marketing budget of the bank, forcing them to consider new media as part of their marketing efforts for the year.
Wildfusion is already reaching out to small scale businesses, encouraging them to use internet marketing for the expansion of their ventures. “A tool like Google Adwords is an amazing platform to drive sales and increase awareness. With a small budget, an SME can get more targeted visibility than any other medium can offer.
“We have spoken and worked with a lot of SMEs and the results has been very impressive. We actually have a unit of Google qualified professionals whose primary focus are the SMEs. We intend to reach more small businesses with our products and services,” the company discloses.
Judging from Alade’s experience, digital marketing could be a more realistic way to do business in Nigeria, especially for businesses who cannot afford the high cost of advertising in traditional media.

Increases in Clutter Levels are Being Accentuated
Consumers are erecting and intensifying attention barriers and selective awareness. Clients are therefore demanding brand communication solutions that transcend the traditional and expected.
Creative teams are expected to produce more arresting and out-of-the-box (a term that now clearly appears to have been effectively over-flogged!) message concepts and executions which will be able to break through clutter barriers to have measurable impact on consumer buying behavior.
Given the foregoing, where does strategic account planning come into play? The following pertinent questions must therefore be put to strategic planners (also clients and brand owners, of course!):
If consumers are putting up and fortifying their defences against daily commercial onslaught(which they may deem to be exploitative in favor of marketers/brands), is it wise to rely solely on the creativity of the expected advertising message and hope to break through the cluster barriers?
Shouldn’t we be investing in creative strategic thinking even before the so-called creative process commences?
Should we not therefore be disrupting norms with a view to creating unconventional and unexpected points of engagement and brand contact that are however in tandem and synergy with the creative/above-the-line concept and execution across all media?
The foregoing posers call for a refreshed approach to our entire brand communication planning framework with more focus on points of contact rather than reliance on the ‘creativity’ of the actual advertising message alone. This is geared towards breaking through the clutter such that the point of contact itself aptly represents and successfully demonstrates creative strategic thinking that will achieve the desired impact through it’s unconventional and unexpected status.
Now, the alternative brand contact has been identified to be that point of planned interface where the brand is experienced by the consumer as unexpected and unconventional - note the key words herein. The alternative brand contact is in itself media-neutral. What this translates to is that it is not the medium that defines the alternative brand contact as being unexpected or unconventional, as we frequently are wont to think in the industry. I do agree that there persists a strong tendency to compartmentalize alternative media into some below-the-line intervention category, but practically, it is the consumer’s experience of the point of contact as being unconventional or different that positions it as alternative.
Just to point out again here, we should bear in mind the fact that unexpected or unconventional brand contact planning is very likely to be constrained when planners have a bias towards one particular type of medium as well as the typical traditional media commission-based remuneration system. As a matter of fact, a senior agency practitioner in Europe put it this way: “No agency working on commission can function meaningfully and deliver unique results on a media-neutral platform.”
Alternative brand contact planning is therefore a planning process that aims at developing unconventional brand contact strategies that break through barriers imposed by commercial clutter to achieve branded impact on targets. Essentially, an alternative brand contact can appear in any form in any potential communication space and is defined by the consumer experience or take-out, and not necessarily by media type.

Tomi Ogunlesi, a professional member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK) is presently an account planner in Strategy and Business Development at BatesCosse, Lagos.

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