The marketing communications industry is becoming more engaging. Proponents of the Below-The- Line (BTL) machinery have seen the future in the BTL tool and are capitalising on it, says Segun Aluko, Managing Director of BTL Solutions, a direct, digital and experiential marketing firm based in Lagos in this interview with Princewill Ekwujuru. Excerpts.

Why do you prefer Below-the-Line marketing platform among the marketing communication mix?

If you look at the trend globally, you will observe that essentially, the populations in nations are becoming younger.

•Aluko

There was a report that about 70 per cent  of Nigeria’s population is below the age of 30 years as admitted by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Finance Minister. This is a generation where people are restless and adventurous. The traditional media over the years have performed but the future is engaging the consumers.

Though there are platforms to get across to the audience but engagement has become critical. Looking at the future, we decided that our company needs to key into the future and the future is interacting with the younger ones. This calls for consumer and brand experiential activities.

Recession also came in and this made companies to shrink ad budget. This means that they will run with less money but the target has increased. Instead of having the regular mass media ads, the companies now turned to experiential marketing.

Is the social media in any way threatening the growth of BTL?

Marketing communication like some other disciplines, is evolutionary. There are stages. There was a mass media marketing stage and we have entered the experiential stage. Talking about social media, what is our internet penetration? Most Nigerians don’t have access to internet. For this to work, there would be electricity, internet access etc. The arrival of BTL has not wiped out traditional media.

Over time, every media will have its role to play. Advertising plays its role which include image, visibility, perception and giving every brand the picture but the actual conversion to sale is what BTL does. Social media is for continuous interaction. No one nullifies the other but it is more of complementary roles. Every platform takes a brand from one point to another.

What is your niche in the market?

When we came to the market, as a small company, because we don’t have the big name at the onset, what we told ourselves as a team was that we must try to exceed our clients’ expectation.  We always challenge ourselves on this. Our clients give testimony on this. Our mission is  to exceed our clients’ expectations even if it will reduce our margins.

We want to leverage more on relationship. We are one of the very few agencies that can boast of running activities almost every day simultaneously in 29 states of the federation and having in our workforce over 1,000 people at an average of 9 months a year. What we do basically is that we engage in field marketing. The bottom line of every company is to sell whether you like my face or not.

How can government tap from BTL activities to promote its programmes?

Government can. Even during President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign, there was a door-to- door activity. BTL is basically a tool to engage people one-on-one.

Government can key into it to communicate its programmes and meet people at their touch points. I advise government to engage more of BTL in the promotion of its activities for effective communication and understanding. How many people read newspapers or have the patience to watch TV, to listen to news?

What is the relevance of research in your business?

We belong to a network of companies where we share information and one of them is research. It will be unwise for a company to put a budget for a campaign to drive the product and cannot run the consumer intelligence to determine how best you need to deploy the campaign money.

Season could affect the campaign.  I don’t think any marketing agency with professionals will progress if the company does not embrace research.

One of our strengths is research. When we deploy our activations, we determine the peculiarities of each location and brand. We also check how the brand aligns with the strategy.

Do you have challenges with security as it relates to experiential marketing?

Boko Haram for instance is a huge threat to our business. I have informed my team in Maiduguri to stay off the streets where we are running for Etisalat, P & G.  It is a difficult problem to our business.

But those we use in various locations, we make sure that they are people who understand the terrain and situations. Another challenge is government regulations and high fees charged by some state governments. BTL marketing is measurable, no agency in BTL will bamboozle clients.