A NOVELIST once wrote that: “You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.” Nigeria's ideals vary from place to place: the north is mostly Muslim, the south is mostly Christian or animist. Young and old, rural and urban, Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba: each group sees the world differently. So Nigerian advertisers must be both deft and sensitive.
As you walk by the streets of Lagos , you can't help but daze at the amount of adverts steering you in the face. Most of the Billboards are usually massive, eye catching and colourful. They simply make one interested in the product. I must give kudos to companies who have engaged their product in such services.
Despite a recent dip, advertising spending has quintupled in real terms between 2001 and 2010, to 98 billion naira ($646m), reckons mediaReach OMD, an ad agency (see chart). This reflects the emergence of a middle class with cash to spare for branded goods. Buoyed by high oil prices and a measure of economic liberalisation, GDP per person rose by 70% between 2000 and 2009, to $1,112. Wages are still low by rich-country standards, but many Nigerians are entrepreneurial.
Office workers save, buy a bus or a bar, put a cousin in charge and reap the profits. Then they flaunt it. Ads reveal which businesses are vibrant and competitive, and which are not. The most common business is small-scale agriculture, but its practitioners “don't advertise much”, notes Kelechi Nwosu of TBWA\Concept, another ad firm. Government ads are dull even by the low standards of official publicity worldwide—contracts often go to the connected, not the creative. That said, one of President Goodluck Jonathan's election slogans was pretty snappy: “I once had no shoes. If I can make it, you can too”.
The growing sectors are mobile phones, banks, beer and food. Mobiles have hit Nigeria like a storm . The number of connections has shot up from almost none in 2000 to 75m in 2009. Competition is bloody. Ads stress price (since Nigerians are both chatty and price-sensitive) and coverage (which is spotty).
According to Tolu Ogunkoya of mediaReach OMD. the next big thing will be digital ads, Facebook has 3m Nigerian users and will probably have 7m this year, he reckons. “It may overtake radio and press in the not-too-distant future,” he predicts. Any business that relies on Nigerians' love of socialising ought to do well.
With a high potential for economic growth , Nigeria is undergoing a lot of economic changes and rapid development which will even get better as the day goes by.
As you walk by the streets of Lagos , you can't help but daze at the amount of adverts steering you in the face. Most of the Billboards are usually massive, eye catching and colourful. They simply make one interested in the product. I must give kudos to companies who have engaged their product in such services.
Despite a recent dip, advertising spending has quintupled in real terms between 2001 and 2010, to 98 billion naira ($646m), reckons mediaReach OMD, an ad agency (see chart). This reflects the emergence of a middle class with cash to spare for branded goods. Buoyed by high oil prices and a measure of economic liberalisation, GDP per person rose by 70% between 2000 and 2009, to $1,112. Wages are still low by rich-country standards, but many Nigerians are entrepreneurial.
Office workers save, buy a bus or a bar, put a cousin in charge and reap the profits. Then they flaunt it. Ads reveal which businesses are vibrant and competitive, and which are not. The most common business is small-scale agriculture, but its practitioners “don't advertise much”, notes Kelechi Nwosu of TBWA\Concept, another ad firm. Government ads are dull even by the low standards of official publicity worldwide—contracts often go to the connected, not the creative. That said, one of President Goodluck Jonathan's election slogans was pretty snappy: “I once had no shoes. If I can make it, you can too”.
The growing sectors are mobile phones, banks, beer and food. Mobiles have hit Nigeria like a storm . The number of connections has shot up from almost none in 2000 to 75m in 2009. Competition is bloody. Ads stress price (since Nigerians are both chatty and price-sensitive) and coverage (which is spotty).
According to Tolu Ogunkoya of mediaReach OMD. the next big thing will be digital ads, Facebook has 3m Nigerian users and will probably have 7m this year, he reckons. “It may overtake radio and press in the not-too-distant future,” he predicts. Any business that relies on Nigerians' love of socialising ought to do well.
With a high potential for economic growth , Nigeria is undergoing a lot of economic changes and rapid development which will even get better as the day goes by.
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