Digital media expert warns against overregulation of digital space
A leading professional and managing director of Interactive Media, a fast growing new generation PR firm in Nigeria has warned that any attempt to regulate the digital in Nigeria would naturally result in the stifling of creativity in that space.
Asking a number of questions rhetorically before dropping this hint, Lilian Williams, Head Strategic and Content, Interactive declared, “Why do we want the digital space regulated? What are we regulating it against? It goes back to the question asked about economic sectors catching up with the ‘digital’ bug. Regulation results in a scenario where creativity required to improve these sectors is stifled”, declaring matter-of-factly that “the premise of the Internet was built on the maxim of deregulation so I imagine a ‘digital space with regulation’ is no longer the Internet”.
She, however, added that we can control or regulate brand communication on the digital space by ensuring brands say the truth in all of their communications so as not to mislead ‘netizens’.
According to her, Nigeria is already deeply immersed in this digital age reality pointing out that all you have to do is look around you to notice the effects of digital media. Take a look at the wide adoption of Facebook by Nigerians; look at the proliferation of mobile phones and how cheap data has enabled everyone to access the internet. Linda Ikeji has built an empire simply by setting up a blog.
Another internet phenomenon that isn’t celebrated enough is Nairaland. We have Jobberman, Uber Nigeria, Andela and several other internet service companies including e-commerce businesses. These would not exist if the digital age was just a ‘myth’ or some type of bubble. Our society is evolving drastically into a new era and we have the internet to thank for it, she submitted.
Tracing the evolution of Nigerian agencies’ embrace of the digital and expatiating on the ways in which her agency, in particular, has keyed into the digital, she stated that several Nigerian agencies were reactive, not proactive, towards embracing this new digital era and that each agency has its own reason(s) for the slow embrace.
Said she, “Perhaps many agencies were scared to invest in the adoption stages of the digital age; for example, very few agencies saw the potentials of advertising on Google or Facebook and how these ads can influence consumer spending habits. We (her agency) realized this potential and so latched on to it quickly. We envisioned the growth of digital adoption in Nigeria from the start and so we spent time figuring out what our core competencies within digital marketing would be and focused on building those competencies”.
Asked to comment on whether or not Nigerian agencies were catching up with global trends in the digital, she had this to say, “Oh not at all! We have such a long way to go. When you look at the digital global trends and the possibilities available overseas, you see that we have barely scratched the surface of what is possible. To be fair to Nigerian agencies, including ours, this is due to several reasons such as infrastructure and high data costs. But with every new day, there are improvements to the status quo”.
This, as the digital expert opines, does not detract from the fact that Nigerian agencies which are already playing in the digital space have been able to help various brands build on their brand equity and market share. According to her, “It’s been exciting to see competitor agencies build brand equity through several digital campaigns. This equity has been achieved, and evolved even, from just awareness to engagement across several digital platforms. Some of the more popular digital campaigns are Pepsi’s Long Throat Digital campaign which was recently applauded by Warc; we’ve seen online media campaigns sway voter opinions during elections; we’ve seen agencies build campaign microsites just with the purpose of interacting with their target audience. All of these campaigns have successfully helped the brands build equity and gain market share in measurable ways”.
On the critical issue of enhancing the client’s bottom-line which is always a major parameter for measuring campaign success, she declared, “I think digital campaigns have helped to enhance client bottom-line by increasing the efficiency of every naira spent for campaigns. With online media campaigns, you get to see measure which campaigns are working and how much each campaign is making for the clients. Take e-commerce sites for example. E-commerce sites are able to successfully track how visitors behave on their site; from when they click on an ad to the point they make a purchase. They can successfully measure which ads are working and which ones need to be readdressed”.
Williams was asked to take a bird’s eye view of how the different economic sectors are catching up with the digital bug, and this is what she said, “I don’t think these other economic sectors are necessarily playing ‘catch up’ with this ‘digital bug’. I think it’s more a case of how this digital bug you speak of is easing how things are done in these economic sectors. Take the financial sector for instance: what the digital bug has done is ease how transactions can be done. It has made banking more convenient for everybody. And this trend of ease and convenience is what the digital bug has brought to the other economic sectors such as real estate, education and so on”.
Taking the discourse nearer home and narrowing it to Interactive, her agency, the IMC Amazon emphatically declared her agency’s specialty is content creation for digital platforms adding, “We create content tailored to the brand and their target audience and deploy that content across various online media platforms. Our belief is that the right content is that nudge which every potential consumer needs to make a purchasing decision in our favor. By creating the right content, we are helping our brands reach their marketing objectives. That is how we keep our clients happy”.
She explained that the agency turned six this year and that in the past six years, digital PR has been one of the many services it offers to its clients to help improve their reach and visibility; and manage their reputation and sentiment online through building relationships with media platforms.
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