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Advertising agency is also known as ad or creative agency. It’s one of the businesses you can count on in Nigeria. As long as human beings exist, they must do business, this is where your service comes in, to communicate thier products to the prospective customers.
Some companies prefer to employ the agency or marketing personnel to handle their advertising activities within the organization. However, this method is capital intensive, the cost of maintaining such a department is quite high, while other companies prefer outsourcing of which is cost effective since they won’t be tied down to regular wages and salaries.
There are different kinds of advertising agencies such as full service agency, in house agency and media buying agency.
*Full house agency; this agency create advertising campaigns, buy media space, placed adverts and monitor their performance . They handle advertising programs from beginning to end and work with many subsidiaries and experts such as video producers, graphic designers, media buyers, content creators, copywriters and so on. They also offer other specialized Services such as business analytics, sales promotion, marketing of Service etc.
*Media buying agencies; they focus on media buying just like the name implies, they are responsible for media planning, scheduling slots and monitor if those adverts are broadcast appropriately.
*In-house agency; they are employed by an organization and operates within their ambient.
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Post contents
- What is advertising?
- What is advertising agency?
- Types of advertising media used in Nigeria
- How do an advertising agency makes money
- Step by step guide to start up your advertising agency in Nigeria
- Terms used in advertising industry
- conclusion
what is advertising?
Advertising is a paid form of non-personal presentation, communication and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor.
It also simply means informing the public or creating awareness about a product’s existence, educating the public on how to use the product as well as its benefits and most importantly, persuading them to buy it through paid form. Paid form here means an adverting must be paid for, it must not be done free.
This is done in order to create more sales, add to the product quality and also maintain company’s image. It’s the best way to promote your brand.
What is advertising agency?
Advertising agency is an auxiliary or business service firm that provides advertising and other related Services such as branding, marketing, research and development, promotion, consulting, business analytics for business organizations. They plan, create, handle and implement campaigns for clients.
And also responsible for production and provision of advertising materials, supervision and monitoring of adverts performance. In short they set advertising objectives, determine budget, develop ad copy and message, selecting and scheduling media and measure advertising effectiveness.
Types of advertising media used in Nigeria
They are many advertising media used in Nigeria for example television, radio, newspaper, catalogue, magazine, journals, bulletin, posters, banner, flyer, billboard, internet, social media, circulars, direct mail, t-shirts, caps, sign boards etc.
Billboard advertising
To do billboard advertising in Nigeria, you must get approval from Advertising Practitioners’ council of Nigeria (APCON) after obtaining your business registration from CAC. You must also adhere strictly to local rules and regulations that guide billboard advertising services. After getting all the mandatory documents before you can proceed to work with outdoor agency in installing and designing your billboards.
How to get approval from APCON
- Write an application with a professionally produced advert copy and merchandise samples
- Submit the application to the office of the Chairman of Advertising Standard Panel (ASP)
- Wait for a formal letter from APCON notifying you of the status of your application
- Attach a copy of the Certificate of approval to all media orders
How to work with an outdoor advertising agency
- Choose an agency that works in the area where you want your billboard
- Discuss the design of your billboard
- Choose a location for your billboard
- Select a mounting method
- Install the billboard
Newspaper advertising
To advertise on newspaper, contact the newspaper sales department or submit proposal to the sales department, stating the desired publication, section, size and negotiate price for the advert space.
Proceed to create ad campaigns and submit the copies to the newspaper for placement once agreement is reached.
Television advertising
Contact any television of your choice, buy advert slot, create your advertising programs and submit the copy to them for broadcasting. Same method is applicable to radio stations
Social media advertising
Set up professionals business pages, create ad account, fund your account, create your ad campaigns and start running them from your comfort zone
How do an advertising agency makes money?
They make money in different ways depending on the nature of adverts, some charge their clients directly why others earn commission when they buy or sell a media space e.g. newspaper, television, radio etc.
Ensure you charge a competitive price so that you won’t run out of the business. If your price is too high, your clients won’t come back for more, if your price is too low, you can’t meet up with the cost.
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Step By Step Guide To Start Up Your Advertising Agency In Nigeria
- obtain the certificate
- gain experience
- learn IT skills
- meeting the financial requirement
- deciding an organization
- register your agency
- build your social media presence
- get your team ready
- start up with a well prepared business plan
- promote your agency
1. Obtain the certificate
Advertising agency is a professional business that need expert Services, it’s not a business for everybody but those who obtained first degree in business management, marketing, finance, ICT, public relation, accounting or any related course.
