Statistics released by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) suggest that N20 billion spent on advertising mobile number portability in 10 months is a waste, writes GODDIE OFOSE.
Network operators went on an advertising spending spree 10 months ago when a major innovation in telecommunications tagged mobile number portability (MNP) took off.
They spent heavily on television, radio, print, out-of-home, online but sparingly on activation.
Kola Oyeyemi, Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) President, (l) and Eugene Juwah, NCC Executive Vice Chairman, (r).
About N20 billion has reportedly been spent on above-the-line advertising alone by the top four telecommunications networks – Etisalat, MTN, Airtel and Glo.
The data from the NCC showed that in the first 10 months of the scheme (May 2013 to February 2014) only 80,444 lines out-ported. That is less than 1 per cent success compared with the 129.6 million active telephone lines nationwide.
MTN, the largest carrier in the country, recorded 36,819 subscribers porting out, followed by Airtel (22,595), Globacom (12,357), and Etisalat (8,653).
MTN recorded monthly out-porting of 3,409; 2,719; 3,142; 3,925; 4,266; 4,453; 4,491; 3,052; 3,667; and 3,695.
Airtel had 1,190; 1,315; 1,327; 5,826; 6,520; 1,447; 1,004; 1,199; 1,429; and 1,338.
Globacom recorded 1,646; 1,122; 1,367; 1,354; 1,267; 1,204; 1,206; 973; 978; and 1,240.
Etisalat had the lowest number of subscribers who left its network – 768; 646; 917; 934; 1,019; 1,001; 1,129; 626; 806 and 807.
MTN accounted for about 45.78 per cent of out-porters; Airtel (28.09 per cent), Globacom (15.36 per cent) and Etisalat (10.75 per cent).
With over 129.6 million active telephone lines, Nigeria has a teledensity of 92.14 per cent. Teledensity is the number of telephone connections for every 100 individuals living in an area.
NCC Head of Media and Public Relations, Reuben Muoka, said MNP was a huge success despite the disparity between ported lines and the national figure of subscribers.
“It was a success in terms of awareness and competition. We can’t look at advertising budget to rate the success of the campaign because some operators through the campaign retain their subscribers as well as enlightening and educating the subscribers, hence the knowledge on MNP,” he explained.
Despite that assertion, investigation by TheNiche showed that operators are leaking their wounds over the huge advertising outlay with little or no result.
To demonstrate what portability means, MTN pulled a rug under the feet of competitors by paying through its nose to sign Hafeez Oyetoro, popularly called Saka.
That led to a torrential marketing campaign by all operators. Even those the courts banned from advertising at the time the campaign was flagged off – for example Airtel – found a way to advertise.
However, a senior marketing manager with one of the networks, who pleaded anonymity, disclosed that “we were not prepared for that campaign because a lot of things needed to be put in place before the MNP campaign.
“QoS (quality of service) is still a massive challenge for all of us, security and other infrastructural issues should have come first before the NCC imposed this MNP campaign. For us it is a flop.”
Other stakeholders also knocked the regulator for imposing the innovation on operators.
While some say the campaign has yielded a measure of success, others believe it is a total waste of financial, human resources and time as the market is not ripe for the technicality.
“It shows that portability was not the issue but quality of service by all providers,” noted Ayo Kupoluyi, Starcom Media Managing Director.
HotSauce Chief Executive Officer (CEO) , Dayo Adefila, insisted that the NCC “forced” telecoms operators to adopt porting by NCC. “They did not want to do it. Thus, they increased anti-churn activities by increasing the number of freebies to their customers making it less-attractive to port.”
Agile Communications Managing Director and CEO, Rufai Ladipo, said the statistics the NCC released are extremely low compared with the multitude of subscribers on the four networks.
His words: “Yes, you may think a lot of money has been spent communicating the values of porting, but to what extent has it impacted the consuming public? I would say very minimal; and this could be responsible for the poor showing we’re experiencing.
“In addition, people still don’t understand why they should port. I for instance ported, because I saw value on the other side.”
The scheme failed, Adefila maintained, because of “some level of loyalty (existing) customers have for individual telcos.”
Oracle Experience CEO, Felix Eiremiokhae, countered that poor communication was largely responsible.
In his view, the “operators targeted the A-B segment who does not even know how much a call per second costs; instead of the C and D segment of the market. It was bound to fail when the communication approach was elitist.”
Noah’s Ark advertising Creative Director, Bolaji Alausa, added that “it’s a classic case of advertising not being able to sell a bad product.”
But Ladipo said “it will be rather absurd to conclude that advertising has failed in delivering the pertinent messages as they affect porting.”
Porting is a matter of choice, he stressed, and there must be demonstrated reasons why anyone should “cross carpet” from one provider to another.
Advertising is only a part of the entire marketing mix, and cannot deliver it alone, he added.
“We need to examine and assess the logistics of porting. If it’s cumbersome, chances are customers won’t be bothered. So, aside from ensuring that all the communication elements and marketing functions are aligned, the ease of portability is equally important.”
The NCC data have created some disenchantment among operators but they are afraid to speak out for fear of sanction.
According to Adefila, the operators used the campaign to retain their customers albeit in an expensive way.
