<![CDATA[Communiqué: Strategy]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/s/strategyhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3bf0e043-6c99-426a-8388-fd2cf0afbb94_400x400.pngCommuniqué: Strategyhttps://www.readcommunique.com/s/strategySubstackTue, 26 Nov 2024 23:12:34 GMT<![CDATA[Communiqué 46: Creative economy investors are betting big on sports in Africa]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/creative-economy-investors-africa-sportshttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/creative-economy-investors-africa-sportsTue, 12 Nov 2024 10:02:10 GMT
An art installation by NBA Africa at ART X Lagos. Credit: NBA Africa.

1. An opportunity for those looking

An art fair is probably the last place you would expect to have conversations about basketball, but stranger things have happened. This year, at the 10th edition of ART X Lagos, West Africa’s largest art festival, there was an installation dedicated to basketball, featuring a collage of different hands reaching for a ball. Adjacent to it was another art piece created by the festival’s attendees who were invited to create another collage with newspaper and magazine clippings. All of this made up the third edition of NBA Meets Arts, an initiative launched by the African arm of the National Basketball Association in its drive to grow basketball adoption across the continent.

Since its official arrival on the continent in 2010, the NBA has initiated several programs to help grow the sport on the continent, but in recent years the organization has ramped up its activities, another entry in a spate of sports investment on the continent.

In 2019, during the NBA All Star Weekend, Commissioner Adam Silver announced plans to establish the first NBA professional league outside of North America. But those plans did not materialize until 2021, when the first game was played at the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda. The following year, the NBA launched the NBA meets Art initiative, and early this year it partnered with ALX Ventures, an African entrepreneurship development program, to launch an accelerator for early stage startups in the sports and creative industries. Festival Coins, creators of the Tix Africa ticketing platform, were the inaugural winners of its demo day.

The NBA isn't the only entity investing in African sports, earlier this year, America’s National Football League expanded its talent identification program to Nigeria, following successful programs in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. African investors are also in the mix: following Stripe’s acquisition of Paystack, the company’s CEO Shola Akinlade founded Sporting Lagos, a new football team in Nigeria’s commercial capital.

These investments signify growing interest in Africa's sports sector, but what factors drive this interest?

A collage installation, part of the third edition of “NBA Meets Art” initiative. Credit: NBA Africa.

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]]><![CDATA[Communiqué 44: What a popular Chinese video game can teach us about Africa’s creative economy]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/genshin-impact-african-creatorshttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/genshin-impact-african-creatorsTue, 29 Oct 2024 09:59:45 GMT
A image depicting Genshin Impact's gameplay.

1. The global phenomenon

On September 28, 2020, amid the global upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Chinese video game developer and publisher MiHoYo released a title that would take the internet by storm. The anime-style open-world, cross-platform action game features elemental magic and character-switching mechanics. Despite its complex description, Genshin Impact — the game — launched to widespread critical acclaim.

Genshin Impact debuted as a free-to-play title, monetized through Gacha game mechanics (which essentially involves inviting users to spend in-game currency for a random in-game item). Its success was fueled by captivating storytelling, stunning anime-inspired art, intricate world and character design, and the surge in digital consumption brought on by worldwide lockdowns.

By 2021, the game had become one of the highest-grossing mobile titles, and by 2022, it had generated nearly $3.8 billion in revenue. As of 2024, estimates suggest that in China alone, Genshin Impact has surpassed $5 billion in lifetime gross revenue on iOS and Android—figures that exclude revenue from other platforms such as Windows and PlayStation. Considering the game’s reported production cost of around $100 million, this represents an extraordinary 50x revenue multiple on mobile platforms alone. For context, Avatar, the 2009 sci-fi epic by James Cameron, is the highest-grossing movie of all time with $2.9 billion. It cost about $300 million to produce. In comparison, Standard Bank, one of Africa’s largest, made $2.3 billion in headline earnings in 2023. Talk about returns.

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 41: Nigeria's creative economy blueprint]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/nigeria-creative-economy-blueprinthttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/nigeria-creative-economy-blueprintTue, 08 Oct 2024 10:01:18 GMT
Illustration by DALL-E

1. Taking stock

A few weeks ago, I sat in a room listening to Nigeria’s Minister of Art, Culture, and the Creative Economy outline her plans for the creative industry. Until 2023, this ministry did not exist, and this is the first time in Nigeria’s history that one will be dedicated solely to the creative economy.

Before the event, I had several questions, many of which I raised in Communiqué 40. I still have some questions, but there’s significantly more clarity around what is possible, and how the minister is thinking.

Today, I want to share a part of that plan with you and a few thoughts about it.

First off, the ministry’s creation indicates that the Nigerian government has woken up to the potential of the country’s cultural power. However, execution and funding will be the biggest challenges.

Nigeria’s creative industry, despite all of its promise and potential, is still significantly small. In 2022, it contributed about $5.6 billion to GDP. Much of this came from visual media ($2.7 billion), music ($1.4 billion), and fashion ($600 million). It also employs less than 7.5 million people. Furthermore, government revenue from the industry was merely $57 million. Government revenue, via taxes and fees, is often a good indicator of an industry’s size, as is GDP contribution. This should give an idea of just how far behind in development the creative economy still is.

According to the minister, the goal now is to get the industry’s GDP contribution up to $100 billion by 2030 and add 2 million more jobs by 2027 — incredibly audacious and borderline wishful. By contrast, the tech industry contributed about $4.8 billion to GDP in Q1 2024.

But let’s look past that figure and focus on simple growth. Where do the opportunities lie in Nigeria’s creative economy? Given that the industry has already been self-organized for so many years, perhaps a blueprint at the national level, with full government support, could open up new doors and channels for enterprise and investment, much like the telecommunications industry in the early 2000s.

2. Stepping back

For the last 15 or so years, the telecommunications industry has been one of the biggest contributors to Nigeria’s economy outside of oil and agriculture. In 2022, for instance, it averaged a GDP contribution of 13.6%, compared to the creative economy’s 1.2% contribution.

The telecoms industry wasn’t always this influential, not until the early 2000s, at least. It was monopolized until 1992 and subsequently dominated by Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), a government parastatal, until 2002. Access to telephone services was limited and exclusive to a privileged few: upon Nigeria’s independence in 1960, the British colonial government handed over about 18,000 telephone lines; by 2000, that figure had only crawled up to an estimated 400,000.

To grow the industry, the government at the time started to court foreign players and design policies that allowed companies to set up infrastructure for mobile communication, the policies and market dynamics encouraged more people to buy SIM cards, and Nigeria’s economy also started to rise gradually. These factors combined led to the blossoming of a new industry.

Between 2001 and 2003, three of Nigeria’s current biggest telecom companies entered the market, namely MTN (2001), Globacom (2003), and Econet (2001), which has undergone several name and ownership changes to become Airtel Nigeria. Another player, Etisalat (now 9mobile), entered the market in 2007. Upon entry, MTN, Globacom, and Econet each had to acquire licenses for $280 million. Steep at the time, but that forced levels of investment and competition that contributed to the economic growth through which the companies all recouped their capital (and much more) within a few years. Today, there are over 224 million active phone lines.

The creative economy can mirror this type of growth. But it will not happen by 2030. That timeline is at least 10 years off the mark.

With that said, however, what is the plan?

3. Under the lights

Nigeria’s new creative economy blueprint includes an 8-point plan built around policy frameworks, intellectual property protection, capital projects, and job creation. The plan is benchmarked against countries like South Korea, France, the U.K., the U.S., India, and Egypt, countries with creative industries that contribute well over 2% to their GDP, and countries that took decades to attain critical growth.

Credit: The Nigerian Minister of Art, Culture, and the Creative Economy

The plan includes:

  1. A creative hub in all 36 states of Nigeria, including an Abuja Creative City that mirrors the Dubai Media City. Already, there’s been a call for Nigerian universities to volunteer facilities that will become a part of this network of hubs. This is smart as it solves for physical space and manpower.

  2. A 20,000-capacity National Entertainment Center for sports, music, and other entertainment events.

  3. A new National Art Gallery to coincide with the reclamation of stolen Nigerian art and the display of other iconic works.

  4. A Creative Economy Development Fund to provide capital and protect the intellectual properties of creative entrepreneurs.

  5. An accelerator program to identify and develop creative industry talent, much like Andela in its early days.

  6. A soft power agenda called “Destination 2030,” which hopes to turn Nigeria into a global cultural powerhouse within five years. This mirrors Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

  7. Other components include policies to protect intellectual property, a smorgasbord of government-branded events and programs for young people, a Nigerian version of Got Talent (I rolled my eyes, and I know you did too), and a data acquisition drive to better understand the creative industry.

A few things about this plan stand out to me:

  1. The 2030 timeline is as unrealistic as it gets for a country with so many unresolved sociocultural problems and infrastructural shortcomings. It will take at least an extra decade for the leap to happen.

  2. There are too many capital intensive infrastructure projects that rely on the government for execution. These are better off as policy frameworks or ideas for private sector players, much like the telecoms industry in the early 2000s and commercial real estate post-2008.

  3. Talent identification and development should be private sector-led. Because the biggest hurdle here isn’t even identifying and developing talent, it’s finding the right jobs for them once the programs are over. The civil service does not have the facilities for such.

  4. The push for a creative economy fund is perhaps the most feasible part of this plan in the short-term. Already, there is available capital waiting to be snapped up, but investors need assurances that their fund will go into the right ventures and yield great returns within reasonable time.

  5. There’s a clear understanding of policy shortcomings and needs, and the decision to focus on intellectual property protection will yield massive results in the long run.

  6. Finally, the ambition to make Nigeria a global soft power player by 2030 isn’t far-fetched. However, it will take more than events and programs. There must be policies that facilitate cultural export and collaboration with local and international institutions already playing within this arena.

4. Final thoughts

I’m glad that Nigeria finally has a creative economy blueprint. But we’ve seen several government-backed plans fail in the past, and I’m hoping this won’t be the case here. For this plan to succeed, a significant part of the execution has to be private sector-led. The Nigerian government does not have a great history starting and completing projects, especially those that require physical infrastructure development, on time and to the highest quality. There’s just too much historical baggage to shake off.

Furthermore, there’s a glaring hole in the plan, and that is the absence of a coherent diaspora engagement strategy. Save for plans to attend a roster of international events like Davos, Paris Fashion Week, UNGA, and the Grammys, there is little that outlines how the government intends to bring Nigeria’s massive diaspora population into the fold.

Credit: The Nigerian Minister of Art, Culture, and the Creative Economy

Finally, the funding question looms large. How will these projects be funded? Currently, the ministry is engaging private sector stakeholders and discussing partnerships. Several of these conversations will explore this question. But how will it be answered? The $620 million from the Digital Economy and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) program will not suffice.

Obviously, this plan raises almost as many questions as it answers. It could succeed, and it could fail. This outcome rests heavily on how well the government can work with local and foreign partners and how much control it is willing to cede to the private sector.

If you read this far and enjoyed this edition, please consider sharing it on social media.

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Some announcements

  1. We are working on a report for the African creator economy. If you’re a creative, please fill it out.

  2. If you’re in Lagos, I will be live on Inspiration FM later today speaking about the creative economy on Fidelity Bank’s SME series. I will also be speaking at TechCabal’s Moonshot on Thursday.

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 37: Cocomelon meets Omo Berry]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/cocomelon-meets-omo-berryhttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/cocomelon-meets-omo-berryTue, 22 Nov 2022 07:00:10 GMT

I.

In 2021, according to Nielsen, one show was the most streamed in the US within the Black community (6.8 billion minutes), the Hispanic community (8.8 billion minutes), and the Asian community (2.1 billion minutes). It was also the second most streamed show in the country, with approximately 33.2 billion minutes of viewing. The name of the show? Not Squid Game, not Lucifer, not You. It was Me.

It was Cocomelon. A show for toddlers.

Cocomelon was created on YouTube in September 2006 by Jay Jeon, a father of two children in Southern California, as a hobby project. He just wanted to make something his kids could enjoy. But over the years, his hobby exploded, generating over 3.3 billion monthly views and 2.14 million subscribers.

In 2020, it was acquired for an undisclosed fee by Moonbug Entertainment, a London-based company that produces online shows for kids. Moonbug, armed with $120 million in fresh capital, also acquired other highly-watched kids’ shows, including Blippi, another massive hit. This wasn’t the company’s first rodeo. In 2018, it acquired Little Baby Bum, also a YouTube show, and now licences it to platforms like BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime.

By 2021, just three years into its existence, Moonbug was already eyeing an IPO when Candle Media approached with an acquisition offer of $3 billion. Candle Media, which didn’t even have a name at the time, was founded by former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs and backed by private equity firm Blackstone.

What began as a YouTube show for kids was acquired for $3 billion. If this could happen, what else was possible? What other opportunities are there in kids’ entertainment today, especially in this streaming era, particularly with the push for diversity and the billion-dollar opportunities that come with it?

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II.

I came across Omo Berry in 2021 while searching for a Cocomelon alternative. The latter had become so ubiquitous that I had to find out if there were others like it or others with the same potential. Omo Berry was distinct. 3D-animated Black kids who looked very much like children I’d grown up with. They spoke with familiar accents and sang songs that stirred my nostalgia. They used illustrations and examples similar to what my teachers taught me. In some way, I felt seen. Until then, I was mostly aware of shows like Cocomelon (which parent isn’t in 2022?), PJ Masks, Badamanu, and so on. But none of them was like Omo Berry. None was so profoundly and uniquely African. None was as representative of a reality I could relate with.

Kids dressed as Omo Berry characters for Halloween. Source: Limitless Studios

Omo Berry was created by Limitless Studios, a company producing educational content for kids, and it went live in February 2021. Like similar shows, it lives on YouTube. It has garnered more than 38.3 million views and over 96,000 subscribers. The three most popular videos on the channel have 12 million, 7.5 million, and 2.7 million views, respectively.

This seems very much like the early days of Cocomelon or the foundation of a company that could replicate Moonbug’s success, but for a grossly underrepresented market.

III.

Is it possible to replicate Cocomelon’s success or create a version of Moonbug in Africa? Are there grounds for investing in kids’ entertainment the way we would, say, invest in tech startups? Is there a basis for expecting outsized returns? Is there even a pathway to that reality?

These are difficult questions. There aren’t that many studios creating African kids’ content for streaming platforms, but Limitless Studios is making an attempt.

Africa’s population continues to snowball, and while that comes with its bag of problems, it also brings some opportunities. A significant amount of that growing population is gaining access to the Internet and more mobile devices with which they can stream content. Many are becoming parents whose kids – potentially millions – will need to consume educational and entertaining content. There aren’t many companies building for that future.

In addition to Africa’s fast-growing population, migration trends continue to tick upward. The Africa Center for Strategic Studies says, “The number of documented migrants within and from the African region has nearly doubled since 2010, continuing a two-decade trend of expansion.” While much of the migration is intraregional (that is, Africans mostly migrate within the continent), a significant portion is from the continent to other regions. Europe, with about 11 million), is the top destination for African migrants, with the Middle East (5 million) and North America (3 million) following closely.

At least 21 million documented Africans live in other African countries. Several members of Africa’s fast-growing diaspora population will go on to become parents, and millions of them will be looking to preserve their culture with their kids. There aren’t many better ways to do that than by exposing kids to content that accurately represents their parents’ origin. This, again, provides a solid foundation for companies like Limitless Studios.

One of the most significant advantages of producing content for kids is guaranteed loyalty. Establish a brand relationship with a kid at a young age, and you can be confident you have their attention for several years. This is perhaps one of Disney’s biggest competitive advantages. If you can get a child into your product ecosystem at an early age, you likely have them as a customer for a significant portion of their early life (for up to ten years). This creates second-order opportunities like merchandising, gaming, educational technology, etc.

Again, there aren’t many companies on the continent doing this with content. But what would a path to profitable returns look like?

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IV.

In “Communiqué 36: An African $500-million media exit”, I wrote that for any African media company to be able to hit this milestone (a $500-million exit), it needs to be generating up to $100 million in annual revenue across 5-6 African markets and with a mix of 3-4 solid revenue sources. I also stated that the company must be genuinely pan-African, with significant funding, and a focus on niches, not mass audiences. Limitless Studios meets most of these criteria.

Most of Omo Berry’s views come from the US, the UK, and Nigeria, in that order. So far, Limitless Studios has raised $1.2 million and will look to bring in additional capital in the future. Agnes Soyode-Johnson, the company’s CEO, says convincing African investors to invest in Intellectual Property can be challenging.

Investors are more enamoured with industries like tech, telecoms, and finance, and only a few see the possibilities in content (which isn’t necessarily the same as investing in media ventures). There’s an argument to be made for more investment firms to make room for creative industry-savvy partners, but that’s a conversation for another day.

The global commercial and cultural rise of Africa’s entertainment industries shows that it just takes a few successful investments to make everyone else realise what is possible.

In October 2022, the Multichoice Group, the parent company of DStv, announced the launch of Moonbug Kids, a channel dedicated to airing content exclusively from the Moonbug portfolio. This move, in many ways, signalled that Moonbug had its sights on Africa. It also signalled Multichoice’s further willingness to invest in children and family-friendly entertainment. But most significantly, it provided a potential exit path for companies like Limitless Studios. It opened up the possibility of future commercial partnerships or an outright acquisition.

For now, the company is focused on expanding its content offerings, according to Soyode-Johnson. If all goes well, there could be an acquisition by a major studio on the horizon, however far into the future.

In the near term, licensing deals with streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and even Disney+ are possible, just as they have been for Moonbug Entertainment. Merchandising, app development, and music licensing are also on the product roadmap. However, all these are contingent on how big and culturally significant Limitless Studios’ shows can become.

Omo Berry is a good starting point. What else can it conjure?

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 36: An African $500-million media exit]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/african-500-million-dollar-media-exithttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/african-500-million-dollar-media-exitWed, 12 Oct 2022 06:00:58 GMTThank you to everyone who’s supported Communiqué so far. Every contribution is valuable. You can still do so today.

Support Communiqué

In July 2022, Industry Dive, a business media company targeting corporate decision-makers, got acquired by Informa, a UK-based events firm. According to reports, the acquisition cost $525 million, roughly 5x Industry Dive’s annual revenue of $100 million.

A month later, Axios, an American political and business news website, agreed to be acquired by Cox Enterprises, a global communications conglomerate, for $525 million, the same as Industry Dive. This agreement also happened at roughly five times Axios’ projected revenue for 2022.

Earlier in the year, The New York Times acquired the online sports news company, The Athletic, for an all-cash deal valued at $550 million, roughly nine times the latter’s $65 million revenue.

While these deals happened under very different circumstances, I haven’t stopped thinking about what it could look like in Africa. What does an African new media company’s road to $100 million in annual revenue look like? What if one could get acquired at or build up to the same valuation?

This is a thought experiment. For this experiment, we’re creating a company called Cocoa House Media, or CHM.

The making of an African $500-million media company

Cocoa House Media began operations in Nigeria, and its founders want to build a new media company worth over $500 million by 2025. To make this happen, they need to meet a few criteria. Let’s walk through them.

1. The company has to be truly pan-African

$100 million in revenue in Africa’s three largest economies -- Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt -- amounts to ₦43.4 billion, R1.82 billion, and £1.96 billion, respectively. None of these figures is impossible to reach, but the prospect of generating them only in one market isn’t as attractive as generating $100 million across multiple markets. It’s unlikely that a new media company operating in one country will be attractive enough for this type of exit.

Focusing only on one market (say, South Africa, Nigeria, or Kenya) makes it difficult to justify future growth prospects, given how unstable the continent’s markets and government policies can be.

Let’s take a cue from some of Africa’s highest-valued startups -- Flutterwave, Jumia, Paystack, Paga, and Wave, to name a few. All are expanding rapidly into multiple markets or plan to because hedging their bets solely on one country handicaps them in the long run.

We can look to one of Africa’s biggest media companies, Multichoice. It’s based in South Africa, perhaps Africa’s most vibrant media market. But it must reach and operate across the continent to continue its dominance. South Africa generated roughly $2.02 billion of Multichoice’s revenue for the year ended March 31, 2022, but nearly 59% of its 21.8 million subscribers are spread across the continent.

The CHM founders would need to expand into as many African markets as possible. They’ll probably roll out in South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana. Then Francophone Africa and North Africa, with Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Egypt in view.

2. They need significant funding

Building a pan-African media company requires significant capital, and our founders must decide which funding route is best.

Do they look for venture capital or angel investments? Do they take out loans or patiently crowdfund from their community? Each option has its upsides and downsides, but they eventually decide to go with a mix of venture capital and some angel investment. They think both options give them the highest upside and the most bearable downsides.

Nevertheless, they know that injecting venture capital into a media business significantly impacts how the company will operate and grow. They know that “when a new media publisher raises venture capital, it can no longer operate strictly as a publisher, especially in Africa, where the market realities are much more brutal. The expectations are different... Venture capital isn’t just another funding model for sustaining a business. It works with the underlying assumption that the business can generate returns in the multiples (7-10x), hence the high level of risk involved (the business owner typically isn’t liable if the business fails).”

With this possibility in mind, the founders are prepared to design their operations to generate most of their revenue at zero marginal cost.

3. Not relying on single revenue sources

Typically, media companies rely on revenue generated directly or indirectly from the type of content they create (which is why they are media companies in the first place). This includes revenue models like advertising and sponsorship, which are directly connected to audience size and quality, and subscription, which is tied to the audience’s spending power and willingness to pay for access to information.

In Africa, subscriptions are hard to sell, especially with how low disposable income generally is. Furthermore, while advertising continues to be the biggest revenue source for most media companies, there’s intense competition from Big Tech and social media platforms. Some media companies try to make money from research and custom reports, but anyone attempting this on the continent will tell you it is backbreaking work.

A much better strategy for our founders will be combining three to four revenue sources, including a model that can scale beyond manpower. This means they must design their company so that they don’t need more employees or office space to create more products that people are willing to pay for.

This could include building a unique platform serving one or more industries, a specialised body of knowledge that requires constant updates, or a valuable network that people across all the markets can access. Examples to draw inspiration from are Bloomberg Terminal and Axios HQ.

4. Focused on niches, not mass audiences

Not all audiences are valued equally, and neither are all topics. There is a minimal strategic advantage in trying to be everything to everyone everywhere. Instead, it makes more sense to build for an audience with high economic capacity and significant social capital, and to build a brand people interact with for distinct reasons.

Our founders know that building a company serving a mass audience across all the markets doesn’t help their cause. They have better odds of reaching their goal if they focus on specific niches in specific markets. They know that focusing on these niches makes their company’s brand more valuable in the long term, making them more attractive to prospective buyers and sending strong signals to the market.

A great example of this is Politico, which got acquired in 2021 by Axel Springer for $1 billion, a 5x multiple of its $200 million revenue. Politico was made more attractive by its niche (politics) and its audience (“those who have a political, professional or financial stake in politics and policy”).

If you run a media company with several niche publications that 100,000 people with a lot of money and power read religiously, you’re better positioned than a company building one mass-market publication with 5 million readers.

What does an exit look like?

Now that we’ve laid out the criteria our founders must meet to make their exit possible, we need to know the prospects. An IPO could be an option, but that depends on how attractive the company becomes to the public market.

Given the inspiration for this thought experiment, let’s dig deeper into a possible acquisition. Who has the resources and incentives to make this kind of deal? Two sets of companies could be incentivised to make this type of play: telcos and international media groups.

1. Telcos

Telecommunication companies like Econet Global and Safaricom have attempted media plays in the past, with Econet Global trying to build a streaming service (Kwese) and Safaricom launching Baze, a mobile-first video-on-demand service. The MTN Group has invested in media development programmes and partnerships to build video streaming services. Globacom (with Glo TV) and Airtel (with Airtel TV) have also attempted new media forays.

Most of these are video-streaming ventures that could help telcos expand their reach and get more people to use their services. None has brought outstanding success. Still, this indicates a willingness to explore media plays that could help the companies capture new markets and high-value customers. Acquiring a company like CHM could be compelling.

2. International media groups

Companies like Axel Springer, Ringier, and Bauer Media Group could be potential exit options on the horizon. Ringier has previously ventured into the continent through Pulse Media. Still, there could be further opportunities for expansion in the future, particularly if the business already meets all the necessary criteria for an exit. Axel Springer could also be tempted to explore options on the continent if the chance arises.

Naspers, the South African Internet holding company, has invested in media ventures on the continent with mixed results. Still, it continues to operate Media24 and could be a potential exit option. Oddly, the Multichoice Group could provide an outlet as well as it continues to diversify its assets and invest in new types of businesses, including sports betting and gaming.

Final thoughts

For CHM to reach a $500 million exit, they’d have to make up to $100 million a year across 5-6 African markets and with a mix of 3-4 solid revenue sources.

Multichoice has proven that this is possible in Africa, and there could yet be a few more examples on the horizon. Some have been around for a while, and others are just starting. A lot will happen in the next five to seven years, much of which will follow this template.

Support Communiqué

Some important announcements

1. We’re now fundraising for CMQ Media

Communiqué started as a newsletter product, but our progress has shown that it can be more.

Building Communique has revealed opportunities in two areas. First, there is an opening for a media company serving knowledge workers interested in Africa. Second, there is a need for a media company that provides actionable insight for businesses to succeed.

We’re filling this gap in media, and we will do it in other industries with high visibility and high capital spending.

If you’re interested in learning more, please send me a message: david[at]cmqmedia.xyz.

2. Creators’ Circle 3 is here!

We’re having the third edition of Creators’ Circle in Lagos on Friday, October 21, 2022. Register here, and see you next week!

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 31: What makes South Africa attractive to streaming giants?]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/south-africa-streaming-netflix-spotify-disneyhttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/south-africa-streaming-netflix-spotify-disneyTue, 19 Jul 2022 06:02:43 GMTPresented by Fincra

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What makes South Africa attractive to streaming giants?

Shot of a group of a diverse group of friends relaxing in the lounge at home
Credit: PeopleImages

Let’s play a drinking game. Every time a streaming company announces it’s launching in or expanding to Africa and South Africa is either the first or one of the names on the list, you take a shot.

This year, when Disney+ announced its expansion to 42 new countries, including six in Africa, South Africa was on the list. In 2018, when Spotify began its Africa expansion, South Africa was first. In 2016, when Netflix and Amazon Prime were first moving into Africa, South Africa was on the list.

What’s more? Netflix’s first-ever African original, Queen Sono, was filmed in South Africa. In January, it announced a $1-million creative equity scholarship for Africa, but to be rolled out initially in partnership with higher educational institutions in South Africa. It then added that “fund administration partners for East Africa and the West and Central Africa regions will be announced, along with the calls for applications, in due course.”

According to Sa Eva Nébié, head of research at Dataxis, a media and telecom market research firm, “South Africa is really the ultra-dominant country in the region. It’s the country that captures most of the revenues for more traditional TV as well. Most international players launch in South Africa first.”

All this is interesting for a few reasons:

  1. South Africa is not the largest economy in Africa. Nigeria and Egypt are.

  2. It’s not Africa's largest consumer market. Nigeria is.

  3. South Africa’s film industry is also not the biggest on the continent. Nigeria’s is.

Yet, South Africa is a more attractive destination for foreign media investment. Why is this the case? What makes South Africa stand out among other countries on the continent?

While searching for answers, I spoke with Thinus Ferreira, a South African TV critic and journalist. By the end of our conversation, I realised that there’s more to this than meets the eye.

Thinus Ferreira

South Africa is doing fine, but there’s still so much more room for growth and investments, especially in infrastructure. There’s also a lot more that other African countries can do, and Thinus outlines exactly what.

Our conversation has been lightly edited.

David: What would you say streaming companies like Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify find the most appealing about South Africa, especially when they're considering it as the base for regional operations?

Thinus: South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya in East Africa are the biggest and most developed TV industry markets across Africa, so companies, especially international companies, prioritise these regions first when they look at the continent since they’ll be able to scale up quickest in terms of customer acquisition, customer growth and retention.

South Africa has the most advanced TV ratings system on the continent. It’s not something many African countries think of or invest in. An accurate and representative measurement system, done by Nielsen, for instance, provides a proper and trusted “feedback loop” for companies, advertisers, ad buyers, ad planners, etc. They can measure and get answers to questions like how many people are watching a TV show, watching or using their service, seeing their ads, and seeing their content.

Africa needs more investment in companies, tracking and measuring expertise to create viable, trusted viewership, listenership and audience measurement systems.

Perhaps also interesting to mention is that even though South Africa’s economy isn’t doing great, it’s stable and open, so investors know what they’ll get. They know what the macro-infrastructure is. Things like inflation and currency are relatively stable, so it’s slightly easier to make investment decisions and to decide, “Okay, let’s start rolling out Disney+ from there”.

David: That makes a lot of sense. In addition to the economic factors, what cultural and consumer behavioural trends contribute to South Africa's entertainment and media industry?

Thinus: In South Africa, as in some other countries like Nigeria, there’s been a long history of people who have grown up on “American fare” in terms of film and TV content. People have been exposed for decades to “Hollywood” as it provides a template of “how to be” or who and what to mimic to create or grow the local entertainment media industry. It has sort of provided the template of how to go about it.

Although far from what it should be, there is also relatively stable and growing broadband internet access. It’s expensive, but hopefully, costs will come down in future. People have relatively easy access to the internet through mobile devices in cities, so consumers are exposed to new technology and streaming services.

Overall, South Africa and the rest of Africa need more investment in internet infrastructure to make it more accessible and reduce the prohibitively high data price. This will allow more consumers to go online, use e-commerce, and grow the digital video industry across the continent in every African country.

David: By your estimation, what opportunities do these companies see in South Africa that make it a worthwhile investment destination?

Thinus: There’s a type of “economic racism” – I’m not sure what the right word is – from international companies who still see Africa as “dark Africa” and will economically, in a sense, “colonise” it only when they have to – or out of necessity.

In terms of TV markets, countries like South Africa and Nigeria have more viewers than countries like New Zealand and Australia and are getting close to being on parity with the United Kingdom. A viewer is a viewer, is a consumer. Yet, global companies will run to these other countries first when it comes to global rollouts of products and services, and Africa is always still last in the row or gets left out.

So it’s not that they see South Africa or other African countries as a “worthwhile investment” – the truth is they need to continue to grow or deliver profits and value to shareholders. What happens is that the American market or their “domestic” market becomes saturated or growth slows, and then they’re forced by necessity to expand globally.

Once a Netflix or a Walmart can no longer add a lot of new customers in the United States, then they suddenly “are willing” to go into these other international markets which you would have wanted them to expand into organically and not just because they’re, in a sense, “forced” to venture into Africa.

With almost every video streaming service, Africa is last in line after Europe, Asia, South America and other places. How often do you see a “global tour” being announced for something and if you know the world map, Africa is completely ignored and skipped over? It’s 2022, and it’s wrong.

David: This is an interesting perspective, and I’ve written about it in the past. The first time was when Netflix launched in Nigeria. It was evident that it did so because growth had slowed in the US, and it needed to expand into more international markets. The second was when it introduced its Mobile Plan, which was clearly targeted at African consumers.

This brings me to my next question. How are South Africans responding to international streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime vs local ones like Showmax?

Thinus: It’s difficult to tell since it’s still very new. It’s also difficult because Netflix, Showmax and others are secretive about both viewership figures – which again is why accurate and credible ratings and viewership organisations and companies like Nielsen are essential – and subscriber figures, meaning how many sign-ups and customers they have.

South Africans are signing up, experimenting, and using global and local services. It’s also growing fast but from a small base. So it would, for instance, be possible to say, “Service A has grown by 50% year-on-year”, but it’s easier to do when you’re smaller because going from 5 customers in year one to 10 customers in year two is a 100% increase – although it’s not really a “lot” of customers.

Streaming will continue to grow, but it will grow in SA and elsewhere in Africa as fast or as slow as the ecosystem around it can grow – meaning internet access and the local TV and film industry having the capacity, money and willingness to produce content to attract people to these services.

In the United States, the latest consumer research shows that TV or video consumers now subscribe to around three or four different video streaming services already. It will be interesting to see how various African countries grow in terms of this and how long it will take.

For instance, will a Nigerian consumer of TV and film by 2025 perhaps subscribe to at least one global and one local streaming service at the same time, or will 60% of Kenyan video consumers by 2026 maybe use at least one traditional pay-TV service like MultiChoice’s DStv or GOtv and at least one streaming service like Amazon Prime Video or Disney+? The evolution of this consumer market – and being able to track it accurately – will be hugely important and exciting.

David: My final question is, in some sense, different from the others. But I’m still curious to hear your thoughts. What government policies and business incentives, if any, would you say have contributed to making SA’s media and streaming landscape a preferred destination?

Thinus: Nothing much, to be honest. And once it happens, governments will probably be slow or stupid to act appropriately. Once again, Africa is a bit slow to act and behind the times.

Individual African governments or regulators should have started implementing processes to look at how to amend existing broadcasting and video regulations to protect their local TV, film and broadcasting industries from the foreign influx of services.

Not a single African government has yet looked at or enacted regulations to compel global streamers like Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video or others to feature a percentage or to produce a certain percentage of local content.

In France, streamers like Netflix must invest between 20% to 25% of their French revenues in local content, but Nigeria or South Africa or Ghana or Zambia have no such regulations, and government officials seem clueless or disinterested in keeping up with the times and how the digital video content economy globally has rapidly been changing.

