Advertisers Decline Renewal of Billboard Advert Campaigns

The general down turn in the national economy has taken its toll on the outdoor ad vertising sub-sector as advertisers have declined to renew billboard contracts for the year 2016 over apparent lull in business activities.
Not only that, the advertisers who have drastically reduced their annual advertising expenditure on the out-of-home advertising have been hugely indebted to billboards vendors, many of whom have been groaning under multiple taxation by various regulatory agencies.

These developments have caused great discomfort for the agencies who are worried about the consequence of such refusal on their yearly advertising billings. More so, when the misunderstanding with the Lagos State Advertising and Signage Agency, LASAA is yet to be resolved leading to several millions of naira in revenue.

Recalled that LASAA has stuck to its gun and refused to renew the billboard licenses of a number of outdoor agencies in Lagos since 2015 over some disputed outstanding debts with OAAN members. The agencies are said to be heavily indebted to the regulatory body, even though Outdoor Advertising Practitioners Association Nigerian (OAAN) have argued to the contrary and blamed the said indebtedness on LASAA’s former boss George Noah.

Unfortunately while OAAN members are still trying to resolve their disputes with LASAA, with a view to getting full access to their billboards, some of which have been shut down for months, they now face another challenge with clients who appear seemingly unkeen in renewal of the billboard contracts.

Reliable sources recently told MARKETING EDGE that some of the major multinational companies have slashed billions off their billboard marketing spend for the year. One of them is Airtel Nigeria which was said to have out rightly cancelled more than 80 percent of its billboards in a major marketing review.

The same goes for Guinness Nigeria which is said to have cancelled a large chunk of its billboard contract s. “This is March and clients are yet to approve their budgets for the year. Normally the budget ought to have been approved by now. Some of them are even cutting down on their outdoor marketing spend as a result of the economic downturn,” one of the practitioners told MARKETING EDGE.

The source also confirmed that many of the outdoor agencies are now in distress and cannot meet up with daily obligations. This unpalatable development is forcing the agencies to explore more aggressively, outdoor markets outside of Lagos State where the rules are more relaxed and opportunities abound.