Influencers and influencer marketing are an important part of the marketing mix in Nigeria, and influencer marketing in Nigeria has come a long way. Influencer marketing helps brands to reach new people and ‘influence’ them positively for the brand. But what is influencer marketing? It simply refers to the marketing activities that leverage an individual’s influence over their digital community, to create positive relationships between the brand and that individual’s community. An influencer is an individual who has grown a digital community by engaging them and sharing valuable content usually about a very specific niche. 

We’ll take a look at setting up an influencer marketing campaign in Nigeria, and examine a few key steps:

1. What’s the objective, and why does influencer marketing work best?

Before we dive in, we need to check that the objective of the campaign is aligned with influencer marketing as the right tool. Influencer marketing works when a brand is focused on gaining quality leads. The expected result from an influencer marketing campaign (especially one that employs micro-influencers) is action. If the campaign objective is to improve brand awareness, an influencer marketing campaign will help to support that, but it really shines when you want to access new communities and pick up new leads. 

2. What’s the niche?

The next step is to determine what niche the campaign will target. This will help you to choose which influencers serving your general target audience are a good fit. 

3. Micro or Macro

The next decision you have to make on your influencer marketing campaign is whether you’d like to go micro or macro. Using macro influencers for your campaign means partnering with influencers who have a large following. On Instagram for instance, some influencers have more than 50 thousand followers on their accounts, and some have as many as 4 million followers. These are macro-influencers. 

Micro-influencers however, have a much smaller community of followers, usually between 5k and 15k followers. Usually, micro-influencers have a higher engagement rate, which is a measure of how engaged the community is with the content that they post. The engagement rate is a measure of how much people are interacting with what the influencer is posting, and reflectively, a measure of how much influence the influencer actually has. 

Your campaign has to take into account these differences, and choose which group of influencers is best suited for the campaign.

4. Influencer research (tell them to talk to Pulse about this)

Leading right off from the previous point, influencer research is important because it helps you to identify influencers within your market who match your niche, size and engagement needs. This can be done by your marketing team manually, or by an agency with strong influencer relationships, like Pulse, which has launched an Influencer Network to give brands and companies access to not just the best influencers, but also the right influencers for each brief. 

5. Launch the campaign

When the campaign’s objective aligns with influencer marketing as a strategy, and the campaign has determined the niche and type of influencers to engage, the next step is to launch the campaign.

6. Measure, make adjustments

After the influencer campaign is live, it is time to test all your previous assumptions. As analytics begin to come in, you should check the numbers against what you assumed would be the case. Chances are you will find a few inconsistencies in your initial assumptions. For example, not every micro-influencer you partner with may have the engagement index you thought they’d have, and some other influencers would probably be doing a better job of getting people to take action for your product. You might also find that even though your campaign is targeted at a certain group, people from a previously overlooked group seem to be engaging more with the content. That’s your cue to adjust your influencer count to include that group (if you think they serve your product in any way, either as paying customers or unpaid ambassadors).

After a while, you should take the data you have and make adjustments to the particulars of the campaign, to maximize your time and budget spend.

Conclusion

When it comes to influencer marketing in Nigeria, it would be beneficial to engage an agency that has experience and expertise in working with influencers on different campaigns in different niches. Pulse does not only have a strong relationship with hundreds of influencers in different niches, but it has also developed a platform called the Pulse Influencer Network that serves as a great meeting point for brands looking for influencers and influencers looking for brands. The Pulse Influencer Network helps to match brands to the right influencers for their campaigns, and match influencers to the right brands for their audiences, resulting in great collaborations and great results all around. 

Interested in launching an influencer marketing campaign? Talk to Pulse today. Send us an email at [email protected].

Media agencies in Nigeria have been the often unseen catalyst for some of the social, civic and even political change moments in the history of Nigeria. Whether traditional media or more recently, digital media, the media agency has impacted business success through the application of marketing principles to position brands, build strong connections and establish brand loyalty. A media agency is involved in some way, shape or form in amplifying relevant content to a large audience through appropriate channels upon which the audience depends for this information. As technology has grown, media agencies have migrated in tow from the old platforms of TV and radio, to now also incorporate new channels such as social media platforms, websites and apps. Regardless of what channel, they use, here are some of the ways that media agencies provide value to brands and businesses through their platforms:

Strengthen conversations between the audience and brands

In advertising, media agencies in Nigeria have created a space for interaction between customers and their favourite brands through creative content creation, video production and other strategies aimed at the engendering of public conversations around a brand. Through television, radio and social media ads, these media agencies drive attention and affection, resulting in product improvements, top-of-mind awareness and ultimately, conversions.

