Nestle Nigeria suffers earnings slump as unfavourable FX translation takes its toll

Brand Spur
-
0
Nestle Nigeria suffers earnings slump as unfavourable FX translation takes its toll

Nestle Nigeria Plc, on Wednesday reported its full-year results for the period ending December 2016, which showed net profit decline by 67% to N7.9bn, down from N23.7bn in 2015.

The chocolate drinks and coffee maker blamed the drop in profit on a combination of the impact of Naira devaluation which caused the company’s net finance cost to skyrocket to N16.7bn, from N4.4bn in the previous year and the effect of the expiration of its pioneer “tax” status.

On the effect of naira devaluation on profits, Nestle has outstanding foreign currency (dollar) denominated loans which created an exchange rate loss when the naira was devalued on 20th June 2016.

The company notes that its net income was also affected by the expiration of the pioneer status, which placed the firm on a higher income tax provision. Nestle paid N13.6bn on income tax in 2016 as against N5.6bn in the previous year.

In addition, the company saw a 21% rise in cost of sales in the period under review to N107bn, up from N84bn. The jump is attributed to higher raw materials cost caused by inflation from the currency devaluation.

Despite the macroeconomic challenges, the company said it grew revenue 20% to N182bn, from N151.2bn in 2015 signifying that the company’s brands continue to enjoy strong patronage.

Looking forward, Nestle said its board and management remained optimistic about the long term potential of the business despite the current difficult macroeconomic environment. It added that it would continue to increase investment in the key brands and route-to-market activities while proactively managing input cost pressures.

(Beverageindustrynews)

VISA Tailors Products For Nigeria, Reinstates Commitment To Nigeria’s Financial Inclusion Drive

Brand Spur
-
0
VISA Tailors Products For Nigeria, Reinstates Commitment To Nigeria’s Financial Inclusion Drive

Global payments technology company, Visa on Tuesday was present at the social media week, Lagos. The Group Country Director/CEO, Visa West Africa, Mr. Ade Ashaye delivered his keynote address at the event themed; “Thriving in a Digital World.’’  He said, “We need to enable consumers carry out various tech transactions seamlessly, it is about them and their eccentricities using our platform to solve their problems.”

Speaking further, Mr Ashaye, posited on how plastic cards, cheque books, have become almost obsolete in our present technological world today and how technology has changed what payments were supposed to be. In his words, “It is not about how a retailer wants to sell to you, it’s about how you want to access the retailer.”

All over the world, digital and mobile money technology has become the centre of financial transactions. With numerous innovations and collaboration centres Visa is changing how consumers relate to the retailers and vice versa. The brand has given customers many options that allow seamless financial transaction.

For instance, with Visa Checkout, online shopping is now more enjoyable. By simply entering a username and a password, customers can speed through their online shopping experiences with a single account that can be used across all their devices.

Unlike most other apps, where you need to go through the tedious process of re-entering card number and address, with Visa Check-out, you don’t need to re-enter your card number or address at the end or beginning of your shopping experience. And you can store and use any major credit or debit card.

While with Visa direct, customers can send and receive payments—such as person-to-person, cross-border remittances and business disbursements—directly with their Visa cards or to another card.

During the event, the company also disclosed that it has several products that are specially tailored to cater to the needs of Nigerians, just as it restated its commitment to the country’s socio-economic development.

(techcabal)

GE Partners Tony Elumelu Foundation on Lagos Garage

Brand Spur
-
0
GE Partners Tony Elumelu Foundation on Lagos Garage
The partnership results from the mutual interest of both organizations to foster economic growth and empowerment in Nigeria by building a skilled workforce and driving entrepreneurship development in the country.
  • GE, TEF committed to skills development and growth of Nigerian entrepreneurs
  • GE to offer an advanced manufacturing training program at Lagos Garage for up to 25 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs every year

Image result for GE Partners Tony Elumelu Foundation on Lagos Garage

Leading multinational, General Electric (GE) (www.GE.com) and leading entrepreneurship The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) (www.TonyElumeluFoundation.org) have announced a partnership that would allow up to 25 Tony Elumelu EF Entrepreneurs to participate in a dedicated 4-week advanced manufacturing training program every year at GE’s Lagos Garage – a hub for advanced manufacturing-based innovation, strategy development, idea generation and collaboration.

