OOH Academy, a bespoke platform that provides thought leadership and training in the Out-of-Home subsector in Africa and the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) has partnered to hold the maiden edition of Location Intelligence Workshop recently.
The workshop which focused on the value of GPS technology, the power of location intelligence in Out-of-Home business and gaining audience and location insights from Google maps in strategizing and planning OOH campaigns was held at the Amber Residence Hotel, GRA – Ikeja, Lagos.
The event themed “Exploiting the Opportunities in Google Maps for Better Decision Making in OOH Advertising Business,” featured presentations from seasoned experts and professionals from diverse areas to address the subject matter.
Speaking in his welcome address, Kingsley Onwukaeme, Convener of the workshop and Project Coordinator of OOH Academy said that organising the workshop was borne out of the need to share knowledge with professionals and to promote the growth of the OOH industry in Nigeria.
“The OOH industry in Nigeria is experiencing seismic shifts in the agency services and media owners’ operational pattern. The industry evolved from Outdoor Advertising to Out of Home advertising. And now, it has further evolved to Audience Planning, leveraging audience and their location insights leading to a breed of professionals you can call Location Marketing Experts.
“By implication, without the understanding of our locations and their audience, it will be difficult for us to prove the value of our OOH solutions to the clients creating the impression of no value from OOH to the Marketing Channels Ecosystem.
“Google Maps is one of the freely accessible Location Intelligence platforms that has the biggest level of data widely acceptable in the world. Therefore, the need to introduce us to some features of the platform and how to creatively analyze its data sets and use them in proving the values of OOH solution to the clients. Therefore, we came up with the workshop to show how to gain audience and location insights from google maps when strategizing and planning OOH campaigns,’’ he revealed.
Valentine Elaigwu, Managing Director of Ground Force Marketing Services presented a paper on Location Intelligence for Effective OOH Advertising. Speaking as a professional in the outdoor business as well as a member of the Outdoor Agencies Association of Nigeria, OAAN, Elaigwu gave a detailed presentation on the how location intelligence has changed narrative and improve the OOH practice globally.
Orakwe John who is a professional Google Street View photographer gave participants valuable insights on how to leverage Google products in providing value for the clients they work for. In his presentation titled “A Tour of Google Maps,” the photographer who is also the Country Manager of Proto leveraged his experience using these products to educate participants on how to put out their billboard locations on the google maps for easy customer reach.
Also presenting a session at the workshop is Chike Oputa, Cluster MD, Redstar, RapidXtra & Dentsu X of Mediafuse Dentsu International. Oputa presented a paper on “Mining Audience and Location insights from Google Maps.”
At the end of the workshop, participants were given certificates participation which are eligible for an APCON upgrade.
The Location Intelligence Workshop is one of the activities of the OOH Academy, a bespoke platform that provides thought leadership and training in the Out-of-Home subsector in Africa. In a chat with the media after the workshop, Onwukaeme said the focus of the Academy is on the growth of the fast-evolving subsector in Africa and in Nigeria specifically.
“0ur objectives are to promote education of the OOH subsector by building knowledgeable Practitioners in Nigeria, grow the OOH industry by deepening the credibility of her integrity and recognizing and celebrating excellent performances in the OOH subsector. That is why we have different programmes such as our monthly virtual webinar called the BOARDROOM, this physical workshop and many more to come,” he concluded.