These agencies offered beyond advertising Services to research and development, business analytics, marketing of Service and lot more.
Foundation process is expected to equip you with business management skills needed to implement effective campaigns and that is obtain from higher institution of learning.
2. Gain experience
Before you start any business, it’s advisable to gain sufficient experience required in such a business.
The experience and exposure will enable you succeeding, which will make the rate of disappointments and frustrations become minimal.
Internship program, partnership and a voluntary decision to work with an existing agency is pre-requisite to equip you with business acumen relating to your industry.
3. Learn IT skills
All businesses need ICT for survival . Both NGOs, government organizations, civil society organizations are into ICT in one way or the other “the world is a global village indeed” any business that doesn’t intend to adopt this development is planning for failure.
Information communication technology tools such as social media, internet, email, radio, television, newspapers, graphics, videos and audio are great means of advertising of which you should keep up with the trends.
Some of the skills you need to learn for instance, branding, Copywriting, digital marketing, website design, blogging, AI marketing, business analytics, graphic designs, video production etc. You must have good knowledge of (social media marketing, Google marketing, Email marketing, SEM, SEO etc.)
4. Meeting the financial requirement
One doesn’t start a business with empty hand, if you are sourcing for this information, I’m sure you might have a start up capital already or planning towards it.
Well, the good news is, you don’t need much to start an advertising agency. With your smart phone, laptop, good network you can start as a freelancer. But if there is enough capital to rent an office, you just need office chairs, tables, secretary, printer and some other few office gadgets, ensure your office is located in strategic place .
5. Deciding an organization for your advertising agency
Choose the form of business organization either sole proprietorship, limited liability companies etc. for your business. Each one of them has advantages and disadvantages of which you must analyze critically before deciding.
6. Register your advertising agency
Apply to Corporate Affair Commission (CAC) to register your business, also apply to Advetising Regulatory Council of NIGERIA (ARCON) to become a member. This will give your business legal protection, easy access to finance and other benefits.
7. Build your social media presence
Good online presence will help you reach large numbers of prospective customers, build engagement and maintain relationship with your customers. Before you make a move, start by creating professional business platforms (Facebook, Instagram etc.) And start building followers, you can covert your followers to your clients when you fully start up.
8. Get your team ready
It’s important you get more hand to work with you, only you cannot do everything. You can either give some of them a regular employment or outsourcing depending on your financial capacity.
Since you are just starting, it advisable to do outsourcing. When you have a contract that deals with graphic designing, contact your graphic designing team to get it done, apply the same strategy to video production, music or record production etc.
9. Start up your advertising agency with a well prepared business plan
It’s advisable you should commence with a business plan. The essence of it is to help guide you through. State clearly your vision and mission statement, your goals, objectives, marketing strategies, your start up capital, the source of funding the business and how to spend it etc. And align your business operations with the plan.
10. Promote your advertising agency
If you really want your business to be noticed, never get tired of doing promotion. Besides, Facebook and Instagram ads are very affordable and a big opportunity for small business owners to harness. Tell your friends, family members, neighbors, colleagues about your business. Join your local business groups, attend business seminars and build a strong network.
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Terms used in advertising industry
Just like any other fields , they are professional words or jargons used in advertising. It’s important you get conversant to them, then startup your agency
- slot; this is the period of time and advertising takes to broadcast on radio or television. The advertising media charged according to the period.
- prime time; this is the best time for an advertisement to run.
- copy; it’s the entire message of adverts written, design or recorded.
- target; the intended audience or public.
- reach or coverage; the numbers of audience that saw or listened to the advert.
- frequency; the number of times an advert is delivered.
- classified ads; this is the type of advert that displays on a full page of a paper and displays regularly on a web page.
- display ads; this is the type of advert that displays on a full page of a paper and display occasionally on a web page
- airtime; an advertising space bought from media
- insertions; newspaper advertising team
- creative artist; a person that creates advertising content e.g. graphic designer.
- medium; it is the medium through which advert is placed.
conclusion
There is huge opportunities in advertising services to drive. Firstly, the business does not require much capital to start up, Secondly, it’s not a kind of business that will tie you down to one location, you can cover many service areas as much as possible. And lastly, advertising service will continue to be relevant as long as human beings do business.
Social media has the largest numbers of audience, you can then, get yourself knowledgeable on social media space and updated with trends in technology as well experience in traditional advertising media and make a move today.
I hope this is helpful!
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