Out-of -Home Media operators explore marketing options

Out-of –Home Media sector needs dynamic system restructuring more than any other advertising medium in Nigeria, says Dr Josef Bel-Molokwu, former Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON).

Dr. Bel-Molokwu made this submission recently at a two day Strategic Marketing and Selling of Out-Of-Home Media workshop organized by Daniels Phritnol Nigeria Limited at Whispering Palms Resort, Badagry. Dynamic system restructuring according to the Senior Research Fellow at the School of Media and Communication, Pan-African University, Lagos, and member of faculty of the ESUT Business School is necessitated by unpredictable government act, outlandish operational costs, and undue risk to the safety of sites, hoardings and appliances as well as shylock undercutting and outright sabotage by industry competitors.

“In a situation like this, Out-of-Home advertising needs to keep abreast if not ahead of the competitors in the first place, and secondly to keep well-informed in today’s fast moving communication world”, he submitted in his paper titled Strategies for developing and deploying market intelligence for enhanced productivity in outdoor advertising.

Speaking on Building profitable outdoor advertising business through strategic marketing, Mr. Chris Doghudje, former Chairman, APCON outlined 12 marketing strategies that could be adopted by participants drawn from outdoor advertising companies. According to him in the current state of the sector, Out-of-Home firms can win with product quality, mass production or national coverage, aggressive selling, customer/market oriented, customer relationship and Unique Selling Point strategies. Other strategies are: image or emotional selling, innovation, positioning, multi-product, going public (Plc) and backward integration strategies.

Beyond dynamic system restructuring, Dr. Bel-Molokwu in another paper titled Identifying Market Opportunities and developing offerings that enhance value delivery submitted that “Out-of-Home media firms must keep searching for the next market opportunity which can be achieved through information sharing, enlightenment and reaching out. “Let us apply our resources more to our businesses and less to our whims. Let us support growth in our industry”, he admonished participants.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the workshop, participants resolved to take advantage of new market opportunities, take service delivery serious and begin to see intelligence gathering as a vital part of the business. They however called on the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) to be at the forefront of building a good intelligence bank as well as data base amenities that would strengthen the sub-sector and the industry.