Final notes

I get the sense that this conversation isn’t complete if I don’t dig deeper into the possibility that some government policies and a more welcoming business environment have helped South Africa’s media industry grow. For example, my research has pointed to policies and initiatives such as:

  1. Production and post-production incentives from the Department of Trade and Industry -- The South African Emerging Black Filmmakers Incentive, Foreign Film and Television Production and Post-Production Incentive, etc.

  2. The SA tax exemption for the domestic production of films.

  3. Some of these have then led to the low cost of production, which could also be an incentive to foreign media investors.

Furthermore, when I think about how slow African governments are to introduce regulation into this industry, a few questions come to mind, and I want to throw them out to you.

  1. Could it be that the reason why African governments haven’t created such regulations is that the market isn't that big enough yet, collectively?

  2. Do we really want governments that are generally bad at managing these sorts of relationships properly (case in point, the Nigerian government and Twitter) to introduce any form of regulation?

I’ll leave you with these questions. What do you think?

Editor’s note: An earlier version of the article mentioned that Netflix and Spotify have South African offices. They don’t, and the article has been updated to reflect that correction.

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 29: The Money Africa playbook]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/the-money-africa-playbookhttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/the-money-africa-playbookTue, 21 Jun 2022 06:00:40 GMTPresented by Fincra

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The Money Africa playbook

One of the biggest missed opportunities in the 21st Century is that banks and financial institutions are not the champions of financial literacy content.

For so long, something with such a significant upside received negligible investment from the companies it could benefit the most. They’ve missed out on its potential to strengthen their brands and deeply connect with young audiences. They’ve missed out on building vibrant communities around the critical topic of money. They’ve failed to capitalise on a steady, low-cost customer acquisition channel.

In their defence, some of them have attempted to play the game. For example, one of the media companies I worked for a few years ago partnered with a Nigerian bank to create a financial literacy series. It was mildly successful.

Still, despite these attempts, millions of people are starved of relatable financial literacy content that fits their media consumption and engagement habits. They don’t want any of that highly-technical, boring stuff. Just jargon-free, easy-to-understand content that they can relate with.

The gap is immense, and the most prominent attempts to close it are from individuals or small companies. Websites like Investopedia and authors like Robert Kiyosaki and Morgan Housel (to name a few) have built their brands on this. But one of the most compelling examples is Money Africa, a subscription-based financial education platform built on the back of relatable content and community.

In today’s newsletter, we’ll see precisely how Money Africa has become one of Nigeria's most popular sources of financial literacy content. We’ll look at the logic behind its subscription business. We’ll also look at how it uses relatable content as a foundation for building communities and products.

1. Show me the Money Africa

It will be disingenuous to call Money Africa a media company or try to shoehorn it into any remotely similar description. It’s an education technology and financial service company -- plain and simple. But what it does is it exhibits many of the features we explored in ‘Paystack’s media threat’ — taking everyday money problems and building a content strategy that solves them.

What sets it apart is that, like Multichoice, it proves Nigerians are willing to pay for content. However, when thinking about what they can or can’t pay for, the utility derived is what matters most for many people. They think, “if I’m paying for content, it has to be more than that I’m paying for. There must be other benefits.”

I wrote about this in ‘The subscription playbook’:

“In a market like ours that is low-income and heavily utilitarian, content is not enough… As long as income levels remain where they are, most people will be unmotivated to pay for content except in extraordinary circumstances. However, if there are additional offerings that make paying a fee worth it, then we will see the tides rising. So, it is less about content value and more about subscription benefits.”

Money Africa’s promise is simple — give us a portion of your money, and we’ll provide you with access to content and community that help you handle the rest of that money better while giving you the tools you need to make even more in the future.

Content, check. Utility, check. Paying subscribers, check. Equation complete.

Oluwatosin Olaseinde, the company’s founder, is a former reporter and analyst with CNBC Africa and Bloomberg TV Africa. So, she understands just how powerful content can be in business.

In its initial form, Money Africa published 60-second Instagram videos. As the videos gained traction, the company segued into physical classes, each costing the participants ₦20,000 ($33.33).

However, physical classes can be limiting. There’s a finite amount of people you can reach in a year. However, take everything online, and the potential for scale becomes infinite. That’s what Money Africa did.

It built a website and put all its content behind a paywall. Previously, only 20-25 people could pay for each class. Now, thousands more can consume the content at their own pace and as often as they want.

The platform has grown to over 200,000 paid and unpaid community members in nearly four years.

2. Take something abstract, then make it relatable

Two social media posts stand out when I think about how Money Africa has demystified financial literacy.

The first post uses Cristiano Ronaldo’s infamous actions at a press conference in June 2021 to explain how individual actions may or may not impact the stock market. The second uses Lionel Messi’s shocking exit from Barcelona to explain debt and cash flow.

These are just two examples, but there are many more instances where Money Africa takes advantage of subjects everyone is talking about and can relate to to explain concepts that might be abstract.

In a noisy world where everyone is constantly talking, it matters how you contribute to conversations.

3. Why teach people to fish when you can own the ocean?

In 2020, after two years of building a community of over 200,000 people hungry for relatable financial literacy content, Olaseinde launched Ladda, a savings and investment platform.

Money Africa has served as a great lead generator, and Ladda is the investment platform. Because of the former’s popularity, the latter’s user acquisition costs are significantly lower. Imagine having already built a community with thousands of people. Layering additional products that you know they need is a brilliant next step. It’s like Amazon realising several years ahead that building a cloud computing platform is a smart bet if you truly believe in the Internet’s potential.

Today, Amazon Web Services contributes $62 billion to its parent company’s $469.82 billion revenue, with companies like Coca-Cola, Netflix, Goldman Sachs, and even the US Census Bureau as customers.

Why teach people to fish when you can own the ocean?

For many other companies, their content and media strategy are loss-leading line items. An unprofitable means to a profitable end.

But this is not the case if you’re Money Africa and Ladda. Building a fintech product on top of a vibrant content-driven community hungry for financial education is a profitable business strategy. You never have to worry about user acquisition again. If only a bank could have thought of that.

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 28: Media sachetisation is real, and product pricing in emerging markets shows it]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/media-sachetisation-and-product-pricinghttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/media-sachetisation-and-product-pricingTue, 07 Jun 2022 06:00:31 GMTFirst, a message from our sponsor — Fincra

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Media sachetisation is real, and product pricing in emerging markets shows it

Credit: francescoch

How do you price media products in a market where food is the biggest competitor for every dollar? In Nigeria, for instance, food expenditure accounts for nearly 60 cents out of every dollar spent. In Kenya, it’s a little over 52 cents. In Cameroon, it’s almost 46 cents.

These three top the list of countries that spend the most on food. The other two in the top five are Kazakhstan and The Philippines. This reality affects how else people can distribute their disposable income, including what they spend on media consumption.

Last week, I wrote an article for Al Jazeera analysing the sachetisation of Nigeria’s economy. Sachetisation is a colloquial term that describes the repackaging and breakdown of products and services into smaller, more affordable sizes. It’s one of the most effective tools for penetrating markets at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Sachetisation has become pervasive in emerging markets like Nigeria, India, and The Philippines. It is an example of a pull strategy where, according to Clayton Christensen, Efosa Ojomo, and Derek van Bever, businesses “respond to needs represented in the struggles of everyday consumers”. The idea is to “develop products that people want to pull into their lives”, and sachetisation builds on that.

In the article, I explained the economic conditions that make this necessary:

“Since 2015, Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, has gone into recession twice, and in that time, the naira has plummeted against the dollar, losing 70 percent of its value. That put the economy in a chokehold. But things could become even worse in the coming days.

“According to a recent World Bank report, by 2022, the number of poor people in the country is projected to reach 95.1 million – more than 40 percent of the population. And even as the adverse economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic linger, commodity prices are on the rise due to the effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

I also explored how it impacts fintech, insurance, consumer goods manufacturing, and pension. For example, I wrote:

“The trend is also playing out in Nigeria’s tech industry and influencing how more startups are thinking about product pricing. The industry may still be in its infancy but is highly regarded around the world.

“In 2021, approximately 60 percent ($1.7 billion) of the total amount ($2.9 billion) raised by Africa-based tech startups went to Nigeria alone. But even giants bow to market forces.

“Many technology firms appeal to younger Nigerians because they ease bureaucratic and expensive processes of investing, saving, buying insurance, and accessing loans by introducing lower fees and cheaper payment plans, among other things.”

I used the examples of Bamboo — which allows Nigerians to invest in the US stock market with as little as $1; Rise — which lets its users invest in real estate and the stock market in the US with as little as $1; and Reliance Health — which provides health insurance services for as little as $7 per month.

In today’s newsletter, I want to explore how sachetisation plays out in media product pricing and user behaviour. I will focus on Nigeria, where it mainly happens in two ways — tiering and unbundling.

Let’s kick off with the most prominent example.

1: Multichoice’s tiering strategy

In ‘The subscription playbook’, I wrote that one of Multichoice’s biggest strengths is adapting to any economic and technological climate. With over 21 million subscribers across 50 markets, it is the largest pay-TV company in Africa.

In Nigeria, it operates two satellite TV services for different markets — DStv for the middle to the upper tier and GOtv for the lower tier. DStv has six subscription plans with prices ranging from $3.70 to $35.90 per month ($1 = ₦585, parallel market rate), while GOtv has five plans ranging from $1.54 to $9.40 per month.

Credit: Multichoice

DStv’s four most expensive plans are priced remarkably different and contain significantly more attractive options than its two cheapest plans. GOtv’s options pale in comparison to those on its sister platform, but it follows the same pricing principle.

For emphasis, DStv’s cheapest plan gives subscribers access to some entertainment and news channels, but the content is stripped to its bones. Since the channels available are likely those whose content is cheaper to acquire, it makes sense for the company to offer them “in a sachet”. The numbers add up.

Those channels with content that is more expensive to acquire then belong to the pricier tiers. Therein lies the principle of sachetisation — take something that is normally expensive as a whole, and break or strip it down into pieces that are individually more affordable. This implies that customers will forgo some quality, but it makes it possible for them to still access some benefits.

2: What can we learn from football viewing centres?

For a Nigerian football fan to diligently watch their team play every week, they need to be able to fork out $24 monthly for a Multichoice subscription. As we’ve established, not many can afford this, so they turn to other options. One of which is visiting football viewing centres.

Viewing centres in Nigeria are informal neighbourhood outlets for football fans to gather in their tens and hundreds to watch their favourite teams play during the season. Depending on their location, each person pays an entry fee of about ₦100 (17 cents) and will likely add a bottle of beer or soft drink during half-time.

A football viewing centre

The average viewing centre regular would spend about ₦1,000 ($1.7) per month on English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, and UEFA Champions League matches, depending on the team they support. You can count on their dedication to the viewing centre because that is often their primary source of entertainment after a long week at work.

Beyond serving as an entertainment source, viewing centres also help regulars form strong social bonds. This way, the proprietors of the business can estimate how many viewers will come around and how much money they will generate per month.

3: The Kwesé TV and StarTimes unbundling experiments

When Econet’s pay-TV service Kwesé launched in Nigeria five years ago, it did so with pay-as-you-watch plans, allowing users to pay for three, seven, and thirty-day subscriptions. It also introduced a similar model in Kenya around the same time.

That same year, StarTimes, a Chinese satellite TV service operating in Nigeria, introduced ₦60 to ₦240-per-day plans (10 to 41 cents), with weekly options ranging from ₦300 to ₦1,300 (51 cents to $2.22).

Kwesé has since shut down its pay-TV, removing content it doesn’t originally own and has to pay for. StarTimes continues to operate with its subscription plans, with marginal increments to its prices in the last few years, indicating what tier of the market it’s focused on.

4: IROKOtv’s sachet strategy

IROKOtv, a streaming platform that houses Nigerian movies and TV shows, has also adopted this strategy to grow its total addressable market. In the company’s early days, it acquired and licensed existing content until 2014, when it launched ROK Studios as an in-house production unit.

Having raised significant venture capital, IROKO had to grow fast. One way was by leveraging its insight into user behaviour and product pricing in Nigeria. Emeka Ajene, an entrepreneur and tech analyst, wrote about this:

“As a venture-backed company focused on rapid top-line growth, IROKO incorporated a growth [and] experimentation mindset into its pricing strategy.

“For example, the company noticed the popularity of individually packaged CPG (consumer packaged goods) items which, while cheaper on an absolute basis, were more expensive on a per-unit basis than larger sizes. Leveraging this insight, [it] introduced unlimited weekly Android access to IROKOtv for ₦100, which resulted in 100% growth in Nigerian subscribers within the first 30 days.”

Credit: IROKOtv

IROKO also developed a kiosk and agent network that allowed subscribers to download digitally-protected content at physical locations without worrying about Internet and broadband data costs.

5: The Netflix and Showmax mobile-only plans

In 2021, Showmax, Multichoice’s subscription video-on-demand service, reduced the price of its mobile-only plan by 20% to ₦1,200 ($2). A few months later, Netflix introduced a similar option at the same price point. Both platforms recognise the necessity of embracing this strategy to expand their user base in this market.

I wrote about this in ‘Stears’ lemonade machine and Netflix’s $3 beer’:

“Due to the high cost of data and Internet service limitations, people are more likely to download content to their phones before watching. But even downloading content often takes time because Internet speed can be frustrating. So, Netflix is adapting its offerings by creating a mobile-only plan that addresses those problems… The introduction of this plan also indicates Netflix is going punch-for-punch with Showmax (Multichoice’s SVOD property), which also has a mobile plan for that price.”

Showmax even goes a step further to partner with MTN Nigeria, the country’s largest telco. With an extra ₦500 (85 cents), users can access 2.5 GB of data to stream Showmax content or an additional ₦2,000 ($3.4) to access 5.5 GB.

Zooming out

Content production and acquisition are expensive line items for media companies. But to survive in emerging markets like Nigeria, most of them will have to embrace sachetisation.

As with any business strategy, sachetisation does not guarantee success, survival, or growth  —  however, it makes them more likely.

The lower class is far larger than the middle and upper classes, so companies will have to choose between not operating in Nigeria or adapting to reality. Some companies decide to exit, and that’s perfectly fine. But the ones who stay will certainly battle with the market forces, and we know who wins in the end.

PS: Thank you to Anita Eboigbe, Emeka Ajene, and Akachi Ogbonna for helping me to edit and refine the points in this essay.


Some good news 🥳

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 24: Fundraising PR no longer hits like it used to]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/fundraising-pr-no-longer-hitshttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/fundraising-pr-no-longer-hitsTue, 15 Mar 2022 06:00:37 GMTPresented by Fincra

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Fundraising PR no longer hits like it used to

Credit: dem10

In 2021, African tech startup funding crossed the $2 billion mark, with startups raising $1 million every other hour. This is a big step up from where the ecosystem was a few years ago. Stripe’s acquisition of Paystack was a watershed moment – it signalled to investors that they could put their money in African startups and earn attractive returns.

Suddenly, a global investor class had a strong appetite for African tech deal flow. Like any industry, the media responds to demand.

Media outlets dramatically upped their coverage. TechCrunch hired a West Africa correspondent and later a reporter in Nairobi. Bloomberg dedicated journalists to the African tech beat and started reporting on early-stage investments.

However, signs pointing to fatigue over fundraising stories have emerged over the last year. African tech watchers gripe that the media should expand coverage beyond funding. Reader interest in pure fundraise stories is waning, translating into weaker analytics for the media platforms. The flurry of fundraises has even become memeified.

Securing an investment announcement in TechCrunch is no longer a novelty and won’t drive excitement like before. Tech startups, therefore, need to think beyond fundraising PR for elevating their profiles.

Startups can turn to public relations strategies like thought leadership and owned media to build their reputation and credibility, connect with key audiences of investors and partners, and foster relationships with the media.

Share insight, but make it interesting

African tech startups can consider switching to a multi-channel strategy that involves thought leadership and owned media.

Thought leadership is when people see founders, or by extension, their startups as an authority source. They earn this trust and credibility by consistently sharing reliable industry information, insights, analysis, and data. The best part is that this strategy is entirely under the startup’s control. They can publish their information on their owned channels: website, blog, Medium page, YouTube channel, and Twitter. Then if it is really interesting, it could get picked up by media publications for free.

To build a reputation as an authority source, contribute information on newsworthy topics. For example, agent banking has taken off in Nigeria over the last several years. But agents who carry cash are sitting ducks for robbers. This has become a more pressing issue as security has deteriorated across the country.

CrowdForce, an Abuja-based agent banking network (full disclosure: they’re a past client), wanted to better understand the security situation of their 7,000+ agents. The communications team asked them in a market survey whether they had ever been robbed.

One-fifth of agents had experienced a robbery, while 80% were concerned about their security. Not only is the survey data useful for CrowdForce’s internal operations, but it can also be used for writing an analysis piece on security trends at the last mile for financial service providers. The data is also great for pitching journalists.

Startup founders and entrepreneurs can also share their expertise or opinions – the more counter-intuitive or surprising, the better. A deep dive into the inner workings of their industry, a behind-the-scenes look into developing a new product, or a passionate stand on an industry trend could all be moulded into great content.

Founders who stand their ground about hard truths in their field while making sure they’re supported by facts are also magnets for promising media attention. An honest opinion is compelling and perceived as authentic, which is a valuable currency in our social media era.

Some practical examples

An example is Temi Giwa’s piece on payment-on-delivery in e-commerce. It’s effective because she has credibility in the industry as a senior product manager at Paystack. She wrote it based on her work experience, sharing specific details about the delayed profits, failed orders, and business closures that are part and parcel of payment-on-delivery. She also supported her argument with charts.

Another effective PR strategy that can raise a startup’s profile is the use of Twitter to share insights. Eloho Omame, co-founder at FirstCheck Africa, a female-led, female-focused angel fund and investor community, is known for her regular Twitter threads. Omame shares practical and actionable advice for founders, like how to avoid a bad investment deal. In addition to her core audience of female entrepreneurs, she also appeals to a broader audience by demystifying startup jargon.

The African tech industry is hungry for knowledge. Both Giwa and Omame show that well-written and researched content can be popular, stimulating debate and driving engagement in the process. Although it’s a long-term endeavour that bears fruit through consistent quality output.

It’s a winning strategy for profile raising and building relationships beyond fundraising stories.

Owned media spawns earned media

Startup founders and entrepreneurs with a reputation for interesting insights, commentary, and data inevitably attract the attention of journalists who are always on the lookout for excellent and relatable industry sources.

Given that African tech is still in its infancy, journalists who cover the sector are generalists. Being jacks of all trades, they want to cultivate ties with knowledgeable sources who will explain the inner workings of their industry.

Journalists also use Twitter to look for story ideas. If they stumble upon an interesting thread or tweet, especially if it’s trending or popular, they will follow up with the author for more information. A nugget of an idea could lead to a story. I once shared my two cents on Volkswagen’s plans to move into ride-hailing in Africa. A Bloomberg reporter who I’ve known for years contacted me to discuss the idea for a potential story. Therein lies a formula.

Lastly, founders who are good storytellers can earn goodwill with the media and aid relationship building over the long term. During a recent Twitter Spaces on African tech PR strategy, Koromone Koroye, TechCabal’s Managing Editor, cited Benjamin Fernades of NALA and Gregory Rockson of mPharma as founders who use Twitter well. They share the reality of building a tech startup candidly and are relatable. Koroye liked and could relate to their authentic communication style, which piqued her interest in their startups.

Fundraising PR is just the beginning

PR around a fundraising announcement is important since startups need to make noise about their investments. However, it’s only the beginning.

Startups can stand out in a crowded field by sharing compelling stories and data via their owned channels, establishing expertise, and building relationships with the media. A multi-channel PR approach that leans on thought leadership and owned media yields lasting results that compound over time.


Victoria is a Lagos-based African tech publicist and founder of No Filter PR. She's lived in West Africa for 10 years.

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 22: Why did Binance invest $200 million in Forbes?]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/forbes-and-binancehttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/forbes-and-binanceTue, 15 Feb 2022 06:00:38 GMT
Credit: NurPhoto

Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, is investing $200 million in Forbes. I saw the news on Thursday and thought it was interesting, primarily because I didn’t see this coming. What fellowship does Forbes have with Binance, I wondered. But upon closer examination, it made sense.

Let’s dig in.

Forbes plans to go public on the New York Stock Exchange later this quarter through a partnership with Magnum Opus Acquisition Limited, a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), at a market value of $630 million.

The goal is to raise $600 million, with $200 million from Magnum Opus’ trust account and $400 million worth of shares from private individuals and institutions. The latter is where Binance comes in. As part of the process, it will invest $200 million in Forbes.

The motive

There are two ways to think about this.

The first is as Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tells CNBC. It’s a way to help the 104-year-old Forbes transition successfully into Web3, having made leaps over the years from print to Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Binance will offer strategic advice for how the media company can integrate concepts like NFTs, read-to-earn, micropayments, and subscription payments in crypto.

It’s admirable how long Forbes has been around and how often it’s had to reinvent itself. It began as a print magazine in 1917 and has successfully evolved to include an online publication attracting millions of page views monthly and generating $70-80 million in annual revenue. This investment represents another step in that evolution.

The second way to think about it, and the more likely motive for this investment, is that Binance sees this as an opportunity to push crypto further into mainstream consciousness. Again, from Zhao:

“As Web 3 and blockchain technologies move forward and the crypto market comes of age, we know that media is an essential element to build widespread consumer understanding and education.”

I can’t fault Binance for making this investment, and neither can I side-eye Forbes for taking it. I’ve long thought of Forbes less as a journalistic platform and more as a content marketing engine. So, this transaction makes sense. Forbes needs the money and has the audience. Binance wants the audience and has the money.

If we end today’s newsletter here, you’d have gotten the point. But let’s dig deeper. Why does Binance need to make this investment? And, why Forbes, with all its conspicuous imperfections?

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Media and mass adoption

Ideas don’t spread on their own. Products don’t become popular by accident. They need to be pushed socially and financially.

Procter & Gamble realised this as far back as the 1920s when it began sponsoring daytime radio dramas to sell soap to stay-at-home wives and mums. While this is technically advertising, the strategy behind it points to a trend that would calcify many decades later.

1. P&G’s soap opera strategy

In 1927, P&G sponsored NBC’s “Radio Beauty School” to promote Camay, its perfumed soap brand. From 1933 to 1956, it sponsored the 15-minute radio serial “Ma Perkins” to promote Oxydol laundry soap. The company has gone on to back several long-running radio and television shows to advertise its products, including “Guiding Light”, which aired for 57 years from 1952 to 2009, making it the longest-running TV drama according to Guinness World Records.

“Guiding Light Cast”, Radio Varieties, December 1940, pp 11. Source: The Library of Congress

What’s peculiar about P&G’s strategy wasn’t just that it was advertising soap to stay-at-home wives and mums through radio and TV shows, earning it a mythical status as the inventor of “soap operas”. It’s that it was actively involved in determining the type of content surrounding its adverts to the point of notoriety.

Furthermore, its marketing spend has been so influential that this scholar concludes it “helped to establish media systems in other countries and intervened in the daily realities of people living as workers and consumers”.

2. Making superheroes mainstream

Brands like Disney, Marvel, DC, and LEGO have shown that content marketing can effectively propagate ideas and shape behaviour. Comic books and superhero movies (as lucrative as they can be on their own) have proven potent in bringing toys, action figures, and niche characters into the mainstream.

Marvel, for example, has completely changed how many people perceive and experience cinema, much to the displeasure of legendary director Martin Scorcese. Disney, Marvel’s parent company, uses content to drive traffic to its resorts and boost merch sales.

LEGO itself has toyed with this strategy, launching the Bricks Kicks magazine (remember that?) in the 1980s and dabbling into filmmaking with The Lego Movie and Bionicle series.

In some ways, these brands created the template for content marketing long before the world agreed on the meaning of the term. Several years later, more companies are taking that playbook and pushing the envelope.

3. Software, meet media. Media, software

We’ve seen this trend pervasive with software as a service (SaaS) companies more recently. I wrote about this in “Paystack’s media threat”, using Airbnb, Bumble, and Netflix as examples. But there are more.

In 2019, Robinhood, the stock trading and investing company, acquired MarketSnacks, a media company that made financial news digestible, and rebranded it as Robinhood Snacks. The acquisition gave Robinhood the content and resources it needed to connect deeper with its six million users (at the time) alongside the acquired media company’s already existing audience.

In October 2021, Hubspot bought The Hustle, a business and tech content publisher, for a reported $27 million. The reason? To give Hubspot’s users access to more “educational, business, and tech trend content in their preferred formats”, according to Kieran Flanagan, Hubspot’s SVP of marketing.

Many more examples point to this trend, but very few can compare to the scale of Binance’s investment in Forbes.

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Binance, Forbes, and the race to demystify crypto

I didn’t get into crypto until 2020, despite knowing about it since 2018. My biggest barrier? Knowledge and comprehension. I knew a little about crypto, but what little I knew was cryptic and difficult to understand.

There are many more people around the world who can relate, many more who are largely confused about crypto. Some are interested in learning but don’t know where to start, while others couldn’t care less. And it’s this group of people Binance is trying to reach.

In 2020, Binance acquired CoinMarketCap, the world’s most popular crypto website, for an undisclosed amount. Later that year, CoinMarketCap launched CMC Alexandria (named after the Library of Alexandria) to promote crypto education. Binance itself has a high-ranking crypto website that educates users about the technology, aside from serving as an exchange.

Credit: NurPhoto

Binance isn’t the only company trying to demystify crypto. CoinDesk, another major crypto media platform, is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which builds and invests in crypto companies. Nestcoin, a company building and investing in crypto products for frontier markets, also owns Breach, through which it breaks down abstract concepts for everyday people. (Disclosure: I work at Nestcoin and co-lead its media team.)

For over a decade, crypto existed as a fringe concept, the exuberant pursuit of a few. Esoteric at best, trifling at worst. It has come closer to the mainstream in recent times, but it still hasn’t broken through. For many, even those who swear by it, it remains a mystery, a Latin-centric religious treatise needing reformation.

Like many other technologies and ideas that have preceded it, mass media engagement and an unrelenting investment in education will significantly contribute to crypto’s reformation and adoption.

Therefore, for Binance, investing in a media company that has successfully reinvented itself over a century and is willing to do so again, a company willing to understand and experiment with this new technology while actively talking about it, is an idealistic step in that direction. It’s Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg all over again.


PS: A big thank you to Susan Akinade for helping with the research. Thank you to Gift Ajayi, Caleb Ihuarulam, and Adeniyi Makinde for helping me refine the essay.

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 21: How two women built one of Africa’s biggest podcasts]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/iswis-the-i-said-what-i-said-storyhttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/iswis-the-i-said-what-i-said-storyTue, 01 Feb 2022 06:00:39 GMT

When Jola Ayeye and Feyikemi Abudu conceived “I Said What I Said” (ISWIS) in 2017, they were particular about what they wanted to create: a podcast laced with humour, its finger firmly on the pulse of youth and pop culture, and a platform that freed them up to talk about anything.

They wanted to host their show without worrying about technicalities. And so began their search for a partner with the resources: a studio, recording equipment, engineers, and editors. The search led them to Midas Radio, a podcast network under Aristokrat Records.

Along with the network, Ayeye and Abudu planned to experiment with four episodes. However, their already significant social media following ensured their first episode got thousands of listeners. (It currently has over 9,000 plays on Soundcloud).

In February 2020, during Social Media Week Lagos, Ayeye and Abudu hosted their first live event, and their listeners got to see them perform live. They joked and laughed and talked about many things. They’d mastered mixing the mundane with the imaginative, the facile with the reflective. The live audience consisted of 40-odd people, and the podcast at the time had over 200,000 listens, a remarkable achievement for such a nascent medium.

A little more than a year later, in August 2021, ISWIS hosted its first paid live event, and it sold out with hundreds of people in attendance. In September, the show moved to Abuja and sold out again. In October, it sold out The Fitzgerald in Accra, Ghana.

A few months later, in December, the hosts put together a party for their community, complete with an attire that doubled as the ticket (each one cost N15,000, about $27). With hundreds of people eating, drinking, laughing, and playing games, there was very little indication they were there because of a podcast. If you didn’t know better, you’d think it was a Yoruba wedding ceremony.

By the end of 2021, the podcast had attracted close to 2 million listens. That was also the year the team incorporated video, something the hosts were initially reluctant to do, but that mushroomed their audience.

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The “I Said What I Said” recipe for success

The ‘Òwámbẹ’ (a Yoruba term used to describe elaborate parties and ceremonies) ISWIS hosted in December 2021 was sponsored by big brands like Schweppes, The Singleton, and Flutterwave, substantiating just how far the podcast had come.

What started as an experiment between two friends had grown into one of Africa’s biggest podcasts, complete with a variegated business model.

But how did it grow this big? How did the team set their podcast up for success?

1. The hosts’ chemistry

Foundational to this podcast’s success is the chemistry between Ayeye and Abudu. Listening to them, you get the feeling that two close friends are letting you into their inner circle and sharing their most candid thoughts. Nothing feels forced, and there’s no topic too sacred to explore.

Hope Michaels, a listener, describes it this way:

“It’s like having a conversation with your girls. The discussions they have aren’t what you’d normally think you need to hear about until you hear about them. It’s light and airy and doesn’t feel like they’re trying so hard to be deep and impactful.”

2. A ready-made audience

It’s more difficult to get people to pay attention to your content if you don’t already have a significant audience or social capital. For Ayeye and Abudu, the odds were in their favour. They already were active on social media, particularly on Twitter, with many followers interested in what they had to say. The harder part was getting the content and delivery right.

3. The content and delivery

Perhaps the biggest appeal of this podcast is what the hosts choose to talk about and how they talk about it. They’ve mastered the art of conversation. Friendly conversation. They know how to use humour and make it stick, regardless of the subject.

Take this October 2020 episode, for example. It’s dedicated to discussing the Lekki Toll Gate Massacre and its aftermath. By every measure, it’s a grim topic. But Ayeye and Abudu masterfully explore it without losing an ounce of their humour and lightheartedness. They use relatable stories and personal experiences to draw their listeners in and then round off with simple steps to help move things forward.

They spice up their ability to select and navigate topics with their eye for guests. They know which guests to invite to the show, which questions to ask, and what direction to steer the conversation. Their dexterity is reminiscent of some of the greatest talk show hosts you’ll ever listen to.

4. Incorporating video

In 2021, ISWIS moved from Midas Radio to Eggcorn Digital, and it was at this point the team began playing with the idea of making video podcasts, but there was initial resistance.

“We didn’t think people wanted to see that. We weren’t sure what the value add would be and what the growth would look like,” Ayeye tells me. Incorporating video was a whole new ball game.

Eventually, the consensus was to experiment with one video episode and make decisions based on its performance. Like most of their other experiments, this one did well, and they haven’t looked back since.

Ayeye also confirmed that adding video to the mix helped the podcast grow exponentially. “There’s a whole new segment of our audience that doesn’t even know we have an audio podcast. They think it’s just video,” Ayeye says.

(Aside: She asked me to tell anyone reading this who listens to or watches the podcast to ‘like’ it so that more people can see it. In her words, “It’s no longer fun and games.” Now, back to our regularly scheduled programme.)

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How ISWIS monetises content and community

Very rarely do podcasts make money in Africa. They are often long-running or short-lived passion projects. Or they exist as brand-building mediums, a means to a more profitable end.

ISWIS is an exception. The podcast already generates revenue from its content and the community. How?

1. Sponsorships and collaborations

Sponsorships and collaborations are the lowest hanging fruit for monetising content, and ISWIS has capitalised on its popularity. Because the podcast strongly appeals to young people, it’s become a major attraction for companies looking to reach that demographic.

The podcast often mentions these sponsors and their products. For example, it hosted a raffle draw from December 7th to 22nd, 2021, as part of its “12 Days of Christmas” series. Each day came with a new episode sponsored by different companies. The raffle draw winners got flight tickets, gaming consoles, vacation packages, food, shopping vouchers, and so on.

2. Paid live events

ISWIS leveraged its brand and community to create live versions of the podcast in three major African cities — Lagos, Abuja, and Accra. All of these events were ticketed but also sponsored.

The hosts recognised that they’d built a loyal following that could pay to see them do what do they do on their podcast physically. But beyond recording live podcasts, they also got the chance to forge deeper connections with their listeners in person.

Credit: I Said What I Said

3. Merchandising

Everyone who’s ever attended a live ISWIS event will have seen the merch stand. By customising items like mugs, pop sockets, t-shirts, and keyrings, ISWIS creates a way for its brand to stay in its followers’ hearts while generating revenue in the process.

Looking into the future

What does the future look like for “I Said What I Said”? Are there any plans to get acquired, or will it remain independent? There are no specific answers to these questions.

“Plan is a very strong word,” Ayeye says. “Our independence gives us many options. We’re not constrained or forced to do anything, much like artists who choose to remain independent or go corporate.”

Any talk of acquisition must be seen through the lenses of the hosts and their podcast’s relationship with the audience, the benefits of the said acquisition, and the new dynamics it’ll introduce to their operations. “Considering what we’re learning about the podcast, the options we have, how we can do things, whom we can decide to work with, it will need to make a lot of sense,” she says.

It took three years before the podcast began generating revenue, and Ayeye calls it “an honour” to be able to make money from something she enjoys.

However, if there were to be talks of an acquisition, what matters would be the options, how they’re presented, and what they allow them to do for the podcast, the community they have, and the community they’re building.

