There is huge opportunity for marketing communications industry – Biodun Adefila
Biodun Adefila, marketing communications expert and COO, SO&U Limited, has said that in spite of Covid19 pandemic, there is a huge opportunity for growth in the marketing communications industry. She said this during an exclusive interview with MARKETING EDGE, Nigeria’s foremost brand and marketing magazine.
According to her, 70% of Nigeria’s population is made up of youth and they are digitally engaged with brands. The huge opportunity for marketing communications professionals is to take advantage of this and be able to provide the kind of engagement which the youth can hang on to.
In her words: “For me, content is an area that holds a huge opportunity for the marketing communications industry. There is no media channel that can produce enough content for this large population of over 200 million people to consume. That is why it’s an opportunity for the marketing communications industry because you can create content; and you have different platforms that you can put them on, be it film or out-of-home, etc, which helps the industry.”
Continuing, she said: “The time of ‘attention economy’ is gone when you have one to many, that is, one channel to get the attention of millions of people; but now, it is about the ‘attraction economy’, how involved is your target audience? How involved are your people when they engage with you? When you have one person that has access to many screens looking at varying contents, it creates an air for opportunity which means that people can engage; and all we need to do is to be observant.”
Speaking on the challenges envisaged in the sector, Adefila said: “Adapting to the new normal is one of the challenges of the industry. Before the lockdown clients were already beginning to lean towards digital since they knew that about 70% of their target audience was in that space”, adding, “In the different engagements we have had as an industry we’ve discussed this situation and I believe that most of my colleagues have taken steps to adapt and transform their structures to suit the new normal. The truth is if you are waiting for traditional media to survive that may not happen because the media budget keeps shrinking every day. You can’t sit and think things will work out in that manner”.
She said further that government policies are also a challenge facing the IMC industry. Commenting on the pronouncement by the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that brands who advertise on foreign soccer leagues or produce their creatives abroad for broadcast on local media would be forced to advertise on local leagues or be fined ₦100,000, Adefila said the intention was good and noble because it would build capacity for the local industry; but that the approach was wrong.
“Those are the kinds of things that hinder the growth of the industry. In any case, we are discussing with the honourable minister along with APCON in order to resolve this,” she said.
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