Mr. Abiodun Iderawumi is the Executive Chairman of Retinaad Limited, a new advertising and marketing technology company in Nigeria.

The agency held a media launch recently at the prestigious LimeRidge Signature Hotel on highbrow Ladoke Akintola Street in the GRA Ikeja area of Lagos. In this exclusive interview with MARKETING EDGE, some days after the launch, the iconic investor in Nigeria’s Out-of-Home advertising ecosystem speaks extensively about the bouquet of world-class and globally competitive technological solutions which the company is introducing to disrupt the media monitoring sector and lead it into the future. He spoke with AMOS OLADELE and SEUN JOHNSON.

How do you feel about the recent media launch of Retinaad, the uniquely disruptive adtech company from your stable?

No doubt, the launch was impressive. We had a good representation of the media partners at that event; and it went quite well. But like it is often said, the journey of a thousand years begins with just the first step; and when you talk about technology, the steps do not end. You keep going on; and that’s why you always have different updated versions of technology every now and then. For example, WhatsApp has a new version; and same for iPhone. So, for us it’s a good start; but it’s still a long way off.

At that event, you indicated that a bigger, industry-wide launch is coming up. How soon will that be?

Well, the date is not decided yet; but obviously, there will be a major industry launch by the middle of the year, sometime in June or July.

When exactly did the inspiration to birth Retinaad come to you; and how has it crystallised?

First of all, the COVID ’19 pandemic taught all of us a great lesson. Incidentally, during COVID, we tried to work on a couple of tech businesses. Mind you, Retinaad is not the first tech business we had ventured into. There were two others; but we had to step them down when the idea of this AdTech came up. And obviously, having operated in the advertising and marketing communications industry for over 31 years, it is natural for us to understand the pain points in the industry.

And when you talk about technology, it should address problems and proffer solutions, create better ways of achieving the results which we want; and that was just it. As we all know, there are myriads of problems be it in the Creative agency practice, OOH, Experiential marketing or BTL sub- sectors of the industry. In this case, you can imagine what will become of the creative departments of advertising agencies in the next five years with Artificial Intelligence? With GenerativeAI, you can generate an Ad copy or generate a complete video campaign in a few minutes without going to a production studio. That’s the way the industry is going. So, technology is about innovation. And, like I said at the launch event, it’s either you innovate or die. So, everybody has to embrace this reality. And I think it’s a very good time that this is coming to us as an organisation.

One important fact to note is that Retinaad is not addressing Nigerian problems. It’s addressing the problems in the advertising and marketing communications industry globally. For example, there are some technologies that we are launching with our global partners. That is why, for OOH audience measurement, we are collaborating with the number one audience measurement company in the world. Our solution is well tested that even global OOH operators like JC DeCaux uses the technology which we are introducing to Nigeria.

Although Retinaad is the local and exclusive partner to Admobilize LLC on audience measurement in Nigeria, it is instructive to note that our team developed the OOH/DOOH media monitoring solutions which were launched recently. But of course, even when you develop any solution locally, you have to align with global best practices to be sure that whatever you’re developing can compete favourably with similar solutions anywhere in the world.

Why the name Retinaad; is it because you are into outdoor?

Well, yes. The idea of the name actually emanated from OOH concept because “retina” has to do with the eyes. But the eyes are also relevant to other media like TV, print, digital and the like. Even now, there are AI technologies available to transcribe radio from audio to text. So we started with that because we were initially addressing Out-of-Home Advertising which has to do with visuals only. But along the line, we discovered that the vision of the company is bigger than Out- of-Home Advertising and we began to address other channels of advertising like Radio, TV, online, web monitoring etc. And like I said earlier, by the middle of the year; we will be unveiling many other products.

Given what you just said, should we anticipate a name change for this business in the future?

It’s possible. Nothing is impossible. So, I think that beyond the name (Retinaad) is the relevance of the impact of the solutions that we are introducing into the market. There are many great brands whose names have nothing to do with the innovative products or the solutions they bring into the market. I think I’ve taken the first step, and those who come after me will continue.