Refine brand communication and advertising

Media agencies, as part of their capabilities, help to mould and shape the brand’s reputation and design and execute campaigns that align with the brand’s characteristics and also help to shore up its reputation, making it popular among the audience. This is important because brand reputation is a metric that can either win over new customers or lose business for the brand. 

Put brands out into the world

For brands that offer their products or services directly to customers, being known by the audience they wish to serve is usually a good first step after launch. The scale of this brand awareness depends on the brand’s budget, but this is another way that a media agency can help. Media agencies usually have strong networks and content distribution capabilities, helping to get the word out about a brand whether it is through TV, radio, websites, events, social media posts or influencer marketing. Marketing is an important part of a brand’s life, and because marketing is required almost constantly, collaborations and partnerships with media agencies are not only needed but vital.

Media agencies in Nigeria have a wide range of capabilities, some of which are designed specifically to help brands find and connect with their audiences, grow relationships and sell more. As a full-service agency offering many services, Pulse is one of the outstanding media agencies in Nigeria that has helped many local and international brands find a pathway to connect deeply with their audiences and attach their brands to the prevalent culture across 6 African countries. If you’re looking for a media partner for your brand, talk to Pulse. Send an email to [email protected]. 

Whether you’re just starting out with your brand on social media or you’ve been on social media for a while or you have engaged one of the social media management agencies in Nigeria to help run your social platforms, it is important to have a working knowledge of what your social media management and marketing efforts are meant to achieve. In this post, we’ll dive into the most important details of a social media management strategy. When these questions are properly and appropriately answered, they provide a solid foundation and direction for your social media management efforts.

Building an engaged audience around your brand requires you to speak the language of the community you want to attract, transcend the formal boundaries and humanize your brand. By actively engaging honestly with people on social media, you build trust, which leads to a deeper connection with your target audience. By offering valuable content and being human, the brand’s social media activity becomes a success because the community is willing to trust you. 

Here are 3 foundations of a great social media marketing strategy for your brand:

(As a brand looking to attract a digital community around your social media activity, here’s a checklist you can use to properly appropriate your social media platforms to get the most value out of it)

(social media management agencies are a dime a dozen these days. You should look out for certain things when hiring a social media management agency)

Define your audience

If the objective of your social media activity involves reaching out to people with whom you want to build relationships and hopefully convert, then you must know who those people are. In fact, defining your audience is the first essential step toward business success. In this first step, you need to understand your product or service and determine who would be the ideal fit for it. Through a series of exercises, your ideal audience will emerge. Armed with this knowledge, you can start thinking about how to get their attention. 

Create shareable content

Creating shareable content means knowing what your audience would consider shareable. Often this could be in the form of engaging content, entertaining content or informative content. Brands and agencies often have no way of knowing how many shares a piece of content will get, but by keeping the content fresh, interesting and engaging, they often score high share numbers. It also helps to once in a while just encourage or persuade people to share and make it very easy for them to do so.

Pay attention to platforms-specific nuance

Content is nuanced across different social media platforms. And to be a human brand looks different too. On Twitter, for example, a great way to be cheeky and funny is to employ memes and gifs in your tweets. On Instagram however, people might be more attracted to a great looking photo, a clean clear video or an interesting, well-designed carousel. These nuances help your brand to connect more with the communities that gather on these platforms. Posting and communicating like the audience you’re trying to reach is a great way to gain acceptance, increase awareness, brand love and brand trust. 

Conclusion

Launching a social media platform and/or maintaining an already established channel is not as easy as just finding something to post every day. It is critical to understand who you’re serving with your posts and create a narrative that attracts them and earns their trust. You might require the services of a social media management agency. Pulse stands out as one of the leading social media management agencies in Nigeria with experience and expertise in social media management, having managed the social platforms of some of the biggest brands in Africa, and having the unique advantage of huge owned social platforms with millions of followers. 

