From Design to Dollars: How to Use Billboards to Boost Your Business

Hello and welcome to the show. Today is an out and about episode so apologies if you hear any noise in the background. Now today on the show we are going to be looking at how we can use billboards to promote our businesses and yes you heard me correctly, we are going to be talking about billboards. Now, for those of you who are kids of the Internet age, billboards are those things that when you drive by the roadside, you see there, there's a giant picture, It's a giant a banner,

it's a giant poster. It's a giant something on the side of the building or by the side of the highway that promotes a business or promotes an offering or promotes a political candidate or promotes something. So that's what the Billboard is essentially for those of you who live in Abuja and you drive by Central District, if you're on that road between Grand Square and Grand Square and Access Bank, if you notice one of the uncompleted buildings to your left on the left side of the road, assuming you're driving towards the fire station,

there's one of the uncompleted buildings that they have this massive poster of. What's this guy, Obo Davido? Yeah. Davido. Yeah. So Davido's on the poster, and they're promoting his his new drink, the collaboration with Martel, I think it's called Martel. And he has some new fancy spirits rolling out and then stuff like that. So essentially, it's just half the building that has been devoted to Davido and the collaboration with Martel.

Now, the reason why I'm bringing this up is because those of you who are born in the Internet generation might just assume that billboards are dead and they have no role in promoting businesses. But I'm just trying to show you that even modern, trendy, young, sophisticated media personalities, musicians, content creators, I mean, you name it, they also use these sorts of things. So Davido is there with the Billboard, you know, Mattel.

So I'm sure that they have been running some promotions on Instagram to promote the fact that this guy now has his own liquor on the market, you know, so that Nigerians can go and buy, you know, you want to get high, you, you want some, you know, some good spirits, you know, you know that Davido has his own stuff. So I'm sure they can use Tiktok and Instagram and things like that to promote it. But then of course, they also thought it's fit to use billboards.

Then there's also this lady Niger brand hot chick. I think if I remember her correctly, back when she was going to do the international Abuja something, I can't remember the event, she also had billboards as well. But anyway, am I rambling our billboards? Basically, I'm just trying to tell you guys that look, billboards are not dead. And for those of you who've been following my adventures about being on radio, I'm trying to run some experiments to see how analogue, old school, you know,

things that people think can contribute to your business. I'm trying to do some small experiments to see how we can use them for business generation. Because not everything has to be, not everything has to be online. Because when you're trying to promote your business, what we're trying to look for actually is we're trying to, we're trying to look for attention. Yeah, let me put it that way. We're trying to look for attention in the most cost effective and in the most efficient manner possible.

So sometimes just bear in mind that a billboard might be one of those ways. So even though Davido has an Instagram account, millions of followers, and even though Mattel has all kinds of collaborations with other Instagram influencers, millions of accounts, they didn't choose to do the promotion exclusively online. They thought it would be OK to go to Abuja and cover half of a whole building with the poster to let everybody know that the man himself, Obo now has his own line of liquor.

And even though Nigel Brand Hotchik, she's really good on, you know, Facebook community stuff, Telegram community, this, what else, WhatsApp community, this e-mail list, you know, blah, blah, blah, all these fancy text off. She also was throwing around billboards. I'm around Abuja now. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because there's a client that I'm working for currently who's based in Benin and who runs the gadget store.

And he wanted to have the conversation around billboards. And I thought, OK, you know, we have over 1030 something, no 1044 / 1044 episodes now. And I realized that I haven't done a single podcast episode dedicated to billboards. So today is going to be that one. So we're going to be answering the questions, do billboards work? How can we make them work? Yeah, let me just put it that way. Do billboards work? And how can we make them work for our businesses?

Now, you might not run a gadget store, you might not be opening a line of liquor like David O is, and you might not be trying to organise an international trade fair like Niger Brand Hot Chick is doing. Sorry, forgive me. I'm not sure what her name is. I know that it's Niger Brand and I know that it's chick. But the adjective in between, I'm not sure what it is. I'm not sure whether it is Hot Chick or something Chick, but it's Niger Brand something Chick.