What would you say is the exact vision, the exact mission of this business?

The vision is to be the number one company offering innovative solutions for the transformation of the advertising and marketing value chain, and for all stakeholders to gain incredible accessto data and analytics required to make impactful business decisions.

Let’s talk about the specific offerings of Retinaad to the various stakeholders?

Interestingly, when the company started, our initial focus as you rightly pointed out was for OOH, but later we developed a monitoring tool for DOOH, that is, Digital Out-of-Home and now, we have three distinct solutions.

The first one is RetiTrak AMC for Audit, Monitoring and Compliance specifically designed to address different aspects of advertising and marketing such as OOH Tracker, which is solely for static billboards. Then you have DOOH Tracker for LED digital billboards. The amazing thing about our DOOH Tracker is that it is AI-powered and remotely operated for

tracking different advertising campaigns on the billboard online and real time. To date, we have successfully conducted trial run of our DOOH Tracker for OOH partner- organisations like New Crystal, Motomedia and Wetherheads. Our solutions are currently being used to monitor media for Linkage Assurance Plc. while other clients are being onboarded.

L-R: Akintayo Victor Oni, group business director, Wetherheads Advertising Group; Emonena Kagho, head, brand strategy and business development, Wetherheads Advertising Group; Abiodun Iderawumi, executive chairman, Retinaad; Sussie Agbo, director, partnership, research, and strategy, Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria; Benson Eikponobhoa, team lead, customer success and business development, Retinaad; and Adekunle Obalusi, project manager, Retinaad, during the media launch of Retinaad Limited in Lagos, recently.

What is the capacity of the technology?

Oh yes, it’s like the memory of your mobile phone. You can have 64GB, 128GB or even one Terabyte memory on your phone. Apart from our onsite server, we also store our data in the cloud and this guarantees safety and fidelity of our operation.

Apart from OOH and DOOH trackers, what are the other products?

We have developed other solutions like BTL Tracker for experiential marketing, Retail Sales Tracker for merchandising outlets in supermarkets, malls and other retail environments as well as Asset Tracker for OOH/DOOH inventory management. The Asset Tracker will help OOH agencies to track and know the status or condition of their hoarding whether it is weather-beaten based on certain technical parameters; as well as campaign execution real time.

It is interesting to know that our BTL Tracker was recently used for monitoring market activation by a UK brand, EmbassyCard with fantastic results

Operationally speaking, does it mean that, going forward, agencies will now be middlemen between you and brand owners, or will you be going directly to brand owners?

With our business model, agencies are not middlemen or brokers. Rather, advertising and media agencies are critical stakeholders and partners who have the liberty to use our innovative solutions to deliver value to their clients. As we evolve, our media monitoring solutions might migrate onto a SaaS platform – this is referred to as Software-As-A-Service. At that stage, there will be no need for any human interface. Brand owners and advertisers will simply come to the website to select the plan they need and have unlimited access to data, analytics and insight through our online dashboard to monitor campaign execution either on the mobile App or Web application.

Apart from the media monitoring solutions, we also offer RetiMetrix AMP. This is an audience measurement platform from our tech partner, AdMobilize. And like I mentioned earlier, companies like JC DeCaux and other international companies use the same technology across many geographies. Meanwhile, this has not been available in Nigeria for a long time, perhaps because of the investment required and high cost of adoption. The management of Retinaad chose to blaze the trail, to invest and demonstrate that it is possible to elevate the status of OOH operation in Nigeria to international level. And besides that, we have designed a marketing model that makes OOH audience measurement tool affordable to local OOH operators. So you don’t need to break a bank to be able to introduce some of these technologies to your billboards.

RetiMetrix as an audience measurement platform is not for only outdoor billboards but also for indoor billboards, whether in the shopping malls or in retail outlets and so on. RetiMetrix is not another people counting solution. Our audience measurement solution is able to provide data on Opportunity to See (OTS), Watchers or gaze Through Rate, Dwell time, Impressions, Reach, demography according to age brackets as well as emotional reactions of the audience concerning your advertising campaigns. In addition, our solution is able to capture all vehicles and passers-by around specific billboard location. This helps billboard owners to sell advertising sites better by targeting relevant audience or traffic at specific time periods.

