Editor-in-Chief of Billboard World and Chief Executive Officer of Executive Options, Maureen Umanah, says government agencies make revenue collection more important than ensuring the growth of out-of-home advertising.
She also speaks on the biannual reward system Billboard World started eight years ago, in this interview with Senior Correspondent, GODDIE OFOSE.
Out-of-home advertising
Honestly, the outdoor advertising industry in Nigeria is growing at an astronomical rate. If you’ve travelled widely you will notice that we are really doing very well.
There is significant improvement in structures and hoardings, our street capes are a lot better.
Five to six years ago there was what they called cleansing of the industry by some state government agencies. That has changed the entire industry and the truth is everybody has come to see why we needed that type of environment.
It makes the work better and we have some very high-tech hoardings such as LED boards springing up everywhere. Indeed, we have done well.
Financial health of the industry
It hasn’t really been good, especially when clients keep reviewing advertising budget downward there is no way revenue can automatically get better.
Advertising budget is under a huge threat. Most times, we are summoned by media agencies and corporate bodies in the middle of the year for renegotiation meetings.
Agreed projects have to be renegotiated and we lose revenue. What we keep hearing nowadays is more discounts, that is what has been happening year in year out; yet we cannot reject them because we need to survive.
Compromising standards for survival
We cannot say operators price themselves out of the market. We have a lot of factors militating against us especially when you are an entrepreneur.
You don’t have support from the government. Most times, people who give jobs don’t know anything.
Most operators get jobs based on who they know; therefore, when a new government comes in they just put maybe people who have worked for them. Or sometimes when they come on board they kill the business.
You need people who have industry knowledge and understand payment systems. That is why I said we are not getting enough support from the government because the people they send to work with us do not understand the business.
Look at what the government is doing, it makes no sense. It shows the person does not understand.
If I give you a shop that means I’ve put up a structure for you and you’ll move in with your goods. But in this case, if you give me a site there is nothing on the ground and this site will need at least eight weeks to get up to a structure.
They don’t take that into consideration because it’s a capital intensive project. You need to source for fund from the banks. The government starts counting from the day a site is allocated to you but how can you say the government has created an enabling environment for business to survive?
Another reason why the government does not seem to be encouraging operators to survive in the out-of-home business, even after we have put up the structures, is that there should be a minimal window.
For instance if I am paying a government agency N4 million on a board and I have not got business, and you ask me to pay another N4 million, how does that reconcile sustainability?
Regulators pursuing revenue rather than growing the industry?
That is correct. That is the picture I have just painted to you, they are interested in the environment, which is good because we need a sustainable environment.
They are also interested in revenue generation. They are not interested in creating an enabling environment towards helping practitioners to grow their businesses.
Effect on industry
It portends doom. That is why you see them struggling to put up a better structure, not because it is profitable.
We are hoping that some day the government will bring practitioners, not the greedy ones who sweep all things into their pocket but those who genuinely want to work with the government and also enable the industry to grow.
Blameworthiness
In all honesty, the Outdoor Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (OAAN) has been fighting this abnormally.
Forget the fact that some people will want to protect their personal interest, but in all fairness they have been fighting and it is that fight that has enabled some of us to remain in business.
Operating in a male dominated industry
It is not very fitting because there is a lot of bias. When male practitioners see you the first thing they think is “she is a lady she can’t do it”.
It depends on you to fight and show you can do it. For you to succeed you have to work three times harder than a man daily.
Secret of success
My belief is that in anything one wants to do he or she should allow the passion to take the driving seat.
If you ever watch a child who is trying to walk that tells the story of passion. The child will make attempts, and sometimes he breaks his head but does that stop him? No, he will continue.
We all went through that process and today we are adults running.
In whatever thing you do that is the kind of passion you need, you should not allow any obstacle hinder you.
I see challenges as what will rather promote me. So, if anyone is throwing challenges at me, inwardly I feel very happy because I know I will meet those challenges to get to where I am going.
I don’t see them the way people see them. Maybe that’s why I am able to survive.
Marketing ‘Brand As King’
The award has come to stay. When you have a new idea you should expect attacks because people don’t know what you intend to do.
But I think with the last one we had in Accra, Ghana, which was attended by the president and secretary general of OAAN, registrar of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), and other seasoned industry stakeholders in Nigeria and Ghana, I think it is highly acceptable to the industry.
It has come to be understood that we are not really fighting the OAAN awards as speculated in the beginning. We are trying to get the industry to work. We also looked at other people we thought deserved to be rewarded and rewarded them.
The last OAAN award was so fantastic that I was so impressed and proud to be a member of the association.
OAAN is like a father and you don’t want to see your father not well dressed. The acceptance of Brand As King (BAK) is very high now because they have come to see that we are not there to pull down OAAN.
