By Princewill Ekwujuru

Nigeria advertising industry spend on Above-the-Line Advertising activities dropped by 10.6 per cent to N91.846 billion in 2012 as against N102.755 billion in 2011.

The decrease was due to reduced media investment of 43.9 per cent on outdoor advertising and 41.7 per cent on press while media investment on TV and radio grew by 7.2 per cent and 20.1 per cent respectively.

Mediafacts, an annual publication of MediaReach OMD, a Nigerian  media independent agency, disclosed this in its 2012 edition of the publication.

According to the publication, of the N91.846 billion, television had N49.399, radio N15.782, outdoor N17.692 while N8.974 was spent on the press.

It noted that in 2012, Lagos region accounted for 35.8 per cent or N32.913 billion, North 33.1 per cent or N30.418 billion, the West N15.024 billion or 16.4 per cent while the Eastern part of Nigeria accounted for the remaining 14.7 per cent or N13.491 billion.

From the total ATL advertising, telecommunications product category spent the highest amount of N15.562 billion, representing a decline from the N20.118 billion spent in 2011, followed by entertainment, leisure & tourism with N4.988 while lager beer was third in the product category with N4.784 billion.

In the telecommunication category, MTN topped the list with N5.09 billion followed by Etisalat that spent N4.40 billion during the year under review. Airtel and Globacom spent N2.99 billion and N2.95 billion respectively. All the four brands topped the list of the top 20 brands in terms of ad spend last year.

Another highlight of Mediafacts 2012 is that of television advertising which amounted to N49.399 billion as against the N46.076 billion recorded in 2011. Radio recorded N15.782 billion as against N13.142 billion spent in 2011, Press N8.974 billion lesser than the N15.395 spent in 2011while Outdoor expenditure was N17.692 billion also lesser than N28.142 billion spent in 2011.

The report also noted that, Nigeria’s economic market size of about $247 billion represents 41 per cent of the entire West Africa GDP thereby placing the country among the topmost African economies and a destination of choice for investment in Africa.