Thirteen years after he floated Advertange, an outdoor advertising company, Akin Adelegan has recorded some milestones albeit with its attendant challenges. He speaks on his foray into entrepreneurship, his management style and the journey so far in this interview with Remi Adelowo
How has your entrepreneurial journey been since you established Advertange in 2003?
Advertange is a child of necessity; I used to work, brother, at Benjamin Black and Co., where I was a pioneer member. But at some point, I had to leave though with his blessings to start my own thing and that was how Advertange came to be. Our strategy was to combine innovation and excellent delivery to our clients. The name Advertange was coined from the words Advertisement Advantage.
What is your take on when you started off the outdoor advertising industry to what obtains now?
Initially when we started off, it was more or less an all-comers affair. Virtually everybody was just doing all kinds of billboard and putting it anywhere. Back then, there were no regulations or proper structures to guide the industry. Though we have the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), which tried its best to regulate the industry, but because OAAN members are also practitioners, it was difficult to instill discipline and curb excesses in the sector. But with the establishment of the LASAA and some other agencies now regulating the sector, we’ve witnessed tremendous improvement in the industry. Initially, the major objective of LASAA, which is to generate revenue for the state government, was quite destabilising for many players, but later, better explanations were offered on the aims and objectives of the agency and now everyone is better for it.
What unique innovations have your company brought about in the sector?
Advertange pioneered the use of reflective prints for billboards in the industry. And this came about because of the challenge of epileptic power supply in the country, most billboards lose visibility once it is 6pm. So, the challenge of illuminating billboards was quite bad. And that prompted us to come up with a low-budget way of making sure that the client can see his products beyond a particular time. And we thank God that almost everybody in the industry has embraced the reflective prints. Initially, many of our colleagues were a bit reluctant to embrace the idea, but later they saw the wisdom in the innovation and have tapped into it fully. The major breakthrough for Advertange was when it became the first outdoor advertising company to buy outdoor media for Airtel then known as Zain, which we got a lot of kudos for.
We learnt your company just brought in some trucks for mobile advertising. Can you elaborate more on this?
The outdoor advertising industry is still evolving in Nigeria, so all over the world, LED screens is the in-thing. For us at Advertange, we felt that rather than doing on the monstrous LED screens, we can do the LED, albeit in a mobile way. We are not the pioneers of this concept in Nigeria; Look Media brought it into the country. However, we felt we could build upon what was on ground by introducing sight sound, achieve more clarity and with a bigger screen. That was why we brought in about eight trucks, with four still on the way. In this season of political campaign, the demand for such trucks has been quite high, because politicians need it to sell themselves to the people in a very entertaining way. This mobile screen has the advantage of winning people’s attention without much effort. Beside its mobility, the truck can also serve as a static billboard. What most people don’t understand is that there are only very few areas where you can put LED boards in Lagos; so, what the truck now does is to fill that gap. And the truck can remain there for 24 hours. And for activation, rather than put 20 ladies dancing in a moving bus, the mobile truck can better serve that purpose. You can also play a home video on the truck, while it also has 5,000 watts. It is also interactive and you can also have a live transmission, like football matches, played on it. I believe that in the next few years, the mobile LED screens would be the in-thing in the industry.
How has the response to the concept been?
It has been very good. The first three units we acquired are currently engaged outside Lagos, while the talks are at an advanced stage with some companies to use the five new units we have just brought in. Currently, we are in talks with a major telecommunications company to engage the trucks for a major campaign in seven major cities in Nigeria.
Running a company successfully for 12 years is no mean feat. What is your secret?
I learnt something from my brother, Dapo Adelegan. He calls it the second curve. What that simply means is that when you get to a particular stage in business, you have to come up with something different. We have had our share of challenges in the past, but what we simply did was to go back to the drawing board and come up with something fresh and different. Any business that fails to be innovative will eventually die. It’s as simple as that.
What is your manage-ment style like?
Well, I’m the most simple CEO you can find. I’m usually dressed in my tee shirt and jeans, because I’m more of a field person. I learnt the administrative side of the business from my brother who knows his onions in that area. Talking about management style, I admire Richard Branson a lot. I prefer a very simple working environment where workers are allowed to use their initiative. We have a target every month and it is only when my staff have challenges in meeting up that they refer to me. I prefer that my staff stay in the forefront, while I stay in the background. Each section here prepares their budget and I also allow them to meet clients and take decisions. Even when I’m outside the country, they have the freedom to take actions without my input. I believe in projecting the Advertange brand rather than Akin Adelegan.
Tell me the toughest decision you have taken as a CEO.
There was a time we had some challenges like lack of access to fund to carry out upgrade, which compelled us to disengage some staff, most of whom were already planning to start their businesses. So, what I simply did was to give them my blessings to start their thing.
Have you had cause to summarily fire any of your staff?
I won’t use the word ‘fire’, but I’ve had cause to ask some staff to step aside. Of course, like every business, we’ve also made our mistakes including making wrong investments, unnecessary flamboyance, taking certain things for granted and not properly servicing some clients. Now, our new style is to relate with our clients in a more respectable way. At the beginning of every year, we ask them to give us an appraisal of how we have performed in the previous year and that has really boosted our profile with our clients.
What are your projections in the medium and long terms?
Ultimately, we want to assemble mobile LED trucks in Nigeria. We want to build mobile LED trucks not just for advertisement, but mobile clinics, mobile kitchen and so on. We would be selling the trucks to interested people. Before the end of the year, we would be bringing a bus with an all-round LED screens rather than the paper thing we see on BRT buses now. That way, we can have more than 20 brands as the buses move around the town. We are in talks with the company that manufactures the mobile LED in China and by year-end or early next year, they would be here to round up the discussions.
Has Advertange given birth to other subsidiaries?
Advertange is the core company, but we have another company called Postafix, which is in charge of our printing business and we also some other joint venture businesses with other companies.