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 18: Bloomberg’s vision]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/bloombergs-vision-nestcoin-and-breachhttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/bloombergs-vision-nestcoin-and-breachTue, 16 Nov 2021 05:58:29 GMT

Today, I’ll tell you a story in two parts -- the first is about an American billionaire who saw the future, and the second is about a young Nigerian code-named ‘Bartimaeus’.

Part 1: Bloomberg’s vision

In 1990, American businessman Michael Bloomberg approached Matthew Winkler, a former journalist at the Wall Street Journal, with a proposition to help build a news service. Eight years before, Bloomberg had founded Innovative Market Systems (now Bloomberg LP), a financial analytics and data services firm for Wall Street.

A core part of the firm’s success was a computer terminal, Bloomberg Terminal, which provided financial news and information to clients. With Merrill Lynch as its first customer, the business began to blossom, but Bloomberg needed to step things up. His idea? Create a news service (or content platform) to expand the company’s reach and acquire more customers.

And so, starting with a team of six led by Winkler, Bloomberg News was born. Over 30-plus years, that team would balloon into 2,700 news professionals and analysts operating out of more than 120 offices across 70-odd countries worldwide, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. What began as a news service has morphed into a media conglomerate.

By 1995, Bloomberg’s vision to use the media service as a customer acquisition strategy was already bearing fruit. There was a direct correlation between running the news service and increased terminal sales. The plan became so successful that the goal changed. Instead of focusing primarily on boosting sales, the company decided to spin off a media service to rival Reuters and Dow Jones. Sound familiar?

In 1992, Bloomberg began acquiring radio stations in New York, which now run through the Bloomberg Radio service. The strategy was to deliver news concentrated on the financial market and secure interviews with influential newsmakers, analysts, and executives. In 1994, the company launched a 24-hour TV news service, and in 1995, a magazine. It also launched a website to syndicate its radio broadcasts.

In 2011, Bloomberg LP officially merged all its consumer media services under the Bloomberg Media Group, bringing together the operations of Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg Markets, Bloomberg.com and Bloomberg Mobile. In 2018, it ventured into consumer subscription media.

While its revenue data isn’t public, Axios reports that Bloomberg Media could bring in about $100 million from roughly 400,000 subscribers this year, even though it’s not yet profitable. The terminal business is worth around $10 billion, and Michael Bloomberg has a personal net worth of about $59 billion. Not bad, eh? A lot can happen in 30 years.

All of this began with Bloomberg creating a product for Wall Street that required the company to create loads of content. In the process, it saw the opportunity to spin this out into a media service that would increase sales, boost its reputation, and eventually grow into a competitive business in its rights.

Thirty years ago, Bloomberg latched onto a strategy for his company that is becoming mainstream again, especially within the tech industry.

Part 2: Bartimaeus receives his sight

The second part of our story brings us to Lagos, Nigeria. It’s a hot Sunday afternoon in 2018. We’re not quite sure of the date. Bartimaeus is hanging around after a church service and talking to some friends. Two of them work at a crypto startup and are trying to sign him up for their platform. But Bartimaeus doesn’t get the point of crypto. It all seems like a scam to him. Still, his friends are persistent, so he caves in. However, he doesn’t use the platform for another two years.

Fast forward to 2020. Bartimaeus is now a lot more familiar with the concept of crypto, but he still doesn’t fully understand it. He sees people talking about it on Twitter, and all he knows is that if he buys something called Bitcoin at a certain price and waits long enough, he can sell it at a higher price and make a decent profit. I should tell you that this is happening in the heat of a government-mandated, COVID-necessitated lockdown. So, he has a lot of time on his hands. His first Bitcoin sale excites him, so he tries some more. Now, it has his attention.

He begins to research what Bitcoin and crypto are. But much of what he finds he can barely understand. Some of it is digestible, like this article from McKinsey and this podcast explaining blockchain. The rest, however, flies over his head. Every attempt to understand the subject leads down a dizzying rabbit hole. Eventually, he gives up. “Maybe this thing isn’t for me,” he says.

Fast forward another year and a half later, Bartimaeus receives an offer to join a startup with the mission to bring financial freedom to people through crypto. It’s been four years since he first heard anything about the subject, and he has learned a lot about it within that time. However, the bulk of his learning has come with great pain. He’s heard for so long how revolutionary this concept is, but it seemed like the evangelists -- the people who swear by the deity of crypto -- don’t think it’s worth breaking down for mere humans like Bartimaeus to grasp.

Photo Credit: RODNAE Productions from Pexels

If crypto is so great, if it will change so many lives across the world, then why is it so hard to understand? These are the questions Bartimaeus will now have to grapple with at his new job because he knows that in answering them, he is solving problems for billions of other people like him -- creators, entrepreneurs, policymakers and regulators, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, and maybe even Martians.

Taking a cue (or several) from Bloomberg’s playbook, Bartimaeus knows how great a vehicle content can be -- first for educating and empowering people, then increasing the likelihood of adoption and sales. And that is what Bartimaeus and his team plan to do.

Crypto is mazy. Untangling it requires just as much labour as navigation does. But by simplifying what is ordinarily complex and esoteric, it becomes easier for millions (and even billions) of other people around the world to understand and embrace it. Many years ago, Bloomberg created a path merging financial services and content. Many years later, Bartimaeus seeks to walk down that path with a bag of crypto.

Part 3: An ongoing conclusion

At several points in history, our understanding of money and commerce have had to be shaken. First, we did business by barter, exchanging one item for another, then we switched to coins because we needed to transact with more people in distant places. From coins, we moved to paper notes and with them came greater variety in our trade relations.

As digital technology gained ascendency, so did digital commerce and the currencies that fuel it. What commerce is today is not what it always was, and what it is today is not what it will always be. Change happened in the past, and it will happen in the future.

The thing with change, though, is that it relies heavily on information. It can only happen as quickly as people understand what was and what is to come because those are the factors that influence how fast they embrace said change and how clearly they see its benefits.

In my essay on Africa’s creator economy, I mentioned in passing that crypto helps solve several problems for creators. In my new day job, we’re building products that span across decentralised finance, media, digital art, and gaming. All of these we tie together with the thread of simplicity. We think that if we can help more people (like me) understand what crypto is and then build easy-to-use products that meet their needs, the world will be better for it.

While Bloomberg wasn’t as bothered with simplifying finance as we are with crypto, he was particular about the value of content in creating a better-informed audience. We believe the same thing -- a world where more people have access to easy-to-understand information about crypto and easy-to-use crypto products will lead to a world where more people accept and benefit from it. Creators, regulators, entrepreneurs, and every curious soul in the universe -- no one is out of the picture. No one.


PS: A big thank you to CMQ Media’s research associate, Susan Akinade, for her work with this!

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<![CDATA[Who will fill the talent gap?]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/cmq-weekly-01-talent-gaphttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/cmq-weekly-01-talent-gapTue, 12 Oct 2021 06:00:27 GMTThis is a weekly newsletter about the media, technology, and the digital economy in Africa. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week:

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Man with hands in clay making vase on pottery wheel
Photo by Meruyert Gonullu from Pexels

My first job out of school was in 2014 as a content marketing associate for an accounting tech startup. At the time, I wasn’t entirely sure what content marketing was or how it would evolve. But I did the job long enough to understand the importance of carefully crafted content to the digital economy.

Since then, this has been a recurring theme in all my roles -- witnessing the impact of content on user behaviour. Content marketing is not a new concept (we’ll talk more about this in the coming weeks). But there is a renewed appreciation for its role in shaping marketing strategy, especially within the technology industry.

Since I published “Paystack’s media threat” three months ago, I’ve had several conversations that make it more apparent how tech entrepreneurs are thinking about content as an effective brand building and customer acquisition tool.

In that essay, I wrote:

“Globally, more companies are waking up to the potency of content marketing. Attention is a zero-sum game, and you have to capture it to sell your products and services. In the past, companies went through the media to get to their customers within an audience because they didn’t have options. Now, they do. Now, they can go directly via the Internet and build their own vehicles of influence driven by editorially savvy hands and minds.”

For these execs and their companies, content is an efficient way to show potential users the problems their products or services can solve. But beyond that, it’s also a way to create affinity and set themselves apart from the crowd.

In recent months, Paystack poached Ope Adedeji, Zikoko’s former managing editor. PiggyVest snapped up Daniel Orubo, Zikoko’s former editor-in-chief. Brass put out a vacancy for an Editor-in-Chief. And many other startups are gearing to fill this role. 

You may be asking, why two top talents from Zikoko? I wrote about that here.

Several other conversations are happening in the background that indicate the increased appreciation for content marketing and its long-term impact.

In all this, one thing is clear to me. Beyond poaching top-level talent from established media outlets, these companies are also looking for a particular set of skills that are sadly not in abundance.

Instead, companies are looking for candidates with a thorough understanding of:

  • The content creation process

  • The role of content within a business ecosystem and how content directly impacts business objectives 

  • The skills required to solve customer problems 

This role requires a high-level understanding of the relationship between content and business objectives and the dexterity to build an internal content engine that drives the company towards those objectives. This is beyond knowing how to write, shoot videos, or record podcasts. All of those are important, but they are more readily available skills than those I mentioned before.

This scarcity of high-level content marketing talent poses a challenge and presents an opportunity. But there are no easy ways around it. No straight-and-narrow solutions. However, the mere identification of this talent gap is a good first step. Who will step in to fill the void?

Additional resources

What is new media, and why should you care?

Buzzfeed’s Jonah Peretti goes long

Digital media: What really went wrong in 2018

How I built my career in content and communications

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World

How to create and write a content marketing strategy (with template)

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 14: Stears' lemonade machine and Netflix's $3 beer]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/on-stears-and-netflixhttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/on-stears-and-netflixWed, 04 Aug 2021 06:00:37 GMTOne of the biggest challenges of analysing the media ecosystem in Africa is that there aren’t too many innovative media companies to write about.

Don’t get me wrong. Several media companies do great work, but only a tiny subset is innovative and forward-thinking. Only a tiny subset pushes the envelope with technology, business models, content formats, community building, engineering, etc.

I’ve written about some in the past. I wrote about Paystack, a fintech company, executing its content marketing strategy using a media playbook in the last newsletter. In Communiqué 12, I talked about Daily Nation, Kenya’s largest newspaper, examined Multichoice’s subscription strategy, and highlighted Daily Maverick’s membership model. In Communiqué 02, I touched on Premium Times’ decision to integrate crowdfunding into its community-building efforts. Last year, in this newsletter’s maiden edition, I looked at Stears’ decision to go subscription-first and build data analysis and research services.

Coincidentally, Stears is the first subject of today’s newsletter.

Part 1: Stears’s lemonade machine

In ‘Stears’ $600k war chest’, I wrote about the company’s strategy after raising (and announcing) $600,000 in venture capital:

“By choosing not to move with the status quo and [playing] the traditional game of reach and quantity, Stears avoids fighting in a crowded arena. However, it also deprives itself of the media industry’s biggest revenue source, advertising. In Nigeria, advertisers are attracted to page views, and page views are stimulated not only by content quality but by quantity.

To make up for this, Stears is challenging on another similarly competitive stage, but one with potentially higher returns – research and data analysis.”

I was right about two things:

  1. Stears avoids the ruckus that comes with serving a mass audience by shifting from the reach strategy. However, that also means it won’t eat from the advertising cake, which remains the largest revenue source for the media in Africa.

  2. Stears’ focus on research and data analysis puts it in another equally challenging arena with potentially more significant upsides.

However, what I was oblivious to is one of the most crucial factors for understanding what Stears is and what it can be.

Stears is not a media company. (Another way to put it is, Stears is not just a media company.) Instead, it is a technology company that provides products and services, including a media publication (Stears Business) and a research and data analysis service (Stears Data).

Why am I bringing this up now? July 28, 2021, made it exactly one year since the company put its content behind a paywall, an audacious move in this market. You don’t need a genie to tell you how challenging it has been. Here’s what Preston Ideh, the company’s CEO, has to say about the experience so far:

“It has been 365 days since we launched our paywall, and there has been no shortage of worry, anxiety and existential concern… Admittedly, when we launched, we knew very little about what it took to build a successful subscription business. We had no idea we would be fighting so many fires. All we knew was that we were newly minted with venture capital funding, and it was time to disrupt the media industry… Since then, we have learnt a few things. Even now, the more we learn, the more we know we must learn.”

As difficult as it can be to build a subscription-first media product in this market where very few others are doing it, some benefits make the venture worthwhile with the right conditions. One of these benefits is the invaluable experience that opens your eyes to other problems you can solve with new products and services. This can only happen if you have the right people on your team and genuinely understand your business model. As Ben Thompson said, understanding business models is one of the most reliable ways to understand the behaviour of organisations.

When life gives you lemons, build lemonade machines

In ‘The subscription playbook’, I highlight the major challenges of running a subscription business in Africa. The most prominent is the harsh economic realities that squeeze market size. (Simply put, most people are poor and can’t afford to pay subscription fees.) Then I wrote about unfavourable audience behaviour, shortage of talent, competition from free social media services, and the inadequate payment infrastructure. All of these tell part of the story, but there’s more.

Even within the parochial market for subscription services, both the audience willing to pay subscription fees and the platforms that provide such services face infrastructural limitations. Understanding these limitations and seeing where you can potentially alleviate the situation is the textbook definition of innovation. But, how many media companies think to do this in Africa? You know the answer.

For Stears, the challenge lies in getting creative with subscription offerings and reader experience. There are technical problems with subscription management that are, in some ways, unique to African publishers, mainly because it is a nascent concept on the continent and the talent and resources needed to solve them are not readily available. Subscription management requires an incredible amount of engineering investment that most media companies can either not afford or be bothered to make.

Here’s how Ideh explains the problem:

“This infrastructure hurdle [to providing subscription products] can make or break publishers. It might seem negligible when you have only a few subscribers. But at scale, it can become a nightmare.

It gets even more complex when African publishers want to be creative with their reader experiences. For instance, how do you efficiently nudge readers to go from a free trial to a premium plan like the Economist does it? How do you reset your discounted offer from $1 to $20 a month at the end of a promo period the way Bloomberg does? Behind the scenes (and you can ask my team if you do not believe me), it requires engineering power that most media businesses do not have.”

This is what differentiates Stears from many other companies, and this is why it is crucial to think about it as more than just a media company.

Operating as a tech company allows Stears to perceive technical or structural difficulties as business gaps it can bridge with products or services. You can see this positioning as a tech company in its hiring patterns and team structure. And, perhaps, you can tell its positioning as a tech company through its decision to capitalise on the culture of announcing funding rounds.

Knowing this, it makes sense when its CEO announces that the company will receive a grant from the Google News Initiative to build a subscription management service to cure some of the headaches that African publishers face (and will face) as they develop their own subscription products.

The brilliant thing, though, is that this problem of subscription management isn’t limited to publishers alone. There is an entire market for it outside of the media.

Inspired by the success stories of Chargebee, an Indian subscription management platform worth $1.4 billion, and Zuora, which generates over $300 million in annual revenue, Stears is starting where the shoe pinches and gradually expanding from there.

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Part 2: Netflix’s $3 beer

In ‘Netflix walks into a Nigerian bar’, I wrote about the company’s strategy for the Nigerian (and African) market:

“Beyond content aggregation and licensing, Netflix is now investing in originals, which brings us to our main point. The goal is not necessarily to grow subscribers here, at least not primarily. It is to expand its content bank with Nigerian content for a global audience. In other words, exposing Nigerian and African content to its more lucrative and potentially lucrative markets. It’s less about African stories for an African audience. There’s very little to indicate that Netflix thinks investing in Nigerian content will mushroom its subscriber base here. What’s more likely is that it will leverage Nigeria’s cultural influence to attract more eyeballs from around the world.”

It’s been over a year, and things have changed. By the end of 2020, Netflix had over 1.9 million subscribers across the continent, up from 1.4 million in Q1 2020 and capturing roughly 57% of the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) market. (Showmax comes second with just over 660,000 subscribers.)

Initially, the goal was to test the waters and see where the ripples undulate to. Since it fully launched in Africa, Netflix has invested more in local content and has seen enough potential in the market to encourage deeper exploration. It is buoyed by the varying degrees of success of movies and shows like Atlantics (distribution deal), Citation, Namaste Wahala, Blood & Water, Òlòtūré, and Queen Sono (now cancelled because of COVID).

Last month, it introduced a Mobile Plan across Africa that it had been testing for several months. The plan caters to the continent’s mobile-first audience and feeds into prevalent user behaviour.

Due to the high cost of data and Internet service limitations, people are more likely to download content to their phones before watching. But even downloading content often takes time because Internet speed can be frustrating. So, Netflix is adapting its offerings by creating a mobile-only plan that addresses those problems.

In Nigeria, the plan costs N1,200 (roughly $2.92). In Kenya, it costs KES300. In South Africa, it’s 49 Rand. In other African countries, it will cost the local equivalent of $3.99. The introduction of this plan also indicates Netflix is going punch-for-punch with Showmax (Multichoice’s SVOD property), which also has a mobile plan for that price.

In addition to the new pricing, Netflix has also introduced Partial Play Download (globally). This feature allows users to start watching a video before it’s done downloading. However, it is only available to Android users for now, and they make up over 83% of the mobile operating system market in Africa. In comparison, iOS has just over 14% of the market share.

By all indications, Netflix is going mass-market.

I get Netflix. You get Netflix. We all get Netflix

Netflix needs to grow, and it needs to do so at zero to low marginal cost. It is betting on a future where SVOD is the primary way through which we consume video content. To get there, it needs to be in as many markets as possible. It also genuinely needs to adapt and compete in those markets. This Mobile Plan (or $3 beer) is proof that it’s ready to do whatever it needs to do to grow.

So, Netflix isn’t waiting for people’s pockets to get bigger. Instead, it has figured out what’s in those pockets and aims to get a share of it at a reasonable price. This leads us back to a point I made in Communiqué 09 – to scale a product or service in unfavourable and uncharted terrains, you must meet people where they are. Netflix has studied its users’ behavioural tendencies, and it is adapting to serve them.

 Last year, it walked into the bar. This year, it is ready to sit and drink with us. Cheers, everyone!

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One more thing…

I’ve been writing Communiqué for over a year now, and each edition requires hours (sometimes days and weeks) of research, thinking, writing, editing, and design. So, if you find the insight that I provide valuable, please do me a favour: like the post and share it directly with at least two people you think will love it.

Also, if you like the quality of work that goes into the newsletter, I offer the same quality of writing, research, and consulting services to corporate clients. Reach out to me and let's talk.

Contact me

PS: As always, thank you to my editor Jane, and my friends Binjo Adeniran, Akachi Ogbonna, and Lanaire Aderemi for helping me edit and refine this essay.

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 12: The subscription playbook]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/communique-12-the-subscription-playbookhttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/communique-12-the-subscription-playbookFri, 11 Jun 2021 06:00:06 GMTA quick one before you go ahead: I’m going back to the old newsletter format and sending the essay directly to your inbox. After a few runs, I found that the new format wasn’t working.

Back to our regularly scheduled programme.

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Are you familiar with the concept of ‘Economic rent’? The odds are, if you live in an African country, you are a victim of it, whether or not you know it exists.

Economic rent is a phenomenon that deforms economies, creating a situation where most of a country’s revenue comes from mining and exporting its natural resources. This revenue is mainly available to those in political power. It allows them to make decisions with minimal input from the people.

In extreme cases, they amend constitutions, rig elections, and create policies without caring about the repercussions. They often get away with this because there’s not much they need the people for economically. Our taxes are pretty much nice-to-haves. That is until revenue from the natural resources begins to dry up.

Whenever I think about ‘economic rent’, I cannot shake off the similarities between these nation-states and advertising-fueled media. For many years, journalism has happily piggybacked off advertising to survive and, in some cases, thrive. All print publications had to do was distribute as many copies as possible and sell those figures to advertisers, while television and radio took this formula and amped it up. Blogs and digital publishers came along and adopted the same formula: more eyeballs = more money from advertisers.

However, those golden years are in the rearview with increased competition for our attention. One person’s social media account can be just as far-reaching and impactful as an established organisation. Still, this does not mean that the media no longer has any impact on our lives. It only means they must adapt, something that a few forward-thinkers in the industry are doing already.

In January 2021, Daily Nation, Kenya’s largest newspaper, announced its decision to put up a paywall. No longer would its content be perpetually free-to-read. Readers would now pay $2.99 monthly or $16.99 annually to read articles older than seven days and access the paper’s archives, games, and exclusive newsletters. Mutuma Mathiu, Nation Media Group's Editorial Director, explained the rationale for this decision (emphasis mine):

“Traditionally, people have been happy with someone selling their eyeballs in exchange for content. So you watched the ads on TV or viewed them in a newspaper, somebody paid the newspaper company and thereby subsidised the content.

The trouble is that people are spending more time on their phones than they do on TV or newspapers. They want to catch up with the news on those devices and they do not necessarily want to be bothered with advertising.”

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The case for subscriptions

There are two conflicting realities to consider. The first is that advertising remains a more attractive proposition and a relatively easier business model to run than all its alternatives. The second is that, as Mathiu highlighted, advertising is increasingly becoming an inconvenience to the audience.

So, it now matters more than ever where and how people experience ads, and digital publications are hardly the best purveyors. (People want to read or watch your content, but they don’t really want to see ads. They can do that elsewhere. Ask any media company to show you the ratio of engagement for organic vs sponsored content, and you will get the gist, that is, if they even have actual figures to show you.)

These realities underlie Daily Nation’s decision to put up a paywall and will further influence media operations and strategy in the future. So, the challenge here is how the media can capture more value directly from its audience without relying so much on advertising revenue. For now, the subscription model is many people’s answer to the question.

With 7.8 million subscribers, the New York Times is the global exemplar. Its subscription business has snowballed in the last decade, setting it on course for its target of 10 million by 2025.

In Africa, Daily Nation sits on a scanty list of platforms and publishers thinking like this. Here, subscription barely comes up in conversations, mainly because economic realities don’t encourage it.

What is it like running a subscription business in Africa?

It is easier for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than it is to build a subscription business in Africa. Moreso with media products or services.

By asking your audience to pay for content, you are competing with the necessities of life – food, shelter, health, leisure, etc. It’s tough when most people don’t have substantial disposable income. What’s more? The number of people who do is paltry. So, advertising remains the lifeblood of most media companies.

However, the companies that rely on advertising, like the resource-rich nation-states, are likely more concerned with pleasing their sponsors than optimising for their audience. (This is not always the case, but it often is.) It shows in the quality and quantity of what they produce. It is even more pronounced with increased competition from look-alike platforms, blogs, and social media handles that require little to nothing in overhead cost. They all try to outdo each other and pull in as many eyeballs as possible, sometimes at the expense of truth, integrity, and quality.

Running a model that forces you to care what your audience thinks of you and the content you serve them is a more challenging proposition than catering to advertisers. It’s even more difficult when the audience is used to consuming content for free.

So, in the bid to capture more economic value directly from the market, it is not enough to put up paywalls and ask for money. There have to be good enough reasons for people to part with their cash for as long as you want them to. Providing content that is worth paying for is not enough.

The challenges of the subscription model in Africa

I must emphasise here that the real challenge for the media is figuring out how to become less reliant on the steroid that is advertising revenue. And, as I already mentioned, the subscription model is how many are thinking about solving this problem.

Running a subscription-based business in Africa means you have to deal with the following issues:

  1. An audience that is not used to paying for content and would rather not pay for it. People who don’t want to pay for content will always find ways to game the system.

  2. A shortage of talent to create content worth paying for. Anyone with enough expertise to create content worth paying for about an industry/niche is likely already working in that industry and earning a lot more than media can offer.

  3. The payment infrastructure challenge. It is still difficult to charge for subscriptions in foreign currency and collect payments recurrently because of how nascent the market is.

  4. Competition for value. Even if your content were valuable and worth paying for, to what degree? A service is only as beneficial as its alternatives. If your product is information (in whatever form and variation), multiple operators and industry experts already give away free content online to build their social capital, and you must compete with them.

While these issues are not unique to Africa, they are some of the hurdles anyone operating a subscription business will face now or in the future. So, here they are in summary:

  1. Audience’s unwillingness to pay for content.

  2. Talent scarcity.

  3. Inadequate payment infrastructure.

  4. Competition for value.

So, knowing these, how do you do good business despite them?

How do you solve a problem like subscriptions?

While writing this essay, one of the people I spoke to is Preston Ideh, the CEO of Stears, a technology company that provides data services and runs a subscription publication, Stears Business. (Stears Business was the subject of my first newsletter.)

When I asked him which companies he considered successful with the subscription model in Africa, he replied, “It is hard to define what success is. Subscription figures are not enough. You have to consider average revenue per user (ARPU). Net subscription growth is also important to track. If user churn is high, then that’s a big problem.”

To buttress that last point, he mentioned how certain players use strategic decisions to retain users. He talked about how Multichoice, the subject of my subsequent analysis, spaces out its flagship programmes to keep users and attract new ones. Shows like Big Brother Naija, for example, air during the football off-season when users would be less likely to renew their subscriptions.

While it may be difficult to define success, we can’t talk conclusively about the subscription model in Africa without referencing Multichoice. It is the most prominent player in the game and arguably the most durable. Since 1995, it has been charging subscription fees through DStv, its direct-to-home digital pay-TV service.

Multichoice has close to 21 million subscribers to its services (DStv, GOtv, Showmax, etc.) across 50 markets and $3.9 billion (53.4 billion Rand) in revenue. No other content provider comes close. South Africa is its primary market (with 43% of its subscribers) and the most lucrative (generating over one-third of its revenue).

Beyond providing content that people are willing to pay for, Multichoice understands the market in ways that many other content providers don’t. Its success offers a template we can apply to any media subscription business in this market.

The Multichoice template

  1. Adaptability.

  2. Tiering.

  3. Categorisation.

  4. Differentiation.

  5. Appeal.

  6. Community. 

1. Adaptability

Multichoice’s ability to adapt to any market's economic and technological climate is one of its biggest strengths. For example, while Netflix poses a threat to its existence, Multichoice still has the edge over it for the simple reason that, as things stand, not as many people can afford a Netflix subscription on the continent.

The rising smartphone and Internet penetration rates aren’t commensurate with income levels. Then there are the hurdles of high data prices, limited mobile phone capacity, and unfavourable user behaviour, all of which I explain here.

By crashing the price of its decoders and tiering its offerings, Multichoice continues to grow in this market based on its understanding of what works and what doesn’t. This brings us to the next point.

2. Tiering

Multichoice understands the complexity of the market, and its prices reflect that. There’s a package for everyone. It operates two different satellite TV services for different market tiers: DStv for the middle to the upper tier and GOtv for the lower tier.

Within both services are different packages. DStv packages range from $3.7 to $36.8 monthly ($1 = ₦500, parallel market rate). GOtv packages range from $3.28 to $7.2 monthly. No matter what your income level is, there is a Multichoice package for you.

3. Categorisation

Multichoice understands that when people subscribe, they often do so for specific content categories. No one subscribes because they want to watch everything.

This understanding reflects in the way it categorises its content and determines package prices. The higher the cost of content acquisition, the higher the price of the category that content falls under.

For example, the cheapest DStv package covers locally produced movies and TV shows, music, and telenovelas. If you want to watch the English Premier League (which costs hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire), you have to subscribe to the higher packages.

4. Differentiation

Multichoice invests heavily in differentiated content to a degree of exclusivity. You can’t access most of its flagship programmes anywhere else – the English Premier League, La Liga, WWE events, Big Brother Naija, etc., as long as you’re within the regions it operates.

5. Appeal

The content Multichoice offers is not just exclusive, it is appealing. Think about the English Premier League, La Liga, the movies and shows on Africa Magic, Telemundo, Zee World, and the grand appeal of reality TV shows like Big Brother Naija.

Multichoice knows what different segments of the market want and goes to great lengths to provide it. This, of course, includes burning through loads of cash, something not everyone can do.

6. Community

This is one thing Multichoice has learned over the years that many content providers seem not to grasp: the power of community. There is no high-performing programme or channel on Multichoice’s platforms that does not tap into the power of community – sports, music, competition, drama, etc.

These communities are so potent that they continue to draw in more people, and conversations around them extend beyond Multichoice’s native platforms. (I talked about this briefly in the last newsletter.)

Conclusion

Until now, we have looked at the market as it is and not as it can be. The rationale of the subscription model is simple: to get an audience to pay for content. We’ve seen how Multichoice does this and what we can learn from it. But there’s another element to consider. In a market like ours that is low-income and heavily utilitarian, content is not enough. Multichoice’s success is not the norm, it is an anomaly.

As long as income levels remain where they are, most people will be unmotivated to pay for content except in extraordinary circumstances. However, if there are additional offerings that make paying a fee worth it, then we will see the tides rising. So, it is less about content value and more about subscription benefits.

South African publication, Daily Maverick, understands this dynamic well. In late 2018, it launched a 200 Rand-per-month ($14.73) membership model, which now has over 8,000 members. Its content remains free-to-read, but the membership option takes things up a notch. It eliminates ads and gives access to discounted event tickets, members-only webinars with Daily Maverick journalists and editors, the ability to comment on articles, and exclusive newsletters. It also offers members Uber Eats and Uber ride vouchers.

While this may not be ideal, it still shows what is possible when the media is willing to move beyond advertising dependency and think more creatively about making money.

One more thing… 

I’ve been writing Communiqué for over a year now, and each edition requires hours (sometimes days and weeks) of research, thinking, writing, editing, and design. So, if you find the insight that I provide valuable, please do me a favour: like the post and share it directly with at least two people you think will love it.

Also, if you like the quality of work that goes into the newsletter, I offer the same quality of writing, research, and consulting services to corporate clients. Reach out to me and let's talk.

Contact me

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this, please like the post and share it with your friends. If you haven’t already, please subscribe:

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<![CDATA[Communiqué 11: What do Big Brother Naija and the Super Bowl have in common?]]>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/big-brother-super-bowlhttps://www.readcommunique.com/p/big-brother-super-bowlMon, 03 May 2021 22:43:15 GMT

Big Brother Naija (BBN), Nigeria's version of the Dutch reality TV competition franchise, will hold auditions for its sixth season from May 3 to 16, 2021. Last season was huge, and this season has every chance to be even bigger. The winner will earn N5 million more in prizes than last year’s winner (bringing the prize up to N90 million).

I watched the show religiously for the first time in 2020, and I could see why it has legions of fans. For months, it dominated social media conversations, garnering over 1 billion impressions on Twitter and Facebook. Big Brother Naija is prime television. Besides religion and politics, nothing else drives engagement and conversations like it.

On the surface, it may appear absurd to compare it to the Super Bowl, the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL) and the most-watched television event in the United States. However, when a game show receives 915 million votes from an audience of 309 million (according to DSTV Media Sales figures) spread across the continent during a global pandemic and an impending economic recession, it is worth paying attention to.

The Super Bowl is the most-watched single station broadcast in US history, and its record viewership came in 2015 with an average of 114.4 million viewers. BBN pulled in more than double that last year. In comparison, the average viewership of the most-watched FIFA World Cup Finals is 562 million (Brazil 2014).


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Similarities between Big Brother Naija and the Super Bowl

1. Both are prime television real estate.

Big Brother Naija and the Super Bowl are at the pinnacle of television programming in their respective markets. The Super Bowl is America’s most-watched television event. In Nigeria, it’s BBN, especially on eviction nights when housemates (as participants are known) are eliminated. However, BBN’s audience extends beyond Nigeria into several African countries, including Angola, Botswana, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Africa, etc.

In addition to having a large audience, both shows dominate conversations in ways that few other topics can. They produce and are products of cult followings. Fans talk about their favourite teams and housemates with strong emotions that are impossible to overlook.

2. Both rake in enormous advertising revenue.

Category sponsorship of BBN costs N750 million ($1.5 million*) while product sponsorship costs N200 million ($416,666*), and each season (which lasts 90 days) has multiple sponsors. This does not include other sponsors who pay as much as N50 million ($104,167*). The sponsorship packages include 30-second ad slots, product integration, online activation, and other offerings.

* = Parallel market rate (N480/$1)

Super Bowl advertising goes for as high as $5 million for 30 seconds. In 2020, advertisers spent $449 million on in-game advertising, up from $339 million the previous year.

However, this is where their similarities end. While the Super Bowl’s producers and advertisers have learned to leverage the programme’s elite status, Big Brother Naija’s producers and advertisers are yet to realise the extent of their power.


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Television advertising in the age of social media

For a programme that airs in 49 African countries, Big Brother Naija can and should do better with the quality of its advertising. This is important because what happens on television does not stay on television. People watch things and talk about them with their friends or online, a concept now more pronounced with the advent of social media.

There is a link between traditional television advertising and online social media conversations, as a study in the Journal of Advertising Research found. It concluded that the relationship is mutual and that both media platforms work together to enhance brand engagement. When people watch something they like on television (a show, movie, advert, etc.), they are more likely to talk about it online. This essentially converts paid media into socially-driven earned media.

For example, a TV show that airs to a large audience on Sunday night will likely be the main topic of discussion on social media by Monday morning. You see this often with some shows from Africa Magic, Game of Thrones, How to Get Away with Murder, The Men’s Club, Skinny Girl in Transit, etc. Talking about the shows online generates a ripple effect, attracting more attention and eventually converting interest into viewership. The same holds true for advertising. People see great ads during major TV events, they talk about them online, resulting in more publicity and exposure for the advertised product.