So your business might be different, but still listen for the principles and listen, listen for the principles and the frameworks that we discuss here and then take those frameworks and those principles and see how we can apply to your business and you should be just fine. Now before we continue the shout outs, because I haven't shouted out people in a while, so it's really backing up. So First off, I'd like to shout out Atanda Yusuf.

I'm assuming she's a female because the only Atanda I met back when I was in school was a girl. But just in case you're not a girl, apologies. So Atanda Yusuf XI or he made a Spotify comment on the 29th of January 2025. That was sometime last week was Spotify comment. He or she enjoyed the show, of course, wanted some clarity on the nature of the podcast because at the point where she came on the show, I was talking about my experiences in radio.

So I made a all podcast episode dedicated to Atanda Yousuf just to explain who am I, what the show is about. Yeah. And stuff like that. So Atanda Yousuf, if you check the episode that is titled your free business resource or something like that. It's something that I definitely published last week. If you listen to that episode at Thunder, it will answer all your questions. But thank you very much for listening to the show.

And if you derive value from it, please share the link with other people so that they can listen to the show as well. Then. OK, shout out again to our beloved sister because she definitely has the record for the most comments left so far. That's May summer Agotruku. Oh, by the way, I miss my wife is watching this thing called Chatham. Chatham, of course, is an IBU period piece. It's it's on, it's on Showmax if you're an online person, but if you're an online person, it's it's on DSTV.

So Chatham, DSTV Showmax real nice. There's one of the characters there who is named Chatham. Also a fine girl, just like the sorry that the character that is named Miss Summer. So also a fine girl like this Miss Summer who likes leaving comments on our podcast. But unfortunately the Miss Omar character there is not very kind. Let me just put it that way. And then plus how Miss Omar is spelt different from yours. So it just makes me wonder how many ways can we spell this name Miss Omar?

Because Miss Omar Aguchuku, her sister on the podcast, a member of her family, she spells hers NME. But then Miss Omar in Chatham, hers is spelled MME. And then so Miss Omar Aguchuku, shout out again because she left another comment on the 29th of January 2025. OK, That was on the episode about targeted advertising. Yes, about how your advertising should be targeted so that you get much more effective results. So I guess it's a good thing that I'm even shouting out to Mr. Margo Chuku today because while we're talking about billboards, you know, it's all one and the same advertising and billboards, even though it's general, I'll be generic, you know, as far as in the open address to everyone, we will see, as we explore some of the principles now in the framework,

you'll see how we can use it as a form of targeted advertising. So the shout outs for today are Atanda Yusuf and Miss Omar Aguchuku. Thank you very much for listening to the show. Thank you very much for commenting on Spotify because the more you guys listen to the show and the more you guys comment on Spotify, the more Spotify he thinks that OK, what this young man is doing over here, Tavishima on the podcast is really good stuff.

So let's share it to more people. And by the way, if you'd love to connect for a strategy session or a business audit or you have some questions you would like me to answer. The number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, then I am on LinkedIn. Connect with me on LinkedIn, the name to look for establishing Aiden. So today is our billboard episode. And like I said, it's because a client of mine wants to have that conversation.

He runs a gadget store in Benin. And so these are some of the things that I told him that we ought to pay attention to. So number one, of course, billboards, the whole point of billboards, especially, you know, coming from an old school background, let me just put it this way. If you have the best billboard in the whole world where you put it in the Sahara desert, you know, is that going to work? The answer is absolutely no,

because in the in the Sahara desert, nobody's going to see it. The only person who's going to see it are those extreme sports people who are driving through the Sahara, you know, on a three day something, something race or extreme trekkers who are trying to do some live kind of thrill or maybe somebody who gets lost in the Sahara desert. But either way, if you have a billboard and you put it in Sahara desert, you're not going to make lots of conversions.

You're not going to make money from that. So when we're talking about billboards, high traffic, high foot traffic, high Okada traffic, high driving, traffic has always been a key consideration. If you don't believe me, but maybe you grew up in Lagos like I did, There was a time when 3rd Mainland Bridge, yeah, Third Mainland Bridge off of 3rd Mainland Bridge, when you're driving across the the ocean, there's this island off of the Third Mainland Bridge where for a long time there was this massive billboard on the island and I think was for Gooda Ultimate Search.

