OUTDOOR ADVERTISING IN LAGOS MEGACITY

Lagos is already a mega city! So there is no proposed Lagos mega city Project: By size and population, Lagos is a mega city. A mega city is defined by the United Nations (UN) as a city of over 10 million people. According to the United Nations Habitat, the population of Lagos is currently 16.8
million and it is rapidly increasing at the rate of six to eight percent. It is expected
to rise to 20.19 million by 2010, and 24.5 per cent by 2015.
So if there is no proposed mega city project, what do we have?
1. World Bank – assisted Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project (LMDGP)
2. Eko Atlantic City Project
3. The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Scheme
We shall come back later to see what these projects comprise.
Meanwhile let us look at the characteristics of a mega city in the developing world
and some of the problems that
are associated with a mega city:
•High Population density
•Poverty
•Limited resources
•Ecological impacts like pollution from waste disposal, etc.
•Mega cities are key instruments of social and economic development
•They are powerful instruments of economic concentration, e.g. no less than 60 per cent of total economic activity in the country take place in Lagos State.
•Mega cities offer new market opportunities.
Dynamics of a Mega city
A mega city is a complex organism and its development is largely a spontaneous process. While Abuja has a master plan that can be salvaged, the administrators in Lagos may have to pull down the entire
city to achieve that.Since the 1960s, Lagos has offered economic succour for thousands of
Nigerians who migrate from other parts of the country into the city on a daily basis. This influx was increased by the oil boom of the 1970s which lasted until the socio-economic bust of the 1980s.
In the 1990s till date the situation has worsened for Lagos. A mega city is not an entity that can be totally designed, e.g. planning failures exemplified by Brasilia, New York and several other US cities should guide the Lagos State government.
Why does Lagos attract?
•People are seeking a better life – a higher standard of living
•Better jobs
•Fewer hardships
•Better education
But why does Lagos have a formidable set of increasingly intractable problems?
•Explosive population growth; the UN projection of about 23 million people for Lagos in 2015 will make it the third largest mega city in the world
•Alarming increases in poverty that contradict the reasons why Lagos attracts. A concentration of the poor and jobless occurs in Lagos
•Massive infrastructure deficits in the delivery of telecommunications services, the availability of transportation, and the presence of congestion, e.g. traffic congestion in Lagos is so bad that the average commute now takes about two hours
•Pressures on land and housing
•Environmental concerns, such as contaminated water, air pollution, unchecked weed growth due to the destruction of original vegetation, and overgrown aquifers
•Disease, high death rates, drug-resistant strains of infection and lethal environmental conditions
•Economic dependence on federal government that constrains the independence of Lagos.
•Capital scarcity, the factor that shapes the economy of Lagos and aggravates its other problems, from infrastructure to environmental deterioration.
All these problems are increasingly intractable because
Lagos is experiencing very rapid growth which it cannot
cope with.
Lagos is not immune to the challenge of employment, like all other mega cities. Today there are over 1.5 billion jobless people in the world. One billion more jobs will have to be provided in the next 18 years, a substantial portion of them in the mega cities, which include Lagos.
Balancing Growth and Stability
A vicious circle in the development of Lagos is that of attraction, growth and distraction. These dilemmas are exacerbated by an excessive dependence of Lagos on the central federal and the state government. Can the growth of Lagos be slowed down in order to give it the breathing space necessary to provide adequate jobs and infrastructure to its existing population?
How do we find an alternative to Lagos? The present Lagos State administration seems to be committed now, to expanding and rehabilitating the Lagos-Badagry Expressway. The plan is to take facilities that are attracting people to the Islands, to other areas in Lagos, e.g. cinemas will open in Badagry, as well as hotels.
There needs to be a balance between suburban and central city development, as well as between the needs of the residents and those of commuters, which often represent a substantial element of the daily population of Lagos.
A mega city is a new kind of market that has new requirements, but also, given its big size, offers a lot of opportunities to whomever, recognises it and has the skills and patience to pursue it. The market opportunities of Lagos can be enhanced by aggregating its several markets, and by devising new appropriate technologies.