Super Bowl advertisers have understood this over the years, to the point that Super Bowl advertising has become its own sport. Advertisers ensure their ads are of the highest quality and are engineered for virality. Year after year, trade publications and mainstream media rank and review the ads, and advertisers battle to top the lists. Essentially, they know that if they play their cards right, the money invested in those 30-second ads will lead to significantly higher exposure online that they would otherwise have paid for. But this was not always the case. Super Bowl advertising was not always the sport that it is today. It took a special ad from one company to break ground and show others what was possible.

Apple’s ‘1984’ ad and the re-invention of Super Bowl advertising

On January 22, 1984, Apple aired its blockbuster ‘1984’ advert during the third quarter of the Super Bowl. That created the template for what Super Bowl ads are today: cinematic, engineered for virality, and optimised for social engagement.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “The ad sparked a creative revolution among advertisers and garnered massive media attention.” To the extent that “by the 1990s, companies sought bragging rights for making the best ad of the night.”

Long before social media democratised virality, ‘1984’ sparked controversy, caused debate, and shattered everyone’s perception of what a conventional Super Bowl commercial should be. It also helped the organisers and the advertisers realise the programme’s full potential. From then on, the cost of advertising in the Super Bowl ballooned. Advertisers employed tactics to outdo one another, some going as far as reserving the bulk of their annual advertising budget for those 30 seconds alone.


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What does this have to do with Big Brother Naija?

Advertisers in Nigeria are notoriously biased towards functionality, and this is understandable. Psychographic analysis of the average person in the mass audience shows that they will almost always prioritise what a product or service can do for them and how easily accessible it is over how appealing it looks because of the Naira’s ever-decreasing purchasing power. (Basically, functionality and availability take precedence over aesthetics.) As a result, advertisers assume that the same premise applies to media consumption preferences.

This assumption influences the constraints they impose on their advertising agencies and the standards they use to judge the viability of an ad. It is not necessarily wrong, but it neglects the bigger picture, especially if the ads run during the BBN season.

Here’s the thing, though. The quality of Big Brother Naija adverts reflects the state of the industry, just as the quality of Super Bowl adverts reflects the state of the American advertising industry. Advertising in Nigeria used to be far more creative and audacious than it currently is.

I spoke to an industry expert about this and they highlighted two main reasons:

  1. The tendency for safe ads. Advertising is largely driven by what the client wants. And, as we have established, Nigerian advertisers tend towards functional ads that will immediately move the sales needle. These ads are often built around trending topics and personalities. Timeless ads (which require deeper regard for the elements of storytelling) don't seem to have an immediate effect on sales figures, so they are unlikely to be approved. The fault for this, the expert says, rests between the agency and the client.

  2. The dearth of talent and the stifling of good ideas. Good ideas don’t come easily. You have to hunt for them, and only a handful of people are properly equipped to do this in many agencies now. Agencies can do better with the quality of training they give their staff, especially concerning cognition.

On the other hand, when clients are consistently adamant about functionality and senseless virality, the advertising creative who was once teeming with great ideas will eventually be forced to dial them down and conform to the status quo. That is if they want to keep their job and please the client.

Knowing this, however, there is a special case to be made for advertising on Big Brother Naija. It is expensive. So, anyone who can afford it can’t possibly lean on budgetary constraints as an excuse. That said, Big Brother Naija adverts are currently not optimised to make the most of their platform. Perhaps this is because the advertisers underestimate the value of the asset.

If over 300 million people from 49 African countries watch the show over three months and 10% of them see an ad three times or more, that’s a solid foundation to build on. Then imagine that 10% of those 30 million people talk about the advert on social media repeatedly. That’s extra engagement from 3 million people who will expose your product to thousands more within their network. Engagement you did not have to pay for.

When viewers talk about Big Brother Naija online, they talk about everything, just like Super Bowl viewers. They talk about the housemates, the drama, the game nights, how housemates dress to the Saturday night parties, and the adverts. They talk about the adverts, too. They ridicule the bad ones (which, frankly, are the majority) and praise the good ones.

There is another layer. The mainstream media is now more sensitive to and influenced by social media conversations than ever before. If something trends online, it will spread to radio, television, newspapers, blogs, and other media outlets. We’ve seen this trend whenever something significant happens on Big Brother Naija. We’ve seen it happen when Twitter users descend on a controversial topic, and it floods the airwaves by noon. These are behavioural patterns that Big Brother Naija show producers and advertisers can more deliberately capitalise on.

Now that we’ve established all this, what does the ideal scenario look like going forward for BBN adverts?

A roadmap for going big with Big Brother Naija adverts

1. Optimise for social engagement.

Let’s go back to learning from the Super Bowl. According to Snapchat, “In 2020, there were notable spikes in conversation for advertisers like Google and Pringles when their commercials aired [during the Super Bowl].” Remember what the research says. There is a relationship between what people watch on television and what they talk about online. People talk about Super Bowl ads in the same way they talk about their teams. But these ads do not generate the level of conversation they do by chance. They are designed to do so.

Super Bowl advertisers often release their ads on social media while they air on television to maximise engagement. In addition to releasing the ads on multiple platforms, the companies also infuse social media-friendly elements. They use characters and storylines and explore topics they know will get people talking. Apple set the stage with ‘1984’. Nobody had done it before. It only takes one company to pick up the gauntlet here.

If a company is going to spend so much to advertise on the biggest TV show on the continent, it makes business sense to go the whole nine yards and milk the exposure for all it’s worth. If the show’s audience will be talking about it constantly for 3 months (and beyond), then it is worth asking how your company can positively be a part of those conversations. And optimising your ads and marketing strategy for social engagement in a way that is not tacky but worth talking about is the route forward.

2. Respect the audience.

The quality of storytelling and production in an advert reveals two things. One, it demonstrates how much the advertiser values their target audience and how sophisticated that audience can be. (If you think your target audience are idiots, your ad shows it.) Two, it indicates their understanding of the medium through which they are advertising. Super Bowl advertisers are deliberate with the quality of their adverts because they value the audience and understand how big of a deal advertising during the Super Bowl is.

Big Brother Naija is a cultural phenomenon and easily one of the biggest television events in the world. But most advertisers on the show do not realise the extent of its power. It’s likely that, or they don’t appreciate the audience enough. If they did, they would do better with their adverts.

3. Show producers must help to improve the quality of the adverts.

Incentives drive business (like human nature). The only way the show producers of Big Brother Naija will be motivated enough to step up their production and advertising quality is if they have enough incentive to. Here, I’ll present one out of several.

Africa is not the wealthiest continent, but it is vast and has enormous economic potential. This is not a vacuous cliche. It is a fact that is integral to any global or forward-thinking company. And it is something that international companies looking to expand are aware of. Spotify, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and many others, know this. All technology companies that desire global scale must expand into (and contribute to the development of) emerging economies such as those in Africa. And, in the process of expansion, they will spend billions of dollars on global marketing. Some of those billions could go to Big Brother Naija, but only if there is a strong enough attraction.

This means that the show producers have a unique opportunity to attract bigger fish than they currently do. However, they will need to think differently and improve their production quality, attention to detail, and the quality of marketing material they allow on the show.

Conclusion

I think that Big Brother Naija is big enough to replicate the economic power of the Super Bowl. But the producers first need to improve the quality of their offering. From conversations with past sponsors and advertisers, I know that they can do better with their planning, timelines, and execution. (Although this is sometimes dependent on how quickly sponsors pay up.) The planning inefficiencies also affect the timelines of said sponsors and advertisers and how well they make their marketing material.

The producers have a far more sophisticated audience than they realise, and the show has a much higher ceiling than is immediately apparent. They must recognise their show for what it is, a global event, and adjust production and commercialisation accordingly.

The Super Bowl does this well and has a much smaller audience than Big Brother Naija, but it commands astronomically more money. There are reasons for this, and the closer Big Brother Naija’s producers can look into them, the bigger the show can become.

One more thing… 

I’ve been writing Communiqué for over a year now, and each edition requires hours (sometimes days and weeks) of research, thinking, writing, editing, and design. So, if you find the insight that I provide valuable, please do me a favour: like the post and share it directly with at least two people you think will love it.

Also, if you like the quality of work that goes into the newsletter, I offer the same quality of writing, research, and consulting services to corporate clients. Reach out to me and let's talk.

Contact me

PS: Thank you to Festus Iyorah, Laura Ede, Adams Dharmy, and my anonymous advertising industry expert for helping me edit and refine my points in this essay.