Yeah, I think was Gooda Ultimate Search or something like that. And I mean, just think about that, that whole stretch, the Billboard is there. How many cars drive? I don't know. I was going to say thousands of cars, 10s of thousands, let's just say thousands of cars. I have no idea. But all driving there. And that is prime real estate. And that was not a bad place to advertise because all of people who would be driving on that bridge would get to see your message for an extended period of time.

Because it was a huge billboard. It covered the whole island. So it's not like anybody could. It's not like, you know, you, you can't miss it. And the Billboard is so big and the bridge is so long that you had a good, I don't know, maybe like 5-6 minutes before you drive past the Billboard. So go to ultimate search, advertise there. I think the three Orangemen from Miranda, this was the campaign that was maybe decades ago.

So someone you might not remember was when 3 Orangemen were walking around Lagos and was causing a bunch of rumours and stuff like that because Miranda did not. It was a publicity stunt basically, and they didn't disclose what it was about. You know, we're just seeing men walking around in orange and then it turned out that Miranda was back in the market. Miranda is a really old school drink. I still don't see them around.

It's a drink like Fanta. It's one of those orange drinks. So basically what I'm trying to say is that, look, if we're dealing with billboards, it has to be high traffic, high foot traffic. Do plenty people walk on this road, high Arcata traffic? Are plenty of Arcata people driving up and down, high car traffic? Do motorists drive past this road a lot? That's what we're trying to do. Because if we put a billboard up where nobody's going to see it,

it's not going to make sense. Now for this guy who has a store where he sells gadgets in Benin close to University community, the key thing that we have to discuss now is OK, we say we're going to do billboards, right? We now have to figure out areas of high traffic for student locations because we've been able to figure out that his ICP, the people that pay him the most money are students. So we need to put up these billboards in high traffic locations for students.

Now I haven't been to University of Benin High School De Nifa, so I went to UII, went to the Akonga Aku. Is it Akonga Akuku campus? Where else? Some schools in on this school in Austria. What's it called? I've been to a few universities but not been in anyway. And of course UNILAC because my brother was in UNILAC and where else? Yeah, my wife. OK, well my wife was not in UNILAC when I used to go to UNILAC. But anyway, so schools like that, we have a main road in OAU

was called Rd. One, that long road that leads in there. So those will be some of the locations that I would recommend. How about Rd. One? Because everybody going into the school would have to pass through Rd. One. Now I'm not sure what that road is called in your university and if you have that kind of Rd., because some schools like BSU, Benoit State University, Benoit State University is a new university. So it's, it's built next to the road.

So it's not as if there's a massive Rd. you have to drive to, to get to the school. So for someone who is trying to target students to sell gadgets, high traffic might mean put your billboard on road 1, the main road that leads into the university. It might also mean put your billboards around areas of student housing because of course, you know how it is in Nigeria. Now you know, you have the school, the school can maybe only accommodate maybe, you know, 2 or 3000, but then the total student community might be 20,000.

So that means lots of people stay in town. So go and pick some of those areas because you know, for those of us who lived in town when we're in school, you know that for some reason some students are just gone to some parts of town over others. Try and put the billboards next to student housing, you know, where lots of students are cluster. They can also put it next to popular Hangouts, hangout sports. You know, there's some of those areas in town where guys go to drink beer, maybe to play pool.

There was this hotel in Ephia that had a swimming pool. So, you know, people go there, just relax and have a good time. So maybe you might put the Billboard there. Let's see what else. You might also put your billboard around popular shopping areas. But whatever it is, I'm sure that you're beginning to get the point that when it comes to billboards, we're trying to freestyle and just trying to look at areas where there's going to be high traffic because we need eyeballs to see this billboard.

