Bode George wrong in faulting Glo, Zenith, Dangote adverts on CNN-Ugoagwu
Chief Bode George, former National Deputy Chairman, People’s Democratic Party of Nigeria (PDP), was recently reported in the media to have criticised Nigeria domiciled companies who place adverts on CNN and other international media.
In this interview with the Brand Times anchor, Mike Bamigbola, the chief executive, STB-McCann Lagos, Paul Ugoagwu, who created the famous “chikini Ariel”, and “Vedan super seasoning Item 7” commercials, analysed the emerging issues.
Brand Times:
Is Chief Bode George right in condemning Glo, Zenith, Dangote and others for advertising their brands on CNN and other international media?
Ugoagwu:
I would actually say he wasn’t correct. How could the Chief think that companies just put things in the media without strategy? In media planning, strategy is everything. First thing, what are my objectives? Second, who are the target audience? Then you use existing industry tested data to determine the best media based on affinity with target audience, reach of the media, popularity of the programmes they run. Advertisers are not just putting their adverts randomly. Don’t forget these are private companies. If you think professionally run companies like the ones he mentioned would just put their brands on these media, without a solid strategy, think again!
Media planning and buying do not just happen. There are considerations. Look at the just concluded Big Brother Show. It polled over 170 million votes in the course of the season, according to the organizers. As an advertiser, looking to reach out to the youth population, Big Brother could have been a good medium. As a youthful brand, if I place my adverts on BB, do you want to blame me? Remember, we are not debating the morality or relevance of the programme at this point. We are talking media strategy.
Brand Times:
What you are saying is that media planning is strategic.
Ugoagwu:
The media planner has to be strategic. When you see banks placing adverts on the CNN, and other cable networks, they know what they are doing. There are people across the globe looking for banks in Africa, who could be reached through the adverts on CNN. In fact, if you analyse the message or the advert in question, you will notice they are cleverly targeted at the foreign investors, potential partners and businesses abroad. In any case, if you get to many offices here in Nigeria, people are tuned in to the CNN, which means you could actually reach a segment of the local audience as well through the CNN.
If you go to the international airport, Zenith has branded the whole place. You would see that there is clearly a thought process behind that media deployment…that Zenith is targeting a segment of the international audience whose point of entry is the international airport. Similarly, Glo will spend a lot of money on SuperSports, specifically the EPL matches, because they are getting value.
I don’t know if you watch football. Take the Premier League football… Glo, Guinness and betting companies are milking the massive audience opportunities available on live sports programmes. Why… because that’s where the audience is. The Premier League matches are the most watched sports league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to over 600 million homes, with a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people, according to wikipedia.org. Where else do you want your commercial to be?
Brand Times:
Could the Chief have been talking out of patriotism?
Ugoagwu
Yes, I believe that is what he is trying to get across. But patriotism isn’t normally your most important consideration when buying a product or service. It’s product or service delivery. Does this meet my need? You buy what you need. Air Peace recently did a great job airlifting Nigerians stranded in South-Africa free. You would think everybody would jump on Air Peace the following day when they want to buy ticket. No, it doesn’t work that way. Air Peace would have to earn every ticket it sells.
Brand Times:
Critics like the Chief claim that this media approach is a waste. Is there any waste inherent in the strategy?
Ugoagwu:
You can hardly achieve 100% efficiency in media, or any endeavor for that matter. Physics teaches us in thermodynamics that even electricity tends to lose energy in the electrical grid as it is transmitted from one location to another. That is why, if you transfer liquid from one glass to the other, you can never get the content back 100 per cent. It’s not possible. There will always be a waste, but the important thing is that the waste must not be significant.
Note also that there are ways of targeting your adverts even on some of these international networks, to eliminate waste. On CNN, you could control the area of coverage you want for your commercials. You have what is called the West Africa Feed, for instance, which gives you the lee way to focus your commercial on West Africa, if that’s your choice. By the way, I don’t think Chief Bode George was talking only about CNN. I think he is referring to cable and satellite media generally.
