LAGOS: Nigeria represents a "cauldron of opportunities" for businesses when it comes to digital marketing, according to a leading marketing executive.
Abasiama Idaresit, founder of Wild Fusion, a digital marketing agency, told How We Made It In Africa there were prospects across all sectors, "from the service industry to agriculture to banking to consumer goods".
His comments were echoed by Edirin Abamwa, chief executive of WSI West Africa, a digital consulting firm, who said, in remarks reported by the Nigerian Guardian, that "digital media offers incredible revenue potential". He felt, however, that many local businesses had not yet fully realised this, and added that even those which were aware often felt lost about how best to proceed.
The sector is also proving strong enough to attract back Nigerians who had moved aboard. Remi Dada, a digital marketing professional at Google Nigeria, told the website movebacktonigeria.com: "It is a very exciting time to be in Nigeria because our internet revolution is coming very late."
He also pointed to "a lot of monotony in the Nigerian marketing space", adding that he hoped to introduce "crazy out-of-the box internet solutions that would excite our Nigerian brands".
The scale of the opportunities claimed by Idaresit are demonstrated in the meteoric growth of his own company. Wild Fusion has grown from nothing to a $1m business in a few years and is on course to double that in 2013.
It has also expanded beyond Nigeria, where its client list includes Pepsi and Unilever, to include Ghana and Kenya.
In addition, the company is building proprietary technology, which will give small businesses a simple interface for deploying online advertising. This, said Idaresit, would "enable Africa to compete in the global marketing technology space".
His advice to small businesses includes having a simple, mobile-friendly website and a social media presence, before moving on to experiment with different types of advertising.
Abasiama Idaresit, founder of Wild Fusion, a digital marketing agency, told How We Made It In Africa there were prospects across all sectors, "from the service industry to agriculture to banking to consumer goods".
His comments were echoed by Edirin Abamwa, chief executive of WSI West Africa, a digital consulting firm, who said, in remarks reported by the Nigerian Guardian, that "digital media offers incredible revenue potential". He felt, however, that many local businesses had not yet fully realised this, and added that even those which were aware often felt lost about how best to proceed.
The sector is also proving strong enough to attract back Nigerians who had moved aboard. Remi Dada, a digital marketing professional at Google Nigeria, told the website movebacktonigeria.com: "It is a very exciting time to be in Nigeria because our internet revolution is coming very late."
He also pointed to "a lot of monotony in the Nigerian marketing space", adding that he hoped to introduce "crazy out-of-the box internet solutions that would excite our Nigerian brands".
The scale of the opportunities claimed by Idaresit are demonstrated in the meteoric growth of his own company. Wild Fusion has grown from nothing to a $1m business in a few years and is on course to double that in 2013.
It has also expanded beyond Nigeria, where its client list includes Pepsi and Unilever, to include Ghana and Kenya.
In addition, the company is building proprietary technology, which will give small businesses a simple interface for deploying online advertising. This, said Idaresit, would "enable Africa to compete in the global marketing technology space".
His advice to small businesses includes having a simple, mobile-friendly website and a social media presence, before moving on to experiment with different types of advertising.
Data sourced from How We Made It In Africa, Huffington Post, Move Back to Nigeria.com, The Nigerian Guardian; additional content by Warc staff
