Here’s your bit of trivia for the day: Nigeria’s current advertising spend is around $500 million a year, and PWC thinks it’s the fastest growing market in the world.
S&T Media, a Lagos based digital advertising agency wants to tap into all that potential. They have just closed a seed round from EchoVC, who have set aside up to $1 million for the company to invest in expansion, product development, and hardware/staff acquisition.
This is interesting because in the same week as this announcement, S&T Media secured exclusive retail deals with Spar, and CityDia, a spanish-born retail chain that ventured into Nigeria last year. The deals with the retail chains are to install digital screens on aisle shelves, through which they will deliver commercials to potential buyers and they’ve called the product AdEdge.
“Since inception we wanted to create platforms that can give brands location-based reach they crave in a more efficient and targeted manner.” said Tolu Roberts, co-founder of S&T Media.
He continued, “With EchoVC on board, we have found more than just an investor but also a partner who understands effective growth of tech startups. We are confident that we can penetrate the advertising market with our innovative platforms whilst leveraging on EchoVC’s strategic partnerships.”
Another of their products is AdPump, which is basically a collection of 22-inch digital screens embedded in fuel pumps, across Nigeria. They’ve signed exclusive distribution deals with filling station companies like Oando, Forte Oil and Total Plc. to deliver ads from partners like Etisalat, Jumia, Smile Communications, GTBank and Mall for Africa.
S&T launched AdPump in 2014, and since then, they’ve recorded 8 million views, and signed content deals with Channels TV, HipTV and Pulse.ng to deliver news, sports and entertainment.
Eghosa Omoigui, a partner at EchoVC added, “We were impressed with S&T Media’s ingenuity in developing new routes to market for advertisers in Africa, namely via location-based digital. The velocity at which they’ve built a for-Africa product, attracted content suppliers, key advertising partnerships as well as a distribution network with such notable brands, is a combination of their excellent product, as well as the market’s willingness to use targeted marketing methods to reach their end user. The customer feedback has been fantastic and reflects the platform’s ability to consistently resonate with advertisers and consumers alike.”