However, the third pillar of our suite of OOH solutions is called RetiBazaar. This is a marketplace for OOH advertising where both owners of billboards and buyers can trade with the aid of AI tools. This is game- changing as it provides media buyers with necessary parameters like buyer persona, demography, point of interest, budget etc. to buy media efficiently and cost- effectively. We are currently investing in data scraping in Nigeria and a new solution on mobile data will soon be introduced to enhance retargeting and attribution. This is capital intensive.

How capital intensive is it in a very specific term?

Before I address that, let me mention that in developed countries, individual companies do not venture into what we are doing here. In most cases, stakeholders including governments, industry associations and operators come together to fund research and invest in infrastructure. As a matter of fact, Retinaad is also offering services in audience research, particularly to rival the existing players in this space.

Unlike traditional research companies, we are employing modern technology to conduct OOH audience research instead of relying only on questionnaires as you would find in many research agencies. So, I have no doubt in my mind that, very soon, Retinaad may emerge as the number one company in Nigeria to handle audience measurement for OOH. The truth is that conversation is ongoing and we have what it takes to rival any company in this area. Investing in tech infrastructure of this magnitude is not cheap; but thankfully, we’ve been able to take the bull by the horns for the betterment of Nigeria, at large. What you are witnessing today is not the success of one company or one person, but it’s about the success of the entire advertising and marketing communications industry.

Can you talk more about your partners, foreign and local?

As of now, we are not considering new local investors as we about scaling up the business. Like I said, for about two and a half years, Retinaad had identified local talents comprising young Nigerians who commenced the process of developing the solutions. During the course of this project, we faced many hurdles; some of our programmers had to leave to join the “jappa syndrome”. Though we had a temporary setback, we had to brace up by hiring new people. I’m happy to say today that Nigerians are highly talented people and they have the capacity to deliver value if well motivated. They are the ones doing this great job you see in Retinaad today.

When we started this project, AI was not as prominent as it is today. So we had to go back and quickly integrate AI so as to have robust solutions for the market. Beyond the three pillars that I have spoken about, we are also providing solutions for online brand monitoring, competition analysis, influencer marketing, crisis management and PR. This may expand soon to cover radio, online print and TV not only in Nigeria but in Africa.

From the look of things, you don’t have competitors yet; or do you?

Well, I wouldn’t say there is no competition. In tech business, competition can spring up overnight. But the beauty is that if competition is going to do anything, they are probably going to mirror what we have done already. But we are also constantly on the move. So it’s going to be a wild goose chase for them because we are not relenting but resolute and determined to take the lead for a very long time to come.

For now, no financial partners?

No financial partners for now. Yet, we are far ahead of competition even in South Africa.

Would you like to talk about Retinaad impacting the fortunes of Wetherheads?

You see, Retinaad and Wetherheads are two different companies with different management; so there’s no such impact. I think the only relationship is that, Wetherheads like some other OOH agencies was able to quickly see the opportunities in Retinaad and they became early adopters by testing our solutions, and the collaboration is growing with other partners.

In technology adoption, there are usually early adopters and there are laggards, those who will come at the end but Wetherheads happens to be one of the early adopters. I think when you talk about how Retinaad is impacting Wetherheads, it’s a symbiotic relationship, and we are ready to forge the same relationship with any other organisation. For example, we are in talks with ARCON, OAAN and ADVAN. Apart from being an AdTech member of World Out-of-Home Organisation, Retinaad is also certified by the Nigeria Data Protection Commission for regulatory compliance.

Let me explain further that Retinaad Limited is not a subsidiary of Wetherheads Advertising Group; it’s a standalone business with several investors, both local and overseas. Though I’m the visioneer and founder but we have many other directors. For example, the CEO Mr. Manoj Vashisht, who is an accomplished marketing professional with extensive knowledge of Nigeria’s advertising and marketing landscape and international experience, is also a director in Retinaad Limited.

How much does it cost for a brand to engage the services of Retinaad?

