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By Yinka Olawale
Lagos, Oct. 20, 2016 (NAN) An Advertising Practitioner, Dr Biodun Shobanjo, says spending on global digital advertisements is steadily growing, urging advertisers to key into the changing trend.
Shobanjo, who is the Chairman of Troyka Holdings, Nigeria, made the remark at the 2nd Distinguished Lecture organised by the University of Lagos Mass Communication Alumni Association (UMCAA) on Thursday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the lecture series is: “Building a New Generation of Media Professionals in a Changing World Order’’.
“Digital spending is growing and in the next couple of years, in fact, it will be the fastest growing platform in the world.
“In 2015, the global advertising spending was 552 billion dollars.
“Out of this amount, digital spending accounted for 150 billion dollars,’’ Shobanjo, who also chaired the occasion said.
In Nigeria, he said that what advertisers spent in 2015 was N170.8 billion, out of which digital advertising accounted for N8.1 billion.
“What this portends is that both teachers and practitioners in the media industry must quickly adapt to the way that digital media is trendily changing.
He attributed the change to evolving technological advancement which keeps changing and which the audience themselves were also embracing rapidly.
“In the past, the consumer waited to be educated through a variety of media to make a buying decision but this is not any more.
“Not only is that consumer unwilling to be left on what brand to buy, you are almost unsure of which media he attends to.
“The digital technology or the mobile phone has indeed changed our ways of life forever,’’ Shobanjo said.
In the Lead Lecture, the Editor-In-Chief of The Guardian newspapers, Mr Debo Adesina, said that without an understanding of the audience, the journalist or any communication specialist wanted to serve in the new age, he or she would not be useful to that audience.
“Our most urgent duty is to put ourselves in the position of those users of our products or services, if anything useful and for which any form of payment would be made, will be put out.
“Because of the devices of media content production readily available to people today, they are as effectively connected to each other as they are also linked up to the traditional big media,’’ Adesina said.
He said that even though, the internet penetration was still relatively low, especially in Nigeria at about 20 per cent “but it is growing’’.
“There is a school of thought now which says Wi-Fi rights are human rights. Meaning all citizens deserve access to the internet,’’ Adesina said.
According to him, with huge investment companies like Facebook, making Wi-Fi cheaper or even free everywhere, a certain “techno democracy’’ will further strip the journalist of his monopoly on information gathering and dissemination.
Adesina said that the digital change in the world was gradually making media practitioners, almost irrelevant, if not ‘useless’. (NAN)
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(Edited by Abdulfatah Babatunde/Adeleye Ajayi)