‘Transparency by media planning agencies is solution to media debt’
Tayo Oyedeji, new CEO of Media Perspectives, the media agency for MTN, Procter & Gamble, and other blue-chip clients. In this interview with Daniel Obi, he spoke on a number of issues including the level of digital media advertising in Nigeria, creating value for clients, competition in the industry, and solutions to media debt. Excerpts:
Kindly assess Nigeria’s media buying business
I don’t think we are in the media buying business, because buying is a commodity. Anyone on the street can walk into a media outlet and buy advertising. We are in the media planning and strategy industry. We help our clients develop media planning strategies that would identify the media outlets that would best reach their target audience and follow that with a strategic buying process that negotiates best-in-class discounts for our clients, and optimises the advertising spend of our clients. What distinguishes Media Perspective from other players in the industry is our strategic expertise. We are audience data specialists who use our skills to deliver value for our clients.
What do you mean by strategy as your differentiating factor? Do you have software that is unique to you?
Yes, we have a bunch of software and tools that are proprietary to us. Those tools ensure that we effectively target our clients’ consumers. For instance, I can tell you how many people aged 18 to 25 watched television at 7:15pm in Kano or Lokoja. Apart from our proprietary tools, we also use some industry tools and research studies to analyse audiences.
However, the unique thing about us is the quality and depth of our data analysis. I come from an analytical background and have ensured that our people are being trained to become the industry specialists in delivering value to clients via effective audience analysis.
For instance, we have started the Media Perspectives School of Media, which is a full academic institute for developing media planners and buyers. We have also invested heavily in an e-learning platform that will run concurrently with the school. My goal is to ensure that our people are the best media specialists in the entire country and I think we will get there very soon.
We also think that our market/consumer insight will be a core differentiator for us. Therefore, we have commissioned some proprietary consumer research to help us understand our clients’ consumers better. Clients are looking for superior knowledge about the consumer and about the media from their agencies, so we are investing heavily in research. I have doubled our research budget for this year so that we can bring that value to clients.
As you join Media Perspectives, what new things are you bringing to the company?
I think my 16 years work experience across many industries and many continents is a significant value for our agency and clients. I have also studied media management up to PhD level at the top mass communication school in the world – University of Missouri – Columbia’s School of Journalism. I also have an MBA from Oxford University, which gives me the general management breadth to lead the organisation. So, I am bringing both technical knowledge and general management knowledge to the table.
Aside the MP School of Media, we have also invested in a new research offering for the industry that will be released sometime during the year. I am a firm believer in the research-driven science of adverting. The days of guess-work and heuristics are over, we (media agencies) must be able to deliver consumers to our clients at the cheapest possible cost.
How would you assess competition in the industry?
I worked at various media agencies both in Nigeria and abroad, and I think Nigerian agencies are gradually closing the gap between them and their global counterparts. In Nigeria, Mediacom, MediaReach, Starcom, Capital Media, Initiative, Universal, and a few other agencies have done well. We (Media Perspectives) have also done well and I think the future is bright for us and for the industry. Some agencies in Nigeria are good at planning while others are better at execution, but I don’t think anyone of us has put together a complete package to delight the clients.
My goal is to make Media Perspectives the first agency to offer excellence across our entire value chain to clients. We just signed an agreement to develop the next generation media Enterprise Resource Planning software (ERP) to improve our operational efficiency so that we don’t just excel at audience data analytics but are also the best at media execution. I am very excited about the future of our industry and think that Media Perspectives will play a leading role in shaping that future.
What is the implication of New Media on media buying and advertising industry?
We have not fully plumbed the depth of digital media in Nigeria. We are still dipping our toes in it. But we (Media Perspective) hope to lead the industry towards a holistic approach to media planning that recognises the increasing importance of the digital ecosystem to consumers. In Nigeria, digital media spend is currently about 4.5 percent of clients’ budget while it is closer to 30 percent in more sophisticated media markets. I led the digital media initiative at Mediareach OMD before moving to Media Perspectives, and will bring the expertise I deployed for clients at the agency to my new workplace.
Why is ad spend so low in the face of high internet and mobile penetration?
It is because Nigerian media agencies have not built the prerequisite expertise to challenge many clients’ apprehensions about the digital space. So, we need to do a better job of selling the value of digital media to clients so that more budgets can be allocated to that space.
For example, Nigeria has one of the highest Click-Through Rates (CTR) in the whole world. So, it is absolutely important for any campaign with a call to action of any sort to harness that tendency in the digital space.
Could you give us an outlook for ad spend for 2014, taking into consideration many activities lined up for this year?
Media spend will increase by about 25 percent relative to 2013. The core drivers will be Nigeria’s participation in the World Cup and a slight inflation in media rates.
What new accounts are we looking out for from Media Perspectives?
We are about to start working for some new clients, but are bound by an existing confidentiality agreement. We will make the required announcements shortly.
What is the impact or relationship between below-the-line (BTL) and media planning business?
Category leaders build brands while strivers focus on promotions. In the 80s, a particular soft drink brand (name withheld) focused almost entirely on promotions at the expense of Above The Line (ATL) brand building advertising while its major competitor focused on building its brand. The promotions yielded short-term sales that seemed to justify that strategy but 20 years later, the brand is struggling while the ATL-focused brand is still as strong as ever. Advertising theory and market realities is clearly on the side of brand building.
Is the industry ready for more media planning businesses?
Yes. The more the merrier. There are so many global media agency brands that are not yet in this market so there is definitely room for more. The increased competition will lead to more innovation in the industry and deliver better value to clients. We are in this industry to satisfy the client so I think more agencies is definitely a good thing from that perspective. The good news is that a multi-agency world will also allow the best agencies to clearly differentiate with clear values and capabilities beyond others.
What are the challenges in the industry?
The number one challenge is the quality of our tools and processes. The industry’s tools are not sufficiently sophisticated to provide value to clients in a really dynamic market like Nigeria. The processes in the industry are also too manual. Virtually every process is manual leading to high error rates and even fraud in some cases. Like I mentioned earlier, we have invested into a tool that will automate virtually all our processes so that our operations can be more efficient.
Another challenge is issue of debt/payments to media owners. One of my commitments is to find a way to work with all stakeholders in our industry to expedite payments for jobs confirmed to be completed by media owners.
We (media agencies) need a more transparent process will give clients, media owners, and media auditors access to our system. Media agencies should not be a black box but a transparent system that serves every stakeholder. Media Perspectives has made integrity and transparency a core value that will drive everything we do. We will actively lead the entire industry into a more accountable and transparent model.
The question is how would the industry, not Media Perspective, solve the media debt?
It’s an industry problem so Media Perspectives alone cannot solve it. But we will take the lead by consistently doing the right things and hope that others will take a cue from us. I think it is more of a process problem than malice or negative intent. Therefore, the more we create transparent processes and disciplined operations, the easier it would be to resolve the debt issue.