Data collation methodology ‘remains a challenge in the Nigerian advertising space’

CEO Ubiquity Media Holding Limited, Austin Efienamokwu, has identified insufficiency of quality data and lack of innovation as one of the major challenges facing the media industry in Nigeria.

The media strategist noted that data collation methodology remains a challenge in the Nigerian advertising space and this has created a lot of questions when developing marketing strategies.

According to Efienamokwu, the most robust data sets available in the industry are still being tracked manually and as a result created difficulty in ensuring real-time campaign optimization.

In his words: “The transformational power of business analytics and real-time data intelligence in Nigeria’s advertising space cannot be over-emphasized. The time where we just buy media in places that we consider relevant for our client is gone. Now we need to make conscious efforts to apply a measurement approach to the media we buy for our clients. As our world becomes increasingly delineated, we see new possibilities in how data, media, culture and technology can be blended to build innovation and effective brand communications.

“Additionally, business success doesn’t seem to be driven by size or scale as much anymore, the world is moving away from scale to strategic capabilities. Our strategic capabilities such as in data, analytics and tech gets us to parity with the strongest players in the marketplace. If you have data and analytics, you have the power to give your clients advice around growth and to drive their business transformation.”

In the same vein, Efienamokwu opined that the industry is also plagued by lack of innovation. He opined that clients have gone past the days of stereotypic media planning, to an era where consumers mindset is taken into consideration in effectively delivering media.

“We need to be driving the frontiers of innovation now than ever before to unlock transformational business values to our clients,” he pointed.

“High Media rate discounting is becoming rife hence making media more of a commodity as no clear point of difference exists amongst the players currently. Agencies becoming more consultative is where clients are taking us and we can get valued better. As more of our compensation moves towards performance-based compensation, we need to understand how to drive growth because it’s how we will get reimbursed.

“We need to have a digital first thinking mentality with a clear understanding of the consumer media consumption ecosystem when engaging clients and strive for the best possible outcome in terms of idea development, creativity with innovation at the core of the ideation process. Business challenges are what clients are increasingly asking us to solve, not just media challenges,” he concluded.