By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A foremost independent Public Relations Measurement and Evaluation agency in Nigeria, P+ Measurement Services, has unveiled its maiden media performance audit report.
According to the Lead Consultant at P+ Measurement Services, Mr Philip Odiakose, the report was released because of the “desire to help communications professionals and PR experts understand the essence of data and telling brands’ stories with data made this achievable.”
In a statement, the firm explained that the intelligence report has an overview of advert spend and placement, most engaged media tabloids, CEO media prominence, top financial & insurance reporters, and dominant media activities in both the banking and insurance industry.
It noted that this audit was carried out with due diligence to measure and evaluate the impact of communications in the aforementioned industries during the period of Q1 2020 and Q1 2019.
Sampled data and platforms included 21 commercial banks in Nigeria and leading insurance companies’ media data; 44 newspapers including magazines; online media publications consisting of blogs, forums, financial sites, insurance sites, online news-sites and brand sites.
The Nigerian Banking sector has been on the front burner in terms of advert placement in the traditional media (print publication) with billions of naira expended yearly.
This however, does not look like it is changing anytime soon as the banking sector has outshone other sectors to date.
A review of the report by Business Post showed that ThisDay, BusinessDay, Leadership, The Punch and Vanguard topped as the most patronized publications with the highest advert spent by banks, while BusinessDay, The Punch, ThisDay, The Guardian, and Daily Trust topped as the most patronized publications with the highest advert spent by insurance companies.
On the other hand, ThisDay, BusinessDay, Leadership, The Punch and The Guardian were the most patronized publications for advert placement by banks, while BusinessDay, The Punch, ThisDay, The Guardian, and The Nation were the preferred publications for advert placement by insurance companies.
The report further said the tier-1 banks dominated the banking industry in advert placement and spend in Q1 2020 with Access Bank (N163m), Zenith Bank (N161m), Fidelity Bank (N92m), UBA (N91m) and First Bank (N81m) topping the chart while Leadway Assurance (N10m), AXA Mansard (N5m) and Consolidated Hallmark Insurance (N3m) topped in the insurance industry in spend and placement in Q1 2020.
Further analysis showed that Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, and Ecobank had the highest front page advert placement in the print publications in Q1 2020 while the insurance companies sampled recorded zero front-page advert in Q1 2020.
ThisDay, BusinessDay and The Nation were the most engaged media on the editorial by the Nigerian banks while BusinessDay, The Nation and Independent were the most engaged publications by insurance companies.
An analysis showed that Collins Nweze of The Nation was the most prolific reporter for the banking industry while Nike Popoola of The Punch top the chart for insurance.
P+ said in conclusion, it is essential to state that in as much as there could have been other factors that contributed to these outcomes, the COVID-19 pandemic that took the universe by storm early this year, had a remarkable impact in how most of these financial companies responded to the media in terms of their media spend, and the kind of stories they put out in the media.
A copy of the report can be viewed HERE
