Outdoor advertising and LASAA’s quest to address industry challenges

Amid daunting challenges and the somewhat unfriendly environment of doing business, experts see potentials in Nigeria’s outdoor advertising industry, writes JOSHUA BASSEY.

It was a brainstorming session for experts and stakeholders in the advertising industry from Nigeria and beyond who converged penultimate week at the Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos.

The event was a three-day international outdoor conference and exhibition put together by the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA), the first in the series of what the organisers might convert into an annual event.

As was expected, the conference attempted to dissect the industry, identify challenges and seek ways to address them. And from the various presentations made, there was the consensus view that the industry faces numerous challenges: Lack of data, absence of creativity, unprofessionalism, unfriendly business environment, fierce competition from television, radio and social media, regulations, taxes and levies among others.

This much was echoed by several speakers including George Noah, managing director of LASAA and Jimi Awosika, managing director of Insight Communication, whose paper; “The Importance of Creativity in Outdoor Campaigns”, emphasised the need for Nigerian practitioners to raise the game in terms of creativity. And perhaps to underscore this, Awosika in a comical interlude, likened dull outdoor campaigns to a popular TV show titled, ‘’Waka Pass’’.

Charles Chijide, president, Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria President (OAAN), in a paper titled, “Out-of-home Advertising in Africa: Challenges & Prospects,” traced the history of the outdoor advertisement in Nigeria to the 1950s, when the Nigerian Railways formed an advertising department to conduct the business of outdoor advertising on railway properties in the country. He said while the industry has come a long way, it is today still being confronted with issues.

According to Chijide, the science of connecting brands with the mobile audience has evolved in stages over the years, constantly challenging innovative thinking as practitioners have had to continually seek better ways of actualising set objectives for brands and corporate bodies amid challenges such as taxation and fees, laws and regulation and quality of human resource and client relationships.

He believed that the tax regime(s) across Africa lays a heavy burden on businesses and especially outdoor advertising. “Within the context of urban planning and environmental development, so many direct levies are on us. When the issue of clutter was to be addressed in Nigeria, over half of businesses went down – in volume and value terms. That should put in clear perspective the impact such regulations have on our businesses.

“It becomes much more worrisome, therefore, when tax regimes are poorly regulated, resulting in multiple taxation. Talking from the Nigerian experience, many outdoor advertising practitioners have been finding it difficult to break even as a result of inappropriate and multiple-taxation.

“It is from our little rental, rate, Area boys (Omonile), levies and taxes, are paid to local government, state government agencies, and federal agencies. Our position is that these various taxes and levies should be better if it is a one-off payment point,” said Chijide.

On law and regulations, he said most laws by government institutions and agencies are unfriendly to outdoor advertising practice in Africa. While in Nigeria the influence of these agencies and governments (council to federal government) are more direct and influential as a result of its size, population and level of political involvement.

“Inconsistent enforcement of rules by regulators disadvantages media owners who play by the rules and prevents long term security in the market. An example, he said, is in Uganda where the Kampala City council has announced intent to create wholesale changes in the outdoor space… but have been slow to move. The result is reluctance from clients to invest in OOH locally, meaning media owners are sitting with vacant sites.

Giving more insight George Noah, managing director of LASAA, said though the industry is loaded with potentials, it is however being hampered by lack of empirical data for projections and planning thereby limiting  the capacity to respond to the global trends and the emerging needs of clients and practitioners.

He noted, however, that with the coming of LASAA, some sanity has been brought into the practice adding that one of the wars the agency had to fight was with those pasting posters, whose activities deface the state. According to him, as part of the innovations being put together by the agency, some parts of Lagos are being designated as posters zone where the public could paste posters all year round.

He said the posters had been unstructured, which had impeded its growth making advertisers to cut down on advertisement spending as outdoor agencies have no data on eyeball traffic hitting the advertisements.

But amid these challenges, he said the outdoor advertising in Lagos accounts for over N50bn turnover. Noah added that while outdoor media buying agencies generates about N8.6bn; fabricators rake in N1.5bn; installers, N382bn; large format printers, N8.27bn. Also, outdoor specialist agencies generate N21.9bn, outdoor protection services, N370m; adverts N1.25bn, while other areas account for N8bn.

He pointed at the huge employment opportunities of the sector, which presently employs over 100,000 people in Lagos alone. Noah said the industry’s growth potentials have been hindered by some challenges which include loss of market share to television, radio and social media marketing. According to him, there are 100,000 signs and 800 outdoor structures in Lagos presently.

Noah said the conference was conceived and experts from within and outside Nigeria carefully selected to dissect the industry and chart the way forward. For some participants, the organisation of such event was long overdue in Nigeria and LASAA, by rising to the occasion needed to be commendable.

‘’LASAA should be encouraged to make this an annual event, such that all stakeholders take part in discussions that will lift the industry. More importantly, I think the industry should congratulate LASAA for a job well done,” said Edward Ekiyor, a participant from Delta State.