Because if nobody's used this billboard, then of course we're not going to make any money. Now, of course, you put a billboard close to your store so that people won't just drive by. If they're entering the street and they see the billboards and there's a gadget store here and you know, before they drive by, say, oh, that's the gadget store, then they're just driving. So of course, you got to put one close to the store as people need to know that, OK, there's a store like this in the neighborhood.

Then when it comes to placing billboards, especially those of you who currently live in Lagos, you'd appreciate what I'm talking about right now. Look for areas where there is no obstruction because you can get a billboard and it's a nice spot. But then maybe there's an orange tree that is growing there and for now, the orange tree is small, so no problem. But then you pay for the Billboard space, You pay for it, I don't know, maybe two years,

rainy season come and go, you're not paying attention. Before you know it, the orange tree has grown and has covered half the Billboard. That's a waste of money because location is good. But the orange tree or the mango tree or the what's it called, this one that has palm fronds on it, you know, can grow and cover half the Billboard and people are not seeing it. So pay attention. Obstruction. So, but this one is mostly a Lagos thing because you can have a billboard correct location,

you put it up there no problem, you pay for six months no problem and then you forget before you nobody, you know somebody will build house and the house will now come and block half your billboard. You know that kind of madness happens in Lagos. As per this plot of land is vacant, there's nothing, you just go away. By the time you come back three months, somebody has built something, you know, so, so ligrations, pay attention.

After you pay for your billboard, go and collect your money back. If at first it was good, then now there's a tree there and there was somebody has built a building, ground collection money back. So make sure there's no obstructions, no trees, no buildings. Then this is also something to consider. If you take a billboard and you put it in a busy spot, is that a good idea? Maybe, maybe not. There's some discussion around these sorts of things.

There's some people who want their billboards to be the only billboard in that particular area so that people just catch the attention. Bam, one time like that billboard that used to be towards the ocean off the mainland bridge bridge in, in Lagos, the one that covered the whole island. So that one that is prime location, that's the only billboard people will see when they're driving on that road. And then there's some people who believe that if there's other billboards, if there's clutter,

there is no big deal, that people might be looking at 1 billboard because this one is fine. And maybe their eye will now, you know, just slide and then look at your own billboard too. So you never know. That's part of it. And that's one of the reasons why billboards on, what's it called? Something square. Something square, it's in New York, NY Times Square. That's why billboards in Times Square are very, very, very expensive.

In my own opinion, I think Times Square is really busy because anytime you look, it's just billboard, especially electronic billboard. So image will flash, flash, flash. You know, Beyoncé will flash, flash and go, you know, Jason Derülo billboard, flash and go. Coca-Cola will flash every. It just is like man is too much. So in my own opinion, I don't think advertising in Times Square, putting your billboard in New York Times Square, I

don't think it's good money. But The thing is, because it is Times Square and it's a tourist location, it is famous for the billboards. And so lots of people go there precisely to see the billboards. So maybe that's why in that case, even though you go there, you see like 100 billboards, everything electronic just be flashing in your face. Anyhow, maybe it might be a good idea because lots of people are going there who are tourists precisely to see the billboards.

But those are some things to consider. So we've looked at how we need high traffic. We need to be close. Put one or two close to the store on the same street, then no obstruction so that people can see. But in some cases, or like Times Square in New York, if there are other billboards, I guess that's not a problem. Now design. For those of you who are into graphic design, this is where you guys should excel. Make the damn thing easy to read.

No clutter, keep it simple, keep it short because there are some billboards that maybe like you're driving. And all I want is babe, please help me get the phone number. I'm driving. I can't get the phone number, but there's so much GISBAO on the damn billboard that you know, my wife can't find the phone number. Like, oh, I can't find the phone number because there's too much information. So take it easy when people are designing these, your billboards.

Sometimes people put too much, too much information. So just calm down, keep it simple. It's the same thing for those of you who are trying to promote your businesses. And then you create these things and then you wrap your car around with the information. Sometimes you put too much information like I saw this one is a fumigation company. So like, oh babe, babe, I beg, help me get the number. Let me call them the next time I

have to fumigate the house. I can't find the phone number and lo and behold, there's just too much information. We can't find the phone number. So keep these designs simple. Maybe when you design this thing, you're designing on desktop and then you have time to sit down and you read it. You forget that when it's a billboard, somebody is driving by. So they need to be able to see this thing and maybe just do screenshots and then get the phone number or write down the phone number or find the Instagram handle or something.