“By playing a role in the development of the advanced manufacturing ecosystem in Nigeria, GE hopes to create jobs”

The partnership results from the mutual interest of both organizations to foster economic growth and empowerment in Nigeria by building a skilled workforce and driving entrepreneurship development in the country.

Expressing her thoughts on the collaboration, GE Director of Communications & Public Affairs Patricia Obozuwa said: “We are happy to collaborate with a reputable organization such as the Tony Elumelu Foundation on this skill building initiative. There is a lot of alignment between TEF and GE’s commitment to the development of Nigerian entrepreneurs and we look forward to seeing some great success stories from TEF participants on the training program”, she added.

Image result for GE Lagos Garage

Speaking on TEF’s commitment to empower Nigeria’s entrepreneurs, “We welcome the collaboration with GE, world’s top 10 most innovative companies, to spur the growth of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs, Nigeria’s new innovators. This program will help them to further develop their products and business models as a follow up to the Foundations’s Entrepreneurship Programme”, said Parminder Vir OBE, CEO Tony Elumelu Foundation.

The training program will, among other things, expose participants to a wide spectrum of topics that are essential for manufacturing and design in the 21st Century; sharpen teamwork, communication, and creativity skills of participants; promote excellence in the practice of design and manufacturing within and across professions; expose selected entrepreneurs to real-world design and manufacturing problems, bring concepts to reality and cultivate the entrepreneurs’ ability to express, evoke and shape experience through design and manufacturing.

GE created the Garages program in March 2012 to reinvigorate interest in invention, innovation, and manufacturing in America. This program went global with two workshops in Lagos in 2014 and in December 2016, GE launched a permanent space, co-located with their Lagos offices dedicated to the training of young Nigerians in advanced manufacturing and business development. By playing a role in the development of the advanced manufacturing ecosystem in Nigeria, GE hopes to create jobs, build local knowledge and capability, and encourage technology-based innovation in the manufacturing sector.

The entrepreneurs in this class will exclusively come from the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, its 10-year, $100 million commitment to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 entrepreneurs, capable of changing the face of business across Africa.

About GE:
GE (NYSE: GE) (GE.com) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organised around a global exchange of knowledge, the “GE Store,” through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry.

About The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF):
Established in 2010, The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) (TonyElumeluFoundation.org) is the leading philanthropy in Africa championing entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs across the continent. The Foundation’s long-term investment in empowering African entrepreneurs is emblematic of Tony Elumelu’s philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions Africa’s private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the continent. The Foundation’s flagship initiative, the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, is a 10-year, $100 million commitment to identify, train mentor and fund 10,000 entrepreneurs, capable of changing the face of business across Africa. 

(ge.africa-newsroom)

Recession: Nigerian businesses can remain profitable

Brand Spur
-
0
Recession: Nigerian businesses can remain profitable
For companies in Nigeria currently battling the recession, the challenges are slowing sales and reduced earnings due to spiraling costs from high inflation and Forex rates. To manage cash flows, businesses may have had to reduce or halt spending totally.
However, the companies that will come out of the recession stronger must master the delicate balance between cutting costs to survive today and investing to grow tomorrow. According to a survey by the Harvard Business Review, companies that deploy a specific combination of conservative and progressive strategies have the highest probability – 37% – of breaking away from the pack.

These companies reduce costs selectively by focusing more on operational efficiency than their rivals do, even as they invest comprehensively in the future by spending on marketing, R&D, and new assets. This multi-pronged strategy is believed to be the best approach to surviving a recession and growing stronger into the future.

How can businesses enhance their operational efficiency, while investing selectively? What options does digital technology offer African Enterprises? What impact does outsourced technology have on businesses, especially on cost-savings and efficiency? How is collocation and cloud computing a business optimisation strategy?

West Africa’s connectivity and data centre services company, MainOne, notes that managers must aim at achieving the right balance between the technologies they want and the ones they need.