Between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of our publications are reports on OAAN. We really thank the executive committee and OAAN members for their acceptance. That is what we have craved all the while to work as a team.
Rewarding competition
I can’t discuss why OAAN award does not reward practitioners.
I am not one of the executive committee members but for us at Brand As King we reward every brand that belongs to the entire advertising tray, including the media.
We started the reward for the media, and that is the only award that goes with cash reward, because maybe as a journalist we also understand what our colleagues go through in trying to write a small piece of story.
Innovation in the industry
There has been a lot of innovations in the industry. When you have tribulations and trials like the outdoor advertising industry as a whole had gone through, you cannot help but think deeper and wider so as to make it better.
That is why you are seeing a lot of creativity coming into play because we don’t want our boards to be continuously cut down. You have to pardon us for thinking so deep as to bring up those kinds of beautiful structures.
The number of boards is drastically reduced, so maybe if you have like 20 you may need to collapse all your funds and do two or three locations. That is how it is now.
Of course it costs a lot of money. I know a lot of my colleagues who use bank facilities to fund their operations.
To build a unipole you have to invest heavily and the smaller boards are fast disappearing, so you need funds to stay competitive.
Banking support
Bank matters are usually a matter of relationship not just because you are working in any particular sector. If you start with your bank and show faithfulness that bank will help you.
Our company was grown by First Bank, we go to them when we have big orders and they support us.
It is a personal thing, that is the truth. You cannot make a blanket statement because since the government policy of supporting small businesses commenced, the banks have started doing it. We have been beneficiaries of such financial arrangement.
If you have been banking for two to three years and you haven’t shown faithfulness, if you bring a proposal they might not honour it. Banking is a lot of personal relationship and that is what helps the businesses to grow.
We are in a peculiar society where integrity is a very scarce commodity, so it could affect us.
Nigerians’ entrepreneurial spirit
It depends on several factors. The very first factor is financial resource.
I know a gentleman who will tell you that the best ideas are in the grave, and what does that me?
No matter how good an idea is, if you don’t have the financial force to bring it to life it remains an idea. Nobody will know you have a good idea.
People are bringing up fantastic ideas every day that we don’t even know. If you don’t have the skill to also make it known, who knows you have an idea?
One thing I will also tell you about the average Nigerian spirit is that we are very adventurous, you can’t take that away from a Nigerian.
When you arrive any airport in the world the first question they ask is, are you a Nigerian? It is only Nigerians who travel as widely as we do; maybe that is also a function of resources.
I am sure in the whole of Africa, Nigeria will also have a record not just because of our population but truly speaking we have a high entrepreneurial spirit. Nigerians always want to do, that is the spirit of a Nigerian.
You talked about Ghana. Cities like Florida, Chicago, New York, Paris, and London do not even have the types of hoardings Lagos has.
Ghana is coming up; it may be slow, but certainly they will catch up.
Expectations of BAK 2015
The theme for this year’s Brand As King is Out-of-Home Media, Aesthetic and Environmental Sustainability.
We are trying to look at how this practice has helped to reform our environment; we are trying to see how we can make it even better.
If we need to keep doing outdoor we need the environment to be beautiful.
Outdoor plays a very good role in that area and we commend practitioners to it. Then we ask the government to give us that space that can allow us grow to our full potential.
Rotation of award hosting
We have thought of going to Abuja but somehow the plan didn’t work out. There are challenges that fight good ideas, there is no idea that just comes and sails.
We are looking at these kinds of places. It is an international award so it can be held anywhere. We wish to take it round, and that will help us know other environments because it is an environment-based practice.
It also helps us to know if we are doing well and better. That is why we try not to have it in any particular place. So we move, even if we have to go to the United States or the United Kingdom, we would but it is with time.
We will not do it in Nigeria in 2017, I am very sure about that.
Juggling publishing and advertising
I can only say it has been God. I wonder at times; but you know, when you put your spirit in whatever you are doing you just discover you can do it.
You wake up and plan your day, which is very important, so that you can give attention to what needs attention.
You discover that some of the tasks may wait. It is planning, so you must plan your day when you are up. In fact, you can plan from the previous day depending on what is left out.
For instance, Brand As King came up on November 15 and all of us were giving it the attention it deserved. That was not to say we stopped other businesses.
I will also give kudos to my husband, Aniekan Umanah. He has been super supportive in all I have set out to do. Sincerely, I thank God for him.
I really want to thank my team, they are wonderful, our editorial team at Billboard magazine, they need little or no supervision. The professionals and journalists we have there are doing fantastic jobs.
Honestly, I can’t take that credit because if they have not done what they have got to do I wouldn’t find it easy.
In an organisation you have people doing different duties and if they are doing what they are called to do, it makes the job a lot easier.