But whatever the call to action is that you're putting up on this thing, just make this thing simple. Make the design easy to read on your desktop. You can read anything when you're driving at night. It does not mean you can read everything. In fact, that will be a Davido example. For Davido and the Martel thing, first of all, his face is half of the banner. Yeah, of course. Fine chicks, one fine chick to the left, one fine chick to the right.

Then the bottle is also dominant in the image. And then some small texts. I can't remember what it was. Then I think under 18. Drink responsibly. Something something, something, you know, as in just simple passes across the passage. Davido now has his own brand of shayo. He must be 18 years old. Drink responsibly. If you want to know more, check this website, check this Instagram handle. Simple. So when you're doing the design,

I'm not saying go and look at the Davido thing and then copy it. I'm not saying copy that. I'm just trying to say keep it simple. In their own case, they're trying to promote something. Davido has his own shadow. You must be 18 years old to drink. If you want to know more, visit here. And they designed the Billboard to say exactly that. So make your designs easy to read. Let not be that because you just graduated from computer design school, you want to show everybody that you can do everything.

So you do embossing, you do gloss, you do math, you do this, you do that. You put 5 images, you put all the list of services, you put like 7 phone numbers on it. In fact, that's the one that really, really ticks me off. Like why in the world did you go and put 57 phone numbers on top a a billboard or, or a flyer or something like that? Put one or two phone numbers. Just put one MTR #1 glow number finish or one MTR #1 glow #1

Airtel number finish. Just leave it like that. Simple. It's a bit much when somebody's driving by and the husband says, oh babe, help me get the phone number. And it's like, you know, there are 10 phone numbers there. That's ridiculous. That's too much. All right, where are we? Where are we compelling message now? So if you think should have a compelling message, since we're dealing with students, it would be OK in this case to use slang and things that students can relate to because, you know,

we're not, we're not messaging to the general public. That's in this particular case, all my clients is he runs a gadget store and he's targeting students. So for the message, you have to consider what the value propositions are. Now, since he sells gadgets, the value proposition, the value proposition just means what is the main reason why people are doing business with you? What value do they get out of it? So the value propositions for selling gadgets, you know, can be simple.

So there's this whole thing of affordable or best deals. That's the one that you see every single year when it's what's this thing called Black Friday, Black Friday, Jumia, Black Friday, this Black Friday, that Black Friday, and then you see the billboards all over the place. Oh, by the way, are you guys seeing a pattern now? Jumia and Conga online retail, big on Instagram, big on website, big on everything. But can you see that when the time now comes, Black Friday,

they have absolutely no problem paying for money for billboards in Lagos and Abuja. So for those of you who came who keep saying billboards are dead and it's not that billboards are dead, everything has a time and a place. So it depends. So for the rest of the year, Jumia and Conga will continue to advertise online but that one is Black Friday. Black Friday, best deals, huge discount. They will go and pay for billboard next to Wusse market which is a one of the busiest markets in Abuja.

They will go and pay for that big bill, big billboard there. So that heavy food traffic, everybody, young and old, rich and poor can see there that Jumia is doing Black Friday and you can now buy laptop, instead of buying it for 200 K, you can now buy it for 75 K or whatever, just so that people will rush to the site. So there's a time and there's a place. And even people who have huge businesses online also use all these old school methods,

Billboard, newspaper, flyer, TV, radio, they still use it to promote the business. Think about it, Big Brother is ATV thing, right? They still advertise on radio. Anyway, let me know if I flog that message. So the value proposition now for somebody in the tech space, gadget space #1 might be affordable best deals, 80% off Black Friday, iPhone, iPhone Pro Max new and in town, mint condition UK fairly used for 20% off, you know, something like that.