Brand Times:
How about the factor of ego?
Ugoagwu:
May be there is some prestige with placing your commercial on the international media, but that isn’t the most important consideration. It has to be the reach, the quality of programmes and target audience affinity to these stations. There are formulas to calculate these.
Brand Times:
How do you assess the cultural relevance of some of these Nigerian adverts in the context of the international audience?
Ugoagwu:
We now know that the CNN audience also includes Nigerians. It includes foreigners – whites, blacks, people of colour – coming in to Nigeria. It includes Nigerians in the Diaspora. Don’t forget that this also affords opportunity for culture export. Nigerian ads, shot and produced in Nigeria will contain vital cultural ingredients that are exportable. What is bad in having the international community see your culture on display, through your adverts?
Brand Times:
Should the companies that go on CNN be specially taxed, as suggested by Chief George?
Ugoagwu:
He that comes to equity must come with clean hands. If you want to punish advertisers placing their ads on international media, we should also look at ourselves in the mirror to see how many of our big men and leaders patronize local rice, local hospitals, and local schools. How many Innosons Motors have we bought?
Brand Times:
Is Chief Bode George talking on what he is not professionally qualified to talk about?
Ugoagwu:
Many of us do that. We make comments without evidence. But don’t blame the Chief. The media is sometimes like a punching bag. Everyone likes to take a swing.
Brand Times:
What’s your assessment of the state of media now?
Ugoagwu:
Quite challenging…media planners and strategists have never faced a more challenging era. Where are the target audience? Are they in their bedroom, living room, in classrooms, shopping malls, their offices, shops, on the road, driving, trekking…? Are they in stadiums, religious halls? Are they awake, sleeping, drinking or lying in hospital beds? Another question: are they watching TV, listening to radio or audio programmes, chatting, or looking at billboards? Are they all doing these simultaneously or individually? There is serious competition out there in the media as well. In Nigeria, there are about 169 TV operators, 233 licensed radio stations, more than 130 newspaper titles, over 90 magazines…Add that to 95 million internet users and you have a very complex media scenario. People are no longer loyal to stations. They are loyal to programmes.They would go for their favouriteprogrammes wherever they could find them. This is especially true of television. Everyone watching the TV holds the control. They are moving from station to station, searching for the most appealing programme. Do you know that these days, you don’t necessarily target husband and wife with the same programme? You go for what the husband wants and what the wife wants. Don’t even let us begin to talk about young people and what their media habits are!
Print run by the Nigerian newspapers is abysmally low. That’s because fewer and fewer people are buying physical newspapers. People now use apps to read the papers. You read everything on the apps. I have all the apps of the Nigerian newspapers. Papers are bought mainly by government and private companies these days. Also think about the cost of placement. You will pay up to one million naira to have your advert placed on the inside front cover of a major national newspaper. A sixty second mid-news advert on NTA Network News at 9pm will cost about one million Naira. Yet, can you guarantee 100% efficiency?
Brand Times:
Today’s world is changing so fast…
Ugoagwu:
In today’s world, the term mass communication is dead. It’s only in Nigeria that you still have universities offering mass communication. Outside, what you have are schools of journalism, school of media studies, film, advertising, and so on. The idea that you could reach everyone at the same time is dying. People have choices. Through convergence of media technology, the audience choose what media and message they want to consume, where they want to consume it and where they want to consume it. We are now in a world where the audience has the power to give feedback instantly– there is twitter, instagram, face-book, You-Tube, etc. Times are no more like in those days, when the whole of Nigeria hurled behind the TV, streets shut down, once it was time for popular programmes likeCock Crow at Dawn, Behind the Clouds, The Rich Also Cry, Village Headmaster, etc. Your programme can now be streamed, such that you could watch your favouriteprogramme at your own time. With a service like Netflix, you could watch a wide variety of TV shows, movies, documentaries, and more on thousands of internet devices. As a matter of fact, every person could now be a broadcaster. You could create your own story, film it with your phone and release it to millions of people at no cost. Welcome to a brand new world!
Brand Times:
Thank you.