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<![CDATA[ Communiqué: Strategy ]]>
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<![CDATA[ Deep dives into strategies and investments in Africa's creative economy ]]>
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<![CDATA[ Communiqué 46: Creative economy investors are betting big on sports in Africa ]]>
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<![CDATA[ The NBA and NFL have spotted massive opportunities for investment in African sports. Local investors have done the same. But what do they see? ]]>
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<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/creative-economy-investors-africa-sports</link>
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<![CDATA[ Oritsejolomi Otomewo ]]>
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<pubDate>Tue, 12 Nov 2024 10:02:10 GMT</pubDate>
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<![CDATA[ <div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdd57f89e-9bc1-4a6c-b018-21ef4e3eace1_7760x5176.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdd57f89e-9bc1-4a6c-b018-21ef4e3eace1_7760x5176.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdd57f89e-9bc1-4a6c-b018-21ef4e3eace1_7760x5176.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdd57f89e-9bc1-4a6c-b018-21ef4e3eace1_7760x5176.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdd57f89e-9bc1-4a6c-b018-21ef4e3eace1_7760x5176.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdd57f89e-9bc1-4a6c-b018-21ef4e3eace1_7760x5176.jpeg" width="1456" height="971" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/dd57f89e-9bc1-4a6c-b018-21ef4e3eace1_7760x5176.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:3503402,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdd57f89e-9bc1-4a6c-b018-21ef4e3eace1_7760x5176.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdd57f89e-9bc1-4a6c-b018-21ef4e3eace1_7760x5176.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdd57f89e-9bc1-4a6c-b018-21ef4e3eace1_7760x5176.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdd57f89e-9bc1-4a6c-b018-21ef4e3eace1_7760x5176.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">An art installation by NBA Africa at ART X Lagos. Credit: NBA Africa.</figcaption></figure></div><h2>1. An opportunity for those looking</h2><p>An art fair is probably the last place you would expect to have conversations about basketball, but stranger things have happened. This year, at the 10th edition of ART X Lagos, West Africa&#8217;s largest art festival, there was an installation dedicated to basketball, featuring a collage of different hands reaching for a ball. Adjacent to it was another art piece created by the festival&#8217;s attendees who were invited to create another collage with newspaper and magazine clippings. All of this made up <a href="https://nba.africa-newsroom.com/press/national-basketball-association-nba-nigeria-hosts-third-edition-of-nba-meets-art-at-art-x-lagos?lang=en">the third edition</a> of NBA Meets Arts, an initiative launched by the African arm of the National Basketball Association in its drive to grow basketball adoption across the continent.</p><p>Since its official arrival on the continent in 2010, the NBA has initiated several programs to help grow the sport on the continent, but in recent years the organization has ramped up its activities, another entry in a spate of sports investment on the continent.</p><p>In 2019, during the NBA All Star Weekend, Commissioner Adam Silver <a href="https://pr.nba.com/nba-fiba-basketball-africa-league/">announced plans</a> to establish the first NBA professional league outside of North America. But those plans did not materialize until 2021, when the first game was played at the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda. The following year, the NBA launched the NBA meets Art initiative, and early this year it partnered with ALX Ventures, an African entrepreneurship development program, to launch an accelerator for early stage startups in the sports and creative industries. Festival Coins, creators of the Tix Africa ticketing platform, were the <a href="https://pr.nba.com/nba-africa-accelerator-demo-day/">inaugural winners</a> of its demo day.</p><p>The NBA isn't the only entity investing in African sports, earlier this year, America&#8217;s National Football League expanded its talent identification program to Nigeria, following successful programs in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. African investors are also in the mix: following Stripe&#8217;s acquisition of Paystack, the company&#8217;s CEO Shola Akinlade founded Sporting Lagos, a new football team in Nigeria&#8217;s commercial capital.</p><p>These investments signify growing interest in Africa's sports sector, but what factors drive this interest?</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fde51ac8f-bfd1-4ece-94c3-8c16ee878b6d_7767x5181.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fde51ac8f-bfd1-4ece-94c3-8c16ee878b6d_7767x5181.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fde51ac8f-bfd1-4ece-94c3-8c16ee878b6d_7767x5181.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fde51ac8f-bfd1-4ece-94c3-8c16ee878b6d_7767x5181.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fde51ac8f-bfd1-4ece-94c3-8c16ee878b6d_7767x5181.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fde51ac8f-bfd1-4ece-94c3-8c16ee878b6d_7767x5181.jpeg" width="1456" height="971" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/de51ac8f-bfd1-4ece-94c3-8c16ee878b6d_7767x5181.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:3469698,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fde51ac8f-bfd1-4ece-94c3-8c16ee878b6d_7767x5181.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fde51ac8f-bfd1-4ece-94c3-8c16ee878b6d_7767x5181.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fde51ac8f-bfd1-4ece-94c3-8c16ee878b6d_7767x5181.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fde51ac8f-bfd1-4ece-94c3-8c16ee878b6d_7767x5181.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">A collage installation, part of the third edition of &#8220;NBA Meets Art&#8221; initiative. Credit: NBA Africa.</figcaption></figure></div> <p> <a href="https://www.readcommunique.com/p/creative-economy-investors-africa-sports"> Read more </a> </p> ]]>
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<![CDATA[ Communiqué 44: What a popular Chinese video game can teach us about Africa’s creative economy ]]>
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<![CDATA[ Within five years, Genshin Impact, a video game with a truly global outlook, has brought in over $5 billion in revenue. What can African creators learn from it? ]]>
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<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/genshin-impact-african-creators</link>
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<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ Olaoluwa Oyedele ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 29 Oct 2024 09:59:45 GMT</pubDate>
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The global phenomenon</h2><p>On September 28, 2020, amid the global upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Chinese video game developer and publisher MiHoYo released a title that would take the internet by storm. The anime-style open-world, cross-platform action game features elemental magic and character-switching mechanics. Despite its complex description, <em>Genshin Impact</em> &#8212; the game &#8212; launched to widespread critical acclaim.</p><p><em>Genshin Impact</em> debuted as a free-to-play title, monetized through<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gacha_game"> </a><em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gacha_game">Gacha</a></em> game mechanics (which essentially involves inviting users to spend in-game currency for a random in-game item). Its success was fueled by captivating storytelling, stunning anime-inspired art, intricate world and character design, and the surge in digital consumption brought on by worldwide lockdowns.</p><p>By 2021, the game had become one of the highest-grossing mobile titles, and by 2022, it had generated nearly $3.8 billion in revenue. As of 2024, <a href="https://gameworldobserver.com/2024/10/11/genshin-impact-revenue-china-5-billion-niko-partners">estimates</a> suggest that in China alone, <em>Genshin Impact</em> has surpassed $5 billion in lifetime gross revenue on iOS and Android&#8212;figures that exclude revenue from other platforms such as Windows and PlayStation. Considering the game&#8217;s reported production cost of around $100 million, this represents an extraordinary 50x revenue multiple on mobile platforms alone. For context, Avatar, the 2009 sci-fi epic by James Cameron, is the highest-grossing movie of all time with $2.9 billion. It cost about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(2009_film)#:~:text=Avatar%20was%20officially%20budgeted%20at,at%20%24150%20million%20for%20promotion.">$300 million to produce</a>. In comparison, Standard Bank, one of Africa&#8217;s largest, made $2.3 billion in headline earnings in 2023. Talk about returns.</p> <p> <a href="https://www.readcommunique.com/p/genshin-impact-african-creators"> Read more </a> </p> ]]>
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<title>
<![CDATA[ Communiqué 41: Nigeria's creative economy blueprint ]]>
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<description>
<![CDATA[ How Nigeria&#8217;s Ministry of Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy plans to make the country a cultural powerhouse. ]]>
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<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/nigeria-creative-economy-blueprint</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/nigeria-creative-economy-blueprint</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 08 Oct 2024 10:01:18 GMT</pubDate>
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<![CDATA[ <div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8620416-77cf-437f-8c8f-3576a6dcbf26_1792x1024.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8620416-77cf-437f-8c8f-3576a6dcbf26_1792x1024.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8620416-77cf-437f-8c8f-3576a6dcbf26_1792x1024.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8620416-77cf-437f-8c8f-3576a6dcbf26_1792x1024.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8620416-77cf-437f-8c8f-3576a6dcbf26_1792x1024.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8620416-77cf-437f-8c8f-3576a6dcbf26_1792x1024.jpeg" width="728" height="416" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e8620416-77cf-437f-8c8f-3576a6dcbf26_1792x1024.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:false,&quot;imageSize&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;height&quot;:832,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:728,&quot;bytes&quot;:760908,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8620416-77cf-437f-8c8f-3576a6dcbf26_1792x1024.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8620416-77cf-437f-8c8f-3576a6dcbf26_1792x1024.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8620416-77cf-437f-8c8f-3576a6dcbf26_1792x1024.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8620416-77cf-437f-8c8f-3576a6dcbf26_1792x1024.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Illustration by DALL-E</figcaption></figure></div><h2>1. Taking stock</h2><p>A few weeks ago, I sat in a room listening to Nigeria&#8217;s Minister of Art, Culture, and the Creative Economy outline her plans for the creative industry. Until 2023, this ministry did not exist, and this is the first time in Nigeria&#8217;s history that one will be dedicated solely to the creative economy.</p><p>Before the event, I had several questions, many of which I raised in <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/culture-in-a-box">Communiqu&#233; 40</a>. I still have some questions, but there&#8217;s significantly more clarity around what is possible, and how the minister is thinking.</p><p>Today, I want to share a part of that plan with you and a few thoughts about it.</p><p>First off, the ministry&#8217;s creation indicates that the Nigerian government has woken up to the potential of the country&#8217;s cultural power. However, execution and funding will be the biggest challenges.</p><p>Nigeria&#8217;s creative industry, despite all of its promise and potential, is still significantly small. In 2022, it contributed about $5.6 billion to GDP. Much of this came from visual media ($2.7 billion), music ($1.4 billion), and fashion ($600 million). It also employs less than 7.5 million people. Furthermore, government revenue from the industry was merely $57 million. Government revenue, via taxes and fees, is often a good indicator of an industry&#8217;s size, as is GDP contribution. This should give an idea of just how far behind in development the creative economy still is.</p><p>According to the minister, the goal now is to get the industry&#8217;s GDP contribution up to $100 billion by 2030 and add 2 million more jobs by 2027 &#8212; incredibly audacious and borderline wishful. By contrast, the tech industry <a href="https://nairametrics.com/2024/08/26/icts-contribution-to-nigerias-real-gdp-hits-19-78-in-q2-2024-nbs/">contributed</a> about $4.8 billion to GDP in Q1 2024.</p><p>But let&#8217;s look past that figure and focus on simple growth. Where do the opportunities lie in Nigeria&#8217;s creative economy? Given that the industry has already been self-organized for so many years, perhaps a blueprint at the national level, with full government support, could open up new doors and channels for enterprise and investment, much like the telecommunications industry in the early 2000s.</p><h2>2. Stepping back</h2><p>For the last 15 or so years, the telecommunications industry has been one of the biggest contributors to Nigeria&#8217;s economy outside of oil and agriculture. In 2022, for instance, it <a href="https://ncc.gov.ng/statistics-reports/industry-overview#view-graphs-tables-9">averaged</a> a GDP contribution of 13.6%, compared to the creative economy&#8217;s 1.2% contribution.</p><p>The telecoms industry wasn&#8217;t always this influential, not until the early 2000s, at least. It was monopolized until 1992 and subsequently dominated by Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), a government parastatal, until 2002. Access to telephone services was limited and exclusive to a privileged few: upon Nigeria&#8217;s independence in 1960, the British colonial government <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/11/telecom-20-before-obasanjo-successive-govts-ignored-sector-ndukwe/">handed over</a> about 18,000 telephone lines; by 2000, that figure had only crawled up to an estimated 400,000.</p><p>To grow the industry, the government at the time started to court foreign players and design policies that allowed companies to set up infrastructure for mobile communication, the policies and market dynamics encouraged more people to buy SIM cards, and Nigeria&#8217;s economy also started to rise gradually. These factors combined led to the blossoming of a new industry.</p><p>Between 2001 and 2003, three of Nigeria&#8217;s current biggest telecom companies entered the market, namely MTN (2001), Globacom (2003), and Econet (2001), which has undergone several name and ownership changes to become Airtel Nigeria. Another player, Etisalat (now 9mobile), entered the market in 2007. Upon entry, MTN, Globacom, and Econet each had to acquire licenses for $280 million. Steep at the time, but that forced levels of investment and competition that contributed to the economic growth through which the companies all recouped their capital (and much more) within a few years. Today, there are over <a href="https://guardian.ng/technology/nigeria-ended-2023-with-224m-active-telephone-lines/">224 million</a> active phone lines.</p><p>The creative economy can mirror this type of growth. But it will not happen by 2030. That timeline is at least 10 years off the mark.</p><p>With that said, however, what is the plan?</p><h2>3. Under the lights</h2><p>Nigeria&#8217;s new creative economy blueprint includes an 8-point plan built around policy frameworks, intellectual property protection, capital projects, and job creation. The plan is benchmarked against countries like South Korea, France, the U.K., the U.S., India, and Egypt, countries with creative industries that contribute well over 2% to their GDP, and countries that took decades to attain critical growth.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b7b1864-b4ac-4d01-bdf1-955efbfbb169_2472x1740.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b7b1864-b4ac-4d01-bdf1-955efbfbb169_2472x1740.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b7b1864-b4ac-4d01-bdf1-955efbfbb169_2472x1740.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b7b1864-b4ac-4d01-bdf1-955efbfbb169_2472x1740.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b7b1864-b4ac-4d01-bdf1-955efbfbb169_2472x1740.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b7b1864-b4ac-4d01-bdf1-955efbfbb169_2472x1740.png" width="1456" height="1025" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/1b7b1864-b4ac-4d01-bdf1-955efbfbb169_2472x1740.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1025,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1598761,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b7b1864-b4ac-4d01-bdf1-955efbfbb169_2472x1740.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b7b1864-b4ac-4d01-bdf1-955efbfbb169_2472x1740.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b7b1864-b4ac-4d01-bdf1-955efbfbb169_2472x1740.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b7b1864-b4ac-4d01-bdf1-955efbfbb169_2472x1740.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Credit: The Nigerian Minister of Art, Culture, and the Creative Economy</figcaption></figure></div><p>The plan includes:</p><ol><li><p>A creative hub in all 36 states of Nigeria, including an Abuja Creative City that mirrors <a href="https://dmc.ae/media/press-releases/dubai-media-city-celebrates-20-year-milestone">the Dubai Media City</a>. Already, there&#8217;s been <a href="https://techcabal.com/2024/08/01/request-for-expressions-of-interest-invitation-to-host-digital-and-creative-hubs-in-nigerian-universities-under-the-idice-programme/">a call</a> for Nigerian universities to volunteer facilities that will become a part of this network of hubs. This is smart as it solves for physical space and manpower.</p></li><li><p>A 20,000-capacity National Entertainment Center for sports, music, and other entertainment events.</p></li><li><p>A new National Art Gallery to coincide with the reclamation of stolen Nigerian art and the display of other iconic works.</p></li><li><p>A Creative Economy Development Fund to provide capital and protect the intellectual properties of creative entrepreneurs.</p></li><li><p>An accelerator program to identify and develop creative industry talent, much like <a href="https://techcabal.com/2019/09/17/andela-with-a-projected-50m-revenue-lays-off-420-developers/">Andela in its early days</a>.</p></li><li><p>A soft power agenda called &#8220;Destination 2030,&#8221; which hopes to turn Nigeria into a global cultural powerhouse within five years. This mirrors <a href="https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/overview">Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Vision 2030</a>.</p></li><li><p>Other components include policies to protect intellectual property, a smorgasbord of government-branded events and programs for young people, a Nigerian version of Got Talent (I rolled my eyes, and I know you did too), and a data acquisition drive to better understand the creative industry.</p></li></ol><p>A few things about this plan stand out to me:</p><ol><li><p>The 2030 timeline is as unrealistic as it gets for a country with so many unresolved sociocultural problems and infrastructural shortcomings. It will take at least an extra decade for the leap to happen.</p></li><li><p>There are too many capital intensive infrastructure projects that rely on the government for execution. These are better off as policy frameworks or ideas for private sector players, much like the telecoms industry in the early 2000s and commercial real estate post-2008.</p></li><li><p>Talent identification and development should be private sector-led. Because the biggest hurdle here isn&#8217;t even identifying and developing talent, it&#8217;s finding the right jobs for them once the programs are over. The civil service does not have the facilities for such.</p></li><li><p>The push for a creative economy fund is perhaps the most feasible part of this plan in the short-term. Already, there is available capital waiting to be snapped up, but investors need assurances that their fund will go into the right ventures and yield great returns within reasonable time.</p></li><li><p>There&#8217;s a clear understanding of policy shortcomings and needs, and the decision to focus on intellectual property protection will yield massive results in the long run.</p></li><li><p>Finally, the ambition to make Nigeria a global soft power player by 2030 isn&#8217;t far-fetched. However, it will take more than events and programs. There must be policies that facilitate cultural export and collaboration with local and international institutions already playing within this arena.</p></li></ol><h2>4. Final thoughts</h2><p>I&#8217;m glad that Nigeria finally has a creative economy blueprint. But we&#8217;ve seen several government-backed plans fail in the past, and I&#8217;m hoping this won&#8217;t be the case here. For this plan to succeed, a significant part of the execution has to be private sector-led. The Nigerian government does not have a great history starting and completing projects, especially those that require physical infrastructure development, on time and to the highest quality. There&#8217;s just too much historical baggage to shake off.</p><p>Furthermore, there&#8217;s a glaring hole in the plan, and that is the absence of a coherent diaspora engagement strategy. Save for plans to attend a roster of international events like Davos, Paris Fashion Week, UNGA, and the Grammys, there is little that outlines how the government intends to bring Nigeria&#8217;s massive diaspora population into the fold.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b547b46-c3d1-4369-87d3-5de3cef1b4da_2462x1748.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b547b46-c3d1-4369-87d3-5de3cef1b4da_2462x1748.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b547b46-c3d1-4369-87d3-5de3cef1b4da_2462x1748.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b547b46-c3d1-4369-87d3-5de3cef1b4da_2462x1748.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b547b46-c3d1-4369-87d3-5de3cef1b4da_2462x1748.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b547b46-c3d1-4369-87d3-5de3cef1b4da_2462x1748.png" width="1456" height="1034" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/4b547b46-c3d1-4369-87d3-5de3cef1b4da_2462x1748.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1034,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2058420,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b547b46-c3d1-4369-87d3-5de3cef1b4da_2462x1748.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b547b46-c3d1-4369-87d3-5de3cef1b4da_2462x1748.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b547b46-c3d1-4369-87d3-5de3cef1b4da_2462x1748.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b547b46-c3d1-4369-87d3-5de3cef1b4da_2462x1748.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Credit: The Nigerian Minister of Art, Culture, and the Creative Economy</figcaption></figure></div><p>Finally, the funding question looms large. How will these projects be funded? Currently, the ministry is engaging private sector stakeholders and discussing partnerships. Several of these conversations will explore this question. But how will it be answered? The <a href="https://businessday.ng/news/article/idice-program-gets-620-million-in-boost-for-digital-economy/">$620 million</a> from the Digital Economy and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) program will not suffice.</p><p>Obviously, this plan raises almost as many questions as it answers. It could succeed, and it could fail. This outcome rests heavily on how well the government can work with local and foreign partners and how much control it is willing to cede to the private sector.</p><div class="captioned-button-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/p/nigeria-creative-economy-blueprint?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;}" data-component-name="CaptionedButtonToDOM"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">If you read this far and enjoyed this edition, please consider sharing it on social media.</p></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/p/nigeria-creative-economy-blueprint?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/p/nigeria-creative-economy-blueprint?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p></div><div><hr></div><h2>Some announcements</h2><ol><li><p>We are working on a report for the African creator economy. If you&#8217;re a creative, <a href="http://bit.ly/AfricanCreatorSurvey2024">please fill it out</a>.</p></li><li><p>If you&#8217;re in Lagos, I will be live on Inspiration FM later today speaking about the creative economy on Fidelity Bank&#8217;s SME series. I will also be <a href="https://x.com/DavidIAdeleke/status/1843197069928153274">speaking</a> at TechCabal&#8217;s Moonshot on Thursday.</p></li></ol> ]]>
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<![CDATA[ Communiqué 37: Cocomelon meets Omo Berry ]]>
</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[ Limitless Studios is building a content empire for the next generation of African kids, beginning with Omo Berry. ]]>
</description>
<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/cocomelon-meets-omo-berry</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/cocomelon-meets-omo-berry</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 22 Nov 2022 07:00:10 GMT</pubDate>
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<content:encoded>
<![CDATA[ <div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F359af36d-a369-475f-8ec5-2ebec81d9da7_1920x1080.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F359af36d-a369-475f-8ec5-2ebec81d9da7_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F359af36d-a369-475f-8ec5-2ebec81d9da7_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F359af36d-a369-475f-8ec5-2ebec81d9da7_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F359af36d-a369-475f-8ec5-2ebec81d9da7_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F359af36d-a369-475f-8ec5-2ebec81d9da7_1920x1080.png" width="727" height="408.9375" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/359af36d-a369-475f-8ec5-2ebec81d9da7_1920x1080.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:727,&quot;bytes&quot;:2876652,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F359af36d-a369-475f-8ec5-2ebec81d9da7_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F359af36d-a369-475f-8ec5-2ebec81d9da7_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F359af36d-a369-475f-8ec5-2ebec81d9da7_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F359af36d-a369-475f-8ec5-2ebec81d9da7_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><h2>I.</h2><p>In 2021, <a href="https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2022/in-a-breakthrough-year-for-content-multicultural-audiences-crown-cocomelon-and-moana-among-the-most-streamed-titles-ever/">according to Nielsen</a>, one show was the most streamed in the US within the Black community (6.8 billion minutes), the Hispanic community (8.8 billion minutes), and the Asian community (2.1 billion minutes). It was also the second most streamed show in the country, with approximately 33.2 billion minutes of viewing. The name of the show? Not <em>Squid Game</em>, not <em>Lucifer</em>, not <em>You</em>. <s>It was </s><em><s>Me</s></em><s>.</s></p><p>It was <em>Cocomelon</em>. A show for toddlers.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9f12b3f1-4bd5-43d8-9132-62a347a3e922_1024x576.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9f12b3f1-4bd5-43d8-9132-62a347a3e922_1024x576.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9f12b3f1-4bd5-43d8-9132-62a347a3e922_1024x576.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9f12b3f1-4bd5-43d8-9132-62a347a3e922_1024x576.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9f12b3f1-4bd5-43d8-9132-62a347a3e922_1024x576.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9f12b3f1-4bd5-43d8-9132-62a347a3e922_1024x576.png" width="1024" height="576" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9f12b3f1-4bd5-43d8-9132-62a347a3e922_1024x576.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:576,&quot;width&quot;:1024,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9f12b3f1-4bd5-43d8-9132-62a347a3e922_1024x576.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9f12b3f1-4bd5-43d8-9132-62a347a3e922_1024x576.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9f12b3f1-4bd5-43d8-9132-62a347a3e922_1024x576.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9f12b3f1-4bd5-43d8-9132-62a347a3e922_1024x576.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p><em>Cocomelon</em> was created on YouTube in September 2006 by Jay Jeon, a father of two children in Southern California, as a hobby project. He just wanted to make something his kids could enjoy. But over the years, his hobby exploded, generating over 3.3 billion monthly views and 2.14 million subscribers.</p><p>In 2020, it was <a href="https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/cocomelon-acquired-moonbug-blippi-funding-round-1234721492/">acquired</a> for an undisclosed fee by Moonbug Entertainment, a London-based company that produces online shows for kids. Moonbug, armed with $120 million in fresh capital, also acquired other highly-watched kids&#8217; shows, including <em>Blippi</em>, another massive hit. This wasn&#8217;t the company&#8217;s first rodeo. In 2018, it acquired <em>Little Baby Bum</em>, also a YouTube show, and now licences it to platforms like BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime.</p><p>By 2021, just three years into its existence, Moonbug was already eyeing an IPO when Candle Media <a href="https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/cocomelon-moonbug-entertainment-sale-blackstone-kevin-mayer-tom-staggs-1235104224/">approached with an acquisition offer</a> of $3 billion. Candle Media, which didn&#8217;t even have a name at the time, was founded by former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs and backed by private equity firm Blackstone.</p><p>What began as a YouTube show for kids was acquired for $3 billion. If this could happen, what else was possible? What other opportunities are there in kids&#8217; entertainment today, especially in this streaming era, particularly with the push for diversity and the billion-dollar opportunities that come with it?</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><h2>II.</h2><p>I came across <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiwCBFaFhHdhbHPK5aq1G3g">Omo Berry</a></em> in 2021 while searching for a <em>Cocomelon</em> alternative. The latter had become so ubiquitous that I had to find out if there were others like it or others with the same potential. <em>Omo Berry</em> was distinct. 3D-animated Black kids who looked very much like children I&#8217;d grown up with. They spoke with familiar accents and sang songs that stirred my nostalgia. They used illustrations and examples similar to what my teachers taught me. In some way, I felt seen. Until then, I was mostly aware of shows like <em>Cocomelon</em> (which parent isn&#8217;t in 2022?), <em>PJ Masks</em>, <em>Badamanu</em>, and so on. But none of them was like <em>Omo Berry</em>. None was so profoundly and uniquely African. None was as representative of a reality I could relate with.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50d280f7-4a7c-4e3e-ae17-b1a43e99ffaa_1080x1080.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50d280f7-4a7c-4e3e-ae17-b1a43e99ffaa_1080x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50d280f7-4a7c-4e3e-ae17-b1a43e99ffaa_1080x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50d280f7-4a7c-4e3e-ae17-b1a43e99ffaa_1080x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50d280f7-4a7c-4e3e-ae17-b1a43e99ffaa_1080x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50d280f7-4a7c-4e3e-ae17-b1a43e99ffaa_1080x1080.png" width="1080" height="1080" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/50d280f7-4a7c-4e3e-ae17-b1a43e99ffaa_1080x1080.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1080,&quot;width&quot;:1080,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1549897,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50d280f7-4a7c-4e3e-ae17-b1a43e99ffaa_1080x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50d280f7-4a7c-4e3e-ae17-b1a43e99ffaa_1080x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50d280f7-4a7c-4e3e-ae17-b1a43e99ffaa_1080x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50d280f7-4a7c-4e3e-ae17-b1a43e99ffaa_1080x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Kids dressed as Omo Berry characters for Halloween. Source: Limitless Studios</figcaption></figure></div><p>Omo Berry was created by Limitless Studios, a company producing educational content for kids, and it went live in February 2021. Like similar shows, it lives on YouTube. It has garnered more than 38.3 million views and over 96,000 subscribers. The three most popular videos on the channel have 12 million, 7.5 million, and 2.7 million views, respectively.</p><p>This seems very much like the early days of <em>Cocomelon</em> or the foundation of a company that could replicate Moonbug&#8217;s success, but for a grossly underrepresented market.</p><h2>III.</h2><p>Is it possible to replicate <em>Cocomelon&#8217;s</em> success or create a version of Moonbug in Africa? Are there grounds for investing in kids&#8217; entertainment the way we would, say, invest in tech startups? Is there a basis for expecting outsized returns? Is there even a pathway to that reality?</p><p>These are difficult questions. There aren&#8217;t that many studios creating African kids&#8217; content for streaming platforms, but Limitless Studios is making an attempt.</p><p>Africa&#8217;s population continues to snowball, and while that comes with its bag of problems, it also brings some opportunities. A significant amount of that growing population is gaining access to the Internet and more mobile devices with which they can stream content. Many are becoming parents whose kids &#8211; potentially millions &#8211; will need to consume educational and entertaining content. There aren&#8217;t many companies building for that future.</p><p>In addition to Africa&#8217;s fast-growing population, migration trends continue to tick upward. The Africa Center for Strategic Studies <a href="https://africacenter.org/spotlight/african-migration-trends-to-watch-in-2022/">says</a>, &#8220;The number of documented migrants within and from the African region has nearly doubled since 2010, continuing a two-decade trend of expansion.&#8221; While much of the migration is intraregional (that is, Africans mostly migrate within the continent), a significant portion is from the continent to other regions. Europe, with about 11 million), is the top destination for African migrants, with the Middle East (5 million) and North America (3 million) following closely.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff210de9d-5a5e-4115-9b2e-38896892811b_3684x4230.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff210de9d-5a5e-4115-9b2e-38896892811b_3684x4230.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff210de9d-5a5e-4115-9b2e-38896892811b_3684x4230.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff210de9d-5a5e-4115-9b2e-38896892811b_3684x4230.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff210de9d-5a5e-4115-9b2e-38896892811b_3684x4230.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff210de9d-5a5e-4115-9b2e-38896892811b_3684x4230.png" width="1456" height="1672" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/f210de9d-5a5e-4115-9b2e-38896892811b_3684x4230.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1672,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff210de9d-5a5e-4115-9b2e-38896892811b_3684x4230.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff210de9d-5a5e-4115-9b2e-38896892811b_3684x4230.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff210de9d-5a5e-4115-9b2e-38896892811b_3684x4230.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff210de9d-5a5e-4115-9b2e-38896892811b_3684x4230.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p>At least 21 million documented Africans live in other African countries. Several members of Africa&#8217;s fast-growing diaspora population will go on to become parents, and millions of them will be looking to preserve their culture with their kids. There aren&#8217;t many better ways to do that than by exposing kids to content that accurately represents their parents&#8217; origin. This, again, provides a solid foundation for companies like Limitless Studios.</p><p>One of the most significant advantages of producing content for kids is guaranteed loyalty. Establish a brand relationship with a kid at a young age, and you can be confident you have their attention for several years. This is perhaps one of Disney&#8217;s biggest competitive advantages. If you can get a child into your product ecosystem at an early age, you likely have them as a customer for a significant portion of their early life (for up to ten years). This creates second-order opportunities like merchandising, gaming, educational technology, etc.</p><p>Again, there aren&#8217;t many companies on the continent doing this with content. But what would a path to profitable returns look like?</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><h2>IV.</h2><p>In &#8220;<a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/african-500-million-dollar-media-exit">Communiqu&#233; 36: An African $500-million media exit</a>&#8221;, I wrote that for any African media company to be able to hit this milestone (a $500-million exit), it needs to be generating up to $100 million in annual revenue across 5-6 African markets and with a mix of 3-4 solid revenue sources. I also stated that the company must be genuinely pan-African, with significant funding, and a focus on niches, not mass audiences. Limitless Studios meets most of these criteria.</p><p>Most of <em>Omo Berry&#8217;s</em> views come from the US, the UK, and Nigeria, in that order. So far, Limitless Studios has raised $1.2 million and will look to bring in additional capital in the future. Agnes Soyode-Johnson, the company&#8217;s CEO, says convincing African investors to invest in Intellectual Property can be challenging.</p><p>Investors are more enamoured with industries like tech, telecoms, and finance, and only a few see the possibilities in content (which isn&#8217;t necessarily the same as investing in media ventures). There&#8217;s an argument to be made for more investment firms to make room for creative industry-savvy partners, but that&#8217;s a conversation for another day.</p><p>The global commercial and cultural rise of Africa&#8217;s entertainment industries shows that it just takes a few successful investments to make everyone else realise what is possible.</p><p>In October 2022, the Multichoice Group, the parent company of DStv, <a href="https://www.dstv.com/en-za/news/66042/go-over-the-moon-with-moonbug">announced</a> the launch of Moonbug Kids, a channel dedicated to airing content exclusively from the Moonbug portfolio. This move, in many ways, signalled that Moonbug had its sights on Africa. It also signalled Multichoice&#8217;s further willingness to invest in children and family-friendly entertainment. But most significantly, it provided a potential exit path for companies like Limitless Studios. It opened up the possibility of future commercial partnerships or an outright acquisition.</p><p>For now, the company is focused on expanding its content offerings, according to Soyode-Johnson. If all goes well, there could be an acquisition by a major studio on the horizon, however far into the future.</p><p>In the near term, licensing deals with streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and even Disney+ are possible, just as they have been for Moonbug Entertainment. Merchandising, app development, and music licensing are also on the product roadmap. However, all these are contingent on how big and culturally significant Limitless Studios&#8217; shows can become.</p><p><em>Omo Berry</em> is a good starting point. What else can it conjure?</p> ]]>
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<title>
<![CDATA[ Communiqué 36: An African $500-million media exit ]]>
</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[ What does an African digital media company need to do to sell itself for $500 million? ]]>
</description>
<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/african-500-million-dollar-media-exit</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/african-500-million-dollar-media-exit</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Oct 2022 06:00:58 GMT</pubDate>
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<![CDATA[ <p><em>Thank you to everyone who&#8217;s supported Communiqu&#233; so far. Every contribution is valuable. You can still do so today.</em></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;http://tryflok.com/gift/davidiadeleke&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Support Communiqu&#233;&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="http://tryflok.com/gift/davidiadeleke"><span>Support Communiqu&#233;</span></a></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa03f5423-3e26-4364-9f75-09c268cb3f50_1500x150.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa03f5423-3e26-4364-9f75-09c268cb3f50_1500x150.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa03f5423-3e26-4364-9f75-09c268cb3f50_1500x150.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa03f5423-3e26-4364-9f75-09c268cb3f50_1500x150.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa03f5423-3e26-4364-9f75-09c268cb3f50_1500x150.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa03f5423-3e26-4364-9f75-09c268cb3f50_1500x150.png" width="1456" height="146" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a03f5423-3e26-4364-9f75-09c268cb3f50_1500x150.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:146,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:17131,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa03f5423-3e26-4364-9f75-09c268cb3f50_1500x150.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa03f5423-3e26-4364-9f75-09c268cb3f50_1500x150.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa03f5423-3e26-4364-9f75-09c268cb3f50_1500x150.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa03f5423-3e26-4364-9f75-09c268cb3f50_1500x150.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div></div></div></a></figure></div><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe239d0c6-3322-4547-9687-26cfbeb6432b_5915x3328.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe239d0c6-3322-4547-9687-26cfbeb6432b_5915x3328.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe239d0c6-3322-4547-9687-26cfbeb6432b_5915x3328.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe239d0c6-3322-4547-9687-26cfbeb6432b_5915x3328.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe239d0c6-3322-4547-9687-26cfbeb6432b_5915x3328.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe239d0c6-3322-4547-9687-26cfbeb6432b_5915x3328.jpeg" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e239d0c6-3322-4547-9687-26cfbeb6432b_5915x3328.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:12674913,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe239d0c6-3322-4547-9687-26cfbeb6432b_5915x3328.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe239d0c6-3322-4547-9687-26cfbeb6432b_5915x3328.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe239d0c6-3322-4547-9687-26cfbeb6432b_5915x3328.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe239d0c6-3322-4547-9687-26cfbeb6432b_5915x3328.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p>In July 2022, Industry Dive, a business media company targeting corporate decision-makers, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/19/industry-dive-informa-acquisition">got acquired</a> by Informa, a UK-based events firm. According to reports, the acquisition cost $525 million, roughly 5x Industry Dive&#8217;s annual revenue of $100 million.</p><p>A month later, Axios, an American political and business news website, <a href="https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/axios-sold-to-cox-enterprises-in-525-million-deal-1235335799/">agreed to be acquired</a> by Cox Enterprises, a global communications conglomerate, for $525 million, the same as Industry Dive. This agreement also happened at roughly five times Axios&#8217; projected revenue for 2022.</p><p>Earlier in the year, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/06/business/new-york-times-the-athletic.html">acquired</a> the online sports news company, The Athletic, for an all-cash deal valued at $550 million, roughly nine times the latter&#8217;s $65 million revenue.</p><p>While these deals happened under very different circumstances, I haven&#8217;t stopped thinking about what it could look like in Africa. What does an African new media company&#8217;s road to $100 million in annual revenue look like? What if one could get acquired at or build up to the same valuation?</p><p>This is a thought experiment. For this experiment, we&#8217;re creating a company called Cocoa House Media, or CHM.</p><h2>The making of an African $500-million media company</h2><p>Cocoa House Media began operations in Nigeria, and its founders want to build a new media company worth over $500 million by 2025. To make this happen, they need to meet a few criteria. Let&#8217;s walk through them.</p><h3>1. The company has to be truly pan-African</h3><p>$100 million in revenue in Africa&#8217;s three largest economies -- Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt -- amounts to &#8358;43.4 billion, R1.82 billion, and &#163;1.96 billion, respectively. None of these figures is impossible to reach, but the prospect of generating them only in one market isn&#8217;t as attractive as generating $100 million across multiple markets. It&#8217;s unlikely that a new media company operating in one country will be attractive enough for this type of exit.</p><p>Focusing only on one market (say, South Africa, Nigeria, or Kenya) makes it difficult to justify future growth prospects, given how unstable the continent&#8217;s markets and government policies can be.</p><p>Let&#8217;s take a cue from some of Africa&#8217;s highest-valued startups -- Flutterwave, Jumia, Paystack, Paga, and Wave, to name a few. All are expanding rapidly into multiple markets or plan to because hedging their bets solely on one country handicaps them in the long run.</p><p>We can look to one of Africa&#8217;s biggest media companies, Multichoice. It&#8217;s based in South Africa, perhaps Africa&#8217;s most vibrant media market. But it must reach and operate across the continent to continue its dominance. South Africa generated roughly $2.02 billion of Multichoice&#8217;s revenue for the year ended March 31, 2022, but nearly 59% of its 21.8 million subscribers are spread across the continent.</p><p>The CHM founders would need to expand into as many African markets as possible. They&#8217;ll probably roll out in South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana. Then Francophone Africa and North Africa, with C&#244;te d&#8217;Ivoire, Senegal, and Egypt in view.</p><h3>2. They need significant funding</h3><p>Building a pan-African media company requires significant capital, and our founders must decide which funding route is best.</p><p>Do they look for venture capital or angel investments? Do they take out loans or patiently crowdfund from their community? Each option has its upsides and downsides, but they eventually decide to go with a mix of venture capital and some angel investment. They think both options give them the highest upside and the most bearable downsides.</p><p>Nevertheless, they know that injecting venture capital into a media business significantly impacts how the company will operate and grow. <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/analysing-the-big-cabal-media-fundraise">They know that</a> &#8220;when a new media publisher raises venture capital, it can no longer operate strictly as a publisher, especially in Africa, where the market realities are much more brutal. The expectations are different... Venture capital isn&#8217;t just another funding model for sustaining a business. It works with the underlying assumption that the business can generate returns in the multiples (7-10x), hence the high level of risk involved (the business owner typically isn&#8217;t liable if the business fails).&#8221;</p><p>With this possibility in mind, the founders are prepared to design their operations to generate most of their revenue at zero marginal cost.</p><h3>3. Not relying on single revenue sources</h3><p>Typically, media companies rely on revenue generated directly or indirectly from the type of content they create (which is why they are <em>media</em> companies in the first place). This includes revenue models like advertising and sponsorship, which are directly connected to audience size and quality, and subscription, which is tied to the audience&#8217;s spending power and willingness to pay for access to information.</p><p>In Africa, subscriptions are hard to sell, especially with <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/media-sachetisation-and-product-pricing">how low disposable income generally is</a>. Furthermore, while advertising continues to be the biggest revenue source for most media companies, there&#8217;s intense competition from Big Tech and social media platforms. Some media companies try to make money from research and custom reports, but anyone attempting this on the continent will tell you it is backbreaking work.</p><p>A much better strategy for our founders will be combining three to four revenue sources, including a model that can scale beyond manpower. This means they must design their company so that they don&#8217;t need more employees or office space to create more products that people are willing to pay for.