The world’s most famous fictional detective could not function without data. And that is exactly why Adspace Africa wants its clients to utilise data in advertising so as to “make bricks with clay” as Sherlock Holmes would say.
By aggregating data for specific locations on both outdoor and online platforms, the Pan African marketing technology company says it seeks to shorten the gap between advertisers and audiences by affording ad firms the leeway to advertise both online and offline.
Through its online portal that was launched in September 2018, Adspace Africa says businesses can now place a billboard anywhere while also buying the equivalent online audience at the same location(s).
Adspace chief information officer (CIO) Fred Kithinzi said the integration of online and offline platforms is critical in a “much more interconnected world.”
“Your offline audience is also online. And that’s where the integration with programmatic advertising comes in to make this space more data-driven, automated and measurable,” Kithinzi says.
The Adspace CIO added that the portal includes a centralized data managed platform that combines in-depth information about audiences, such as location data of users. The location data is thus used to match with an existing outdoor inventory of the marketing tech firm.
In practice, users would therefore find advertising on billboards aggregated to their online platforms
This could be a win for ad agencies as they seek to reinforce products, but time will tell whether audiences will buy into the idea with the already existing pop-up advertising and endless notifications posing as a nuisance to some.
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Sample data shared by Adspace shows that according to its aggregate for the month of January 2019, Nairobi’s Kilimani area leads with 1.5 million online users.
It is followed by Lang’ata and Upper Hill areas, each having 700,000 online users while Kileleshwa, Ruiru (Kiambu County) and Kisumu register 500,000 online audiences.
The data, which fluctuates due to movement of people, also records that Nairobi’s Westlands area and Thika have 400,000 online users in January. Athi River (Mavoko) and Kikuyu clock 300,000 online users.
Adspace chief executive Bertha Babu said, “Adspace’s intention is to become the ultimate cross channel (outdoor and digital) platform. This will provide advertisers and brand managers the ability to autonomously book outdoor advertising space and leverage the existing online audience estimated to be over 20 million.”
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