Why experiential and outdoor will dominate in 2020
There are usually sweeping, ambitious and sometimes contradictory forecasts doing the rounds at the beginning of each year because people want to know a lot more about what is going to happen in every area of the industry and even in their lives.
While some experts don’t normally like to make predictions, others go out on a limb to either provide their personal crystal ball readings, or simply to give their thoughts on what people should be watching or expecting for the year.
Nigeria’s marketing communications industry space can be challenging as new marketing trends and techniques are strategically launched from time to time, making it mandatory for practitioners to constantly update all touchpoints in order stay relevant and to build a profitable relationship with their target audience?
For example, the experiential sector witnessed highly-engaging event promotions and highly-creative stunts in the last decade. But watchers believe 2020 being the dawn of a new decade will present even more challenges.
According to a frontline experiential marketing expert, Tade Adekunle, who also doubles as CEO at Keskese and the President of Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria (EXMAN), the year 2020 will come with its own challenges and opportunities for those who can position themselves to think out of the box.
To effectively tackle the challenges that would accompany 2020, Adekunle urged the government to take practitioners in marketing communications industry as partners.
“To positively build the image of this country should not be left in the hands of quacks or “l sabi am” but practitioners who will take a holistic view of the situation and strategically proffer solutions. The practitioners are forever ready to partner with government,” he said.
On how EXMAN members will build lasting relationships that can positively shape the industry in the New Year, the association boss stressed the need to be more creative.
“We need to tilt the scale in 2020, and be more innovative and creative enough to challenge ourselves to proffer solutions that will add value to clients’ bottom line. Be it connection with respect to B2B or B2C, new trends will evolve and our members will continue to sharpen their knowledge to be able to tap and explore these trends to the benefits of clients.
“From all analysis so far with respect to 2020, the signs are good and practitioners in the field of experiential marketing are up to the task,” he concluded.
However, global out-of-home advertising is poised to hit a milestone that just a decade ago would have seemed unthinkable.
According to a new report from GroupM, a media buying agency, global spending on outdoor advertising will outpace ad spending on newspapers for the first time ever in 2020. The forecast projects that worldwide ad spending on outdoor will grow to $40.6 billion this year, $4 billion more than advertisers will spend on newspapers.
Experts attribute the likely exponential growth in outdoor to significant improvement in measurement, adding that advertisers like to know what they’re getting. They also argue that over the past decade, better technology has allowed OOH to provide advertisers with qualified impressions versus the old “opportunity to see” measurement. In recent times, digital advertising has been accused of ad fraud whereas advertisers want assurances that their ads will be seen by their target audience, and OOH has been giving them that.
What’s more, apart from the fact that there are hardly declines in outdoor, experts attribute the steady growth to affordability as its CPM remains quite low compared to other media, ranking outdoor behind only online display in terms of affordability.
Speaking to MARKETING EDGE recently in Lagos, Dozie Mbanefo, Managing Director of New Crystal Communications Ltd, pointed out that the bottom line of advertising was the opportunity to see.
“Remember that advertising is an opportunity to see. But if there is no opportunity to see, where will you start from?
“So, opportunity to see is number one. We used to call it a reminder medium, but it’s no longer a reminder because it’s inclusive of pure advertising and a reminder. It gives something to you, and then it reminds you because each time you pass it, it knocks you back and you remember,” he explained.
On affordability, the New Crystal boss added: “The most important thing about outdoor unlike the way I would talk about TV and radio and the rest of them is that it’s pretty cheap. It’s very cheap in the sense that it’s out there 365 days in a year.”
It was equally argued that people share billboards on social media, something they don’t do with newspaper ads.
Globally, the out-of-home medium has proven its ability to adapt with the digital age, resiliency not seen in other traditional media sectors, and its longevity is not in question. Research reveals that billboards are the oldest type of media, dating back more than 5,000 years.
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