</p><p>This could include building a unique platform serving one or more industries, a specialised body of knowledge that requires constant updates, or a valuable network that people across all the markets can access. Examples to draw inspiration from are Bloomberg Terminal and Axios HQ.</p><h3>4. Focused on niches, not mass audiences</h3><p>Not all audiences are valued equally, and neither are all topics. There is a minimal strategic advantage in trying to be everything to everyone everywhere. Instead, it makes more sense to build for an audience with high economic capacity and significant social capital, and to build a brand people interact with for distinct reasons.</p><p>Our founders know that building a company serving a mass audience across all the markets doesn&#8217;t help their cause. They have better odds of reaching their goal if they focus on specific niches in specific markets. They know that focusing on these niches makes their company&#8217;s brand more valuable in the long term, making them more attractive to prospective buyers and sending strong signals to the market.</p><p>A great example of this is Politico, which <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/08/politico-is-being-sold-for-more-than-1-billion-here-are-some-of-the-smart-moves-it-made-to-get-there/">got acquired in 2021 by Axel Springer for $1 billion</a>, a 5x multiple of its $200 million revenue. Politico was made more attractive by its niche (politics) and its audience (&#8220;those who have a political, professional or financial stake in politics and policy&#8221;).</p><p>If you run a media company with several niche publications that 100,000 people with a lot of money and power read religiously, you&#8217;re better positioned than a company building one mass-market publication with 5 million readers.</p><h2>What does an exit look like?</h2><p>Now that we&#8217;ve laid out the criteria our founders must meet to make their exit possible, we need to know the prospects. An IPO could be an option, but that depends on how attractive the company becomes to the public market.</p><p>Given the inspiration for this thought experiment, let&#8217;s dig deeper into a possible acquisition. Who has the resources and incentives to make this kind of deal? Two sets of companies could be incentivised to make this type of play: telcos and international media groups.</p><h3>1. Telcos</h3><p>Telecommunication companies like Econet Global and Safaricom have attempted media plays in the past, with Econet Global trying to build a streaming service (Kwese) and Safaricom launching Baze, a mobile-first video-on-demand service. The MTN Group has invested in <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/product-thinking-media-journalism">media development programmes</a> and partnerships to build video streaming services. Globacom (with Glo TV) and Airtel (with Airtel TV) have also attempted new media forays.</p><p>Most of these are video-streaming ventures that could help telcos expand their reach and get more people to use their services. None has brought outstanding success. Still, this indicates a willingness to explore media plays that could help the companies capture new markets and high-value customers. Acquiring a company like CHM could be compelling.</p><h3>2. International media groups</h3><p>Companies like Axel Springer, Ringier, and Bauer Media Group could be potential exit options on the horizon. Ringier has previously ventured into the continent through Pulse Media. Still, there could be further opportunities for expansion in the future, particularly if the business already meets all the necessary criteria for an exit. Axel Springer could also be tempted to explore options on the continent if the chance arises.</p><p>Naspers, the South African Internet holding company, has invested in media ventures on the continent with mixed results. Still, it continues to operate Media24 and could be a potential exit option. Oddly, the Multichoice Group could provide an outlet as well as it continues to diversify its assets and invest in new types of businesses, including sports betting and gaming.</p><h2>Final thoughts</h2><p>For CHM to reach a $500 million exit, they&#8217;d have to make up to $100 million a year across 5-6 African markets and with a mix of 3-4 solid revenue sources.</p><p>Multichoice has proven that this is possible in Africa, and there could yet be a few more examples on the horizon. Some have been around for a while, and others are just starting. A lot will happen in the next five to seven years, much of which will follow this template.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;http://tryflok.com/gift/davidiadeleke&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Support Communiqu&#233;&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:&quot;button-wrapper&quot;}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary button-wrapper" href="http://tryflok.com/gift/davidiadeleke"><span>Support Communiqu&#233;</span></a></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffe63aa0e-c25e-4b7c-b7fd-4df02b5a4b3a_1500x150.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffe63aa0e-c25e-4b7c-b7fd-4df02b5a4b3a_1500x150.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffe63aa0e-c25e-4b7c-b7fd-4df02b5a4b3a_1500x150.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffe63aa0e-c25e-4b7c-b7fd-4df02b5a4b3a_1500x150.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffe63aa0e-c25e-4b7c-b7fd-4df02b5a4b3a_1500x150.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffe63aa0e-c25e-4b7c-b7fd-4df02b5a4b3a_1500x150.png" width="1456" height="146" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/fe63aa0e-c25e-4b7c-b7fd-4df02b5a4b3a_1500x150.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:146,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:17131,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffe63aa0e-c25e-4b7c-b7fd-4df02b5a4b3a_1500x150.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffe63aa0e-c25e-4b7c-b7fd-4df02b5a4b3a_1500x150.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffe63aa0e-c25e-4b7c-b7fd-4df02b5a4b3a_1500x150.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffe63aa0e-c25e-4b7c-b7fd-4df02b5a4b3a_1500x150.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div></div></div></a></figure></div><h3>Some important announcements</h3><h4>1. We&#8217;re now fundraising for CMQ Media</h4><p>Communiqu&#233; started as a newsletter product, but our progress has shown that it can be more.</p><p>Building Communique has revealed opportunities in two areas. First, there is an opening for a media company serving knowledge workers interested in Africa. Second, there is a need for a media company that provides actionable insight for businesses to succeed.</p><p>We&#8217;re filling this gap in media, and we will do it in other industries with high visibility and high capital spending.</p><p>If you&#8217;re interested in learning more, please send me a message: david[at]cmqmedia.xyz.</p><h4>2. Creators&#8217; Circle 3 is here!</h4><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2" target="_blank" href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/creators-circle-30-pr-basics-for-creatives-registration-428498509577" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffddd5ca2-f111-4cc6-bc18-c1576a52c25e_1920x1080.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffddd5ca2-f111-4cc6-bc18-c1576a52c25e_1920x1080.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffddd5ca2-f111-4cc6-bc18-c1576a52c25e_1920x1080.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffddd5ca2-f111-4cc6-bc18-c1576a52c25e_1920x1080.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffddd5ca2-f111-4cc6-bc18-c1576a52c25e_1920x1080.jpeg" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/fddd5ca2-f111-4cc6-bc18-c1576a52c25e_1920x1080.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:235314,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https://www.eventbrite.com/e/creators-circle-30-pr-basics-for-creatives-registration-428498509577&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffddd5ca2-f111-4cc6-bc18-c1576a52c25e_1920x1080.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffddd5ca2-f111-4cc6-bc18-c1576a52c25e_1920x1080.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffddd5ca2-f111-4cc6-bc18-c1576a52c25e_1920x1080.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffddd5ca2-f111-4cc6-bc18-c1576a52c25e_1920x1080.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>We&#8217;re having the third edition of Creators&#8217; Circle in Lagos on Friday, October 21, 2022. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/creators-circle-30-pr-basics-for-creatives-registration-428498509577">Register here</a>, and see you next week!</p><p></p> ]]>
</content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>
<![CDATA[ Communiqué 31: What makes South Africa attractive to streaming giants? ]]>
</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[ Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, and Disney+ all chose South Africa to launch in Africa. Why? ]]>
</description>
<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/south-africa-streaming-netflix-spotify-disney</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/south-africa-streaming-netflix-spotify-disney</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Jul 2022 06:02:43 GMT</pubDate>
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<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Presented by Fincra</strong></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2" target="_blank" href="https://bit.ly/3HORf4J" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa6cc2338-4d80-421a-8eef-d1be4ac8a7b0_1500x500.gif 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa6cc2338-4d80-421a-8eef-d1be4ac8a7b0_1500x500.gif 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa6cc2338-4d80-421a-8eef-d1be4ac8a7b0_1500x500.gif 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa6cc2338-4d80-421a-8eef-d1be4ac8a7b0_1500x500.gif 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa6cc2338-4d80-421a-8eef-d1be4ac8a7b0_1500x500.gif" width="1456" height="485" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a6cc2338-4d80-421a-8eef-d1be4ac8a7b0_1500x500.gif&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:485,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:176130,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/gif&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https://bit.ly/3HORf4J&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa6cc2338-4d80-421a-8eef-d1be4ac8a7b0_1500x500.gif 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa6cc2338-4d80-421a-8eef-d1be4ac8a7b0_1500x500.gif 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa6cc2338-4d80-421a-8eef-d1be4ac8a7b0_1500x500.gif 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa6cc2338-4d80-421a-8eef-d1be4ac8a7b0_1500x500.gif 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Fincra makes it <strong>easy for fintech companies</strong> to integrate seamless payment flows into their web and mobile applications.</p><p>It also <strong>provides easy-to-integrate APIs</strong> developed and designed to launch smooth and reliable global payment solutions. Its API infrastructure builds platforms that <strong>send and receive frequent payments</strong> and <strong>require flexibility</strong>.</p><p>Ready to build the best payment solutions?</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://bit.ly/3HORf4J&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Sign up on Fincra&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://bit.ly/3HORf4J"><span>Sign up on Fincra</span></a></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fad5e0-7ab3-4124-a2f5-fac644302e92_1500x150.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fad5e0-7ab3-4124-a2f5-fac644302e92_1500x150.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fad5e0-7ab3-4124-a2f5-fac644302e92_1500x150.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fad5e0-7ab3-4124-a2f5-fac644302e92_1500x150.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fad5e0-7ab3-4124-a2f5-fac644302e92_1500x150.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fad5e0-7ab3-4124-a2f5-fac644302e92_1500x150.png" width="1456" height="146" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e0fad5e0-7ab3-4124-a2f5-fac644302e92_1500x150.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:146,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:6335,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fad5e0-7ab3-4124-a2f5-fac644302e92_1500x150.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fad5e0-7ab3-4124-a2f5-fac644302e92_1500x150.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fad5e0-7ab3-4124-a2f5-fac644302e92_1500x150.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fad5e0-7ab3-4124-a2f5-fac644302e92_1500x150.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"></picture><div></div></div></a></figure></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Communiqu&#233; is a bi-monthly newsletter. Subscribe for free to receive new posts straight to your inbox.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p><h1>What makes South Africa attractive to streaming giants?</h1><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988fb85c-aace-4654-8d35-655aa6ba3893_5551x2928.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988fb85c-aace-4654-8d35-655aa6ba3893_5551x2928.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988fb85c-aace-4654-8d35-655aa6ba3893_5551x2928.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988fb85c-aace-4654-8d35-655aa6ba3893_5551x2928.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988fb85c-aace-4654-8d35-655aa6ba3893_5551x2928.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988fb85c-aace-4654-8d35-655aa6ba3893_5551x2928.jpeg" width="1456" height="768" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/988fb85c-aace-4654-8d35-655aa6ba3893_5551x2928.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:768,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:5281366,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Shot of a group of a diverse group of friends relaxing in the lounge at home&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Shot of a group of a diverse group of friends relaxing in the lounge at home" title="Shot of a group of a diverse group of friends relaxing in the lounge at home" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988fb85c-aace-4654-8d35-655aa6ba3893_5551x2928.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988fb85c-aace-4654-8d35-655aa6ba3893_5551x2928.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988fb85c-aace-4654-8d35-655aa6ba3893_5551x2928.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988fb85c-aace-4654-8d35-655aa6ba3893_5551x2928.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Credit: <a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/search/photographer?photographer=PeopleImages">PeopleImages</a></figcaption></figure></div><p>Let&#8217;s play a drinking game. Every time a streaming company announces it&#8217;s launching in or expanding to Africa and South Africa is either the first or one of the names on the list, you take a shot.</p><p>This year, when Disney+ <a href="https://variety.com/2022/tv/global/disney-plus-42-country-launch-europe-africa-west-asia-1235163724/">announced</a> its expansion to 42 new countries, including six in Africa, South Africa was on the list. In 2018, when Spotify began its Africa expansion, South Africa was first. In 2016, when Netflix and Amazon Prime were first moving into Africa, South Africa was on the list.</p><p>What&#8217;s more? Netflix&#8217;s first-ever African original, <em>Queen Sono</em>, was filmed in South Africa. In January, it <a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-invests-usd1-million-towards-scholarships-in-africa">announced</a> a $1-million creative equity scholarship for Africa, but to be rolled out initially in partnership with higher educational institutions in South Africa. It then added that &#8220;fund administration partners for East Africa and the West and Central Africa regions will be announced, along with the calls for applications, in due course.&#8221;</p><p><a href="https://videoweek.com/2022/03/10/global-meets-local-in-the-african-streaming-market/">According to Sa Eva N&#233;bi&#233;</a>, head of research at Dataxis, a media and telecom market research firm, &#8220;South Africa is really the ultra-dominant country in the region. It&#8217;s the country that captures most of the revenues for more traditional TV as well. Most international players launch in South Africa first.&#8221;</p><p>All this is interesting for a few reasons:</p><ol><li><p>South Africa is not the largest economy in Africa. Nigeria and Egypt are.</p></li><li><p>It&#8217;s not Africa's largest consumer market. Nigeria is.</p></li><li><p>South Africa&#8217;s film industry is also not the biggest on the continent. Nigeria&#8217;s is.</p></li></ol><p>Yet, South Africa is a more attractive destination for foreign media investment. Why is this the case? What makes South Africa stand out among other countries on the continent?</p><p>While searching for answers, I spoke with <a href="https://twitter.com/TVwithThinus">Thinus Ferreira</a>, a South African TV critic and journalist. By the end of our conversation, I realised that there&#8217;s more to this than meets the eye.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7b6157e6-783c-47a5-8e6c-c734e564901c_650x430.webp" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7b6157e6-783c-47a5-8e6c-c734e564901c_650x430.webp 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7b6157e6-783c-47a5-8e6c-c734e564901c_650x430.webp 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7b6157e6-783c-47a5-8e6c-c734e564901c_650x430.webp 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7b6157e6-783c-47a5-8e6c-c734e564901c_650x430.webp 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7b6157e6-783c-47a5-8e6c-c734e564901c_650x430.webp" width="650" height="430" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7b6157e6-783c-47a5-8e6c-c734e564901c_650x430.webp&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:430,&quot;width&quot;:650,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:14920,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/webp&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7b6157e6-783c-47a5-8e6c-c734e564901c_650x430.webp 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7b6157e6-783c-47a5-8e6c-c734e564901c_650x430.webp 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7b6157e6-783c-47a5-8e6c-c734e564901c_650x430.webp 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7b6157e6-783c-47a5-8e6c-c734e564901c_650x430.webp 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Thinus Ferreira</figcaption></figure></div><p>South Africa is doing fine, but there&#8217;s still so much more room for growth and investments, especially in infrastructure. There&#8217;s also a lot more that other African countries can do, and Thinus outlines exactly what.</p><p>Our conversation has been lightly edited.</p><p><strong>David: What would you say streaming companies like Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify find the most appealing about South Africa, especially when they're considering it as the base for regional operations?</strong></p><p><strong>Thinus:</strong> South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya in East Africa are the biggest and most developed TV industry markets across Africa, so companies, especially international companies, prioritise these regions first when they look at the continent since they&#8217;ll be able to scale up quickest in terms of customer acquisition, customer growth and retention.</p><p>South Africa has the most advanced TV ratings system on the continent. It&#8217;s not something many African countries think of or invest in. An accurate and representative measurement system, done by Nielsen, for instance, provides a proper and trusted &#8220;feedback loop&#8221; for companies, advertisers, ad buyers, ad planners, etc. They can measure and get answers to questions like how many people are watching a TV show, watching or using their service, seeing their ads, and seeing their content.</p><p>Africa needs more investment in companies, tracking and measuring expertise to create viable, trusted viewership, listenership and audience measurement systems.</p><p>Perhaps also interesting to mention is that even though South Africa&#8217;s economy isn&#8217;t doing great, it&#8217;s stable and open, so investors know what they&#8217;ll get. They know what the macro-infrastructure is. Things like inflation and currency are relatively stable, so it&#8217;s slightly easier to make investment decisions and to decide, &#8220;Okay, let&#8217;s start rolling out Disney+ from there&#8221;.</p><p><strong>David: That makes a lot of sense. In addition to the economic factors, what cultural and consumer behavioural trends contribute to South Africa's entertainment and media industry?</strong></p><p><strong>Thinus:</strong> In South Africa, as in some other countries like Nigeria, there&#8217;s been a long history of people who have grown up on &#8220;American fare&#8221; in terms of film and TV content. People have been exposed for decades to &#8220;Hollywood&#8221; as it provides a template of &#8220;how to be&#8221; or who and what to mimic to create or grow the local entertainment media industry. It has sort of provided the template of how to go about it.</p><p>Although far from what it should be, there is also relatively stable and growing broadband internet access. It&#8217;s expensive, but hopefully, costs will come down in future. People have relatively easy access to the internet through mobile devices in cities, so consumers are exposed to new technology and streaming services.</p><p>Overall, South Africa and the rest of Africa need more investment in internet infrastructure to make it more accessible and reduce the prohibitively high data price. This will allow more consumers to go online, use e-commerce, and grow the digital video industry across the continent in every African country.</p><p><strong>David: By your estimation, what opportunities do these companies see in South Africa that make it a worthwhile investment destination?</strong></p><p><strong>Thinus:</strong> There&#8217;s a type of &#8220;economic racism&#8221; &#8211; I&#8217;m not sure what the right word is &#8211; from international companies who still see Africa as &#8220;dark Africa&#8221; and will economically, in a sense, &#8220;colonise&#8221; it only when they have to &#8211; or out of necessity.</p><p>In terms of TV markets, countries like South Africa and Nigeria have more viewers than countries like New Zealand and Australia and are getting close to being on parity with the United Kingdom. A viewer is a viewer, is a consumer. Yet, global companies will run to these other countries first when it comes to global rollouts of products and services, and Africa is always still last in the row or gets left out.</p><p>So it&#8217;s not that they see South Africa or other African countries as a &#8220;worthwhile investment&#8221; &#8211; the truth is they need to continue to grow or deliver profits and value to shareholders. What happens is that the American market or their &#8220;domestic&#8221; market becomes saturated or growth slows, and then they&#8217;re forced by necessity to expand globally.</p><p>Once a Netflix or a Walmart can no longer add a lot of new customers in the United States, then they suddenly &#8220;are willing&#8221; to go into these other international markets which you would have wanted them to expand into organically and not just because they&#8217;re, in a sense, &#8220;forced&#8221; to venture into Africa.</p><p>With almost every video streaming service, Africa is last in line after Europe, Asia, South America and other places. How often do you see a &#8220;global tour&#8221; being announced for something and if you know the world map, Africa is completely ignored and skipped over? It&#8217;s 2022, and it&#8217;s wrong.</p><p><strong>David: This is an interesting perspective, and I&#8217;ve written about it in the past. <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/communique-03-netflix-walks-into">The first time was when Netflix launched in Nigeria</a>. It was evident that it did so because growth had slowed in the US, and it needed to expand into more international markets. <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/on-stears-and-netflix">The second was when it introduced its Mobile Plan</a>, which was clearly targeted at African consumers.</strong></p><p><strong>This brings me to my next question. How are South Africans responding to international streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime vs local ones like Showmax?</strong></p><p><strong>Thinus:</strong> It&#8217;s difficult to tell since it&#8217;s still very new. It&#8217;s also difficult because Netflix, Showmax and others are secretive about both viewership figures &#8211; which again is why accurate and credible ratings and viewership organisations and companies like Nielsen are essential &#8211; and subscriber figures, meaning how many sign-ups and customers they have.</p><p>South Africans are signing up, experimenting, and using global and local services. It&#8217;s also growing fast but from a small base. So it would, for instance, be possible to say, &#8220;Service A has grown by 50% year-on-year&#8221;, but it&#8217;s easier to do when you&#8217;re smaller because going from 5 customers in year one to 10 customers in year two is a 100% increase &#8211; although it&#8217;s not really a &#8220;lot&#8221; of customers.</p><p>Streaming will continue to grow, but it will grow in SA and elsewhere in Africa as fast or as slow as the ecosystem around it can grow &#8211; meaning internet access and the local TV and film industry having the capacity, money and willingness to produce content to attract people to these services.</p><p>In the United States, the latest consumer research shows that TV or video consumers now subscribe to around three or four different video streaming services already. It will be interesting to see how various African countries grow in terms of this and how long it will take.</p><p>For instance, will a Nigerian consumer of TV and film by 2025 perhaps subscribe to at least one global and one local streaming service at the same time, or will 60% of Kenyan video consumers by 2026 maybe use at least one traditional pay-TV service like MultiChoice&#8217;s DStv or GOtv and at least one streaming service like Amazon Prime Video or Disney+? The evolution of this consumer market &#8211; and being able to track it accurately &#8211; will be hugely important and exciting.</p><p><strong>David: My final question is, in some sense, different from the others. But I&#8217;m still curious to hear your thoughts. What government policies and business incentives, if any, would you say have contributed to making SA&#8217;s media and streaming landscape a preferred destination?</strong></p><p><strong>Thinus:</strong> Nothing much, to be honest. And once it happens, governments will probably be slow or stupid to act appropriately. Once again, Africa is a bit slow to act and behind the times.</p><p>Individual African governments or regulators should have started implementing processes to look at how to amend existing broadcasting and video regulations to protect their local TV, film and broadcasting industries from the foreign influx of services.</p><p>Not a single African government has yet looked at or enacted regulations to compel global streamers like Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video or others to feature a percentage or to produce a certain percentage of local content.</p><p>In France, streamers like Netflix must invest between 20% to 25% of their French revenues in local content, but Nigeria or South Africa or Ghana or Zambia have no such regulations, and government officials seem clueless or disinterested in keeping up with the times and how the digital video content economy globally has rapidly been changing.</p><h2>Final notes</h2><p>I get the sense that this conversation isn&#8217;t complete if I don&#8217;t dig deeper into the possibility that some government policies and a more welcoming business environment have helped South Africa&#8217;s media industry grow. For example, my research has pointed to policies and initiatives such as:</p><ol><li><p>Production and post-production incentives from the Department of Trade and Industry -- The South African Emerging Black Filmmakers Incentive, Foreign Film and Television Production and Post-Production Incentive, etc.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.lexology.com/commentary/tech-data-telecoms-media/south-africa/cliffe-dekker-hofmeyr/lights-camera-action-tax-exemption-for-films">The SA tax exemption for the domestic production of films</a>.</p></li><li><p>Some of these have then led to <a href="https://www.kftv.com/news/2021/07/30/productions-flocking-to-south-africa-for-low-costs-crew-and-cinematic-locations">the low cost of production</a>, which could also be an incentive to foreign media investors.</p></li></ol><p>Furthermore, when I think about how slow African governments are to introduce regulation into this industry, a few questions come to mind, and I want to throw them out to you.</p><ol><li><p>Could it be that the reason why African governments haven&#8217;t created such regulations is that the market isn't that big enough yet, collectively?</p></li><li><p>Do we really want governments that are generally bad at managing these sorts of relationships properly (case in point, the Nigerian government and Twitter) to introduce any form of regulation?</p></li></ol><p>I&#8217;ll leave you with these questions. What do you think?</p><p><em><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> An earlier version of the article mentioned that Netflix and Spotify have South African offices. They don&#8217;t, and the article has been updated to reflect that correction.</em></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa556f299-de42-43e3-8eeb-aafee3865e4a_1500x150.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa556f299-de42-43e3-8eeb-aafee3865e4a_1500x150.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa556f299-de42-43e3-8eeb-aafee3865e4a_1500x150.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa556f299-de42-43e3-8eeb-aafee3865e4a_1500x150.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa556f299-de42-43e3-8eeb-aafee3865e4a_1500x150.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa556f299-de42-43e3-8eeb-aafee3865e4a_1500x150.png" width="1456" height="146" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a556f299-de42-43e3-8eeb-aafee3865e4a_1500x150.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:146,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:6335,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa556f299-de42-43e3-8eeb-aafee3865e4a_1500x150.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa556f299-de42-43e3-8eeb-aafee3865e4a_1500x150.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa556f299-de42-43e3-8eeb-aafee3865e4a_1500x150.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa556f299-de42-43e3-8eeb-aafee3865e4a_1500x150.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div></div></div></a></figure></div><h2>Some important announcements</h2><p>This interview is one of the new Communiqu&#233; formats we&#8217;re experimenting with. If you enjoyed it and found it insightful, kindly suggest topics you&#8217;d like to read more about and people you&#8217;d like us to talk to <a href="https://forms.gle/5EGNGsm1D5xs3nGZ9">here</a>.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://forms.gle/5EGNGsm1D5xs3nGZ9&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Suggest interviews&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://forms.gle/5EGNGsm1D5xs3nGZ9"><span>Suggest interviews</span></a></p><p>If you enjoy the quality of insight and analysis in Communiqu&#233; and would like to work with us on market research and analysis, communications and content strategy, <a href="https://forms.gle/heEfwyPnZyBa5FWy5">let&#8217;s talk</a>!</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://forms.gle/heEfwyPnZyBa5FWy5&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Work with us&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://forms.gle/heEfwyPnZyBa5FWy5"><span>Work with us</span></a></p><h2>In case you missed it</h2><p>Our second event, Creators&#8217; Circle 2.0, is happening in Lagos this week. <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/creators-circle-2">More details here</a>!</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2b8845a-de38-4a72-b070-8661cdbd29c0_3993x2251.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2b8845a-de38-4a72-b070-8661cdbd29c0_3993x2251.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2b8845a-de38-4a72-b070-8661cdbd29c0_3993x2251.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2b8845a-de38-4a72-b070-8661cdbd29c0_3993x2251.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2b8845a-de38-4a72-b070-8661cdbd29c0_3993x2251.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2b8845a-de38-4a72-b070-8661cdbd29c0_3993x2251.jpeg" width="1456" height="821" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b2b8845a-de38-4a72-b070-8661cdbd29c0_3993x2251.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:821,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1266774,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2b8845a-de38-4a72-b070-8661cdbd29c0_3993x2251.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2b8845a-de38-4a72-b070-8661cdbd29c0_3993x2251.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2b8845a-de38-4a72-b070-8661cdbd29c0_3993x2251.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2b8845a-de38-4a72-b070-8661cdbd29c0_3993x2251.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Communiqu&#233;! Subscribe for free to receive new posts straight to your inbox.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p> ]]>
</content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>
<![CDATA[ Communiqué 29: The Money Africa playbook ]]>
</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[ How Money Africa builds a successful subscription business and financial community with content ]]>
</description>
<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/the-money-africa-playbook</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/the-money-africa-playbook</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Jun 2022 06:00:40 GMT</pubDate>
<enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/h_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F201c6a13-4c03-4356-a8aa-57673bfec560_2070x1449.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/>
<content:encoded>
<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Presented by Fincra</strong></p><p></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Communiqu&#233;! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2" target="_blank" href="https://bit.ly/3HORf4J" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06f13dd9-d7e8-4522-8b33-2a014b8527a1_1500x500.gif 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06f13dd9-d7e8-4522-8b33-2a014b8527a1_1500x500.gif 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06f13dd9-d7e8-4522-8b33-2a014b8527a1_1500x500.gif 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06f13dd9-d7e8-4522-8b33-2a014b8527a1_1500x500.gif 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06f13dd9-d7e8-4522-8b33-2a014b8527a1_1500x500.gif" width="1456" height="485" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/06f13dd9-d7e8-4522-8b33-2a014b8527a1_1500x500.gif&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:485,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:176130,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/gif&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https://bit.ly/3HORf4J&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06f13dd9-d7e8-4522-8b33-2a014b8527a1_1500x500.gif 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06f13dd9-d7e8-4522-8b33-2a014b8527a1_1500x500.gif 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06f13dd9-d7e8-4522-8b33-2a014b8527a1_1500x500.gif 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06f13dd9-d7e8-4522-8b33-2a014b8527a1_1500x500.gif 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><em><a href="https://bit.ly/3HORf4J">Fincra</a> provides easy-to-integrate APIs developed and designed to launch seamless and reliable global payment solutions. With Fincra&#8217;s customisable APIs, developers can build quick financial applications; online platforms and fintechs can integrate seamless payment flows into their web and mobile applications with complete SDKs.&nbsp;</em></p><p><em>Fincra has designed its API infrastructure for developers that build platforms that send and receive frequent payments and require flexibility.</em></p><p><em>Ready to build the payment solutions?</em></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://bit.ly/3HORf4J&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Sign up on Fincra&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://bit.ly/3HORf4J"><span>Sign up on Fincra</span></a></p><div><hr></div><h1>The Money Africa playbook</h1><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F201c6a13-4c03-4356-a8aa-57673bfec560_2070x1449.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F201c6a13-4c03-4356-a8aa-57673bfec560_2070x1449.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F201c6a13-4c03-4356-a8aa-57673bfec560_2070x1449.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F201c6a13-4c03-4356-a8aa-57673bfec560_2070x1449.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F201c6a13-4c03-4356-a8aa-57673bfec560_2070x1449.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F201c6a13-4c03-4356-a8aa-57673bfec560_2070x1449.png" width="1456" height="1019" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/201c6a13-4c03-4356-a8aa-57673bfec560_2070x1449.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1019,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:279530,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F201c6a13-4c03-4356-a8aa-57673bfec560_2070x1449.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F201c6a13-4c03-4356-a8aa-57673bfec560_2070x1449.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F201c6a13-4c03-4356-a8aa-57673bfec560_2070x1449.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F201c6a13-4c03-4356-a8aa-57673bfec560_2070x1449.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p>One of the biggest missed opportunities in the 21st Century is that banks and financial institutions are not the champions of financial literacy content.</p><p>For so long, something with such a significant upside received negligible investment from the companies it could benefit the most. They&#8217;ve missed out on its potential to strengthen their brands and deeply connect with young audiences. They&#8217;ve missed out on building vibrant communities around the critical topic of money. They&#8217;ve failed to capitalise on a steady, low-cost customer acquisition channel.</p><p>In their defence, some of them have attempted to play the game. For example, one of the media companies I worked for a few years ago partnered with a Nigerian bank to create a financial literacy series. It was mildly successful.</p><div id="youtube2-f3IuAPp2KNI" class="youtube-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;videoId&quot;:&quot;f3IuAPp2KNI&quot;,&quot;startTime&quot;:null,&quot;endTime&quot;:null}" data-component-name="Youtube2ToDOM"><div class="youtube-inner"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/f3IuAPp2KNI?rel=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;enablejsapi=0" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" gesture="media" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowautoplay="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="728" height="409"></iframe></div></div><p>Still, despite these attempts, millions of people are starved of relatable financial literacy content that fits their media consumption and engagement habits. They don&#8217;t want any of that highly-technical, boring stuff. Just jargon-free, easy-to-understand content that they can relate with.</p><p>The gap is immense, and the most prominent attempts to close it are from individuals or small companies. Websites like Investopedia and authors like Robert Kiyosaki and Morgan Housel (to name a few) have built their brands on this. But one of the most compelling examples is Money Africa, a subscription-based financial education platform built on the back of relatable content and community.</p><p>In today&#8217;s newsletter, we&#8217;ll see precisely how Money Africa has become one of Nigeria's most popular sources of financial literacy content. We&#8217;ll look at the logic behind its subscription business. We&#8217;ll also look at how it uses relatable content as a foundation for building communities and products.</p><h2>1. Show me the Money Africa</h2><p>It will be disingenuous to call Money Africa a media company or try to shoehorn it into any remotely similar description. It&#8217;s an education technology and financial service company -- plain and simple. But what it does is it exhibits many of the features we explored in <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/paystack-media-threat?r=1ehgf&amp;s=w&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web">&#8216;Paystack&#8217;s media threat&#8217;</a> &#8212; taking everyday money problems and building a content strategy that solves them.</p><p>What sets it apart is that, like Multichoice, it proves Nigerians are willing to pay for content. However, when thinking about what they can or can&#8217;t pay for, the utility derived is what matters most for many people. They think, &#8220;if I&#8217;m paying for content, it has to be more than that I&#8217;m paying for. There must be other benefits.&#8221;</p><p>I wrote about this in &#8216;<a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/communique-12-the-subscription-playbook">The subscription playbook</a>&#8217;:</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;In a market like ours that is low-income and heavily utilitarian, content is not enough&#8230; As long as income levels remain where they are, most people will be unmotivated to pay for content except in extraordinary circumstances. However, if there are additional offerings that make paying a fee worth it, then we will see the tides rising. So, it is less about content value and more about subscription benefits.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><p>Money Africa&#8217;s promise is simple &#8212; give us a portion of your money, and we&#8217;ll provide you with access to content and community that help you handle the rest of that money better while giving you the tools you need to make even more in the future.</p><p>Content, check. Utility, check. Paying subscribers, check. Equation complete.</p><p>Oluwatosin Olaseinde, the company&#8217;s founder, is a former reporter and analyst with CNBC Africa and Bloomberg TV Africa. So, she understands just how powerful content can be in business.</p><p>In its initial form, Money Africa published 60-second Instagram videos. As the videos gained traction, the company segued into physical classes, each costing the participants &#8358;20,000 ($33.33).</p><p>However, physical classes can be limiting. There&#8217;s a finite amount of people you can reach in a year. However, take everything online, and the potential for scale becomes infinite. That&#8217;s what Money Africa did.</p><p>It built a website and put all its content behind a paywall. Previously, only 20-25 people could pay for each class. Now, thousands more can consume the content at their own pace and as often as they want.</p><p>The platform has grown to over 200,000 paid and unpaid community members in nearly four years.</p><h2>2. Take something abstract, then make it relatable</h2><p>Two social media posts stand out when I think about how Money Africa has demystified financial literacy.</p><p>The first post uses Cristiano Ronaldo&#8217;s infamous actions at a press conference in June 2021 to explain how individual actions may or may not impact the stock market. The second uses Lionel Messi&#8217;s shocking exit from Barcelona to explain debt and cash flow.</p><div data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM" class="tweet" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://twitter.com/themoneyafrica/status/1405848177488564229&quot;,&quot;full_text&quot;:&quot;In today&#8217;s post, we are going to be discussing an incident involving one of the world&#8217;s most recognised figures&#8212;Cristiano Ronaldo. &quot;,&quot;username&quot;:&quot;themoneyafrica&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Money Africa&quot;,&quot;date&quot;:&quot;Fri Jun 18 11:21:39 +0000 2021&quot;,&quot;photos&quot;:[{&quot;img_url&quot;:&quot;https://pbs.substack.com/media/E4KTdjHWQAQJ2xg.jpg&quot;,&quot;link_url&quot;:&quot;https://t.co/l3FHUneMbc&quot;,&quot;alt_text&quot;:null}],&quot;quoted_tweet&quot;:{},&quot;retweet_count&quot;:42,&quot;like_count&quot;:58,&quot;expanded_url&quot;:{},&quot;video_url&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true}"><a class="tweet-link-top" href="https://twitter.com/themoneyafrica/status/1405848177488564229" target="_blank"><div class="tweet-header"><img class="tweet-header-avatar" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/themoneyafrica.jpg" alt="Twitter avatar for @themoneyafrica" loading="lazy"><div class="tweet-header-text"><span class="tweet-author-name">Money Africa </span><span class="tweet-author-handle">@themoneyafrica</span></div></div><div class="tweet-text">In today&#8217;s post, we are going to be discussing an incident involving one of the world&#8217;s most recognised figures&#8212;Cristiano Ronaldo. </div><div class="tweet-photos-container one"><div class="tweet-photo-wrapper "><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FE4KTdjHWQAQJ2xg.jpg"><img class="tweet-photo" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FE4KTdjHWQAQJ2xg.jpg" alt="Image" loading="lazy"></picture></div></div></a><a class="tweet-link-bottom" href="https://twitter.com/themoneyafrica/status/1405848177488564229" target="_blank"><div class="tweet-footer"><span class="tweet-date">11:21 AM &#8729; Jun 18, 2021</span><hr><div class="tweet-ufi"><span href="https://twitter.com/themoneyafrica/status/1405848177488564229/likes" class="likes"><span class="like-count">58</span>Likes</span><span href="https://twitter.com/themoneyafrica/status/1405848177488564229/retweets" class="retweets"><span class="rt-count">42</span>Retweets</span></div></div></a></div><div data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM" class="tweet" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://twitter.com/themoneyafrica/status/1424986697746559010&quot;,&quot;full_text&quot;:&quot;Today we are going to be discussing one of the most recognisable athletes in the world&#8212;Lionel Messi. &quot;,&quot;username&quot;:&quot;themoneyafrica&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Money Africa&quot;,&quot;date&quot;:&quot;Tue Aug 10 06:51:18 +0000 2021&quot;,&quot;photos&quot;:[{&quot;img_url&quot;:&quot;https://pbs.substack.com/media/E8aR1mzXMBQhnr5.jpg&quot;,&quot;link_url&quot;:&quot;https://t.co/q5EUJTH7Ys&quot;,&quot;alt_text&quot;:null}],&quot;quoted_tweet&quot;:{},&quot;retweet_count&quot;:64,&quot;like_count&quot;:111,&quot;expanded_url&quot;:{},&quot;video_url&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true}"><a class="tweet-link-top" href="https://twitter.com/themoneyafrica/status/1424986697746559010" target="_blank"><div class="tweet-header"><img class="tweet-header-avatar" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/themoneyafrica.jpg" alt="Twitter avatar for @themoneyafrica" loading="lazy"><div class="tweet-header-text"><span class="tweet-author-name">Money Africa </span><span class="tweet-author-handle">@themoneyafrica</span></div></div><div class="tweet-text">Today we are going to be discussing one of the most recognisable athletes in the world&#8212;Lionel Messi. </div><div class="tweet-photos-container one"><div class="tweet-photo-wrapper "><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FE8aR1mzXMBQhnr5.jpg"><img class="tweet-photo" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FE8aR1mzXMBQhnr5.jpg" alt="Image" loading="lazy"></picture></div></div></a><a class="tweet-link-bottom" href="https://twitter.com/themoneyafrica/status/1424986697746559010" target="_blank"><div class="tweet-footer"><span class="tweet-date">6:51 AM &#8729; Aug 10, 2021</span><hr><div class="tweet-ufi"><span href="https://twitter.com/themoneyafrica/status/1424986697746559010/likes" class="likes"><span class="like-count">111</span>Likes</span><span href="https://twitter.com/themoneyafrica/status/1424986697746559010/retweets" class="retweets"><span class="rt-count">64</span>Retweets</span></div></div></a></div><p>These are just two examples, but there are many more instances where Money Africa takes advantage of subjects everyone is talking about and can relate to to explain concepts that might be abstract.</p><p>In a noisy world where everyone is constantly talking, it matters how you contribute to conversations.</p><h2>3. Why teach people to fish when you can own the ocean?</h2><p>In 2020, after two years of building a community of over 200,000 people hungry for relatable financial literacy content, Olaseinde launched Ladda, a savings and investment platform.</p><p>Money Africa has served as a great lead generator, and Ladda is the investment platform. Because of the former&#8217;s popularity, the latter&#8217;s user acquisition costs are significantly lower. Imagine having already built a community with thousands of people. Layering additional products that you know they need is a brilliant next step. It&#8217;s like Amazon realising several years ahead that building a cloud computing platform is a smart bet if you truly believe in the Internet&#8217;s potential.</p><p>Today, Amazon Web Services contributes $62 billion to its parent company&#8217;s $469.82 billion revenue, with companies like Coca-Cola, Netflix, Goldman Sachs, and even the US Census Bureau as customers.</p><p>Why teach people to fish when you can own the ocean?</p><p>For many other companies, their content and media strategy are loss-leading line items. An unprofitable means to a profitable end.</p><p>But this is not the case if you&#8217;re Money Africa and Ladda. Building a fintech product on top of a vibrant content-driven community hungry for financial education is a profitable business strategy. You never have to worry about user acquisition again. If only a bank could have thought of that.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Communiqu&#233;! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div> ]]>
