Digital advertising spend expected to rise 40 % in 2017

With the rising interest in digital advertising by various firms, experts have predicted that digital promotion budget in 2017 is likely to hit  40 percent mark from about  30 percent last year of total Above the Line, ATL, marketing communication budget.

In 2015, Nigeria’s advertising industry recorded ATL media spend of N97.9 billion against the N93.1 billion recorded in 2014; representing an increase of 5.2 per cent. The media spend covers only TV, radio, print and outdoor channels.

It is therefore expected that digital advertising could cost about N38 billion this year. An industry source  told BusinessDay recently that digital advertising is rising steadily and could hit 40 percent in 2017, other ATL could be around 40 percent while Below the Line advertising could cost about 20 percent of total advertising spend. Globally digital Ad is expected to grow to about $185.4 billion.

Also acknowledging that digital Ad is on the rise, Kantar Millward Brown, global research agency specialising in advertising effectiveness, strategic communication, media and brand equity research, recently noted that to reach the youth, marketers actually need to develop creative content that appeals to the imagination and emotions of the Gen Z consumer, if they want to be accepted by this key group. It however cautioned that brands will have to create better connected consumer journeys that are less intrusive with a smarter and more measured approach that discourages Ad blocking.

Charles Igbinidu CEO of TPT International, a PR firm was convinced that companies would vote more budget for digital marketing this year as the platform would play more role in brand perception management. This, according to him is because the youth is getting more information online.

He also believes that online advertising is cheaper compared to other media platforms. Those employing digital marketing need to understand consumer targeting and learning about consumer behavior and how to connect to the consumer.

But in an interview, Marie-Therese Phido, the CEO, Sales and marketing strategist and Business Coach at Elevato who noted the importance of digital advertising regretted that many companies do not know how to use digital marketing; “they are still struggling with it.

Another observation is that the digital teams do not have proper training on how to optimize their activity in this space.

  She therefore suggested that a lot of capacity building needs to be done.  She said SMEs are using digital more proactively than established organizations.  “Since, digital can reduce cost of advertising and marketing to a large extent, they tend to be a lot better at maximizing its benefits to add value”.

Daniel Obi