World Cup: Nigerian media to lose huge ad revenue

Nigerian media is likely to lose multimillion naira advert revenue if Nigeria crashes out of the ongoing World Cup in Brazil. TV will be most affected as advertisers will possibly tune down their adverts that support the Super Eagles in the World Cup.

It is expected that advertisers could give orders to discontinue adverts, which encourage Super Eagles in the tournament, thereby making the media houses lose the revenues that would have accrued from the adverts.

“If Nigeria crashes out early, Nigerians’ interest in the World Cup will whittle down and advertisers will react in corresponding manner,” Charles Chijide, president, Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), told BusinessDay.

The media practitioner underscores why Nigerians are praying for Super Eagles to continue in the World Cup, saying “Nigerians like football and it is a unifying factor. As the Super Eagles go further in the competition, advertisers would be ready to commit more funds in advertisement in support of the team.”

According to him, so far many organisations have spent huge sums of money in sponsorship and advert campaigns, which can not be estimated, running into millions of naira. “Some organisations will likely stop their adverts if Nigeria crashes out,” he said

Calixtus Okoruwa, CEO of XRL8, a PR agency, agreed that interest in the World Cup may slightly whittled down if Nigeria crashes out, but does not expect that advertising will reduce in consequence.

“Instead, I see advertising increasing, especially as the matches get tougher.

“I see frequency of advertising by local firms rising as the World Cup enters the more critical knock-out stages. The point to remember is that the World Cup draws tremendous customer and potential customer traffic, with millions of people glued to TV sets watching football matches. It is this massive potential market that advertisers are primarily targeting,” he said.

Local data on the value of campaign relating to World Cup is not immediately available from sources contacted, but international sources put estimate that the ongoing World Cup will boost global advertising market by about $1.5 billion.

TV is set to benefit the most, but this year’s football tournament in Brazil is also living up to the hype of being the most “social” World Cup, with brands spending more of their advertising budgets on social media activity than ever before.

Unsurprisingly, ZenithOptimedia in a report expects the World Cup to have the biggest impact in Latin America, where the matches in Brazil are ideally timed for viewers and will add as much as $500 million (£295m) to media spend.

In Western Europe, with many markets still in slow recovery, the report says the event is forecast to bring an additional $300 million (£177m) in spend to the region. A similar lift in advertising is expected from the World Cup in the US and Canada, despite lower levels of interest among the general population.

Time differences in Asia Pacific, however, where many matches start early in the morning, will generate a lower level of additional spend of around $250 million (£147m), according to the report.

The remaining $150 million is tipped to come from Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and the rest of the world.

Daniel Obi