Media planning and buying recover from pandemic as risks persist
By Abimbola Mohammed
As the world gradually adjusted to the new normal at the beginning of 2021, the media planning and buying sub-sector of Nigeria’s Integrated Marketing Communications industry also developed a new way of meeting clients’ needs. However, little or none of the sub-sector’s plans and projection for the year 2020 was met due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
For practitioners in the sub-sector, the post-pandemic period continues to present an opportunity to reinvent their approach to campaign planning and media buying, because advertisers expect and demand fewer but more encompassing and robust metrics even as Covid-19 risks persist.
Affirming these high points, major players in the media buying and planning sub-sector, while speaking with MARKETING EDGE, noted that even though 2020 was a turbulent year as a result of the pandemic, a high level of expertise was demonstrated in delivering value to their clients which gave room for new ways of doing business in 2021.
In a telephone conversation with MARKETING EDGE, Dr. Ken Onyeali Ikpe, Group CEO, Insight Redefini, opined that it is difficult to separate 2021 from 2020, adding that both years will always remain very peculiar in the personal and business lives of people.
“We thought we knew disruption until we witnessed 2020, talking about COVID-19 and all that it brought to business and to life. Businesses were disrupted; it wasn’t a case of making profit again because 2020 was about staying alive and surviving. So, it is businesses that survived that presented profit,” he said.
Continuing, Dr. Ikpe said: “Businesses that survived will engage technology better, new thinking, new ways of life and understand consumers’ journeys differently. Because if it was marketing communication as it was called before now, then you will understand that there is nothing like that today. We should move from marketing communication to consumer marketing, meaning that you understand that space, you understand the consumer and you can move these consumers from not just accepting your product and services, but if possible, adopt it and take it to the stage of adoration. These are the only thing that will guarantee repeat purchases and, which itself, will guarantee repeat production and life cycle as economic pollination continues.”
Commenting, Emeka Okeke, Founder/Group CEO, Media Fuse Dentsu International, said: “Surprisingly, business has been good. Coming out of COVID-19 was like a renewed energy. We have seen volume grow compared to 2019 prior to 2020. Basically, there has been a lot more new entrants in the marketplace, like the fintech companies reshaping the way advertising is done and how much money that is coming to the advertising space.”
On his part, Rotimi Bankole, CEO of SBI Media, noted that 2021 was the beginning of the new normal, which paved the way for adopting new methods of planning and also allowed brands and companies to be open to mediatech.
“2021 has been the beginning of the new normal; more businesses embraced WFH, virtual brand engagement, hybrid events. The fear of the unknown regarding not having face-to-face events, activations, office hours, and meetings have been largely dealt with this year. The development opened more doors to companies in mediatech, adtech, AR, VR, CRM, etc,” he said.
Seyi Iwayemi, Head channel department Maxi Media, said the last two years have really been challenging in the advertising industry, particularly the media strategy, planning and buying sub-sector.
“It’s even been more challenging because many of our clients cut down on advertising spend in response to the global lock-down that resulted in economic meltdown. Gradually the global economy is recovering and opening up, but our various clients are treading cautiously. Some have re-strategized and keyed in to the new normal of advertisement through digital and social media platforms,” he said.
Expressing optimism over 2022, Iwayemi said: “We’re trusting that the year 2022 will come better by surpassing the performance of 2021. Some agencies have closed shop, they are no longer able to cope in the difficult business terrain. And those who are still operating are just barely surviving the pandemic and the world economic meltdown, but like I said earlier, this is the time to dig and bring out ingenuity, creativity and new ideas in doing business in order to key into the future. We trust that the situation will get better. We will have to keep reinventing to remain relevant.”
On her part, Akam Enoch, Assistant Publicity secretary, MIPAN, said: “I would say in quarter one, it was pretty slow after the lock-down. Brands were picking up, but towards quarter two and quarter three, we started getting a bit of traction in the sense that a lot of brands were looking at engagement, things that are innovative and how to communicate with customers directly – how to feel their touch point. So business started becoming a bit better, brands started advertising. Since we entered the last quarter of the year, advertising has become slower; it is going down based on budget.”
In a separate interview with MARKETING EDGE, Marian Ogaziechi, Director, Trading & Investment Management, Media Fuse Dentsu International, said: “Media spend has returned to pre-Covid levels as brands have started investing in platforms like OCH, events sponsorship and activations, which they stopped spending on due to Covid-19 lockdown. We expect these trends to continue into 2022 owing to big ticket sporting tournaments like AFCON and world cup and also the run up to 2023 general elections.”
Recall that the media practitioners at the beginning of this year said they would deploy technology, data and innovation to achieve set goals for the year 2021 and also use that as leverage to recover what was lost during the pandemic.
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