Vacant billboards signal tough times for outdoor industry
The Out-of-Home advertising is not the only industry affected by the present harsh economy under the Buhari administration occasioned by some factors including the low oil price at the international market but the industry’s case stare people on the face.
The economic effect is hitting hard on the industry as it is manifesting on the increasing vacant billboards especially in Lagos zone. A drive in major attractive areas in Lagos indicates that the hitherto busy and advertisement-occupied billboards were now empty suggesting cut down by clients.
If South West alone which generates over 70 percent of the billboards advertising revenue would be experiencing these terrible vacant boards, this is a sign that the industry is really chocked, an analyst said
As the analyst put it, the vacant billboards are a clear prove that advertising clients who are equally suffocating under the difficult economic conditions are cutting budgets to survive the heat. “We don’t know how long this will last but Nigerians are bearing it”.
Speaking at Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria, OAAN award in June this year, the president of the association, Tunde Adedoyin acknowledged that that cut in marketing budgets by clients has combined with other factors such as revenue loss due to multiple tax by some states, cut throat discount by advertisers, indiscriminate and regulatory taxes, charges on unoccupied billboards, delay payment by advertisers and government agents refusal to pay for services to frustrate the industry.
“Because we are losing businesses, our employees are at the verge of also losing their jobs and one of the multiplier effect of the emerging scenario is that the already populated unemployment environment will become more challenged”, he said.
Speaking at the same venue, Biodun Shobanjo, the chairman of Troyka Holdings, who assessed the tough times motivated the operators in the industry to rethink, redefine the industry, fight their course and create mega firms through mergers and acquisitions in order to stay afloat.
According to the communication expert, it is only through the critical reassessment of the industry, including raising the entry barrier for operators that the multibillion naira industry can forge ahead, tackle threats and stand the text of time.
Shobanjo specifically told the operators in the industry where 70 percent of revenue is generated in South West including Lagos, to form bigger firms by merging in order to withstand storms. “When an entrepreneur owns two billboards, he or she probably feels that it is good for him or her. Imagine if 10 of such people were to merge. They therefore don’t need 10 CEOs. Some of them can go and do something else while they get their dividend every year”, he advised.
Shobanjo believed that it is due to the plethora of one-man business in the Outdoor industry that sometimes advertisers feel they are doing the agencies favour, when it should be the other way round.
On the threats the industry is faced with, Shobanjo wondered how the operators are staying afloat in the troubled waters saying that for the fact that operational challenges remain the same in Nigeria, no global Outdoor firm worth its name will want to practice in this country.
He said global Outdoor organizations are unfamiliar with powering their sites with generators, putting security both organized and unorganized to watch over generators and diesel at billboard sites.