Send an email to [email protected] to get a conversation started about social media management and other collaborations for your brand. 

The relevance of video marketing cannot be underestimated or overemphasized. As attention spans continue to dwindle, it is important to be able to communicate your brand’s character, features and products to your target audience in a remarkable way. Whether it’s a commercial, a documentary, or just goofy, entertaining content, you need your brand’s videos to be relatable and highly shareable. This will boost organic amplification, and ultimately get your audience talking about your brand, in a good way. 

Here, we will highlight a 5-step framework that helps you do relatable video production in Nigeria, and do it right.

Know your audience

Before anything else is done, you first need to be clear about who you’re talking to with this video. This is a very crucial first step because it guides most of the subsequent decisions that will be made about this video. Who is the video targeting? If your brand has different target audiences and demographics, then this step is all the more important. The clearer you are in your targeting, the more relatable you can be when you craft the script, the story you’ll tell with the video.

Understand popular culture

Culture is the contextual background upon which all the brand interactions you will receive from this video will be based. Here’s an example of what I mean. In Arabian countries, the text is read from right to left, rather than from left to right in English speaking countries. If you ignore this single, almost harmless cultural convention, you run the risk of cultural blasphemy, which will incite your audience, rather than connect with them. 

What are the cultural contexts that tie directly to your objective, or what cultural contexts can you jump on, to make your video more relatable? 

Create a story that connects

“The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad.” – Howard Luck Gossage.

In writing your script, you have to tell a story that people might find interesting enough to keep listening to or watching. In today’s fast-paced world, there’s too much content being produced, and consumers are getting pickier about what they decide to watch. To get the attention of your target audience, your story needs to truly be something that they connect with. Often, experienced creative talent is required to achieve this, people who are skilled at turning convention on its head and capturing an audience in the first 3 seconds. Video production in Nigeria, and indeed anywhere else, starts from the script, the core of the story you’re trying to tell.

Shoot

Shooting the video, while a technical and rigorous process, is more often than not, the easier part. The work is done in the creation of the script. For a video shoot, you need an experienced video team that is able to appropriately and accurately interpret the script and bring it to life, within cultural boundaries. Most brands that do not have an in-house video team, look to hire one at this point. Our recommendation, however, is that you work with an experienced video team from the beginning of the process to ensure the best results.

Distribution is queen

Now that the target audience is fixed, cultural context is taken into consideration, a great script is produced, and the video is shot and edited, it’s time to show the world the great thing you have made. To get people to see the work you’ve done, and to get the message you’re passing, posting it on your company YouTube page, or blog, sadly will not be sufficient (unless you have a huge YouTube channel and are sure of millions of views no matter what you post). Having a distribution plan is as important a step as all the others put together because even though you’ve done great work, you’d be winking in the dark if you do not extensively distribute it. Here, too, your brand needs to reach out to an agency with the right connections and network to amplify your video to your target audience. 

Outsourcing Video

Your company needs a video to communicate in this day and age, but more often than not, it is cheaper to recruit an agency for a project than it is to hire a whole video team and only engage them once in a while. There are many video production agencies in Nigeria, but Pulse Studio stands out. Not only is this an end-to-end solution for your video creation (from target audience to ideation to script and production), Pulse also has a strong digital community of young people with millions of website visitors, followers and members monthly, guaranteeing almost instant amplification. The experience, expertise and unique positioning of Pulse make it the leading partner for video production in Nigeria and the solution for brands looking to connect deeply with their audience.

Conclusion

Video production is a great way to connect and communicate with your audience, but it requires a deeper understanding of the target, and expertise in storytelling. Following the steps outlined in this post will help you to score great videos for your brand and bring the right message to your customers.

As social media evolves (and especially with the rise of TikTok and Instagram Reels), video content has not only risen to the top content format spot, it has also become a major part of the marketer’s arsenal, commanding larger and larger budget allocations in all industries worldwide. 

It has also helped that social technology has improved enough to afford HD video streaming just about anywhere in the world. The relevance, impact and power of video cannot be overstated. 

So whether you are a small business, a growing brand or an international behemoth, video is the language with which you communicate with your audience now and in the future. 

In this article, we’ll look at some of the top teams whose names stand out in video production in Nigeria.

