‘Ads on foreign social media denies Nigeria tax revenue’

Fiyinfoluwa Williams is client services account manager within the mobile marketing division of Sponge Nigeria. In this interview, she assesses the potential inherent in mobile marketing in Nigeria, but says mobile is a unique area of marketing, which requires specialised knowledge. Excerpts:

How would you describe mobile advertising?

A part of mobile marketing, where brands reach out and promote their brand messages to consumers via their mobile devices. This could take the form of banner ads, SMS broadcasts, mobile landing pages, apps, among others.

Nigeria’s digital ad spend has been put at 5% of the total annual ad spend of about N120bn, what is the percent of mobile ad?

Difficult to say. If approximately, 5 – 10 percent is spent on digital; you would expect between 50 percent and 70 percent of that should be spent on mobile given the length of time and duration people spend on their mobiles; messaging, watching videos, social networking, gaming, etc. The reality is as a percentage of the total annual advertising spend, 0.5 – 5 percent is a pretty optimistic view of what clients are currently spending, but the clever brands are waking up to the huge opportunity under their noses and aggressively building for the inevitable mobile first future.

In spite of mobile phone penetration, mobile ad has been low in Nigeria, what accounts for this?

There are very few true mobile advertising/marketing companies in Nigeria, and even those that exist still find it difficult to convince brands to invest their money in mobile. We are working very hard to change the traditional mindset most brands have. Mobile isn’t just disruptive and the channel of the future, it’s an effective advertising medium now.

Due to the challenge of creating and accessing data, audience segmentation has been a problem in marketing, to what extent do you think this is affecting mobile ad?

I think we can all agree that data is a big problem not only in Nigeria, but in Africa as a whole. That is why it is refreshing to read about IBM’s new innovation centre in Nigeria and Kenya, where data will play a central role in the solving of many African problems. So, yes it is a bit of a challenge segmenting and targeting our audience however, we are creating more innovative and ecologically valid methods and measures to help us extract the required information and successfully segment and target our bull’s-eye – we have also been working very productively with the Telcos on this.

For mobile ad to be really successful in Nigeria, the telecom operators need to buy into it. Are there ongoing partnerships between mobile advertisers and telecom operators in this regard?’

Definitely. That’s one of the core stakeholders in this mix; we realise that we need to form strong partnerships with the telcos for us to get the reach and leave the footprint required. At the same time, the Telcos are actively seeking mobile advertisers to partner with them in developing engaging activations to reward and keep their customers engaged

More Nigerian companies are advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Google, how are payments made?

Most Nigerian companies will go through a specialist digital agency that would have an account with the relevant sites/services – Facebook, Google, etc. But if they are buying smaller volumes, they would probably use a registered credit card to make the payments for Facebook/Google.

How does the Nigerian economy benefit from such ads in terms of taxation since the social media are all foreign-owned?

Unfortunately, we don’t. This is why we have to develop our own social media platforms and social networking sites. But that wouldn’t happen if our brands and advertisers obsess over buying ad inventory on these sites without allowing for some budget to help support some new but very exciting new platforms and formats with bags of potential.

What is the best way to regulate the contents on mobile ad and whose job is it – the NCC or Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) or self-regulation?

The MMA – The mobile marketing association – a global professional body for mobile marketing professionals. Mobile isn’t like other marketing channels. There are a number of factors to consider – the brands you’re advertising, the telco, mobile money payment providers, device makers, technology providers and the end consumer. Balancing the interests of these diverse groups of industries, which all contribute to the rich and bourgeoning mobile marketing ecosystem is not something that should be left to the uninitiated.

Local content in smart phones imported into Nigeria is still low. Do you think digital literacy is critical drawback to the development of mobile advertising?

Digital literacy as you put it can be a barrier, but not an insurmountable one. There are serial new and existing technologies like IVR, which can make all manner of services accessible to the less savvy user or technophobe. However, you will find that there is rapid change in this area. I read somewhere that mobile phones are more accessible than drinking water in some parts of the country. So as people are exposed to these technologies they more they get informed.

Only 25% of Nigeria, about 100m mobile phones are smart phones. Do you think that low smart phone penetration is also a challenge to mobile ad?

This can be seen as a challenge in terms of using some Apps, however, as mobile advertisers we are constantly using new and old ways and methods to communicate with the mass market. While smart phone penetration is still relatively low, the number of feature phones is very high so not all the richness in our campaigns is lost.

Do you think Nigerian media agencies have requisite skills and expertise to create good mobile messages and content?

Mobile is a unique area of marketing, which requires specialised knowledge, experience and skills. This is not to say the skills can’t be learnt but you must recognise that creating content or messages for press or TV is entirely different to mobile.