MainOne has outlined some of the ways outsourced data centre and cloud services have helped their clients to maintain long term profitability:

  • Adopting digital technologies is a cost effective strategy to optimize processes and drive new and improved measurable business results.
  • Outsourced data centre and cloud services speeds up a company’s time to market and improves service delivery.
  • Companies can be reassured that their data is protected according to the highest standards thus minimising their risk.

(Bizcommunity)

WhatsApp to become gateway to online luxury shopping

Brand Spur
-
0
WhatsApp to become gateway to online luxury shopping

Online luxury retailer Yoox Net-a-Porter said it’s developing technology to allow well-to-do customers to buy products directly through WhatsApp as the e-commerce market for Prada and Versace goods becomes more competitive.

Yoox Net-a-Porter’s personal shoppers already communicate with top clients via the text-messaging service, and the Milan-based company plans to expand its use of the mobile app, Chief Executive Officer Federico Marchetti said in an interview in London.

By becoming one of the first companies to use WhatsApp to sell directly to customers, Yoox Net-a-Porter is seeking a leg up on competitors like Farfetch and luxury brands’ own sites. Less than two years after leaving the company, Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massanet announced last week that she’s joining Farfetch’s board, renewing her rivalry with Marchetti, who created Yoox and orchestrated the 2015 merger that created YNAP.

So far the fashion industry has been slow to capitalize on the opportunity of messaging. In China, the WeChat app has more than 700 million users — many of whom have their bank accounts linked to the service. While 92 percent of global luxury brands use WeChat for marketing, only a small proportion of them sell directly through the app, according to digital researcher L2.

YNAP, which sells $12,000 Oscar de la Renta gowns and $7,000 Dolce & Gabbana handbags via sites such as Net-a-Porter and the Outnet, is trying to get in closer contact with big spenders. About 40 percent of its higher-margin in-season revenue comes from just 2 percent of its clients, which it has dubbed EIPs, or “Extremely Important People.”

“We’ve made some of our biggest sales to EIPs by chatting to them through WhatsApp,” Marchetti said. He declined to give details on how payment via WhatsApp would work.

Yoox Net-a-Porter is jumping on the WhatsApp opportunity because Net-a-Porter’s mobile customers place more than double the orders of desktop users, and those purchases on average are about twice as valuable. The company is still testing its technology and has no scheduled release date.

WhatsApp changed its privacy rules in August to allow companies to communicate directly with its 1 billion users as Facebook Inc. looks to start recouping some of the $22 billion it paid to buy the service.

Research firm Forrester has forecast the online luxury market will more than double to $39 billion by 2021, but YNAP, Farfetch and others are aiming for a growing slice of that business. Farfetch’s sales are growing about 60 percent a year, according to analysts at Exane BNP Paribas. The company was valued at almost $1.5 billion in a funding round last year and is said to be planning an IPO.

(Guardian.ng)

Transcorp Hilton is one of Nigeria’s best exports

Brand Spur
-
0
Transcorp Hilton is one of Nigeria’s best exports
Transcorp Hotels is a fast emerging brand in Africa’s hospitality industry. Since 2005, when it beat a group of investors to emerge as core investor in the flagship of Nigerian hotels; the Nicon Hilton Hotel Abuja, now known as Transcorp Hilton Hotel, the company has continued to further a course that aims to reinvent the luxury hotel concept. Since becoming the single largest investor in Transcorp Hilton Hotel in 2011, Transcorp Hotels has established a huge footprint in Nigeria’s high-end cities with three additional properties in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Calabar.

Image result for transcorp hilton nigeria

In addition, the company is also developing two new projects worth over $500 million including a 5000-capacity conference facility, luxury apartments and upgrade of existing hotels. As Chief Executive of Transcorp Hotels, Valentine Ozigbo steers the implementation of key strategic goals of the company’s business expansion, merger and acquisition opportunities, upgrade and renovations. On the eve of the 30th anniversary celebration of Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja, Ozigbo shares his thoughts on the hospitality industry and factors that helped Transcorp Hilton Hotel retain its position as Nigeria’s most prestigious hotel.

Image result for transcorp hilton nigeria

Why is the Transcorp Hilton Hotel brand so exciting?