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<item>
<title>
<![CDATA[ Communiqué 28: Media sachetisation is real, and product pricing in emerging markets shows it ]]>
</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[ How do you price media products in a market where food is the biggest competitor for every dollar? ]]>
</description>
<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/media-sachetisation-and-product-pricing</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/media-sachetisation-and-product-pricing</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 07 Jun 2022 06:00:31 GMT</pubDate>
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<![CDATA[ <p><strong>First, a message from our sponsor &#8212; Fincra</strong></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2" target="_blank" href="https://bit.ly/3IC0RkM" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7207baff-01d3-4a0b-a4c0-491dda9ba099_1500x500.gif 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7207baff-01d3-4a0b-a4c0-491dda9ba099_1500x500.gif 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7207baff-01d3-4a0b-a4c0-491dda9ba099_1500x500.gif 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7207baff-01d3-4a0b-a4c0-491dda9ba099_1500x500.gif 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7207baff-01d3-4a0b-a4c0-491dda9ba099_1500x500.gif" width="1456" height="485" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7207baff-01d3-4a0b-a4c0-491dda9ba099_1500x500.gif&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:485,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:108190,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/gif&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https://bit.ly/3IC0RkM&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7207baff-01d3-4a0b-a4c0-491dda9ba099_1500x500.gif 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7207baff-01d3-4a0b-a4c0-491dda9ba099_1500x500.gif 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7207baff-01d3-4a0b-a4c0-491dda9ba099_1500x500.gif 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7207baff-01d3-4a0b-a4c0-491dda9ba099_1500x500.gif 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><em>Fincra helps us keep this newsletter free so we can continue bringing you quality insights. If you&#8217;re a merchant, try <a href="https://bit.ly/3IC0RkM">Fincra Checkout</a> today. It makes it easier for you to accept payments from your customers. No coding is required!</em></p><p><em>You can use Fincra Checkout to:</em></p><ul><li><p><em>Generate <strong>payment links</strong> and accept payments online</em></p></li><li><p><em>Accept payments via <strong>debit and credit cards</strong> with Checkout API</em></p></li><li><p><em>Accept payments via <strong>Pay With Transfer</strong> with Checkout API</em></p></li><li><p><em>Settle payments in your Fincra Wallet or Bank Account</em></p></li></ul><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://bit.ly/3IC0RkM&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Check out how it works&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://bit.ly/3IC0RkM"><span>Check out how it works</span></a></p><p><strong>And now, today&#8217;s newsletter!</strong></p><div><hr></div><h1>Media sachetisation is real, and product pricing in emerging markets shows it</h1><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc3d360d-06b6-4e52-94c6-9de694af5d43_2121x1414.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc3d360d-06b6-4e52-94c6-9de694af5d43_2121x1414.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc3d360d-06b6-4e52-94c6-9de694af5d43_2121x1414.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc3d360d-06b6-4e52-94c6-9de694af5d43_2121x1414.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc3d360d-06b6-4e52-94c6-9de694af5d43_2121x1414.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc3d360d-06b6-4e52-94c6-9de694af5d43_2121x1414.jpeg" width="1456" height="971" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/dc3d360d-06b6-4e52-94c6-9de694af5d43_2121x1414.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1287903,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc3d360d-06b6-4e52-94c6-9de694af5d43_2121x1414.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc3d360d-06b6-4e52-94c6-9de694af5d43_2121x1414.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc3d360d-06b6-4e52-94c6-9de694af5d43_2121x1414.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc3d360d-06b6-4e52-94c6-9de694af5d43_2121x1414.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Credit: <a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/search/photographer?photographer=francescoch">francescoch</a></figcaption></figure></div><p>How do you price media products in a market where food is the biggest competitor for every dollar? In Nigeria, for instance, food expenditure accounts for nearly 60 cents out of every dollar spent. In Kenya, it&#8217;s a little over 52 cents. In Cameroon, it&#8217;s almost 46 cents.</p><p>These three top the list of <a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-highest-expenses-on-food-relative-to-household-expenses.html">countries that spend the most on food</a>. The other two in the top five are Kazakhstan and The Philippines. This reality affects how else people can distribute their disposable income, including what they spend on media consumption.</p><p>Last week, I wrote an article for Al Jazeera <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/5/30/analysis-the-satchetisation-of-africas-largest-economy">analysing the sachetisation of Nigeria&#8217;s economy</a>. Sachetisation is a colloquial term that describes the repackaging and breakdown of products and services into smaller, more affordable sizes. It&#8217;s one of the most effective tools for penetrating markets at the bottom of the economic pyramid.</p><p>Sachetisation has become pervasive in emerging markets like Nigeria, India, and The Philippines. It is an example of a pull strategy where, <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/01/africas-new-generation-of-innovators">according to Clayton Christensen, Efosa Ojomo, and Derek van Bever</a>, businesses &#8220;respond to needs represented in the struggles of everyday consumers&#8221;. The idea is to &#8220;develop products that people want to pull into their lives&#8221;, and sachetisation builds on that.</p><p>In the article, I explained the economic conditions that make this necessary:</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;Since 2015, Nigeria, Africa&#8217;s largest economy, has gone into recession twice, and in that time, the naira has plummeted against the dollar, losing 70 percent of its value. That put the economy in a chokehold. But things could become even worse in the coming days.</em></p><p><em>&#8220;According to <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099730003152232753/pdf/P17630107476630fa09c990da780535511c.pdf">a recent World Bank report</a>, by 2022, the number of poor people in the country is projected to reach 95.1 million &#8211; more than 40 percent of the population. And even as the adverse economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic linger, commodity prices are on the rise due to the effect of Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><p>I also explored how it impacts fintech, insurance, consumer goods manufacturing, and pension. For example, I wrote:</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;The trend is also playing out in Nigeria&#8217;s tech industry and influencing how more startups are thinking about product pricing. The industry may still be in its infancy but is highly regarded around the world.</em></p><p><em>&#8220;In 2021, approximately 60 percent ($1.7 billion) of the total amount ($2.9 billion) raised by Africa-based tech startups went to Nigeria alone. <strong>But even giants bow to market forces</strong>.</em></p><p><em>&#8220;Many technology firms appeal to younger Nigerians because they ease bureaucratic and expensive processes of investing, saving, buying insurance, and accessing loans <strong>by introducing lower fees and cheaper payment plans</strong>, among other things.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><p>I used the examples of Bamboo &#8212; which allows Nigerians to invest in the US stock market with as little as $1; Rise &#8212; which lets its users invest in real estate and the stock market in the US with as little as $1; and Reliance Health &#8212; which provides health insurance services for as little as $7 per month.</p><p>In today&#8217;s newsletter, I want to explore how sachetisation plays out in media product pricing and user behaviour. I will focus on Nigeria, where it mainly happens in two ways &#8212; tiering and unbundling.</p><p>Let&#8217;s kick off with the most prominent example.</p><h2>1: Multichoice&#8217;s tiering strategy</h2><p>In &#8216;<a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/communique-12-the-subscription-playbook?s=w">The subscription playbook</a>&#8217;, I wrote that one of Multichoice&#8217;s biggest strengths is adapting to any economic and technological climate. With over 21 million subscribers across 50 markets, it is the largest pay-TV company in Africa.</p><p>In Nigeria, it operates two satellite TV services for different markets &#8212; DStv for the middle to the upper tier and GOtv for the lower tier. DStv has six subscription plans with prices ranging from $3.70 to $35.90 per month ($1 = &#8358;585, parallel market rate), while GOtv has five plans ranging from $1.54 to $9.40 per month.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F533d9933-b772-4ea3-a49c-3a4535a99383_1200x801.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F533d9933-b772-4ea3-a49c-3a4535a99383_1200x801.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F533d9933-b772-4ea3-a49c-3a4535a99383_1200x801.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F533d9933-b772-4ea3-a49c-3a4535a99383_1200x801.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F533d9933-b772-4ea3-a49c-3a4535a99383_1200x801.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F533d9933-b772-4ea3-a49c-3a4535a99383_1200x801.jpeg" width="1200" height="801" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/533d9933-b772-4ea3-a49c-3a4535a99383_1200x801.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:801,&quot;width&quot;:1200,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:121425,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F533d9933-b772-4ea3-a49c-3a4535a99383_1200x801.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F533d9933-b772-4ea3-a49c-3a4535a99383_1200x801.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F533d9933-b772-4ea3-a49c-3a4535a99383_1200x801.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F533d9933-b772-4ea3-a49c-3a4535a99383_1200x801.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Credit: <a href="https://www.multichoice.com/media/2790/multichoice-nigeria-extends-customer-call-service-hours-for-2018-fifa-world-cup.jpg?format=jpg&amp;quality=85&amp;width=1200&amp;mode=max">Multichoice</a></figcaption></figure></div><p>DStv&#8217;s four most expensive plans are priced remarkably different and contain significantly more attractive options than its two cheapest plans. GOtv&#8217;s options pale in comparison to those on its sister platform, but it follows the same pricing principle.</p><p>For emphasis, DStv&#8217;s cheapest plan gives subscribers access to some entertainment and news channels, but the content is stripped to its bones. Since the channels available are likely those whose content is cheaper to acquire, it makes sense for the company to offer them &#8220;in a sachet&#8221;. The numbers add up.</p><p>Those channels with content that is more expensive to acquire then belong to the pricier tiers. Therein lies the principle of sachetisation &#8212; take something that is normally expensive as a whole, and break or strip it down into pieces that are individually more affordable. This implies that customers will forgo some quality, but it makes it possible for them to still access some benefits.</p><h2>2: What can we learn from football viewing centres?</h2><p>For a Nigerian football fan to diligently watch their team play every week, they need to be able to fork out $24 monthly for a Multichoice subscription. As we&#8217;ve established, not many can afford this, so they turn to other options. One of which is visiting football viewing centres.</p><p>Viewing centres in Nigeria are informal neighbourhood outlets for football fans to gather in their tens and hundreds to watch their favourite teams play during the season. Depending on their location, each person pays an entry fee of about &#8358;100 (17 cents) and will likely add a bottle of beer or soft drink during half-time.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54146f37-5d9c-41e0-a2a9-e2dc92845835_1000x543.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54146f37-5d9c-41e0-a2a9-e2dc92845835_1000x543.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54146f37-5d9c-41e0-a2a9-e2dc92845835_1000x543.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54146f37-5d9c-41e0-a2a9-e2dc92845835_1000x543.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54146f37-5d9c-41e0-a2a9-e2dc92845835_1000x543.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54146f37-5d9c-41e0-a2a9-e2dc92845835_1000x543.jpeg" width="1000" height="543" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/54146f37-5d9c-41e0-a2a9-e2dc92845835_1000x543.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:543,&quot;width&quot;:1000,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:81556,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54146f37-5d9c-41e0-a2a9-e2dc92845835_1000x543.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54146f37-5d9c-41e0-a2a9-e2dc92845835_1000x543.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54146f37-5d9c-41e0-a2a9-e2dc92845835_1000x543.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54146f37-5d9c-41e0-a2a9-e2dc92845835_1000x543.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">A football viewing centre</figcaption></figure></div><p>The average viewing centre regular would spend about &#8358;1,000 ($1.7) per month on English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, and UEFA Champions League matches, depending on the team they support. You can count on their dedication to the viewing centre because that is often their primary source of entertainment after a long week at work.</p><p>Beyond serving as an entertainment source, viewing centres also help regulars form strong social bonds. This way, the proprietors of the business can estimate how many viewers will come around and how much money they will generate per month.</p><h2>3: The Kwes&#233; TV and StarTimes unbundling experiments</h2><p>When Econet&#8217;s pay-TV service Kwes&#233; <a href="https://marketingedge.com.ng/kwese-tv-enters-nigeria-with-pay-as-you-watch-subscription-plans/">launched in Nigeria</a> five years ago, it did so with pay-as-you-watch plans, allowing users to pay for three, seven, and thirty-day subscriptions. It also <a href="https://marketingedge.com.ng/kwese-tv-enters-nigeria-with-pay-as-you-watch-subscription-plans/">introduced a similar model in Kenya</a> around the same time.</p><p>That same year, StarTimes, a Chinese satellite TV service operating in Nigeria, introduced &#8358;60 to &#8358;240-per-day plans (10 to 41 cents), with weekly options ranging from &#8358;300 to &#8358;1,300 (51 cents to $2.22).</p><p><a href="https://www.pulse.ng/bi/tech/econet-is-shutting-down-kwese-tv-as-we-know-it-proving-just-how-hard-it-is-to-build-a/yj0htqf">Kwes&#233; has since shut down</a> its pay-TV, removing content it doesn&#8217;t originally own and has to pay for. StarTimes continues to operate with its subscription plans, with marginal increments to its prices in the last few years, indicating what tier of the market it&#8217;s focused on.</p><h2>4: IROKOtv&#8217;s sachet strategy</h2><p>IROKOtv, a streaming platform that houses Nigerian movies and TV shows, has also adopted this strategy to grow its total addressable market. In the company&#8217;s early days, it acquired and licensed existing content until 2014, when it launched ROK Studios as an in-house production unit.</p><p>Having raised significant <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/analysing-the-big-cabal-media-fundraise?r=1ehgf&amp;s=w&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web">venture capital</a>, IROKO had to grow fast. One way was by leveraging its insight into user behaviour and product pricing in Nigeria. Emeka Ajene, an entrepreneur and tech analyst, <a href="https://afridigest.substack.com/p/how-iroko-went-from-pioneer-to-powerhouse?s=r">wrote about this</a>:</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;As a venture-backed company focused on rapid top-line growth, IROKO incorporated a growth [and] experimentation mindset into its pricing strategy.</em></p><p><em>&#8220;For example, the company noticed the popularity of individually packaged CPG (consumer packaged goods) items which, while cheaper on an absolute basis, were more expensive on a per-unit basis than larger sizes. Leveraging this insight, [it] introduced unlimited weekly Android access to IROKOtv for &#8358;100, which resulted in 100% growth in Nigerian subscribers within the first 30 days.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf831cdf-a04d-4952-9920-2cf356de6a43_1456x786.webp" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf831cdf-a04d-4952-9920-2cf356de6a43_1456x786.webp 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf831cdf-a04d-4952-9920-2cf356de6a43_1456x786.webp 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf831cdf-a04d-4952-9920-2cf356de6a43_1456x786.webp 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf831cdf-a04d-4952-9920-2cf356de6a43_1456x786.webp 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf831cdf-a04d-4952-9920-2cf356de6a43_1456x786.webp" width="1456" height="786" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/cf831cdf-a04d-4952-9920-2cf356de6a43_1456x786.webp&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:786,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:198842,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/webp&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf831cdf-a04d-4952-9920-2cf356de6a43_1456x786.webp 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf831cdf-a04d-4952-9920-2cf356de6a43_1456x786.webp 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf831cdf-a04d-4952-9920-2cf356de6a43_1456x786.webp 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf831cdf-a04d-4952-9920-2cf356de6a43_1456x786.webp 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Credit: IROKOtv</figcaption></figure></div><p>IROKO also developed a kiosk and agent network that allowed subscribers to download digitally-protected content at physical locations without worrying about Internet and broadband data costs.</p><h2>5: The Netflix and Showmax mobile-only plans</h2><p>In 2021, Showmax, Multichoice&#8217;s subscription video-on-demand service, reduced the price of its mobile-only plan by 20% to &#8358;1,200 ($2). A few months later, Netflix introduced a similar option at the same price point. Both platforms recognise the necessity of embracing this strategy to expand their user base in this market.</p><p>I wrote about this in &#8216;Stears&#8217;<a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/on-stears-and-netflix?s=w"> lemonade machine and Netflix&#8217;s $3 beer</a>&#8217;:</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;Due to the high cost of data and Internet service limitations, people are more likely to download content to their phones before watching. But even downloading content often takes time because Internet speed can be frustrating. So, Netflix is adapting its offerings by creating a mobile-only plan that addresses those problems&#8230; The introduction of this plan also indicates Netflix is going punch-for-punch with Showmax (Multichoice&#8217;s SVOD property), which also has a mobile plan for that price.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><p>Showmax even goes a step further to partner with MTN Nigeria, the country&#8217;s largest telco. With an extra &#8358;500 (85 cents), users can access 2.5 GB of data to stream Showmax content or an additional &#8358;2,000 ($3.4) to access 5.5 GB.</p><h2>Zooming out</h2><p>Content production and acquisition are expensive line items for media companies. But to survive in emerging markets like Nigeria, most of them will have to embrace sachetisation.</p><p>As with any business strategy, sachetisation does not guarantee success, survival, or growth&nbsp; &#8212;&nbsp; however, it makes them more likely.</p><p>The lower class is far larger than the middle and upper classes, so companies will have to choose between not operating in Nigeria or adapting to reality. Some companies decide to exit, and that&#8217;s perfectly fine. But the ones who stay will certainly battle with the market forces, and we know who wins in the end.</p><p><em>PS: Thank you to <a href="https://twitter.com/eboigbeanita?s=21&amp;t=zJZYzoyD__SWu9F4Ur1b2g">Anita Eboigbe</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/eajene?s=21&amp;t=zJZYzoyD__SWu9F4Ur1b2g">Emeka Ajene</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/akachinonyerem_?s=21&amp;t=zJZYzoyD__SWu9F4Ur1b2g">Akachi Ogbonna</a> for helping me to edit and refine the points in this essay.</em></p><div><hr></div><h2>Some good news &#129395;</h2><p>In addition to Communiqu&#233;, we&#8217;re launching two more publications under the CMQ Media umbrella.</p><ul><li><p>The first is <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/s/creative-capital">Creative Capital</a>, a publication for creators who are interested in deep insights and stories about Africa&#8217;s creator economy. If you found our essay on <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/africa-creator-economy?r=1ehgf&amp;s=w&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web">the creator economy</a> insightful, then you&#8217;ll love Creative Capital.</p></li><li><p>The second is <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/s/marketing-forensics">Marketing Forensics</a>, where we will dive into marketing trends and campaigns across the continent. If you enjoyed <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/big-brother-super-bowl?r=1ehgf&amp;s=w&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web">our analysis of Big Brother Naija and the Super Bowl</a>, then this is for you.</p></li></ul><p>Please, share this with your friends who are creators, investors, or who work in marketing and advertising!</p> ]]>
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<title>
<![CDATA[ Communiqué 24: Fundraising PR no longer hits like it used to ]]>
</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[ With fatigue over investment stories kicking in, African startups must consider alternative PR strategies to build their reputation and connect with audiences. ]]>
</description>
<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/fundraising-pr-no-longer-hits</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/fundraising-pr-no-longer-hits</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ Victoria ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Mar 2022 06:00:37 GMT</pubDate>
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<![CDATA[ <p><em><strong>Presented by Fincra</strong></em></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2" target="_blank" href="https://sandbox.fincra.com/auth/signup?utm_source=Newsletter&amp;utm_medium=Communique&amp;utm_campaign=Sandbox_signup&amp;utm_id=leads" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56b578c7-208f-4a83-ae5c-21daa839d0af_1500x500.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56b578c7-208f-4a83-ae5c-21daa839d0af_1500x500.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56b578c7-208f-4a83-ae5c-21daa839d0af_1500x500.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56b578c7-208f-4a83-ae5c-21daa839d0af_1500x500.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56b578c7-208f-4a83-ae5c-21daa839d0af_1500x500.png" width="1456" height="485" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/56b578c7-208f-4a83-ae5c-21daa839d0af_1500x500.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:485,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:102776,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https://sandbox.fincra.com/auth/signup?utm_source=Newsletter&amp;utm_medium=Communique&amp;utm_campaign=Sandbox_signup&amp;utm_id=leads&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56b578c7-208f-4a83-ae5c-21daa839d0af_1500x500.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56b578c7-208f-4a83-ae5c-21daa839d0af_1500x500.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56b578c7-208f-4a83-ae5c-21daa839d0af_1500x500.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56b578c7-208f-4a83-ae5c-21daa839d0af_1500x500.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><em>It&#8217;s difficult sending money from one country to another, especially when you&#8217;re running a business that needs to make global payments regularly. But <a href="https://bit.ly/3IC0RkM">Fincra</a> makes it easy. Their solutions allow you to send and receive local and international payments in Euros, Pounds, and Naira without the headaches associated with traditional payment methods.</em></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sandbox.fincra.com/auth/signup?utm_source=Newsletter&amp;utm_medium=Communique&amp;utm_campaign=Sandbox_signup&amp;utm_id=leads&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Sign up for a quick demo&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sandbox.fincra.com/auth/signup?utm_source=Newsletter&amp;utm_medium=Communique&amp;utm_campaign=Sandbox_signup&amp;utm_id=leads"><span>Sign up for a quick demo</span></a></p><div><hr></div><h1>Fundraising PR no longer hits like it used to</h1><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe973aeb8-0a8c-43c0-9c83-29837a6f4dac_3872x2592.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe973aeb8-0a8c-43c0-9c83-29837a6f4dac_3872x2592.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe973aeb8-0a8c-43c0-9c83-29837a6f4dac_3872x2592.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe973aeb8-0a8c-43c0-9c83-29837a6f4dac_3872x2592.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe973aeb8-0a8c-43c0-9c83-29837a6f4dac_3872x2592.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe973aeb8-0a8c-43c0-9c83-29837a6f4dac_3872x2592.jpeg" width="1456" height="975" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e973aeb8-0a8c-43c0-9c83-29837a6f4dac_3872x2592.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:975,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:3431133,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe973aeb8-0a8c-43c0-9c83-29837a6f4dac_3872x2592.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe973aeb8-0a8c-43c0-9c83-29837a6f4dac_3872x2592.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe973aeb8-0a8c-43c0-9c83-29837a6f4dac_3872x2592.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe973aeb8-0a8c-43c0-9c83-29837a6f4dac_3872x2592.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Credit: <a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/search/photographer?family=creative&amp;photographer=dem10">dem10</a></figcaption></figure></div><ul><li><p><em>By <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriacrandall/">Victoria Crandall</a></em></p></li></ul><p>In 2021, African tech startup funding crossed the<a href="https://disrupt-africa.com/2022/01/28/african-tech-startup-funding-almost-trebles-to-pass-2bn-mark-in-2021/#prettyPhoto"> $2 billion mark</a>, with startups raising $1 million every other hour. This is a big step up from where the ecosystem was a few years ago. Stripe&#8217;s acquisition of Paystack was a watershed moment &#8211; it signalled to investors that they could put their money in African startups and earn attractive returns.</p><p>Suddenly, a global investor class had a strong appetite for African tech deal flow. Like any industry, the media responds to demand.</p><p>Media outlets dramatically upped their coverage. TechCrunch hired a West Africa correspondent and later a reporter in Nairobi. Bloomberg dedicated journalists to the African tech beat and started reporting on early-stage investments.</p><p>However, signs pointing to fatigue over fundraising stories have emerged over the last year. African tech watchers gripe that the media <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/african-tech-journalism-fundraising?s=r">should expand coverage beyond funding</a>. Reader interest in pure fundraise stories is waning, translating into weaker analytics for the media platforms. The flurry of fundraises has even become <a href="https://twitter.com/TechCabal/status/1490634812121653250">memeified</a>.</p><p>Securing an investment announcement in TechCrunch is no longer a novelty and won&#8217;t drive excitement like before. Tech startups, therefore, need to think beyond fundraising PR for elevating their profiles.</p><p>Startups can turn to public relations strategies like thought leadership and owned media to build their reputation and credibility, connect with key audiences of investors and partners, and foster relationships with the media.</p><h2>Share insight, but make it interesting</h2><p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d3bfc71-72e8-4eae-befd-7a27429f5172_5616x4212.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d3bfc71-72e8-4eae-befd-7a27429f5172_5616x4212.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d3bfc71-72e8-4eae-befd-7a27429f5172_5616x4212.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d3bfc71-72e8-4eae-befd-7a27429f5172_5616x4212.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d3bfc71-72e8-4eae-befd-7a27429f5172_5616x4212.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d3bfc71-72e8-4eae-befd-7a27429f5172_5616x4212.jpeg" width="1456" height="1092" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/8d3bfc71-72e8-4eae-befd-7a27429f5172_5616x4212.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1092,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:3575996,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d3bfc71-72e8-4eae-befd-7a27429f5172_5616x4212.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d3bfc71-72e8-4eae-befd-7a27429f5172_5616x4212.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d3bfc71-72e8-4eae-befd-7a27429f5172_5616x4212.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d3bfc71-72e8-4eae-befd-7a27429f5172_5616x4212.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Credit: <a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/search/photographer?family=creative&amp;photographer=Hiroshi+Watanabe">Hiroshi Watanabe</a></figcaption></figure></div><p>African tech startups can consider switching to a multi-channel strategy that involves thought leadership and owned media.</p><p>Thought leadership is when people see founders, or by extension, their startups as an authority source. They earn this trust and credibility by consistently sharing reliable industry information, insights, analysis, and data. The best part is that this strategy is entirely under the startup&#8217;s control. They can publish their information on their owned channels: website, blog, Medium page, YouTube channel, and Twitter. Then if it is really interesting, it could get picked up by media publications for free.</p><p>To build a reputation as an authority source, contribute information on newsworthy topics. For example, <a href="https://restofworld.org/2021/a-bank-at-every-corner-store-agency-banking-is-transforming-nigerian-business/">agent banking has taken off in Nigeria</a> over the last several years. But agents who carry cash are sitting ducks for robbers. This has become a more pressing issue as security has deteriorated across the country.</p><p>CrowdForce, an Abuja-based agent banking network (full disclosure: they&#8217;re a past client), wanted to better understand the security situation of their 7,000+ agents. The communications team asked them in a market survey whether they had ever been robbed.</p><p>One-fifth of agents had experienced a robbery, while 80% were concerned about their security. Not only is the survey data useful for CrowdForce&#8217;s internal operations, but it can also be used for writing an analysis piece on security trends at the last mile for financial service providers. The data is also great for pitching journalists.</p><p>Startup founders and entrepreneurs can also share their expertise or opinions &#8211; the more counter-intuitive or surprising, the better. A deep dive into the inner workings of their industry, a behind-the-scenes look into developing a new product, or a passionate stand on an industry trend could all be moulded into great content.</p><p>Founders who stand their ground about hard truths in their field while making sure they&#8217;re supported by facts are also magnets for promising media attention. An honest opinion is compelling and perceived as authentic, which is a valuable currency in our social media era.</p><h2>Some practical examples</h2><p>An example is<a href="https://medium.com/the-startup-hacker/pay-on-delivery-the-worst-thing-to-happen-to-e-commerce-614bd68c81b1"> Temi Giwa&#8217;s piece</a> on payment-on-delivery in e-commerce. It&#8217;s effective because she has credibility in the industry as a senior product manager at Paystack. She wrote it based on her work experience, sharing specific details about the delayed profits, failed orders, and business closures that are part and parcel of payment-on-delivery. She also supported her argument with charts.</p><p>Another effective PR strategy that can raise a startup&#8217;s profile is the use of Twitter to share insights. Eloho Omame, co-founder at FirstCheck Africa, a female-led, female-focused angel fund and investor community, is known for her regular<a href="https://twitter.com/ElohoGM/status/1500415618817875968"> Twitter threads</a>. Omame shares practical and actionable advice for founders, like how to <a href="https://twitter.com/ElohoGM/status/1499488660391092228">avoid a bad investment deal</a>. In addition to her core audience of female entrepreneurs, she also appeals to a broader audience by <a href="https://twitter.com/ElohoGM/status/1488506305962819589">demystifying startup jargon</a>.</p><p>The African tech industry is hungry for knowledge. Both Giwa and Omame show that well-written and researched content can be popular, stimulating debate and driving engagement in the process. Although it&#8217;s a long-term endeavour that bears fruit through consistent quality output.</p><p>It&#8217;s a winning strategy for profile raising and building relationships beyond fundraising stories.</p><h2>Owned media spawns earned media</h2><p>Startup founders and entrepreneurs with a reputation for interesting insights, commentary, and data inevitably attract the attention of journalists who are always on the lookout for excellent and relatable industry sources.</p><p>Given that African tech is still in its infancy, journalists who cover the sector are generalists. Being jacks of all trades, they want to cultivate ties with knowledgeable sources who will explain the inner workings of their industry.</p><p>Journalists also use Twitter to look for story ideas. If they stumble upon an interesting thread or tweet, especially if it&#8217;s trending or popular, they will follow up with the author for more information. A nugget of an idea could lead to a story. I once <a href="https://twitter.com/tori_crandall/status/1177149422662246401">shared my two cents</a> on Volkswagen&#8217;s plans to move into ride-hailing in Africa. A Bloomberg reporter who I&#8217;ve known for years contacted me to discuss the idea for a potential story. Therein lies a formula.</p><p>Lastly, founders who are good storytellers can earn goodwill with the media and aid relationship building over the long term. During a recent Twitter Spaces on African tech PR strategy, Koromone Koroye, TechCabal&#8217;s Managing Editor, cited Benjamin Fernades of NALA and Gregory Rockson of mPharma as founders who use Twitter well. They share the reality of building a tech startup candidly and are relatable. Koroye liked and could relate to their authentic communication style, which piqued her interest in their startups.</p><h2>Fundraising PR is just the beginning</h2><p>PR around a fundraising announcement is important since startups need to make noise about their investments. However, it&#8217;s only the beginning.</p><p>Startups can stand out in a crowded field by sharing compelling stories and data via their owned channels, establishing expertise, and building relationships with the media. A multi-channel PR approach that leans on thought leadership and owned media yields lasting results that compound over time.</p><div><hr></div><p><em>Victoria is a Lagos-based African tech publicist and founder of No Filter PR. She's lived in West Africa for 10 years.</em></p> ]]>
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<title>
<![CDATA[ Communiqué 22: Why did Binance invest $200 million in Forbes? ]]>
</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[ The race to demystify crypto is on. ]]>
</description>
<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/forbes-and-binance</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/forbes-and-binance</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Feb 2022 06:00:38 GMT</pubDate>
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<![CDATA[ <div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc0b728f-982b-47e3-950c-ebd3b32b5982_3543x2362.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc0b728f-982b-47e3-950c-ebd3b32b5982_3543x2362.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc0b728f-982b-47e3-950c-ebd3b32b5982_3543x2362.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc0b728f-982b-47e3-950c-ebd3b32b5982_3543x2362.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc0b728f-982b-47e3-950c-ebd3b32b5982_3543x2362.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc0b728f-982b-47e3-950c-ebd3b32b5982_3543x2362.jpeg" width="1456" height="971" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/bc0b728f-982b-47e3-950c-ebd3b32b5982_3543x2362.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2664631,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc0b728f-982b-47e3-950c-ebd3b32b5982_3543x2362.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc0b728f-982b-47e3-950c-ebd3b32b5982_3543x2362.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc0b728f-982b-47e3-950c-ebd3b32b5982_3543x2362.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc0b728f-982b-47e3-950c-ebd3b32b5982_3543x2362.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Credit: <a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/search/photographer?family=editorial&amp;photographer=NurPhoto">NurPhoto</a></figcaption></figure></div><p></p><p>Binance, the world&#8217;s biggest crypto exchange, is investing $200 million in Forbes. I saw the news on Thursday and thought it was interesting, primarily because I didn&#8217;t see this coming. What fellowship does Forbes have with Binance, I wondered. But upon closer examination, it made sense.</p><p>Let&#8217;s dig in.</p><p>Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbespr/2021/08/26/forbes-to-become-public-company-through-business-combination-with-special-purpose-acquisition-company-magnum-opus/?sh=6a414764320e">plans to go public</a> on the New York Stock Exchange later this quarter through a partnership with Magnum Opus Acquisition Limited, a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), at a market value of $630 million.</p><p>The goal is to raise $600 million, with $200 million from Magnum Opus&#8217; trust account and $400 million worth of shares from private individuals and institutions. The latter is where Binance comes in. As part of the process, it will invest $200 million in Forbes.</p><h2>The motive</h2><p>There are two ways to think about this.</p><p>The first is as Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao <a href="https://twitter.com/cnbctechcheck/status/1491913004157444100?s=21">tells CNBC</a>. It&#8217;s a way to help the 104-year-old Forbes transition successfully into Web3, having made leaps over the years from print to Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Binance will offer strategic advice for how the media company can integrate concepts like NFTs, read-to-earn, micropayments, and subscription payments in crypto.</p><p>It&#8217;s admirable how long Forbes has been around and how often it&#8217;s had to reinvent itself. It began as a print magazine in 1917 and has successfully evolved to include an online publication attracting millions of page views monthly and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/business/media/15forbes.html">generating</a> $70-80 million in annual revenue. This investment represents another step in that evolution.</p><p>The second way to think about it, and the more likely motive for this investment, is that Binance sees this as an opportunity to push crypto further into mainstream consciousness. Again, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbespr/2022/02/10/forbes-announces-200-million-strategic-investment-from-binance/?sh=4f73f96057e2">from Zhao</a>:</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;As Web 3 and blockchain technologies move forward and the crypto market comes of age, we know that media is an essential element to build widespread consumer understanding and education.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><p>I can&#8217;t fault Binance for making this investment, and neither can I side-eye Forbes for taking it. I&#8217;ve long thought of Forbes less as a journalistic platform and more as a content marketing engine. So, this transaction makes sense. Forbes needs the money and has the audience. Binance wants the audience and has the money.</p><p>If we end today&#8217;s newsletter here, you&#8217;d have gotten the point. But let&#8217;s dig deeper. Why does Binance need to make this investment? And, why Forbes, <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/02/an-incomplete-history-of-forbes-com-as-a-platform-for-scams-grift-and-bad-journalism/">with all its conspicuous imperfections</a>?</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><h2>Media and mass adoption</h2><p>Ideas don&#8217;t spread on their own. Products don&#8217;t become popular by accident. They need to be pushed socially and financially.</p><p>Procter &amp; Gamble realised this as far back as the 1920s <a href="https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2017/10/04/our-history-p-g-put-soap-soap-opera/732149001/">when it began sponsoring</a> daytime radio dramas to sell soap to stay-at-home wives and mums. While this is technically advertising, the strategy behind it points to a trend that would calcify many decades later.</p><h4>1. P&amp;G&#8217;s soap opera strategy</h4><p>In 1927, P&amp;G sponsored NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Radio Beauty School&#8221; to promote Camay, its perfumed soap brand. From 1933 to 1956, it sponsored the 15-minute radio serial &#8220;Ma Perkins&#8221; to promote Oxydol laundry soap. The company has gone on to back several long-running radio and television shows to advertise its products, including &#8220;Guiding Light&#8221;, which aired for 57 years from 1952 to 2009, making it the longest-running TV drama according to Guinness World Records.</p><p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feee88892-6963-4f67-9276-4b8dd0651c0c_619x564.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feee88892-6963-4f67-9276-4b8dd0651c0c_619x564.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feee88892-6963-4f67-9276-4b8dd0651c0c_619x564.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feee88892-6963-4f67-9276-4b8dd0651c0c_619x564.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feee88892-6963-4f67-9276-4b8dd0651c0c_619x564.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feee88892-6963-4f67-9276-4b8dd0651c0c_619x564.jpeg" width="619" height="564" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/eee88892-6963-4f67-9276-4b8dd0651c0c_619x564.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:564,&quot;width&quot;:619,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:143146,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feee88892-6963-4f67-9276-4b8dd0651c0c_619x564.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feee88892-6963-4f67-9276-4b8dd0651c0c_619x564.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feee88892-6963-4f67-9276-4b8dd0651c0c_619x564.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feee88892-6963-4f67-9276-4b8dd0651c0c_619x564.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">&#8220;Guiding Light Cast&#8221;, <em>Radio Varieties</em>, December 1940, pp 11. Source: <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2020/11/the-guiding-light/">The Library of Congress</a></figcaption></figure></div><p>What&#8217;s peculiar about P&amp;G&#8217;s strategy wasn&#8217;t just that it was advertising soap to stay-at-home wives and mums through radio and TV shows, earning it a mythical status as the inventor of &#8220;soap operas&#8221;. It&#8217;s that it was actively involved in determining the type of content surrounding its adverts to the point of notoriety.</p><p>Furthermore, its marketing spend has been so influential that <a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1009.8101&amp;rep=rep1&amp;type=pdf">this scholar concludes it</a> &#8220;helped to establish media systems in other countries and intervened in the daily realities of people living as workers and consumers&#8221;.</p><h4>2. Making superheroes mainstream</h4><p>Brands like Disney, Marvel, DC, and LEGO have shown that content marketing can effectively propagate ideas and shape behaviour. Comic books and superhero movies (as lucrative as they can be on their own) have proven potent in bringing toys, action figures, and niche characters into the mainstream.</p><p>Marvel, for example, has completely changed how many people perceive and experience cinema, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/opinion/martin-scorsese-marvel.html">much to the displeasure</a> of legendary director Martin Scorcese. Disney, Marvel&#8217;s parent company, uses content to drive traffic to its resorts and boost merch sales.</p><p>LEGO itself has toyed with this strategy, launching the Bricks Kicks magazine (remember that?) in the 1980s and dabbling into filmmaking with The Lego Movie and Bionicle series.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9f6fdc2-34cd-4a91-bf96-3d814f7827e0_800x448.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9f6fdc2-34cd-4a91-bf96-3d814f7827e0_800x448.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9f6fdc2-34cd-4a91-bf96-3d814f7827e0_800x448.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9f6fdc2-34cd-4a91-bf96-3d814f7827e0_800x448.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9f6fdc2-34cd-4a91-bf96-3d814f7827e0_800x448.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9f6fdc2-34cd-4a91-bf96-3d814f7827e0_800x448.jpeg" width="800" height="448" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/d9f6fdc2-34cd-4a91-bf96-3d814f7827e0_800x448.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:448,&quot;width&quot;:800,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9f6fdc2-34cd-4a91-bf96-3d814f7827e0_800x448.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9f6fdc2-34cd-4a91-bf96-3d814f7827e0_800x448.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9f6fdc2-34cd-4a91-bf96-3d814f7827e0_800x448.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9f6fdc2-34cd-4a91-bf96-3d814f7827e0_800x448.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p>In some ways, these brands created the template for content marketing long before the world agreed on the meaning of the term. Several years later, more companies are taking that playbook and pushing the envelope.</p><h4>3. Software, meet media. Media, software</h4><p>We&#8217;ve seen this trend pervasive with software as a service (SaaS) companies more recently. I wrote about this in <a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/paystack-media-threat">&#8220;Paystack&#8217;s media threat&#8221;</a>, using Airbnb, Bumble, and Netflix as examples. But there are more.</p><p>In 2019, Robinhood, the stock trading and investing company, acquired MarketSnacks, a media company that made financial news digestible, and rebranded it as Robinhood Snacks. The acquisition gave Robinhood the content and resources it needed to connect deeper with its six million users (at the time) alongside the acquired media company&#8217;s already existing audience.</p><p>In October 2021, Hubspot bought The Hustle, a business and tech content publisher, for a reported $27 million. The reason? To give Hubspot&#8217;s users access to more &#8220;educational, business, and tech trend content in their preferred formats&#8221;, <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/company-news/hubspot-signs-agreement-to-acquire-the-hustle-adding-content-to-help-scaling-companies-grow-better">according to</a> Kieran Flanagan, Hubspot&#8217;s SVP of marketing.</p><p>Many more examples point to this trend, but very few can compare to the scale of Binance&#8217;s investment in Forbes.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><h2>Binance, Forbes, and the race to demystify crypto</h2><p><a href="https://cmqmedia.substack.com/p/bloombergs-vision-nestcoin-and-breach">I didn&#8217;t get into crypto until 2020</a>, despite knowing about it since 2018. My biggest barrier? Knowledge and comprehension. I knew a little about crypto, but what little I knew was cryptic and difficult to understand.</p><p>There are many more people around the world who can relate, many more who are largely confused about crypto. Some are interested in learning but don&#8217;t know where to start, while others couldn&#8217;t care less. And it&#8217;s this group of people Binance is trying to reach.</p><p>In 2020, Binance <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-announces-coinmarketcap-acquisition-cz-gives-the-scoop">acquired CoinMarketCap</a>, the world&#8217;s most popular crypto website, for an undisclosed amount. Later that year, CoinMarketCap <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria">launched CMC Alexandria</a> (named after the Library of Alexandria) to promote crypto education. Binance itself has a high-ranking crypto website that educates users about the technology, aside from serving as an exchange.</p><p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff164971a-d3e9-479e-9736-abc18e62fc2e_3543x2084.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff164971a-d3e9-479e-9736-abc18e62fc2e_3543x2084.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff164971a-d3e9-479e-9736-abc18e62fc2e_3543x2084.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff164971a-d3e9-479e-9736-abc18e62fc2e_3543x2084.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff164971a-d3e9-479e-9736-abc18e62fc2e_3543x2084.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff164971a-d3e9-479e-9736-abc18e62fc2e_3543x2084.jpeg" width="1456" height="856" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/f164971a-d3e9-479e-9736-abc18e62fc2e_3543x2084.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:856,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1595363,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff164971a-d3e9-479e-9736-abc18e62fc2e_3543x2084.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff164971a-d3e9-479e-9736-abc18e62fc2e_3543x2084.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff164971a-d3e9-479e-9736-abc18e62fc2e_3543x2084.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff164971a-d3e9-479e-9736-abc18e62fc2e_3543x2084.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Credit: <a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/search/photographer?family=editorial&amp;photographer=NurPhoto">NurPhoto</a></figcaption></figure></div><p>Binance isn&#8217;t the only company trying to demystify crypto. CoinDesk, another major crypto media platform, is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which builds and invests in crypto companies. <a href="https://nestcoin.com/">Nestcoin</a>, a company building and investing in crypto products for frontier markets, also owns <a href="https://breach.club/">Breach</a>, through which it breaks down abstract concepts for everyday people. (<strong>Disclosure:</strong> I work at Nestcoin and co-lead its media team.)</p><p>For over a decade, crypto existed as a fringe concept, the exuberant pursuit of a few. Esoteric at best, trifling at worst. It has come closer to the mainstream in recent times, but it still hasn&#8217;t broken through. For many, even those who swear by it, it remains a mystery, a Latin-centric religious treatise needing reformation.</p><p>Like many other technologies and ideas that have preceded it, mass media engagement and an unrelenting investment in education will significantly contribute to crypto&#8217;s reformation and adoption.</p><p>Therefore, for Binance, investing in a media company that has successfully reinvented itself over a century and is willing to do so again, a company willing to understand and experiment with this new technology while actively talking about it, is an idealistic step in that direction. It&#8217;s Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg all over again.</p><div><hr></div><p><em><strong>PS:</strong> A big thank you to <a href="https://ng.linkedin.com/in/susan-akinade-84466310b">Susan Akinade</a> for helping with the research. Thank you to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gift-ajayi-036329ba">Gift Ajayi</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/caleb-ihuarulam-chuks-ck-705564134/">Caleb Ihuarulam</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adeniyi-makinde-marketing-communications-copywriter/">Adeniyi Makinde</a> for helping me refine the essay.</em></p> ]]>
