Is traditional advertising still as relevant today as it was before the advent of digital technology and adoption of digital advertising? This was the crux of a recent conversation (or should I say argument?) between two colleagues, Michael Akpan and Joseph Agbonkhese.
In the course of the conversation, Akpan maintained that traditional advertising, especially billboard, has always triggered a curiosity in him and prompted him to take action or find out more about the intended message.
“Billboard messages do it for me. When I see a content on a billboard, I always bring out my phone to know more about it, although it can be limited in its content but it always interests me,” Akpan said.
“However, online advert is always too much because they bring it to my face so many times, so I get tired of it. Though the content of their advert is always explanatory, it does not trigger any curiosity in me,” he noted.
Agbonkhese had a different opinion. According to him, digital advertising has more impact on him because it gives more information than traditional advertising.
“Digital advertising gives more enlightenment on a particular topic or product,” he said, describing traditional advertising as a “lay man’s” advertising.
For clarity, advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or a service and most times increase sales. Traditional advertising is as old as trade, when humans began to exchange what they had for what they needed through trade by barter. Over time it has evolved to incorporate modern means of advertisement such as television, radio, newspaper, billboard, flyer, poster, etc.
The coming of digital advertising has, however, revealed the shortcomings of traditional advertising, such as limited visibility and reach. For instance, information on a billboard at, say, Ekehuan Road by Agho Junction in Benin City, Edo State, can be seen only by those who ply that route.
Online/digital advertising is the use of several marketing strategies and online tools like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), electronic billboard, among others to advertise products or services and to reach out to potential and existing customers through digital technologies such as computers and smartphones.
The Media Manager of CanWest Media, an advertising agency located in Ibadan, Oyo State, Mercy Fadahunsi, explained that traditional advertising is still very effective, especially in Nigeria, “even though we are in the digital or social media era (GEN Z era) where people are active on social media/online to see what is going on in those platforms”.
However, the choice of which mode of advertising to use depends on the type of product, the target audience, the scope of the project or business, among other considerations, she said.
“As an advertising agency, we guide our clients on which media to use when they want to place any kind of advert and to do that, we check the scope of their business, product being sold or service being rendered, target audience (age, gender), demographics, etc. before engaging in media planning and media buying,” Fadahunsi said in an exclusive interview.
She said that traditional advertisement is still very relevant and is largely used by agencies, adding that the goal of the project will determine the channel of advert to be used.
“For instance, advertising to older men through Facebook Ad, Twitter and the likes won’t be effective because they are not active there and won’t see it. For them, you make use of either television, newspaper or radio and also taking into consideration what television or radio station they watch and listen to, type of programme they listen to and what newspaper they read,” Fadahunsi said.
She further explained that there would always be a need for traditional advertising because it has its own function, benefit and audience.
For billboard, she said it is always large and placed in strategic and conspicuous places and the least duration for buying space is two weeks, giving room for the billboard to be largely seen by a lot of people.
“Radio also has its own local impact. There are some places with no power supply but they have access to their radio and battery and you want to target people there, you go through radio. Using that, they are able to understand the message you are passing across.
“When we know that we can get our target audience through television, we use television. Likewise other channels of advert. That is basically what we do in advertising. When we are talking about wigs, and our target audience are basically ladies that are the GEN Z between the ages of 18 to probably 35, we have nothing to do with radio, we are going to Instagram, that is where we can advertise it,” she said.
One the benefits of traditional advertising, Fadahunsi said it has high visibility, local impact, brand awareness and it does not intrude into one’s personal space unlike the social media where one doesn’t need them but they are always popping up everywhere.
Online advertisement, she said, also has its own effectiveness which cannot be ignored or overlooked.
“With it, you can interact with your advertiser and get feedback. Although billboards have also included call to action in their adverts, they may not be as swift as the online advert,” she said.
For the owner of Devgratify, a software development services and branding firm, Gideon Ozuluoha, both traditional and online advertising have been very effective for his business.
However, he said moving forward, online advertisement would be more beneficial for his line of business since his target audience are on social media.
“I am drawn to traditional media because its content is original and reliable even if it is a new brand, whereas in digital advertising, I am sceptical when it comes to new brands because social media is full of uncertainty and cannot be relied on, though I see it differently when it is an old brand,” Ozuluoha said.
What all of this points to is that traditional advertising is still very much effective and relevant in today’s world awash with digital technology, and it will continue to co-exist with online advertising for a long, long time to come. While traditional advertising attends to and communicates with the locals, digital advertising caters only to the needs of those who own smartphones, have access to social media, are literate, and know how to navigate their ways through the phone.
What is needed is enlightenment on the part of advertisers. They need to understand the product or service they want to sell, their target audience, and other factors that will determine the mode of advertising to adopt. For instance, an organization wanting to sell a new type of fertilizer to local farmers and goes on social media to do it may have misplaced its priority. Such advert would reach its target audience faster if done on radio or television.
