Nigeria advertising is on a generational shift – Dan Oshodin

Dan Oshodin is the Managing Director at Posterscope Nigeria. He has chalked up over two decades in advertising practice covering media strategy, planning and implementation management in leading global agencies in Nigeria and Ghana including FCB, Lowe, Leo Burnett, Starcom and Grey. In the past decade Dan, as he is popularly called, has been deeply immersed in championing a new approach to the planning and buying of OUT OF HOME MEDIA, becoming the industry’s leading resource for market insight critical for the articulation of successful OOH strategy of leading advertisers and brands. He is at the moment pioneering Out Of Home media audit and measurement in West Africa. In this interaction, he provides some insight into the offerings of his company and reflects on the industry which he has been a part of for over 20 years.

Dan Oshodin, Managing Director Posterscope Nigeria

The coming of Posterscope into Nigeria has been greeted by very high expectations especially in the OOH sub-sector. How well placed are these expectations?

We know the expectations are very high considering the quality of work Posterscope is known for in other markets where we operate. The expectations are very well placed because we have come into the industry not just to drive growth but to revolutionize the way brands use OOH and we are bringing some science into the planning and buying of this medium. Not only that, we are helping media owners build capacity to take advantage of emerging technology and global best practices that our membership of a global network offers.

In specific terms what needs or niche has the company come to fill?

The first and the most critical need we have come to fill is that of planning and buying out of home media with the consumer at the center of our planning framework. The catalyst for this is data. So we are investing in research and consumer understanding.

Secondly, we are launching in the market with the best tools and systems which not only give our planners and buyers the technological edge but also allows us to plan and buy with an improved level of efficiency. Our Prism Plan tool delivers reach and frequency estimates that help us optimize our clients’ investment. Prism Score rates every site in the landscape and helps us select the very best for any campaign we run. Prism Creative helps ensure the creative materials we flight are only those that will work out of home.

Thirdly, we have come to drive innovation in the market. You will begin to see this soon as we roll out campaigns that integrate digital and mobile with OOH. Finally, we are very committed to driving measurability and efficiency for all our campaigns.

Posterscope is widely reported to have come to redefine OOH advertising in Nigeria. What new definitions has it come to give?

Because we recognise that the world is being transformed by technology, changing the way people behave when they are out-of-home, we have come to re-define the way that brands should use OOH media. Outdoor advertising or out of home media are no longer just billboards on the roadside or digital screens on the highways or in malls; changing posters and slides at intervals.

The infrastructure driving out of home communication has changed from the way we used to know it, it has now gone beyond just billboards to include the devices consumers hold and interact with while moving around. So a billboard is now a TV screen, it is now a website, a gaming console and a cinema. The mobile phone is now a computer, a radio, TV and a gate way to e-commerce.

As a practitioner and stakeholder in the advertising industry, how do you see the evolution of advertising, generally and the OOH in particular, in Nigeria?

Advertising is over 80 years old in Nigeria and to be fair we have come a long way and built some very strong national brands with our local talent. In the OOH front, we have evolved from paper posters on wood structures to more durable vinyl on metal and now we are latching on to digital infrastructure with Digital OOH now accounting for up to 28% of total spend on out-of-home advertising in Nigeria.

However, we still have a long way to go in terms of utilizing all the opportunities available to us. Take for instance the LED screens that have lit up the landscape in major cities across the country. We are using less than 10% of the capacity of those screens in terms of interactivity, consumer engagement and creativity. We demonstrated this to the industry during the Pioneering Change Conference where we showed Posterscope case studies from around the world.

In your own view, have there been generational shift(s) in the industry? If yes, which are the generations which you can identify, especially for the OOH sub-sector of the industry?

For an industry that is over 80 years in existence, it is expected that there will be generational waves as the years go by. There have been attempts to identify different generations in the industry, Speaking from my own knowledge of the industry, I can identify four major waves, the first being the Lintas/OBM age of agencies, the second is the Insight/Rosabel age, the third is SO&U/DDB age and the fourth generation being those founded by mostly creative professionals who served in the 90’s and broke out in the 2000’s.

For OOH many of the earliest companies like Afromedia, Colour Image and NAS still exist alongside those founded in the 80’s and 90’s like Optimum Exposures and Invent Media. The industry has also attracted foreign players like Global Outdoor, Primedia and Continental Outdoor as well as younger players like New Crystal and Marketing+Media.

Audience measurement and consumer survey are two beautiful brides that Posterscope is bringing to the table. How far has the company gone on these and what should the industry expect?

As a company, we are investing in a first-of-its-kind consumer insight research that helps us understand the consumer and how they behave when they are out of home in the connected world. It is called OCS, the Out of Home Consumer Survey. It has been launched by Posterscope in more than 30 countries and we are currently in the field collecting data for the Nigerian version. OCS will help us create the optimal OOH plan determining the most efficient format/environment mix to engage with the consumer at the right time, in the right place, in the right mind set.

In view of the APCON new licensing regime, how is Posterscope set up to operate in Nigeria?

We are a fully licensed media agency with a national licence from APCON granted after we fulfilled all statutory requirements as stipulated by the new APCON laws. I am a full member of APCON and all our staff are APCON certified and trained communication professionals.

What is Posterscope’s relationship with the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria, OAAN?

Thank you very much for this question. We are not a member of OAAN but we collaborate with OAAN as an industry body to help grow the industry and earn advertisers’ respect for the medium. We are not out of home media owners. We do not own any media platform and do not plan to own any.