Global Market Strategies
In order to encourage these opportunities, it is heartening to know that Lagos is creating effective interfaces between public and private sectors. The state will spend at least $2 billion on the expansion and modernization of its water supply network over the next 20 years. Below are more revealing statistics:
•$715 million over a five-year period to provide a qualitative and efficient roadwork
•$185 million on the upgrading of existing slums over the next 15 years
•$100 million yearly, in the next five years, to achieve the objective of an efficient and effective waste management system.
Other Projections
•On power supply, only 1,000MW is currently supplied the state as against actual demand of 12,000MW
•170 million gallons of water are generated per day when compared to the actually daily demand of 720 million gallons
•About $787 million is required as investment in its rail transportation infrastructure, with a projected annual revenue of $400 million
•Lagos requires the sum of $50 billion of expenditure on infrastructure that is by far more than the state’s entire budget!

The government alone cannot muster sufficient resources to meet the needs of the people. The government is therefore courting the private sector to partner with it in execution of projects under the Public Private Partnership (PPP). The entire mega city plan is a 10-year development plan and already the government has begun liaising with some local banks with a view to arranging funding.
The Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project
•Contract worth N1.113 billion have already been signed by the state government with various contractors

•The investment’s areas are urban infrastructure, e.g. slum upgrade, drainage infrastructure and solid waste management. Others include public governance and capacity building, etc.

•Lagos plans to upgrade nine slum communities covering about 701 hectares and home to about 1.1 million people and, these are AGEGE, AJEGUNLE, AMUKOKO, BADIA, IWAYA, MAKOKO, ILAJE, BARIGA and IJESHATEDO/ITIRE.

The Eko Atlantic City Project
•Continuation of the state government’s reaction to the environmental challenges faced by Lagos
•The Bar Beach has eroded over the years thereby leading to loss of a lot of land
•The state has an offer requiring it to protect the shorelines of the road that can attract private developers who are willing to take over the reclamation of all the land that was lost and turn it into real estates
•Contractors have moved to site and the state has signed an agreement to concession the second phase to real estate development and management companies for the next 35 years, to build a new city there

The Bus Rapid Transport (BRT)
•The state government believes if it deploys buses on dedicated routes, the state will achieve some efficiency on Ikorodu Road, which is home to too many vehicles
•BRT is a product of research, a model that has worked in some North and South American cities
•Brand new vehicles, which will be fleet-managed for optimum efficiency, will be used.

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO
SEE LAGOS IN THE NEXT
15 YEARS?
Outdoor Advertising in Lagos
•Lagos is becoming an increasingly competitive market, and advertisers will continually be challenged to reach a consumer base that is regularly bombarded with advertisements as they watch the TV, listen to radio, and read their daily newspapers
•For the average Nigerian consumer, advertisements continually seek to grab his limited attention span to convince him to use more, buy more, see more, and acquire more
•Lagos consumers can now get their messages not only through the traditional tri-media channels, but even as they download their web-based email, surf through the net, go to the cinema and, check promotional text messages
•In spite of all these, the growth in lighted and tri-vision displays, painted and neon billboards, and colourful signs, as seen in Lagos’ traffic-filled highways and roads, highlight the growing popularity of outdoor advertising.

Ads on the road for mobile consumers
•Many consumers in Lagos now spend a large portion of their time outside the home and on the road as they go to and from the office-thanks to heavy traffic
•Consumers in transit to and from a place get the advertiser’s message through eye-catching signs that are colourful by day and even more distinct at night
•Ironically, the notorious Lagos traffic can give outdoor ads a distinct advantage since billboards, neon signs, and colourful posters cater to a captive audience.
Advantages of Outdoor Media
•The primary message of the advertiser is up and on display 24 hours a day at rates that are far lower than a TV spot

