Nigeria is the eighth largest in the world in internet penetration yet it lacks essential infrastructure to train people on the technology. In this interview with GODDIE OFOSE, the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Wild Fusion, Abasiama Idaresit, explains how a digital centre will solve this problem.
Social media marketing improved since its advent in Nigeria?
Abasiama Idaresit
Basically, social media marketing has been growing at a phenomenal rate, especially in Nigeria. We are happy because, rating by GDP (gross domestic product), we are Africa’s largest technology market. We are talking of over 120 million access of phones, and the largest internet market on the continent.
Over 54 million people are connected, and that is a huge number we have out there online that is beginning to pump into the contacts of digital marketing such as social media marketing.
Internet penetration here has been growing at a phenomenal rate over the past few years, and I have no doubt that it will continue to grow.
What gives you the confidence that it will continue to grow?
When you look at the trend that technology is bringing to marketing, the concept of the principle still remains the same, but technology is delivering a whole lot of value to advertising and marketing. So we are looking at targeting, reporting in terms of cost effectiveness, in terms of being able to reach users at a particular time of the day. The returns of advertising spend and technology tend to drive that.
Do you have the mechanism to reach certain audiences?
That is the foundation of online marketing, the ability to have precision and precise targeting.
If you are going on platforms like facebook, google works or google adwords, they have already segmented users, so if you register on facebook or on the internet, you give out information on who you are: your name, age, gender, what you studied in school, and your interests.
Based on these interests, advertisers are able to reach to you with contents that are relevant to your interest and to who you are, reducing the cost of engagement for advertisers and creating a very rewarding ecosystem for both advertising family and users.
Is the impact of digital marketing over rated?
It is not over rated and why it is not over rated is that we are seeing the returns on advertising. People are not stupid; if something is over rated and they are not getting returns, they are not going to continue doing it, talk less of putting in more resources. What we are saying is that advertisers and marketers are investing a lot more in digital platforms because they are seeing returns.
There are case studies of how even small businesses have been impacted, of how they grow, and how they moved from point A to point B using digital marketing technologies.
So, it is not over rated, and will continue to grow. This is a platform that is delivering returns for advertisers and marketers all across the world; it cannot be different in Nigeria.
Skill is a huge challenge in social media. What is your take on it?
Expertise is a big problem in the market and that’s why we are trying to address it; because if people are not well trained and do not understand the concept, they end up making a lot of mistakes and begin to feel that it is over rated.
There are very few digital agencies that know what they are doing, not a lot of them understand how to deliver value to clients through technological platform. That is why we’ve gone ahead to partner with the Digital Marketing Institute of Ireland, a global digital training institution that delivers digital marketing training across the world. We have also partnered with a network to set up the Wild Fusion Digital Centre which would be a one-stop centre that delivers international training for Nigerians.
Why did you set up digital training centre?
We have a country here that is the biggest economy in Africa, we have the biggest digital market in Africa, we are the eighth largest country in the world in terms of internet users. Yet there is no infrastructure to train people to understand the concept of digital, to train people to use the principles, the concepts and the tools out there to deliver value for themselves and for clients.
So, we said okay, let us go out there and help build the local market and develop people. Many Nigerians are travelling out to learn these concepts, why do you have to go that far? Just come here and get trained.
That is what is driving us, because we strongly believe in this country, we strongly believe in what we are doing and we are putting our money in it.
What drives you at Wild Fusion?
First of all is delivering value to customers; number two, building the local ecosystem. We want to empower Nigerians with the tools to succeed, to empower people with this concept of technology, because we know technology can help move people from where they are to where they want to be.
Technology is driving the banking industry, driving businesses across the world, and it shouldn’t be different in Nigeria. That is what is driving us, and we are very confident in what we are doing.
Why will you train people on what you are making money out of?
It will be so short sighted for you not to see a market as big as that and to see the level of unemployment in this country and how poor, and see a way for people to get trained and do nothing about it.
It is sense of responsibility, and as the market leader and pioneering digital agency in this country, we believe that it is our responsibility to help this market grow. That is why we are going out there to train people and provide them with the tools that will help them succeed.
Will you also set up training centres in South Africa, Ghana and Kenya, or bring them down here?
People are flying in from Ghana and Kenya for the training. It buttresses the fact that if you create an opportunity to develop the market, you will definitely get interest from not just within your immediate society.
For Africa to succeed and emerge as a power house economically, we need to invest in infrastructure, not just physical infrastructure but human infrastructure. If we don’t have that infrastructure, we will never grow and catch up with the rest of the world.