So that's one value prop affordable the best deals. Then another value prop is latest gadgets. You know, so latest gadgets, so excuse me, so latest gadgets, everything in tech latest PS4 latest Mortal Kombat latest latest that newest this newest that straight from Paris are seen in London as you know. So that's one value prop latest gadgets. We have everything in store. Then another value prop for these stores that deal in gadgets is trading cause some of them allow you if I didn't even know until I I had an iPhone 6

that I had to get rid of a while ago and I was surprised that at the time because the iPhone 6 itself it wasn't really my own. No because was my cousin Moise. Moise had used it for maybe like 2-3 years and passed it on to Mumsy and Mumsy now use this phone for me like another 2-3 years and then pass it on to me and I used this phone for another 2-3 years. You can see that already the phone is is almost entering like 15 years old.

So I'm surprised at the time when I somebody told me I could sell the iPhone 6, I said who buy iPhone 6 Now that this iPhone 12 iPhone, this iPhone that they said don't worry that people will buy it just go to Banix Plaza and we say to I said OK, no problems. I went to Banix Plaza and I met the first person and I said OK I want to sell my iPhone 6 is this something you buy? The guy said of course now I said he said bring it down let me see.

The guy looked at it looked at it looked at it. He said boss for this one I give you 10. Ki was shocked. I said OK but I started forming a safe and I said no no no I changed my mind. So I just took before and then I left. I went to another place and then the guy looked at it and I said how much? The guy said OK for this one I give you 12 K. I said no. So I took my phone. I left and then I went to another place and then I asked the guy looked at it and then he said he would give me 15 K.

Now in my own mind I was like OK I went to three places. The first guy said he would give me 10, second guy said he would give me 12. The third guy who said he would give me 15 man, I just said OK no problem. I said alright give me my SIM, erase the phone in my very front format, the whole thing. But the guy wanted me to fill police report and everything just so no police something Shah just so that nobody harassed him that he stole the phone.

So I filled it. I removed my SIM card and then that's it. Then when I got home I called my mom. I said hey mommy, you don't believe what happened. She said what happened? I said remember that phone? That was his phone. I said yes. She said yes. I said I sold it to her. She laughed. She said it's a lie, you couldn't have sold it. I said seriously mommy, I sold that phone. How much did you sell? IF15K say how much? 15K And we had a good laugh about it.

But sure these people do things like that. So if you want to come and buy iPhone Pro Max and let's say iPhone Pro Max is, I don't know, maybe 500 K and you have iPhone 18 or something, I don't know, you know, I'm not, I'm not an iPhone person. So I don't know which is which. So let's say iPhone Pro Max now it's 500K and they have iPhone 18. They can say, OK, bring this iPhone 18, we'll give you 100K, we'll take 100K off.

So that for the iPhone Pro Max, instead of paying us half 100K, you only pay US400K. So they do things like that. So that is also one of the value propositions for someone who is traded in gadgets, like my client in Benin who is targeting students. So it's something that can be on the Billboard, you know, changing. So now in town iPhone Pro Max accepting trade insurance come with your come with any of your old iPhones and get up to get up to so, so, so percent discount or so, so, so amount discount or whatever, you know, trade insurance available exchange available, you know, exchange in store.

So those are the kind of things that you can put on the on the on the Billboard. So those are some of the value props. Remember, we're talking about messaging now, the kind of messaging that you will put on the Billboard, but we're contextualizing it to somebody who sells to students and who sells gadgets. So in language that they can understand, you'll be telling the students, either come here, excuse me, come here because we have affordable gadgets or come here because we have the best deals in town.

Or come here because we have the latest gadgets. Or come here because we have everything in store that you need. Or come here because we allow you to trade in your old phone and get a new phone, your old laptop and get a new laptop. And when it comes to the call to action, keep the thing clear. Remember, no clutter. So what is the message? Is everything going to be there? And then the message is, excuse me, visit the store now or call 080, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah. Or is the call to action going to be follow us on the Instagram handle? If you've been listening to this show for any length of time, you know that for me that is not my favorite because this is all about sales. We're trying to get people to buy stuff. So I don't really see why the call to action will be go to Instagram handle or go to website. We're trying to get the people to come and liaise with US1 on one. So I don't see why people create all these wonderful billboards and they now say go to Instagram store.