Transcorp Hilton is one of Nigeria’s best exports and it’s one brand that positions Nigeria in the highest levels of positivity. It’s also a very major brand that Nigeria is proud to call her own. The hotel is known as the beating heart of the city because this is where it happens— a city within a city. And it’s indeed a brand that every Nigerian president or leader has been associated with. This is where every major guest of the government is hosted. That clearly shows that there’s a lot that we’re doing right. And we pride ourselves as being the only hotel in the whole wide world to have hosted over 50 Heads of governments in one particular night.

That remains an unbeatable record and an amazing history that I’m proud and happy to have witnessed. We have also amazing history with thousands of people, who either had their honeymoon here, or celebrated a lot of happy moments here. There are also many whose career changed from a decision made here, and adults that had joyous moments here while they were infants. These histories and experiences endear us closely and strengthen the loyalty of our guests.

Image result for transcorp hilton nigeria

Could you shed some light on the founding history of the hotel?

This hotel was commissioned on the 21st of April in 1987 to host the ECOWAS meeting of that year. When the decision was made to relocate Nigeria’s capital from Lagos to Abuja, the idea for a five-star-hotel where government guests could be lodged was conceived. The hotel was commissioned with the future in mind. Because of the topography…THICK OF THE BUSH of this location where the hotel is sited today, many people thought it was insane for the government to try to situate a hotel here. That was then. Today, the hotel’s location is one of the most high-profile locations in the FCT today. We are right in the middle of the three arms of government—the presidency, judiciary and the National assembly. More than that, the 20 hectares of land that we occupy make it impossible for any other hotel to replicate our structure. The hotel has indeed come a long way. In the early years of this hotel, only two to three floors were booked at every point in time. The rest of the rooms were always vacant. And the founders went through that pain and sustained the hotel until they realized that they needed experts to run the hotel. That was how Hilton Worldwide was brought in to manage the hotel.

Image result for Valentine Ozigbo Transcorp Hotels
  • ValentineOzigbo – CEO, Transcorp Hotels

What are some of the unique and historical design features of the hotel?

We are at the center of Abuja, and not only are we next to the three arms of government, the hotel is designed to have three wings which helps with efficiency of space and facilities. Like I stated, when you have the right size of land in the right location and with the right concept, you are already a winner. With the huge size of land, about 20 hectares, it gives the architects the ability to innovate and be creative.

Image result for transcorp hilton room executive nigeria

That is why right from the gate, to the road connections and the imposing lobby, you begin to have a true 5-star experience. Our expansive and amazing lobby is one of the most famous meeting points in the world. This is a thousand bedroom hotel and if not for the large expanse of suites that we have, which then reduced the rooms to 670, out of which 30 are presidential suites, 20 are ambassadorial suites and many more suites as business and royal.Aside from these, with over 20 meeting facilities, 10 food and beverage outlets, 3 lawn tennis courts, large sized swimming pool, high quality gym facilities, and many more world class facilities, as well as the very strong structural delivery of the hotel, we have one of the best products globally, and I must therefore commend the ‘visionsers’ of this masterpiece.

In your opinion, what luxuries and amenities would you say, have now become almost standard necessities as compared to over a decade ago in the hotel industry?

Demand for modern amenities and features are on the rise. And what we’ve done as a hotel company is institute a culture of continuous improvement: Always challenging to be better than yesterday. So, we started a Kaizen initiative which has helped us to drive the program across all departments in this hotel in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness. That is how we’ve been able to constantly up our quality of service delivery. Strictly on amenities, the whole world is going digital, and we can’t afford to be left behind. In order to meet growing demands, we have improved our key lock system that now requires every occupant to use their keys to access the lifts and floors, we implemented free wifi for all Hilton Honours members, we have introduced USB ports in the rooms and have reconfigured the rooms for greater convenience, and we have introduced IPTV so that guests can easily connect their systems and can interact better with our TVs. All of these are in the new upgraded floors. These were all luxuries but the minimum that global travelers would expect.

Image result for transcorp hilton room executive nigeria

Does some of the consolidation in the hotel industry influence how you might position the hotel moving forward?