For you to really appreciate our media monitoring offerings, consider the example of a brand owner that’s spending about N80,000,000.00 (Eighty Million Naira) a year to advertise one brand on just one spot of a digital billboard.

Imagine that with such a humongous investment on your brand(s) in a year, you don’t have any clue as to whether your campaign is running as scheduled or not, whether all the booked slots are displayed; and whether you are reaching your target audience. The truth is, there is no way you can verify because sometimes, things happen- systems may fail, there may be human error and many other reasons such that, invariably, you are losing money. In fact, research has shown that advertisers lose close to 25% of ad spend on some of these billboards, translating to a whopping N20,000,000.00 on one site alone per annum! And how much do you actually pay to monitor your campaign? What you pay to monitor is just about 2% of the value. So why should you lose 25% because you are not willing to spend 2% for independent monitoring? I hope that answers your question.

Traditionally, the media monitoring companies send reports to clients at the end of the month; and yet these reports are not truly independent because they are susceptible to errors and do not help advertisers to take timely decisions. What is happening now is that we’ve given power into the hands of the advertisers because we deliver independent monitoring real time through our intuitive dashboards. No lag, no delay; it is real time and fast.

How would you assess the advertising industry in Nigeria as a veteran practitioner; and what do you think is the future of the industry?

Yes, it is really exciting to talk about the potential of the advertising industry in Nigeria. According to PwC, Nigeria’s Entertainment and Media (E&M) market is showing resilience against a backdrop of global macroeconomic instability. Revenue growth in the African market has been strongest in Nigeria at 15%, ahead of the global average of 5% in 2023. The market value of E&M is projected to grow from US$9.0bn in 2023 to US$13.6bn in 2028. The Out-of-Home Advertising market in Nigeria has also been experiencing significant growth driven by changes in consumer preferences and the emergence of new trends due to increasing use of digital signage and billboards. Ad spending is therefore forecast to reach US$174.03m in 2025. With a youthful population eager to embrace innovation, Nigeria’s entertainment and media industry can harness the power of generative AI to capitalise on this disruptive force, thereby unlocking new opportunities for growth and development.

In view of the above, we at Retinaad chose to invest in technology to take advantage of these opportunities. To future-proof the advertising business, there is a need to embrace technology while fostering greater collaboration among all stakeholders. With AI-powered solutions, Retinaad is no doubt redefining media monitoring service and audience measurement as we bring more value to the advertising ecosystem in Nigeria. So, the future is very bright.

Standing (L-R): Stephen Oguntade, Customer Success Manager, Retinaad Limited; Adekunle Obalusi, Project Engineer, Retinaad Limited; Tova Chibundu, Senior Administrative Executive, Retinaad Limited; Benson Eikponobhoa, Team Lead, Customer Success & Business Development, Retinaad Limited; Ifeanyi Ngonadi, Software Engineer, Retinaad Limited
Sitting (L-R): Matthew Olatoye, Field Technician, Retinaad Limited; Sunkanmi Bello, Monitoring & Compliance Officer, Retinaad Limited; Christabel Ohunenese, Data Entry Executive, Retinaad Limited; Chidi Nwaogu, OOH Monitoring Officer, Retinaad Limited

What would you like your readers to know about you?

Well, as an investor who has benefited so much from Nigeria’s advertising industry in the past thirty-one years, I believe it is time to leave a legacy. Personally, life at this point is no longer about making money; rather it’s about touching lives and leaving footprints in the sand of time. And that was why we instituted endowments at the University of Lagos about 12 years ago by offering the highest prize to the best graduating student in Marketing. We’ve done the same for ARCON (formerly APCON).

What is your professional and management philosophy?

My professional philosophy is that we cannot afford to operate in silos. There must be knowledge sharing among stakeholders in Nigeria’s advertising industry, this will help us to understand what is happening all over the world and scale up our business to a level comparable to other climes. Investors would also need to provide the enabling environment for advertising business to thrive while the “goose that lay the golden eggs” are adequately catered for. Perhaps this may help to reverse the “japa episode”.