Like how do something that brings them closer to you If you send them to the Instagram or you send them to the website, you're just putting them on another long story. The person can go to the website, be checking on your website and then from there. So let me try another website like no for me shall always follow on Instagram and visit the website. I don't like it. I don't think that is a good call to action. Visit the store.

That's a good call to action. Let them come inside. Let us liars one-on-one, call 080, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let them call. Let us lie as one-on-one. They give me a chance to close the deal. You can even put QR codes, let somebody scan in and well, I've seen this thing done beautifully. I can't remember the event I was there was a QR code. When you scan the thing, the thing will take you straight to the guy's WhatsApp inbox.

So from there you can ask him a question. So these are some of things that we should put on the Billboard. If you want to put follow us on Instagram, follow us on Twitter, follow the website, you know, that's up to you. My left initial, the whole point of putting all this time and money is to try and get people to come to us one-on-one so that we can talk and we get a chance to try and sell our product to our service.

So the closer the call to action is to purchase or the closer it is to me, the business person for me, the better. Visit the store, they will come and see me. Call 080. I'm the one that will pick up the phone, scan the QR code, it will enter WhatsApp inbox. I am the one who reply to the message. So that's what I for me, that's what I prefer. Then for budget and duration. There are also companies who provide billboard services.

So just call them up, you know, find out how far. But since my guy, the my client, he targets students and I recommended putting one in the main road Rd. one, I would suggest you also contact student services or the student union to find out you know how much and what can be advertised, what can be advertised because there are some universities in Nigeria where it is against the school policy that you will not advertise alcohol on campus.

So it's just one of those things. There are some schools that allow some advertisements and some schools don't allow other advertisements. So you need to ask, because if you go, you negotiate, you pay. Let's say you pay 500K for the Billboard. You put up the whole thing and the students, you know, say no, we do not advertise these sorts of things here. And then they tear your billboard down. the Billboard person will say, look, you paid for the space.

I gave you the space. You know, you're on your own. That's it. You won't get your money back. Maybe you should be able to go to court and make a case. But I'm just telling you that this is Nigeria and I've been a student on Nigerian campuses before. If you enter that kind of one chance, believe me, you have lost your money. So do your research ahead of time. Is this something we can advertise? So some universities will not allow you to advertise alcohol.

Some universities up north will not allow you to advertise anything that might not be what's the word kosher is coming to my mind, no kosher, halal or in line with certain kinds of ethics. So just when you're advertising to student communities and universities, do your research ahead of time. Then one thing you guys need to know about not just my clients, but those of you are considering billboard is when it comes to billboard, there's plenty of harassment from local government.

So if you want to put up billboard in Abuja, for instance, Amak, do harass your life. Have you paid this permit? Have you paid that permit? Have you seen us? Have you settled this? Have you settled that? So just be ready for that kind of harassment. They're always looking for who to harass and who to intimidate and who to whatever. So you want to put up your billboard, Just be ready. Local government people, they will come and be knocking on your door.

They will find you. So for me, sometimes I think you should preempt these sorts of things like I have a phone number for somebody in local government office, in sorry, in municipal office, Abuja municipal council, that's Amak in Abuja, all the states of the federation, you guys have LG as local government officer, local government. This here we have Amak, Abuja municipal area council. So I have the phone number for somebody in municipal council where I used to go and pay my what's the Billboard levy, Abby advertising levy or something when I had my studio.

So it always helps to have somebody's phone number so that when boys are harassing you, you can call up and say, you know, hey, now that these guys came, they said that from you, is it legitimate? Is this something or I beg, talk to your boys, let them stop harassing me. When I have money, I'll come and pay. I beg talk to them. So it always pays to have somebody's phone number like that. So if you're considering these sorts of things, you know,

strolling through the office, make one or two friends there, collect one or two phone numbers. You will help. Then let's see what else and timing. So it's not just about where you put the Billboard. Timing is also important since we're talking about student population. Now there are some towns that are university towns, like OAU is a university town. So basically that means when school is not in session, the town becomes quiet.