Well, the consolidation is more on the operator-ship side of the business where top global brands are racing to outsize the others perhaps for greater efficiency and growth. For us as hotel owners, we are largely unaffected by this race. One being that the operator we use, Hilton, is ever dynamic and always on top of their game to refresh the brand, and on the other hand, we have such an exceptional product that one can argue that the product promotes the brand more than the brand promotes the product. So, even if we do not have a Hilton as the operator, we are likely to remain successful. But in our case, we have the best of two worlds, because not only is our product well positioned, we have the clear global leader in hospitality as our operator.

To answer you more directly, whether Hilton acquires another brand or is acquired by another brand, we’re fine. And as we develop new products, we are always dispassionately assessing brand partnership on its merit. We ask a simple question of which brand is best suited for this particular location and for this particular product. When we did this for our Lagos and Port Harcourt projects, we came to a conclusion that we would be better off to partner with Hilton and so we did.

Image result for Transcorp hilton poolside

What are some of the biggest challenges that you’re facing to improve the guest experience today?

There are five things that are most crucial in Nigeria in managing any quality hotel. The first is making sure you have a good product,motivated team members, adequate security, sustainable power supply and overall maintenance. Once you can tick all the boxes in these five things, you have the winning formula. And we have spent millions of dollars to overcome all of these, and also done a lot to build capacities among our team members. But it is a never-ending exercise and we can’t afford to rest on our oars. These are the main challenges that keep us awake.

Image result for Transcorp hilton poolside

So now, with all of these efforts you’ve put in to sustain the high standard of the hotel, Are you worried about any new competitors coming in?

No.

And that’s because we are always ahead of the competition in terms of service and products. We’ve undergone several upgrades and now embarking on the mother of all upgrades, infusing many more years into the life of this hotel. That has been made manifest in the modernity that we bring to the fore, and we are currently spending over a hundred million dollars on this hotel at a time like this not just to sustain the standard but to elevate it. With all of these, competition has a lot of work to do. One other reason why we’re not worried is that hospitality is a very dynamic market and Abuja is one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. What that means is that there’s enough space for everybody so in some cases when competitions actually come, they open more opportunities.

(Vanguard News)

A healthy environment is our major concern – Promasidor

Brand Spur
-
0
A healthy environment is our major concern – Promasidor

Promasidor Nigeria has stated that maintaining a healthy environment for its business and the people in its locality is of utmost priority.
The Head Legal and Public Relations, Promasidor Nigeria, Andrew Enahoro, made this assertion during an interview in Lagos.
Enahoro stated that Promasidor has been keeping to regulations on healthy environment and that it is very essential for businesses to adhere to environmental laws in order to thrive and also for the benefit of people living within that locality.

Enahoro stated that in order to achieve a healthy environment that is free from pollution, there is the need for collaboration between organisations and government on ways of making the society safe for living despite the threat of global warming.
He said Promasidor’s efforts in keeping its environment free from pollution and other health hazards has endeared the company to its host community in Isolo where it operates.
This was as a result of the giant strides it made to ensure compliance with the state environmental regulations and standards, thereby contributing to carbon reduction in the environment through mitigated measures against global warming and climate change.

Also, the Managing Director of the company, Olivier Thiry, explained that the food company will not relent in adhering to environmental regulations as stipulated by government at federal and state levels. Thiry stated that in pursuit of a greener environment, the company has before now, installed equipments that are eco-friendly in its premises and this has eliminated health risk to people in its locality.
It has put in place facility on solar energy which generates electricity from sunlight and can be fed into the main electricity supply of the organisation.

This has greatly helped the organisation in reducing noise level from the use of generating sets which are used to complement the epileptic power supply in the country.
This is in line with what is widely practised in other developed economies, where private organisations are meant to generate some percentage of the required power for the production and delivery of their products and services.
This does not produce any pollutant and is one of the cleanest sources of energy. In comparison, solar energy promotes the essence of keeping the environment green in compliance with regulations from government.

Other efforts of the company in compliance with healthy environment include the change from diesel powered to gas powered forklift machines and improved waste management plan through waste sorting.