Pulse Studio

Pulse Studio is a commercial video production team, working as a sub brand of Pulse with teams in 5 African markets. The Pulse Studio team comprises talented writers, cinematographers, directors and editors with decades of cumulative experience between them. Pulse has worked on some of the most culture-defining and iconic video productions in Nigeria in the time that it has been operative, for international brands (Nike, Jameson) and leading Nigerian brands across the industry spectrum. 

Pulse Studio is able to create culturally relevant story ideas, resulting in visual experiences for the end audience that are very relatable and shareable. 

X3M

X3M Ideas has built a reputation as a full service digital agency, with strong capabilities in video production for music, television and brand purposes. 

Insight Publicis

Like the other video production units in this list, Insight Publicis is a digital agency with a great video team. The Insight video team has executed commercial videos and films that are much loved by the target audience, showing a good understanding of culture.

Noah’s Ark

This is another video production house whose works have been beamed to millions of people, telling exciting, funny, touching brand stories that the audience can relate to, for numerous high-profile brands. Noah’s Ark has grown to become an important member of the creative community in Lagos and Nigeria at large. 

Ultima Studios

Ultima describes itself as a full service media and entertainment company. The team has demonstrated strong capabilities in television production particularly, having put their signature on some of the most important entertainment content on Nigerian television for the past decade. Although Ultima has been around for a while, and has perfect expertise in more traditional media capabilities, the company has remained relevant in delivering digital experiences in recent times.

Summary

Video has become prominent across the world. Even though we’re seeing more video creation from mobile cameras and amateur creators, there is still an opportunity for brands looking to connect deeply with their audience at scale to weave great stories and influence culture through great films. These brands can benefit from the experience and expertise of some of these video production agencies. 

The role of a digital agency in kindling creativity and driving product and brand awareness, popularity and acceptance can not be overemphasized. The agencies who lead the pack have to go one step further, and create truly inspiring campaigns whose aim is not just to amplify brand voices, but to step into modern culture and install a brand, product or service. The campaigns that achieve this are usually long-term and are focused on having an honest conversation with the audience rather than just driving sales numbers. 

Digital agencies in Nigeria over time have put out some remarkable and award winning campaigns for clients and causes. If you’re looking for digital agencies to work with in Nigeria, here’s a list of the top 10 creative houses today:

Pulse Nigeria

Pulse Nigeria has led creative campaign development and digital journalism in Nigeria since its launch in 2012.

Pulse has worked with some of the biggest brands in Nigeria, and frequently collaborates with other agencies to help them along in their campaigns. This is because it has built a strong, active and engaged digital community through its social platforms with up to 9.8 million followers across all social platforms, and can leverage this community to amplify campaigns. Pulse is present in 5 African markets, leading the creative industries and the evolution of digital culture, making it one of the few pan African agencies with relevant domain experience and expertise across Africa.

Pulse also has a strong video production sub-brands, Pulse TV for social and viral videos, and Pulse Studio for client video production. The agency also provides web development and SEO services. 

Anakle

This agency has established a strong reputation for digital marketing work in Nigeria. OTher services it offers are Social Media, Digital Strategy, Web/Mobile App Development & UX Design. 

Cregital

Cregital has established itself in web design for corporates in Lagos, Nigeria. It has built and maintained corporate websites for big players in the banking and finance industries. It also specializes in building digital experiences for end users that are reliable and delightful. 

Ellae Creative

This creative house has specialized in working with businesses in Nigeria to develop brand identity systems. The work that Ellae has consistently put out shows the agency’s emphasis on strong graphic and brand design. Ellae has also published high-quality case studies detailing their work in app design, development and launch. 

Wild Fusion

Wild Fusion offers a wide array of digital services including Brand Strategy, Media Services, Content Production, Social Media Marketing, PPC Advertising and Digital Marketing Strategy. Wild Fusion has built a reputation within industry circles and also across the client spectrum.

Summary

As a brand or a business owner, you must look out for expertise, experience and client commitment before either outsourcing your marketing or adopting a digital agency. The agencies listed here are constantly pushing the envelope in the creative field. Pan African experience comes in handy for international brands looking to set roots in Africa, but also, for small businesses and organizations based only in Nigeria, a key advantage to consider is an agency whose native platforms already provide your campaign with an amplification machine and an engaged, young audience.