Because when I was in OAU back then, the student community was 2023 thousand strong. So when school is no longer in session, what that means is 23,000 people, just they disappear, they leave the community. So there's no point in you putting up the Billboard at a time when nobody is there. So a place like BSU benefited University Mark Woody is not really a university town. So even if school is not in session, no problem, other people will see.

For Benin, I don't know. I haven't been there. So I don't know if it's a university town or if it's a trading town, you know, So I don't know. But if you're considering one of these sorts of things and your town is a university town, like my master's, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen was an oil and gas town and university town and oil and gas is seasonal, I think. I think they don't work during the winter. And then sometimes school is on holiday.

So if the oil and gas industry is on holiday and the school is on holiday, there's no point in putting up that billboard because what that means is half the town has, you know, disappeared. Everybody has travelled home for holiday. So also consider timing around these sorts of things. Which season, which, yeah, consider timing. So for those of you abroad, seasons now become important. You know, summer when everybody's happy or winter when it's cold and everybody's depressed and inside.

And therefore university towns, was it at resumption when everybody's around? You know, like, I would think this is just a guess, but I'm not a specialist. My guess is maybe during exam time, because during exam time school is hot, everybody's studying. So maybe that might not be the best time to put up your billboards advertising your stuff. So any I don't know, but this is just a, a hunch. It's a guess. Well, sometimes that is what sales is about.

We take our most educated guesses and we try and see how we can get things moving. Then we should always try and track results. I've already told my clients that they need to buy this clicker and give the security guard so that as people are coming into the store, you click and click and click. So that's how we'll know if The thing is working. So let's say before the the Billboard goes up, the security guard is clicking and maybe on average 50 people are entering the store.

But then week 7:00 we put up the Billboard and then from week 8, we notice that now it's 150 people entering the store every single day. I mean, it's a rough guess. We can't know for sure, but it's a rough guess that on average used to be 50 people entering the store. Then we put up billboard in week 7. Then from week 8, full traffic now became 150 people in the store every single day. We can guess that OK, the Billboard is working.

So that's an old school way of tracking it. You just be clicking and be counting number of people that are coming every day. Now also another reason why I want my guy to be tracking number of people that are coming every day is because I also want to compare and track the number of sales that they close. Because if 50 people come in every single day and we only sell 10 things. And then 150 people come in every day, but we're still only selling 10 things.

Then there's a problem. It means we need to train up the staff. The staff need to be able to know how to have conversations with people, how to figure out what they want and how to close the sale. So that's also another reason why. So when you put up these billboards, don't just put it up and then go to sleep, be tracking. Is it working? Where are people coming from? Try and figure this thing out. Then you can also check your websites, your Instagram because sometimes when the Billboard goes up, the website traffic also goes up.

Because remember for Jumia and Conga and all these places, Black Friday, they want every single Nigerian to check the website. So if you're the head of Jumia and you tell your people for this Black Friday, we will do 2 billboards. We'll do one big billboard in Abuja at USA market and then we'll do one big billboard in Lagos at Ojo Dubaga. Yeah, at Ojo Dubaga. Then you also now check the website on that day and see website traffic there.

OK, normally maybe it's only 2 million people that visit the website every day. But then if after you put up those billboards, the thing now spikes to maybe 5 million every day, it's a guess, but it's not a bad guess that OK, I guess the billboards are working. But Shah, what I'm just trying to say is that when you put up those billboards, don't just put it up and then go to sleep. I'm also trying to figure out, is this billboard working?

Because the whole point of tracking these sorts of things when it comes to sales and business development is if you figure out something that is working, do it. Again, if you figure out something that is not working, either optimize it or stop doing it. So regardless of what people say, if billboards work for your business, my brother, my sister continue to do the Billboard until he stops working because that is what it's all about.

It's about the results. And yeah, so that's it. Remember, if you'd love to connect for a business audit, for a strategy session or if you have questions, the phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. That's my WhatsApp number. Then connect with me on LinkedIn. The name to look for is Tava Shima Aide. Thank you very much for your time and your attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.