‘Integration of traditional, digital media platforms work best for advertisers’ -Sam Ajiboye

Sam Ajiboye is the Country Manager of Alpha & Jam, an innovative digital advertising company. In this interview with Edozie Ifebi, he explains how data is helping advertisers to maximize advertising budget and reduce waste spending. Excerpts:

 

How would you rate the impact of consumer data on advertising campaigns?

Advertisers want to know who is actually interested in their product and how to target this audience better. Providing the data to enable this true “audience-centric” approach enables online advertising to live up to its long-held promise of precision targeting, reducing wast spend by targeting only those consumers who promise to be the most valuable. We wouldn’t say the impact has been profound as there is a long way to go but it has to an extent, improved results and the confidence of advertisers in the effectiveness of their digital marketing and data. 

What does digital advertising entail, and how does it offer a more robust advertising solution?

In simple terms, digital marketing is the promotion of products, services or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. Digital marketing extends beyond internet marketing to include channels that do not necessarily require the use of the internet like mobile phones (both SMS and MMS). I believe that traditional marketing channels suffer from 2 major limitations – one-way communication and no real time feedback. Unfortunately, traditional marketing channels aren’t conductive to dialogue between the marketer and the customer. Secondly, the rapid explosion of Internet and social media has meant that ‘real time’ communication is key. While traditional marketing is all about impressions, digital marketing focuses on the more important aspect of creating an experience for users. This is not to discredit traditional media as integration of both media platforms work best.

In the area of cost, has there been a significant difference between digital and traditional?

Digital marketing will always be cheaper than the traditional one. You can modify your budget and run a digital campaign accordingly, whether it is one on social media platforms or search engines. Digital marketing allows for almost any type of budget. Many strategies just do not cost any money such as setting up a social media page or a blog. Digital marketing helps you to effectively calculate ROI per media channel. On the other hand, traditional marketing costs are mostly fixed and can be quite pricy. If you put your one month billboard budget into digital marketing, you’ll most likely get more from digital, depending on your target audience.

How is digital disrupting the  advertising industry?

The debate continues as to whether digital marketing is overpowering and surpassing traditional marketing or not. Traditional marketing is not dead and will not by any means. In fact, until magazines, newspapers and television go by the wayside, traditional marketing is here to stay – albeit it has to adjust and reinvent itself to stay relevant. But don’t be too quick to dismiss what traditional media can do in support of your digital efforts! Printing something on a billboard or paying for some Ad space on a newspaper with a call to action that pulls focus to your online initiatives can be a great way to expand exposure.

How is Alpha and Jam positioned to offer the kind of solutions that advertising users seek?

To us, digital marketing is like a game of chess, one that needs constant attention, research and monitoring, strategic approach and implementation. Most importantly is our desire to leverage new media technologies to enhance consumer engagement and experience with brands. Digital is an experience that we want to make worthwhile both for the brand and for the consumer. We also keep it at the back of our mind that digital is a fast paced ground hence the need to keep up with latest trends and technologies to help deliver the best services to our clients.

Tell us about your recent campaigns, and some of the results they achieved?

We re-launched Nexus Appliances with the‘Nexus Proposal’ campaign, a marriage proposal styled launch campaign. We tried to play around what effect a proposal truly carried. The results were amazing. We were able to keep the audience excited and eager, get an unrivalled attention span and gather mentions all over the digital space. Indeed, people were talking, and that’s what we wanted.

We also had Power Oils, Nigeria’s Biggest Cook Book, and one that marvelled everyone.The aim was to give our client maximum reach in the area of interest to its consumers. Imagine every possible Nigerian food you can ever eat in one book, that’s what was created, and not just that, Nigerians created it. It was about getting the consumer talking about the brand every step of the way. Nigerians created their biggest cookbook, a constant reminder of a brand to consumer partnership, which was all online.It was about creating a lasting experience together. Nigeria had a problem; Nigerians solved it with the help of our client.

How did these results compare to the average results achieved by traditional media?

Every campaign we have carried out is to create a brand to consumer experience. We aim to have the consumer talking real time about the campaigns. From engagements to campaign monitoring and implementation we are able to take every step based on the response of the consumers (interation), which is something very vital to campaign effectiveness. We were able to turn consumers themselves to brand ambassadors and marketers through real time sharing, tagging and broadcasting. We approached the campaign holistically, one that catches the consumer wherever he or she goes.

What are some of the challenges in digital marketing

A global challenge when it comes to digital marketing and online services, is the intrusion of privacy or where exactly the privacy limit starts and ends. This deals withhow personal information is gotten or obtained and to what extent this information can be used. Other issues that may be faced includes code of practice in the industry.

What other challenges face the industry currently?

Firstly, infrastructure, especially as regards technology is a challenge to the industry as the ability of the agency to effectively deliver its services sometimes is based on technological infrastructure.Another challenge we may be facing soon is too many people in the business whereby one needs to strive hard to ensure that things are done right in the industry and one needs to stand out too.