Fashogbon: Future of Advertising Lies in Disruptive Innovation

The Chief Executive Officer of Fizzie Republic owners of Outdoor Out of Home Advertising, Mr. Abiodun Fashogbon, speaks on the gains innovation has brought to the advertising industry. Kemi Olaitan presents the excerpts:

Can you briefly tell us about yourself and career background?
I am an entrepreneur popularly known as Fashy Fissie. I started my business from fashion, then entertainment and moving now into advertising. I have been a partner with the Oyo State Signage Agency for the past 10 years. Presently, I am a copyright owner of Portrait Pole series all duly registered with the Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC), with two copyrights at each level making it six.

What really led your drive into outdoor advertising?
I was actually doing it for our fashion brand and we started noticing that advertisement and Public Relations are very related. So most times back then the most important people in the society we put them on bill boards as form of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) because our business was doing very well and we saw the need to give back to the society naturally not because we were compelled to or trying to evade tax but rather as a form of gratitude.

Most of the things that we did when former governor of Oyo State, Chief Kolapo Ishola, became a sort of attraction for the people. We did the same for late Aare Arisekola Alao, Da Green and Michael Jackson. It was something we were doing with passion, so for me any business that one is not passionate about such that customers do not see the need in it before one could see it, one might not make money from such business.

The customers then started coming telling us that they want what we did for the late Chief Ishola, urging us to use it to advertise their business. And because we have been very stable, believe in the proverb that a rolling stone gathers no moss and we have been so Ibadanlike by staying in our natural habitat, we were more than prepared for the task.

So our first major brand was Foodco Supermarket introduced to us by one of the sons of Chief Ishola. Foodco is a serious and indigenous brand and from there many businesses started coming all based on the CSR that we were doing, that was between 2009 and 2010. People saw our product that it is a disruptive innovation, which they want to be part of. One thing that I have found out is that the problem of Africans is that we cannot do things consistently, before we start any trade we already have money in mind so when the money is not forthcoming such a person. will be discouraged.

For us we never knew at the time we were doing CSR that it would help to attract business in any form, so by the time that we started getting businesses it was like huge success over night. However government agencies did not take it lightly with us which I believed happen everywhere as there will always be competition with some healthy and others unhealthy. The beginning was indeed rough but alas it made us to be very smart as it led to copyright of all our innovations, not only in advertising. As at today I have 11 copyrights and six trademarks, this is because I don’t engage in anything that is not spelt out in black and white, indeed I don’t play with government officials to the extent that they would say give us money. I can give out money as PR that is different, but government receipt I would get it.

Right now I can confidently say that we are so formidable to win most marketing and political campaigns with facilities that can take up a whole state and create a very compelling visibility that cannot be ignored and we guarantee money back or replacement of advertisement materials on areas where there are theft or vandalization. We can boldly say we have Japanese integrity.

What is P3 all about and changes it has brought to outdoor advertising?
P3 is one of the biggest innovations in advertising out to help the small scale businesses. The power of P3 is that it is used by the SMEs, which I as a person always canvassed for as the hope and future of Nigeria. I am not a big brand person because I would for ever fight the cause of SMEs. P3 is the biggest lamp post in Nigeria, it is 7.3 feet while the regular agencies lamp post is 5.2 feet or 4.2 feet, it is like putting the size of a door on a pole. It is big, conspicuous, durable and 100 per cent made in Ibadan from the fabrication to welding, fastening, deployment and maintenance. Indeed, P3 is futuristic because it is speaking our language and belongs to us.

Recently, we did 12 at Olojo festival in Ile Ife where everybody went for Goldberg as it was a classy act. The project given to us was to override MTN at the festival and this we succeeded in doing with customer friendly price. If an innovation is good but expensive, it overrides its importance. P3 is very good, customer friendly, durable and bigger. It can stand on any pole and stay anywhere as long as such a pole is standing and erect, so it can stay on a street light pole and trees like we did in Oyo town. P3 is a powerful innovation and hand crafted, we did its copyright because of standard and maintenance as we are in a country where people prefer to rubbish you and steal your idea. Thus the future of advertising is the power of innovative disruption which P3, P4 and P3V are part of.

How are the specifics which P3 offer going to impact the industry?
One of the things that it offers is the instatenous power of exposure which makes it very durable as anything that is close to human being has potential and quality of been easily vandalized. We do them with rugged iron and placed in the middle of the road. There is the system we adopt of placing them where there are bumps such that one would be forced to apply brake and in doing this one is seeing the advertisement the size of a door. We are out for SMEs, the future of Nigeria is that phone seller and repairer that want to manufacture phone and is so determined to beat Nokia and Techno. Without that SME becoming a global brand we are not going anywhere in this country.