Others are the use of wind powered extractor fans, conversion from conventional to eco-friendly air-conditioners and the conversion from diesel powered/Power Holding Company Nigeria plant to gas powered plant.
The change from diesel to gas powered forklifts has helped in reducing the dangers from diesel exhaust.
Some of the health hazards averted ranges from irritation of the eyes and nose, headaches and nausea, to respiratory disease and lung cancer caused by air pollution.

Similarly, in order to avert pollution of the atmosphere and to maintain good health standard for the people of Isolo community, Promasidor Nigeria has adopted a more suitable waste management plan through waste sorting.
This hygienic method of waste management has helped in maintaining a healthy environment as it involves a process whereby waste is separated into different elements, depending on its substance.
The company stated that it is a better approach because waste ending up in landfills produces leachate and landfill biogas that contaminates the water people drink and the air they breathe in.

Biogas contains mainly methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 percent more powerful than carbon dioxide. It further affirmed that the management of waste through the sorting process shows how much it has the interest of people within its locality at heart. Also, the use of eco-friendly air-conditioners in place of conventional ones that are very noisy has reduced the noise that would have been generated from these equipments.

The units are designed and manufactured with materials that are safe for the environment.
While the typical air conditioners release emissions from fluorocarbon refrigerant, these eco-friendly units installed by Promasidor Nigeria uses hydro fluorocarbon refrigerant which does not have adverse effect on the ozone.
When these units are no longer usable, they are more easily broken down without adding to non-biodegradable trash because they are not made up of dangerous materials.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Government and Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency have expressed their gratitude to Promasidor for not only believing in an eco-friendly environment but also living it.
The Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, through a representative during one of the tree planting campaigns, said Promasidor’s gas generators, wind powered extractor fans and solar energy street lights are worthy of emulation by other organisations. Corroborating the Lagos State government, the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer, LASEPA, Engr. Adebola Rasheed Shabi, reiterated that sustaining the sanctity of the environment through commitment to tree planting must be a collective responsibility.

Shabi said as the lung is very essential for good quality and healthy lives, so are trees essential for the sustenance of healthy environment.

On the environmental benefits of tree planting, Shabi said they can reduce air temperature by blocking sunlight and lead to the conversion of water to air vapour, a chemical process that removes heat energy from the air.
He said trees help settle out and trap dust, pollen and smoke from the air.

The dust level in the air can be as much as 75 per cent lower on the sheltered side of the tree compared to the windward side.
According to Shabi, the evaporation from a single tree can produce the cooling effect of 10 room size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day can improve the efficiency of your heat pump by shading it with a tree and can shade hard surface areas such as driveways, patios, building and sidewalks thus minimising landscape heat load.

He stated that tree planting exercise fostered by Promasidor has preserved the environment to a large extent as the evergreen trees can be used to reduce wind speed and thus loss of heat from homes in the dry season by as much as 10 to 50 per cent; can reduce soil temperature and soil moisture loss; can store pounds of carbon each year; help settle out and trap dust, pollen and smoke from the air; absorb carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses, such as sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, from the air and release oxygen.

They can help reduce surface water runoff from storms, thus decreasing soil erosion and the accumulation of sediments in streams.
They increase ground water recharge and reduce the number of potentially harmful chemicals transported to our streams.

(theeagleonline)

Nigeria’s Biola Alabi Joins CNN, Fox, CEOs For ‘Innovation In TV’ Conference In Jerusalem

Brand Spur
-
0
Nigeria’s Biola Alabi Joins CNN, Fox, CEOs For ‘Innovation In TV’ Conference In Jerusalem

When it comes to media and programming, Biola Alabi is one of the names that quickly comes to mind in Africa. The Founder & CEO of Biola Alabi Media (former managing director of MNet Africa) will be at the annual International Conference on Innovation in Television (INTV Conference 2017), hosted by Keshet Media Group in Jerusalem Monday and Tuesday 6 and 7 March.

