POWER OF ADVERT

Avid bible reader like this writer will often wonder why God kept repeating Himself by reminding the Israelites of how He graciously saved their great grandfathers and the need for the present generation to be faithful to Him. The Creator knows of our almost unlimited gigabyte internal memory, after all He created us. He is also aware that we hardly format our hard drive and we depend more on man-made antivirus than the one He created hence our fickle memory. Organizations that are aware of this simple theory often appear to make mountain out of their mole hill while handling advertisement. The need to constantly remind the public of your product/services can never be overemphasized. If like me, you belong to the category of Nigerians who think they are elites by their ownership of cable TV will probably wonder why the cable TV company still advertise. 20% of their overall airtime is spent on self advertisement and further amount of unquantifiable time and fund is spent on public relations.

Similarly, the telecommunications industry is another heavy spender when it comes to advertising. The call for recognition and product/service awareness may be the primary reason for advertisement; there is often this inadmissible underlying consideration for favourable tax regime as secondary consideration for injecting massive fund into advertisement. This simple process increases the profit after tax of most companies, but that is a topic for another day. Quite uncomprehendingly, the hospitality industry is yet to see the rationale behind advertisement as a concept and as a driving tool for revenue generation. The industry is yet to embrace the totality of granting audience to the general public in terms of exposure of both product and service delivery.

Hotel owners’ apprehension is quite understandable when it comes to sales and marketing of their properties; advertisement is never a cut and dry concept. It is not enough to throw money at radio jingles and commercials on television all in the name of advertisement. Cautiously, advertisement is a bit deeper than what we see on 60 seconds razzmatazz on TV. There must be product/service appraisal, clientèle surveillance and concept application as the aforementioned are not the only method or means of advertisement. Beyond these are press releases, press conference, distribution of flyers, high network personalized marketing, short documentaries that all fall under the purview of advertisement.

Yet untapped under advertisement are branding which refers to the totality and physical make-up of product/services; endorsement of product/services by celebrity (ies) and sponsorship of events, product/services or celebrities. Glo, the Nigerian telecommunication giant is an example of a company that has maximized all aspects of advertisement to the fullest. This does not come cheap, but the benefits both in terms of returns and spread to other sector of the economy is incomparable. As it has been said that an advertisement slot in English premier league runs into half a million dollars while same advertisement slot in American super league will set you back by a million dollars.

The conclusion of the matter is that advertisement is key to revenue generation and product/service awareness. The need to embrace it cannot be over emphasized. Whether you have an in-house sales and marketing division in your organization handling it or there is a major advertising firm consulting for you, you are better off with it. Even if you think advertisement is like insurance that you do not need now, sooner or later you will realize either your folly or wisdom.