We are sensitive in supporting SMEs and one of them that has keyed into our innovation is Foodco, it started in Bodija, Ibadan, but today they are in Lekki, Badore and Abeokuta as they know the impact of P3 on their business. Another is Nexgen Energy, which is also a local brand, I can say that during the period we had issues with the government agencies it was the SMEs that were really affected. P3 has really helped the people in Ibadan to have the required feasibility and we put a benchmark on it in terms of class and elegance such that no SME can just jump on it without any track record. We don’t want criminal minded people but serious minded people such that the impact of P3 has been very wholesome, serious, not far-fetched, reliable and prosperous.

You have been around for quite sometime now, what are the challenges facing P3?
There is no doubt that the challenges are many ranging from government factors, competitors and undue influence by relevant agencies who rather than obey the fact that we have the copyright of the innovation would tell people to come to us and devising to lord things over us. For instance, presently we have a case in court, which I don’t think should have been if the agencies care to obey the laws. The agencies here have not really get to that part and I would not blame them because they have not seen anything like this before and I believe with time and maturity they would change and do the right thing by accepting the fact that we have the copyright of the innovations.

I brought disruptive innovation into the advertising industry and this has been causing a lot of problem. Take the 9mobile as an example I told them that I have the copyright of the P3 innovation, they did not listen until I dragged them before the Federal High Court in Ibadan. I must give the credit of having copyright of my innovations to the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi, it was he that insisted that I must get the copyright because he said some people may be laying claim to the innovation in the future. I blessed God that I listened to his wise counsel and did not turn deaf ear to his advise.

So I believe that our selling point is our trouble point and the reason we are having problem with the agencies is the fact that they cannot believe that it should be us alone that would be involved in the innovation. But unfortunately we are not against anybody getting involve only that we must be given credit and there must be regulation so that it would not be destroyed. If all of us are in it we would get money but by the time each and everyone are engaging in what they like it would defeat the purpose of the innovation in the first place which nobody would like.

Why the recent alarm of threat to your life?
The threat came because of this copyright thing. I think the fact that some people are closer to Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, they want to use that to get what does not belong to them. During the last general election I did an excellent job for the All Progressives Congress (APC) but the party lost. However immediately the present government of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came in they were also interested in our job and we allowed them to jump on it, the governor ordered for 100 and I gave 50 free.
Unfortunately some people in the present government are not happy that I have the sole copyright of the innovation. But I would not forget the advise of late Ajimobi when I seek his counsel whether to make our innovation available for Governor Makinde. He told me to go ahead because I am not a politician who is neither a property of APC or PDP but a businessman who is out to make money.

What are the chances of attracting investment into the outdoor advertising industry?
It is quite unfortunate that it is agencies such as the Bank of Industry that are taking people like us who have absolute faith in Nigeria seriously. In my own case, all my siblings are based outside the country but I have never in my life see any reason that I should leave my dear Ibadan. I left for Lagos for about five years and came back to stay in Ibadan where I have everything I want, good internet services and domiciliary account by making my own dollars here even though not through advertising but construction. Nigerians abroad that want to build houses in the country engaged and send money to us. It is all about paradigm shift as I believe that anything that one wants to do in life without putting premium on it, one is bound to loose it.

How do you see the future of outdoor advertising in the next 10 years?
The future of outdoor advertising would be controlled by disruptive innovations. As human beings we do not like what we see regularly without a change, there is nothing special about me rather than my power and attention to do things differently. When you look at the world of the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, he said we should do things differently and if people can think differently, the future of outdoor advertising is directly proportional to the innovations that will come.

Before it used to be static and we moved to digital, anybody that cannot surrender to innovation or new idea is dead. I can only advise all the big advertising agencies that when they see a young man that has done his due diligence and telling them that he has a bright idea, they should not rubbish him but rather be kind enough to listen to him as the idea may be a million dollar one. Our musicians such as D’Banj and Tuface have been shouting that the next good or coup is content. However having a content or idea is a thing, another is to protect such an idea. This is because at the point of having a bright idea, some people are waiting in the wing to still the idea, which has happened to me.

If there is any problem I am having today it is people that want to take what belongs to me and claim it as theirs. But to the glory of God, I am several steps ahead of them as I have protected my idea with the Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC). I would beg the government that anything that has to do with copyright they should take it seriously. Can one imagine if Toyota was not protected in Japan where would Japanese economy be today, if those two fantastic businessmen, Mercedes and Benz did not protect their idea where would Germany be today? We are so vicarious, crude oil will disappear but content, copyright, trademark and patency would be the things that any relevant country, tribe or association would rely on.