Image result for biola alabi media

Alabi will be joining other top media executives, including Jennifer Salke, President of NBC Entertainment; Jeff Zucker, President of CNN Worldwide; Dana Walden, Chairman and CEO of Fox Television Group; Harris Diamond, Chairman & CEO of McCann Worldgroup; David Abraham, CEO of Channel 4; Jon Steinberg, CEO of Cheddar (Former President of Buzzfeed) and Kary Antholis, President Miniseries & Cinemax Programming at HBO, all guest speakers at the Conference.

Image result for biola alabi media

Alabi has been at the forefront of shaping television in Nigeria and across Africa.
She spearheaded the expansion of Africa Magic channels brand across Africa, further establishing her as a media icon and one of the leading media executives in Africa.

She now heads Biola Alabi Media, a dynamic consultancy and production company she founded, with expertise in strategic consulting for pay entertainment, digital television, interactive television and emerging entertainment distribution platforms.

The Innovation in Television conference provides a stage for those who are shaping the present as well as the future of TV.

Gathering in Jerusalem from across the globe, industry leaders, innovators and disruptors will discuss modern TV’s opportunities and challenges, sharing their visions and insight into the evolving TV landscape, now and into the future.

Following the success of previous editions, INTV 2017 introduces a unique fast-paced, two-day event, featuring keynote talks, fire-side chats and interviews, all designed to explore the future of television.

This is coming at a time when the global TV audience is taking centre stage, new online platforms and interactive services are emerging, and social media is integrating into the viewer experience.

The conference is hosted by Nir Barkat, Mayor of Jerusalem and Keshet’s CEO Avi Nir, the audience will consist of guests from around the world as well as Israel’s growing television and media community.

This is where Brands get influencer marketing wrong

Brand Spur
-
0
This is where Brands get influencer marketing wrong

Whats the idea of influencer marketing?

The idea is simple,  use your influence to drive awareness and actions towards a cause,  product, brand,  mindset and even opinion.
Brands majorly use social media influencers to drive awareness and Conversions for their products a d services, which is good,  but many brands get it wrong when they dictate all of the content of the influencer..  Turning the influencer into a copy and paste promoter.

Influencer marketing works best when a brand briefs her influencers and also inform them of the dos and donts of the campaign.  From the brief,  every influencer should be smart enough to create his or her own content that would be organic and resonate among their audience…

Take for example,  a cocacola campaign…  If you have a travel influencer,  entertainment influencer,  business influencer,  political influencer,  sports influencer and so on.

Each should be able to present the campaign from the perspective of their influence… Not everyone having the same content and repeating it across everyone’s timeline.

In this case you can see a travel influencer saying : i cant imagine leaving for a trip without 2 cans of cocacola

The entertainment influencer : music,  cocacola  and ice…  What a time to be alive

Business influencer: cant wait to get off the long day and sip some cocacola

Political influencer : the government wont kill one,  a bottle of cocacola will go a long way right now

They have all in one way promoted the brand,  but from different perspectives not all of them pasting content created by one campaign manager who wrote it from no single perspective of influence.

This would even diversify the campaign than make it look sponsored from head to toe.

I hope many brands and digital agency adjust in 2017 and tweak how they handle influencer marketing

(Femi Factor)

Big or Small: No Data Set is Perfect

Brand Spur
-
0
Big or Small: No Data Set is Perfect
What do big data, survey research, ethnographic studies, focus groups and customer analytics all have in common?

They are all imperfect.

Yes, they have their respective strengths, but none of them yield perfect data. None.

Image result for if you torture the data long enough it will confess

So as market research and customer insights professionals, what does this mean for our work?

  • It means we must abandon our biases for “traditional” market research methods, and accept that we live in a world where newer data sources may be the best fit for a given research need.
  • It means that we absolutely need to possess a minimum level of data fluency (sometimes outside of our comfort zones!) so that we can objectively choose the optimal method(s) for any given project goal.

Think about it this way, if every project that crosses your desk looks like a survey project to you, you may need a data fluency boost.

For practical purposes, data fluency is ultimately this:

The data fluent research and insights professional knows how to get, assess, interpret and apply various types of data. Qual or quant. “Big” or “small”. Structured or unstructured. Observed or self-reported.

(researchrockstar)

1...5,4505,4515,452...5,456Page 5,451 of 5,456