•Despite being fixed geographically, strategically-located outdoor ads can effectively and frequently reach consumers that regularly ply certain routes or major roads

•The eye-catching variety of outdoor ads present the creative flexibility that is provided by improvements in technology as well as the resourceful inventiveness of outdoor companies that seek to bring the advertiser closer to the consumer

Truths about outdoor advertising
•Lagos streets are increasingly showing the use of transit media or advertising through the use of buses, vans and indoor ads in public transportation vehicles
•But can outdoor media really compare with traditional tri-media advertising?
•Spending on outdoor media is still far from significant in Nigeria, while a large portion of the advertising budget still goes to TV, radio and print ads. BTLs also actively compete for the advertiser’s budget
•In developed markets like the US, the increasing recognition of the importance and impact of outdoor advertising can be seen in the expanding amounts allocated to it. In 2001 alone, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) reported that about US$5.1 billion was spent on outdoor advertising, with approximately 60% of that going to billboards and nearly 20% going to transit media.

The Effectiveness of Outdoor Advertising
A Qualitative survey completed in January 2003 by FB Consumer Research Services Inc., a roster member of the local marketing and Opinion Research Society (MORES), shows that outdoor advertising remains to be a strong out-of-home advertising medium.
The Manila Study
Manila is a mega city of 15 million people. The usage, attitude and image study on outdoor advertising was conducted recently in the National Capital Region among male and female respondents belonging to the A,B,C,D Socio-economic households. A random selection of respondents included private vehicle motorists and commuters who travel along some prominent routes.

The survey used a multi-stage probability sampling methodology while its reference included the unified socio-economic classification that describes the AB market as a successful business or high level executive with an estimated minimum household monthly income of P50,000 among the B market and P100,000 among the A market.

The upper C market is personified as a junior executive or young professionals with an average income of P30,000, while the broad C market is a new corporate recruit, semi-professional or mid-level supervisor or small businessman earning a minimum of P15,000.

The low-ranking white collar worker, unskilled overseas worker, farmer, tenant or those with a small, informal business make up the D market with a minimum household income of P8,000.

The survey results indicated information on the psychographic and demographic profile of the expected audience of outdoor advertising. It also revealed the respondents’ level of awareness, perception, experience and attitude toward the medium that includes among others, billboards, posters and bus shelters. Next are some of the key findings of the survey:

•When travelling, AB respondents clock in an average travel time of 1.10 hours going to and from work and 1.40 hours going to and from their place of study. The C market averages 1.24 hours going to and from work or 1.22 hours going to and from place of study. The D market has an average travel time of 1.07 hours going to and from work and 1.26 hours going to and from place of study.
•While travelling, most of the respondents look at other cars or people (66%). Forty-five per cent look at billboard ads, while 27% listen to the radio. Two percent look at lighted posters and eight percent read
•Time spent travelling is highest among the C market. This segment includes the young professionals, supervisors, mid-level executives and career service people on the rise, small to medium size entrepreneurs and skilled workers
•Routes regularly travelled among respondents were also highlighted by the survey
•The study also revealed the most noticeable outdoor ads

•Data from the study shows that in order of importance, the following attributes help in the awareness and recall of outdoor ads:
* Use of bright, cheerful colours
* Use of photographic or real life situation
* Billboard contains product information
* Uniqueness of billboard design
* Use of product illustration and use of celebrity endorser

Based on the key findings of the FBCRS outdoor advertising
study, the following lessons may be learnt by the Nigerian
advertising industry:
•Outdoor advertising is a strong medium for out-of-home advertising as 5% of the representative sample of motorists and commuters spend the time looking at billboards while travelling; a person going through a regular route gets to see a specific outdoor ad at least once a day
•Use of celebrity endorsers helps in the recall of outdoor ads
•Outdoor advertising is prevalently used by categories that include quick service restaurants, food and beverage, retail apparel, personal care products, telecommunications, etc.
•Second to viewing other cars and people, motorists and commuters across all segments of the market view outdoor ads nearly half the time while trav