</content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>
<![CDATA[ Communiqué 21: How two women built one of Africa’s biggest podcasts ]]>
</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[ Here&#8217;s how Jola Ayeye and Feyikemi FK Abudu set &#8220;I Said What I Said&#8221; up for success. ]]>
</description>
<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/iswis-the-i-said-what-i-said-story</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/iswis-the-i-said-what-i-said-story</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Feb 2022 06:00:39 GMT</pubDate>
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<![CDATA[ <p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89e76bb1-9e20-40f7-935f-fb449dffff96_1080x720.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89e76bb1-9e20-40f7-935f-fb449dffff96_1080x720.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89e76bb1-9e20-40f7-935f-fb449dffff96_1080x720.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89e76bb1-9e20-40f7-935f-fb449dffff96_1080x720.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89e76bb1-9e20-40f7-935f-fb449dffff96_1080x720.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89e76bb1-9e20-40f7-935f-fb449dffff96_1080x720.jpeg" width="1080" height="720" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/89e76bb1-9e20-40f7-935f-fb449dffff96_1080x720.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:720,&quot;width&quot;:1080,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:105775,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89e76bb1-9e20-40f7-935f-fb449dffff96_1080x720.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89e76bb1-9e20-40f7-935f-fb449dffff96_1080x720.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89e76bb1-9e20-40f7-935f-fb449dffff96_1080x720.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89e76bb1-9e20-40f7-935f-fb449dffff96_1080x720.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Credit: <a href="https://isaidwhatisaidpodcast.com/">I Said What I Said</a></figcaption></figure></div><p>When Jola Ayeye and Feyikemi Abudu conceived &#8220;I Said What I Said&#8221; (ISWIS) in 2017, they were particular about what they wanted to create: a podcast laced with humour, its finger firmly on the pulse of youth and pop culture, and a platform that freed them up to talk about anything.</p><p>They wanted to host their show without worrying about technicalities. And so began their search for a partner with the resources: a studio, recording equipment, engineers, and editors. The search led them to Midas Radio, a podcast network under Aristokrat Records.</p><p>Along with the network, Ayeye and Abudu planned to experiment with four episodes. However, their already significant social media following ensured their first episode got thousands of listeners. (It currently has <a href="https://soundcloud.com/isaid-what-isaid/i-said-what-i-said-ep-1-presidential-rats-virginity-and-adulting?si=6467a3f4f12948fea47b13d151424563&amp;utm_source=clipboard&amp;utm_medium=text&amp;utm_campaign=social_sharing">over 9,000 plays on Soundcloud</a>).</p><p>In February 2020, during Social Media Week Lagos, Ayeye and Abudu hosted their first live event, and their listeners got to see them perform live. They joked and laughed and talked about many things. They&#8217;d mastered mixing the mundane with the imaginative, the facile with the reflective. The live audience consisted of 40-odd people, and the podcast at the time had over 200,000 listens, a remarkable achievement for such <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/can-podcasts-scale-in-africa">a nascent medium</a>.</p><p>A little more than a year later, in August 2021, ISWIS hosted its first paid live event, and it sold out with hundreds of people in attendance. In September, the show moved to Abuja and sold out again. In October, it sold out The Fitzgerald in Accra, Ghana.</p><p>A few months later, in December, <a href="https://isaidwhatisaidpodcast.com/owambe/">the hosts put together a party</a> for their community, complete with an attire that doubled as the ticket (each one cost N15,000, about $27). With hundreds of people eating, drinking, laughing, and playing games, there was very little indication they were there because of a podcast. If you didn&#8217;t know better, you&#8217;d think it was a Yoruba wedding ceremony.</p><div id="youtube2-PV97YMMUGhA" class="youtube-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;videoId&quot;:&quot;PV97YMMUGhA&quot;,&quot;startTime&quot;:null,&quot;endTime&quot;:null}" data-component-name="Youtube2ToDOM"><div class="youtube-inner"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/PV97YMMUGhA?rel=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;enablejsapi=0" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" gesture="media" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowautoplay="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="728" height="409"></iframe></div></div><p>By the end of 2021, the podcast had attracted close to 2 million listens. That was also the year the team incorporated video, something the hosts were initially reluctant to do, but that mushroomed their audience.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><h2>The &#8220;I Said What I Said&#8221; recipe for success</h2><p>The &#8216;&#210;w&#225;mb&#7865;&#8217; (a Yoruba term used to describe elaborate parties and ceremonies) ISWIS hosted in December 2021 was sponsored by big brands like Schweppes, The Singleton, and Flutterwave, substantiating just how far the podcast had come.</p><p>What started as an experiment between two friends had grown into one of Africa&#8217;s biggest podcasts, complete with a variegated business model.</p><p>But how did it grow this big? How did the team set their podcast up for success?</p><h3>1. The hosts&#8217; chemistry</h3><p>Foundational to this podcast&#8217;s success is the chemistry between Ayeye and Abudu. Listening to them, you get the feeling that two close friends are letting you into their inner circle and sharing their most candid thoughts. Nothing feels forced, and there&#8217;s no topic too sacred to explore.</p><p>Hope Michaels, a listener, describes it this way:</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;It&#8217;s like having a conversation with your girls. The discussions they have aren&#8217;t what you&#8217;d normally think you need to hear about until you hear about them. It&#8217;s light and airy and doesn&#8217;t feel like they&#8217;re trying so hard to be deep and impactful.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><h3>2. A ready-made audience</h3><p>It&#8217;s more difficult to get people to pay attention to your content if you don&#8217;t already have a significant audience or social capital. For Ayeye and Abudu, the odds were in their favour. They already were active on social media, particularly on Twitter, with many followers interested in what they had to say. The harder part was getting the content and delivery right.</p><h3>3. The content and delivery</h3><p>Perhaps the biggest appeal of this podcast is what the hosts choose to talk about and how they talk about it. They&#8217;ve mastered the art of conversation. Friendly conversation. They know how to use humour and make it stick, regardless of the subject.</p><p>Take <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/3JSzGqtRuvrxfUHkA8zAC1?si=HNlSVhbNR7Gajjvo9XvB7A">this October 2020 episode</a>, for example. It&#8217;s dedicated to discussing the Lekki Toll Gate Massacre and its aftermath. By every measure, it&#8217;s a grim topic. But Ayeye and Abudu masterfully explore it without losing an ounce of their humour and lightheartedness. They use relatable stories and personal experiences to draw their listeners in and then round off with simple steps to help move things forward.</p><p>They spice up their ability to select and navigate topics with their eye for guests. They know which guests to invite to the show, which questions to ask, and what direction to steer the conversation. Their dexterity is reminiscent of some of the greatest talk show hosts you&#8217;ll ever listen to.</p><h3>4. Incorporating video</h3><p>In 2021, ISWIS moved from Midas Radio to Eggcorn Digital, and it was at this point the team began playing with the idea of making video podcasts, but there was initial resistance.</p><p>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t think people wanted to see that. We weren&#8217;t sure what the value add would be and what the growth would look like,&#8221; Ayeye tells me. Incorporating video was a whole new ball game.</p><p>Eventually, the consensus was to experiment with one video episode and make decisions based on its performance. Like most of their other experiments, this one did well, and they haven&#8217;t looked back since.</p><p>Ayeye also confirmed that adding video to the mix helped the podcast grow exponentially. &#8220;There&#8217;s a whole new segment of our audience that doesn&#8217;t even know we have an audio podcast. They think it&#8217;s just video,&#8221; Ayeye says.</p><p>(<em><strong>Aside:</strong> She asked me to tell anyone reading this who listens to or watches the podcast to &#8216;like&#8217; it so that more people can see it. In her words, &#8220;It&#8217;s no longer fun and games.&#8221; Now, back to our regularly scheduled programme.</em>)</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><h2>How ISWIS monetises content and community</h2><p>Very rarely do podcasts make money in Africa. They are often long-running or short-lived passion projects. Or they exist as brand-building mediums, a means to a more profitable end.</p><p>ISWIS is an exception. The podcast already generates revenue from its content and the community. How?</p><h4>1. Sponsorships and collaborations</h4><p>Sponsorships and collaborations are the lowest hanging fruit for monetising content, and ISWIS has capitalised on its popularity. Because the podcast strongly appeals to young people, it&#8217;s become a major attraction for companies looking to reach that demographic.</p><p>The podcast often mentions these sponsors and their products. For example, it hosted a raffle draw from December 7th to 22nd, 2021, as part of its &#8220;12 Days of Christmas&#8221; series. Each day came with a new episode sponsored by different companies. The raffle draw winners got flight tickets, gaming consoles, vacation packages, food, shopping vouchers, and so on.</p><h4>2. Paid live events</h4><p>ISWIS leveraged its brand and community to create live versions of the podcast in three major African cities &#8212; Lagos, Abuja, and Accra. All of these events were ticketed but also sponsored.</p><p>The hosts recognised that they&#8217;d built a loyal following that could pay to see them do what do they do on their podcast physically. But beyond recording live podcasts, they also got the chance to forge deeper connections with their listeners in person.</p><p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e8cbc7a-0603-4e2e-b9b6-ce6841af327e_1080x720.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e8cbc7a-0603-4e2e-b9b6-ce6841af327e_1080x720.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e8cbc7a-0603-4e2e-b9b6-ce6841af327e_1080x720.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e8cbc7a-0603-4e2e-b9b6-ce6841af327e_1080x720.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e8cbc7a-0603-4e2e-b9b6-ce6841af327e_1080x720.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e8cbc7a-0603-4e2e-b9b6-ce6841af327e_1080x720.jpeg" width="1080" height="720" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/1e8cbc7a-0603-4e2e-b9b6-ce6841af327e_1080x720.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:720,&quot;width&quot;:1080,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:177798,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e8cbc7a-0603-4e2e-b9b6-ce6841af327e_1080x720.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e8cbc7a-0603-4e2e-b9b6-ce6841af327e_1080x720.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e8cbc7a-0603-4e2e-b9b6-ce6841af327e_1080x720.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e8cbc7a-0603-4e2e-b9b6-ce6841af327e_1080x720.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Credit: I Said What I Said</figcaption></figure></div><h4>3. Merchandising</h4><p>Everyone who&#8217;s ever attended a live ISWIS event will have seen the merch stand. By customising items like mugs, pop sockets, t-shirts, and keyrings, ISWIS creates a way for its brand to stay in its followers&#8217; hearts while generating revenue in the process.</p><h2>Looking into the future</h2><p>What does the future look like for &#8220;I Said What I Said&#8221;? Are there any plans to get acquired, or will it remain independent? There are no specific answers to these questions.</p><p>&#8220;Plan is a very strong word,&#8221; Ayeye says. &#8220;Our independence gives us many options. We&#8217;re not constrained or forced to do anything, much like artists who choose to remain independent or go corporate.&#8221;</p><p>Any talk of acquisition must be seen through the lenses of the hosts and their podcast&#8217;s relationship with the audience, the benefits of the said acquisition, and the new dynamics it&#8217;ll introduce to their operations. &#8220;Considering what we&#8217;re learning about the podcast, the options we have, how we can do things, whom we can decide to work with, it will need to make a lot of sense,&#8221; she says.</p><p>It took three years before the podcast began generating revenue, and Ayeye calls it &#8220;an honour&#8221; to be able to make money from something she enjoys.</p><p>However, if there were to be talks of an acquisition, what matters would be the options, how they&#8217;re presented, and what they allow them to do for the podcast, the community they have, and the community they&#8217;re building.</p><p></p> ]]>
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</item>
<item>
<title>
<![CDATA[ Communiqué 18: Bloomberg’s vision ]]>
</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[ Over 30 years ago, Michael Bloomberg saw something that many of us are only just realising. ]]>
</description>
<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/bloombergs-vision-nestcoin-and-breach</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/bloombergs-vision-nestcoin-and-breach</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Nov 2021 05:58:29 GMT</pubDate>
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<![CDATA[ <div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1156fdb-cd81-4d0f-83ea-47f20f2a64fd_1920x1080.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1156fdb-cd81-4d0f-83ea-47f20f2a64fd_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1156fdb-cd81-4d0f-83ea-47f20f2a64fd_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1156fdb-cd81-4d0f-83ea-47f20f2a64fd_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1156fdb-cd81-4d0f-83ea-47f20f2a64fd_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1156fdb-cd81-4d0f-83ea-47f20f2a64fd_1920x1080.png" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b1156fdb-cd81-4d0f-83ea-47f20f2a64fd_1920x1080.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2179404,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1156fdb-cd81-4d0f-83ea-47f20f2a64fd_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1156fdb-cd81-4d0f-83ea-47f20f2a64fd_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1156fdb-cd81-4d0f-83ea-47f20f2a64fd_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1156fdb-cd81-4d0f-83ea-47f20f2a64fd_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>Today, I&#8217;ll tell you a story in two parts -- the first is about an American billionaire who saw the future, and the second is about a young Nigerian code-named &#8216;Bartimaeus&#8217;.</p><h2>Part 1: Bloomberg&#8217;s vision</h2><p>In 1990, American businessman Michael Bloomberg <a href="https://medium.com/damian-radcliffe/in-conversation-with-matthew-winkler-editor-in-chief-emeritus-and-co-founder-of-bloomberg-news-61e26e14d904">approached</a> Matthew Winkler, a former journalist at the Wall Street Journal, with a proposition to help build a news service. Eight years before, Bloomberg had founded Innovative Market Systems (now Bloomberg LP), a financial analytics and data services firm for Wall Street.</p><p>A core part of the firm&#8217;s success was a computer terminal, Bloomberg Terminal, which provided financial news and information to clients. With Merrill Lynch as its first customer, the business began to blossom, but Bloomberg needed to step things up. His idea? Create a news service (or content platform) to expand the company&#8217;s reach and acquire more customers.</p><p>And so, starting with a team of six led by Winkler, Bloomberg News was born. Over 30-plus years, that team would balloon into 2,700 news professionals and analysts operating out of more than 120 offices across 70-odd countries worldwide, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. What began as a news service has morphed into a media conglomerate.</p><p>By 1995, Bloomberg&#8217;s vision to use the media service as a customer acquisition strategy was already bearing fruit. There was a direct correlation between running the news service and increased terminal sales. The plan became so successful that the goal changed. Instead of focusing primarily on boosting sales, the company decided to spin off a media service to rival Reuters and Dow Jones. <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/paystack-media-threat">Sound familiar</a>?</p><p>In 1992, Bloomberg began acquiring radio stations in New York, which now run through the Bloomberg Radio service. The strategy was to deliver news concentrated on the financial market and secure interviews with influential newsmakers, analysts, and executives. In 1994, the company launched a 24-hour TV news service, and in 1995, a magazine. It also launched a website to syndicate its radio broadcasts.</p><p>In 2011, Bloomberg LP <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/company/press/bloomberg-l-p-announces-formation-of-bloomberg-media-group-2/">officially merged</a> all its consumer media services under the Bloomberg Media Group, bringing together the operations of Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg Markets, Bloomberg.com and Bloomberg Mobile. In 2018, it ventured into consumer subscription media.</p><p>While its revenue data isn&#8217;t public, Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/bloomberg-media-consumer-subscription-revenue-34489fa9-cb19-4b17-a1fe-1ebee8d6d846.html">reports</a> that Bloomberg Media could bring in about $100 million from roughly 400,000 subscribers this year, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Ez1tfdqrMgSKl6qckImjO?si=XbOJWkmZREeXkCm_6BgRNg">even though it&#8217;s not yet profitable</a>. The terminal business <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election/2019/12/11/21005008/michael-bloomberg-terminal-net-worth-2020">is worth around $10 billion</a>, and Michael Bloomberg has a personal net worth of about $59 billion. Not bad, eh? A lot can happen in 30 years.</p><p>All of this began with Bloomberg creating a product for Wall Street that required the company to create loads of content. In the process, it saw the opportunity to spin this out into a media service that would increase sales, boost its reputation, and eventually grow into a competitive business in its rights.</p><p>Thirty years ago, Bloomberg latched onto a strategy for his company that is becoming mainstream again, especially within the tech industry.</p><h2>Part 2: Bartimaeus receives his sight</h2><p>The second part of our story brings us to Lagos, Nigeria. It&#8217;s a hot Sunday afternoon in 2018. We&#8217;re not quite sure of the date. Bartimaeus is hanging around after a church service and talking to some friends. Two of them work at a crypto startup and are trying to sign him up for their platform. But Bartimaeus doesn&#8217;t get the point of crypto. It all seems like a scam to him. Still, his friends are persistent, so he caves in. However, he doesn&#8217;t use the platform for another two years.</p><p>Fast forward to 2020. Bartimaeus is now a lot more familiar with the concept of crypto, but he still doesn&#8217;t fully understand it. He sees people talking about it on Twitter, and all he knows is that if he buys something called Bitcoin at a certain price and waits long enough, he can sell it at a higher price and make a decent profit. I should tell you that this is happening in the heat of a government-mandated, COVID-necessitated lockdown. So, he has a lot of time on his hands. His first Bitcoin sale excites him, so he tries some more. Now, it has his attention.</p><p>He begins to research what Bitcoin and crypto are. But much of what he finds he can barely understand. Some of it is digestible, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/blockchain-beyond-the-hype-what-is-the-strategic-business-value">like this article</a> from McKinsey and <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/blockchain-explained-what-it-is-and-isnt-and-why-it-matters">this podcast</a> explaining blockchain. The rest, however, flies over his head. Every attempt to understand the subject leads down a dizzying rabbit hole. Eventually, he gives up. &#8220;Maybe this thing isn&#8217;t for me,&#8221; he says.</p><p>Fast forward another year and a half later, Bartimaeus receives an offer to join <a href="https://nestcoin.com/">a startup</a> with the mission to bring financial freedom to people through crypto. It&#8217;s been four years since he first heard anything about the subject, and he has learned a lot about it within that time. However, the bulk of his learning has come with great pain. He&#8217;s heard for so long how revolutionary this concept is, but it seemed like the evangelists -- the people who swear by the deity of crypto -- don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s worth breaking down for mere humans like Bartimaeus to grasp.</p><p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe9036804-9b2e-461c-b6d6-60d50f3d232b_6720x4480.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe9036804-9b2e-461c-b6d6-60d50f3d232b_6720x4480.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe9036804-9b2e-461c-b6d6-60d50f3d232b_6720x4480.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe9036804-9b2e-461c-b6d6-60d50f3d232b_6720x4480.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe9036804-9b2e-461c-b6d6-60d50f3d232b_6720x4480.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe9036804-9b2e-461c-b6d6-60d50f3d232b_6720x4480.jpeg" width="1456" height="971" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e9036804-9b2e-461c-b6d6-60d50f3d232b_6720x4480.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:5513118,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe9036804-9b2e-461c-b6d6-60d50f3d232b_6720x4480.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe9036804-9b2e-461c-b6d6-60d50f3d232b_6720x4480.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe9036804-9b2e-461c-b6d6-60d50f3d232b_6720x4480.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe9036804-9b2e-461c-b6d6-60d50f3d232b_6720x4480.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Photo Credit: <strong><a href="https://www.pexels.com/@rodnae-prod?utm_content=attributionCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pexels">RODNAE Productions</a></strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/technology-display-business-market-8370752/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pexels">Pexels</a></strong></figcaption></figure></div><p>If crypto is so great, if it will change so many lives across the world, then why is it so hard to understand? These are the questions Bartimaeus will now have to grapple with at his new job because he knows that in answering them, he is solving problems for billions of other people like him -- creators, entrepreneurs, policymakers and regulators, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, and maybe even Martians.</p><p>Taking a cue (or several) from Bloomberg&#8217;s playbook, Bartimaeus knows how great a vehicle content can be -- first for educating and empowering people, then increasing the likelihood of adoption and sales. And that is what Bartimaeus and his team <a href="https://nestcoin.com/press/2">plan to do</a>.</p><p>Crypto is mazy. Untangling it requires just as much labour as navigation does. But by simplifying what is ordinarily complex and esoteric, it becomes easier for millions (and even billions) of other people around the world to understand and embrace it. Many years ago, Bloomberg created a path merging financial services and content. Many years later, Bartimaeus seeks to walk down that path <a href="https://breach.club/?refid=618a9ab6a67194001614be37">with a bag of crypto</a>.</p><h2>Part 3: An ongoing conclusion</h2><p>At several points in history, our understanding of money and commerce have had to be shaken. First, we did business by barter, exchanging one item for another, then we switched to coins because we needed to transact with more people in distant places. From coins, we moved to paper notes and with them came greater variety in our trade relations.</p><p>As digital technology gained ascendency, so did digital commerce and the currencies that fuel it. What commerce is today is not what it always was, and what it is today is not what it will always be. Change happened in the past, and it will happen in the future.</p><p>The thing with change, though, is that it relies heavily on information. It can only happen as quickly as people understand what was and what is to come because those are the factors that influence how fast they embrace said change and how clearly they see its benefits.</p><p>In my essay on <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/africa-creator-economy">Africa&#8217;s creator economy</a>, I mentioned in passing that crypto helps solve several problems for creators. <a href="https://nestcoin.com/">In my new day job</a>, we&#8217;re building products that span across decentralised finance, media, digital art, and gaming. All of these we tie together with the thread of simplicity. We think that if we can help more people (like me) understand what crypto is and then build easy-to-use products that meet their needs, the world will be better for it.</p><p>While Bloomberg wasn&#8217;t as bothered with simplifying finance as we are with crypto, he was particular about the value of content in creating a better-informed audience. We believe the same thing -- a world where more people have access to easy-to-understand information about crypto and easy-to-use crypto products will lead to a world where more people accept and benefit from it. Creators, regulators, entrepreneurs, and every curious soul in the universe -- no one is out of the picture. No one.</p><div><hr></div><p><em><strong>PS: </strong>A big thank you to CMQ Media&#8217;s research associate, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-akinade-84466310b/">Susan Akinade</a>, for her work with this!</em></p> ]]>
</content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>
<![CDATA[ Who will fill the talent gap? ]]>
</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[ A follow up to &#8220;Paystack&#8217;s media threat&#8221;. ]]>
</description>
<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/cmq-weekly-01-talent-gap</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/cmq-weekly-01-talent-gap</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 12 Oct 2021 06:00:27 GMT</pubDate>
<enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0290420-e16e-42bb-ae2a-2d7c4ebd3542_4008x2862.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/>
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<![CDATA[ <p>This is a weekly newsletter about the media, technology, and the digital economy in Africa. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week:</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><div><hr></div><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0290420-e16e-42bb-ae2a-2d7c4ebd3542_4008x2862.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0290420-e16e-42bb-ae2a-2d7c4ebd3542_4008x2862.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0290420-e16e-42bb-ae2a-2d7c4ebd3542_4008x2862.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0290420-e16e-42bb-ae2a-2d7c4ebd3542_4008x2862.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0290420-e16e-42bb-ae2a-2d7c4ebd3542_4008x2862.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0290420-e16e-42bb-ae2a-2d7c4ebd3542_4008x2862.jpeg" width="1456" height="1040" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/f0290420-e16e-42bb-ae2a-2d7c4ebd3542_4008x2862.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1040,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:5001025,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Man with hands in clay making vase on pottery wheel&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Man with hands in clay making vase on pottery wheel" title="Man with hands in clay making vase on pottery wheel" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0290420-e16e-42bb-ae2a-2d7c4ebd3542_4008x2862.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0290420-e16e-42bb-ae2a-2d7c4ebd3542_4008x2862.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0290420-e16e-42bb-ae2a-2d7c4ebd3542_4008x2862.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0290420-e16e-42bb-ae2a-2d7c4ebd3542_4008x2862.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Photo by <strong><a href="https://www.pexels.com/@meruyert-bissimbayeva?utm_content=attributionCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pexels">Meruyert Gonullu</a></strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-with-hands-in-clay-making-vase-on-pottery-wheel-6243368/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pexels">Pexels</a></strong></figcaption></figure></div><p></p><p>My first job out of school was in 2014 as a content marketing associate for an accounting tech startup. At the time, I wasn&#8217;t entirely sure what content marketing was or how it would evolve. But I did the job long enough to understand the importance of carefully crafted content to the digital economy.</p><p>Since then, this has been a recurring theme in all my roles -- witnessing the impact of content on user behaviour. Content marketing is not a new concept (we&#8217;ll talk more about this in the coming weeks). But there is a renewed appreciation for its role in shaping marketing strategy, especially within the technology industry.</p><p>Since I published &#8220;<a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/paystack-media-threat">Paystack&#8217;s media threat</a>&#8221; three months ago, I&#8217;ve had several conversations that make it more apparent how tech entrepreneurs are thinking about content as an effective brand building and customer acquisition tool.</p><p>In that essay, I wrote:</p><blockquote><p>&#8220;Globally, more companies are <strong>waking up to the potency of content marketing</strong>. Attention is a zero-sum game, and you have to capture it to sell your products and services. In the past, companies went through the media to get to their customers within an audience because they didn&#8217;t have options. Now, they do. Now, <strong>they can go directly via the Internet</strong> and build their own <strong>vehicles of influence</strong> driven by editorially savvy hands and minds.&#8221;</p></blockquote><p>For these execs and their companies, content is an efficient way to show potential users the problems their products or services can solve. But beyond that, it&#8217;s also a way to create affinity and set themselves apart from the crowd.</p><p>In recent months, Paystack poached <a href="https://uk.linkedin.com/in/ope-adedeji-7a680712a">Ope Adedeji</a>, Zikoko&#8217;s former managing editor. PiggyVest snapped up <a href="https://ng.linkedin.com/in/daniel-orubo-a5b104a9">Daniel Orubo</a>, Zikoko&#8217;s former editor-in-chief. Brass put out <a href="https://brassbanking.notion.site/Editor-In-Chief-9104b55eb64b40c7a9f8c1109a857eba">a vacancy</a> for an Editor-in-Chief. And many other startups are gearing to fill this role.&nbsp;</p><p>You may be asking, why two top talents from Zikoko? I wrote about that <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/how-zikoko-taps-into-youth-culture">here</a>.</p><p>Several other conversations are happening in the background that indicate the increased appreciation for content marketing and its long-term impact.</p><p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1a23c5b-28bb-4e02-9222-300d9690905e_828x664.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1a23c5b-28bb-4e02-9222-300d9690905e_828x664.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1a23c5b-28bb-4e02-9222-300d9690905e_828x664.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1a23c5b-28bb-4e02-9222-300d9690905e_828x664.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1a23c5b-28bb-4e02-9222-300d9690905e_828x664.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1a23c5b-28bb-4e02-9222-300d9690905e_828x664.jpeg" width="412" height="330.3961352657005" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b1a23c5b-28bb-4e02-9222-300d9690905e_828x664.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:664,&quot;width&quot;:828,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:412,&quot;bytes&quot;:246050,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1a23c5b-28bb-4e02-9222-300d9690905e_828x664.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1a23c5b-28bb-4e02-9222-300d9690905e_828x664.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1a23c5b-28bb-4e02-9222-300d9690905e_828x664.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1a23c5b-28bb-4e02-9222-300d9690905e_828x664.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>In all this, one thing is clear to me. Beyond poaching top-level talent from established media outlets, these companies are also looking for a particular set of skills that are sadly not in abundance.</p><p>Instead, companies are looking for candidates with a thorough understanding of:</p><ul><li><p>The content creation process</p></li><li><p>The role of content within a business ecosystem and how content directly impacts business objectives&nbsp;</p></li><li><p>The skills required to solve customer problems&nbsp;</p></li></ul><p>This role requires a high-level understanding of the relationship between content and business objectives and the dexterity to build an internal content engine that drives the company towards those objectives. This is beyond knowing how to write, shoot videos, or record podcasts. All of those are important, but they are more readily available skills than those I mentioned before.</p><p>This scarcity of high-level content marketing talent poses a challenge and presents an opportunity. But there are no easy ways around it. No straight-and-narrow solutions. However, the mere identification of this talent gap is a good first step. Who will step in to fill the void?</p><h2>Additional resources</h2><p><a href="https://sleeplessauthor.medium.com/what-is-new-media-and-why-should-you-care-81725e18adcb">What is new media, and why should you care?</a></p><p><a href="https://medium.com/matter/buzzfeeds-jonah-peretti-goes-long-e98cf13160e7">Buzzfeed&#8217;s Jonah Peretti goes long</a></p><p><a href="https://medium.com/@rafat/digital-media-what-really-went-wrong-536fe8dd7a3b">Digital media: What really went wrong in 2018</a></p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/Sk3iT7gFCHI">How I built my career in content and communications</a></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jab-Right-Hook-Story-Social/dp/006227306X">Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World</a></p><p><a href="https://zapier.com/blog/content-marketing-strategy/">How to create and write a content marketing strategy (with template)</a></p> ]]>
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<title>
<![CDATA[ Communiqué 14: Stears' lemonade machine and Netflix's $3 beer ]]>
</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[ Stears makes a pivot. Netflix finally drinks Nigerian beer. ]]>
</description>
<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/on-stears-and-netflix</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/on-stears-and-netflix</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Aug 2021 06:00:37 GMT</pubDate>
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<![CDATA[ <p>One of <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/communique-07-the-2021-manifesto">the biggest challenges</a> of analysing the media ecosystem in Africa is that there aren&#8217;t too many innovative media companies to write about.</p><p>Don&#8217;t get me wrong. Several media companies do great work, but only a tiny subset is innovative and forward-thinking. Only a tiny subset pushes the envelope with technology, business models, content formats, community building, engineering, etc.</p><p>I&#8217;ve written about some in the past. I <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/paystack-media-threat">wrote about Paystack</a>, a fintech company, executing its content marketing strategy using a media playbook in the last newsletter. <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/communique-12-the-subscription-playbook">In Communiqu&#233; 12</a>, I talked about Daily Nation, Kenya&#8217;s largest newspaper, examined Multichoice&#8217;s subscription strategy, and highlighted Daily Maverick&#8217;s membership model. <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/communique-02-the-cost-of-good-journalism">In Communiqu&#233; 02</a>, I touched on Premium Times&#8217; decision to integrate crowdfunding into its community-building efforts. Last year, <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/communique-01-stearss-600k-war-chest">in this newsletter&#8217;s maiden edition</a>, I looked at Stears&#8217; decision to go subscription-first and build data analysis and research services.</p><p>Coincidentally, Stears is the first subject of today&#8217;s newsletter.</p><h2>Part 1: Stears&#8217;s lemonade machine</h2><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff60f068c-f86b-451d-a261-e061e4159c5f_1920x1080.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff60f068c-f86b-451d-a261-e061e4159c5f_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff60f068c-f86b-451d-a261-e061e4159c5f_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff60f068c-f86b-451d-a261-e061e4159c5f_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff60f068c-f86b-451d-a261-e061e4159c5f_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff60f068c-f86b-451d-a261-e061e4159c5f_1920x1080.png" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/f60f068c-f86b-451d-a261-e061e4159c5f_1920x1080.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:886768,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff60f068c-f86b-451d-a261-e061e4159c5f_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff60f068c-f86b-451d-a261-e061e4159c5f_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff60f068c-f86b-451d-a261-e061e4159c5f_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff60f068c-f86b-451d-a261-e061e4159c5f_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p>In <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/communique-01-stearss-600k-war-chest">&#8216;Stears&#8217; $600k war chest</a>&#8217;, I wrote about the company&#8217;s strategy after raising (and announcing) $600,000 in venture capital:</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;By choosing not to move with the status quo and [playing] the traditional game of reach and quantity, Stears avoids fighting in a crowded arena. However, it also deprives itself of the media industry&#8217;s biggest revenue source, advertising. In Nigeria, advertisers are attracted to page views, and page views are stimulated not only by content quality but by quantity.</em></p><p><em>To make up for this, Stears is challenging on another similarly competitive stage, but one with potentially higher returns &#8211; research and data analysis.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><p>I was right about two things:</p><ol><li><p>Stears avoids the ruckus that comes with serving a mass audience by shifting from the reach strategy. However, that also means it won&#8217;t eat from the advertising cake, which remains the largest revenue source for the media in Africa.</p></li><li><p>Stears&#8217; focus on research and data analysis puts it in another equally challenging arena with potentially more significant upsides.</p></li></ol><p>However, what I was oblivious to is one of the most crucial factors for understanding what Stears is and what it can be.</p><p>Stears is <em>not</em> a media company. (Another way to put it is, Stears is not <em>just</em> a media company.) Instead, it is a technology company that provides products and services, including a media publication (Stears Business) and a research and data analysis service (Stears Data).</p><p>Why am I bringing this up now? July 28, 2021, made it exactly one year since the company put its content behind a paywall, an audacious move in this market. You don&#8217;t need a genie to tell you how challenging it has been. Here&#8217;s what Preston Ideh, the company&#8217;s CEO, <a href="https://www.stearsng.com/article/stears-premium-at-1-subscription-experiences-and-a-pivot">has to say</a> about the experience so far:</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;It has been 365 days since we launched our paywall, and there has been no shortage of worry, anxiety and existential concern&#8230; Admittedly, when we launched, we knew very little about what it took to build a successful subscription business. We had no idea we would be fighting so many fires. All we knew was that we were newly minted with venture capital funding, and it was time to disrupt the media industry&#8230; Since then, we have learnt a few things. Even now, the more we learn, the more we know we must learn.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><p>As difficult as it can be to build a subscription-first media product in this market where very few others are doing it, some benefits make the venture worthwhile with the right conditions. One of these benefits is the invaluable experience that opens your eyes to other problems you can solve with new products and services. This can only happen if you have the right people on your team and genuinely understand your business model. As Ben Thompson <a href="https://stratechery.com/2021/pandemic-progress/">said</a>, understanding business models is one of the most reliable ways to understand the behaviour of organisations.</p><h2>When life gives you lemons, build lemonade machines</h2><p>In <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/communique-12-the-subscription-playbook">&#8216;The subscription playbook&#8217;</a>, I highlight the major challenges of running a subscription business in Africa. The most prominent is the harsh economic realities that squeeze market size. (Simply put, most people are poor and can&#8217;t afford to pay subscription fees.) Then I wrote about unfavourable audience behaviour, shortage of talent, competition from free social media services, and the inadequate payment infrastructure. All of these tell part of the story, but there&#8217;s more.</p><p>Even within the parochial market for subscription services, both the audience willing to pay subscription fees and the platforms that provide such services face infrastructural limitations. Understanding these limitations and seeing where you can potentially alleviate the situation is the textbook definition of innovation. But, how many media companies think to do this in Africa? You know the answer.</p><p>For Stears, the challenge lies in getting creative with subscription offerings and reader experience. There are technical problems with subscription management that are, in some ways, unique to African publishers, mainly because it is a nascent concept on the continent and the talent and resources needed to solve them are not readily available. Subscription management requires an incredible amount of engineering investment that most media companies can either not afford or be bothered to make.</p><p>Here&#8217;s how Ideh explains the problem:</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;This infrastructure hurdle [to providing subscription products] can make or break publishers. It might seem negligible when you have only a few subscribers. But at scale, it can become a nightmare.</em></p><p><em>It gets even more complex when African publishers want to be creative with their reader experiences. For instance, how do you efficiently nudge readers to go from a free trial to a premium plan like the Economist does it? How do you reset your discounted offer from $1 to $20 a month at the end of a promo period the way Bloomberg does? Behind the scenes (and you can ask my team if you do not believe me), it requires engineering power that most media businesses do not have.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><p>This is what differentiates Stears from many other companies, and this is why it is crucial to think about it as more than <em>just </em>a media company.</p><p>Operating as a tech company allows Stears to perceive technical or structural difficulties as business gaps it can bridge with products or services. You can see this positioning as a tech company in its<a href="https://medium.com/@StearsNg/working-in-product-analytics-or-engineering-at-stears-710b02aa0325"> hiring patterns</a> and team structure. And, perhaps, you can tell its positioning as a tech company through its decision to capitalise on the culture of announcing funding rounds.</p><p>Knowing this, it makes sense when its CEO announces that the company will receive a grant from the <a href="https://newsinitiative.withgoogle.com/intl/en_gb/innovation-challenges/how-to-apply/mea/">Google News Initiative</a> to build a subscription management service to cure some of the headaches that African publishers face (and will face) as they develop their own subscription products.</p><p>The brilliant thing, though, is that this problem of subscription management isn&#8217;t limited to publishers alone. There is an entire market for it outside of the media.</p><p>Inspired by the success stories of Chargebee, an Indian subscription management platform <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/chargebee-is-indias-11th-unicorn-raises-125-million/articleshow/82169175.cms">worth $1.4 billion</a>, and Zuora, which generates over $300 million in annual revenue, Stears is starting where the shoe pinches and gradually expanding from there.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><h2>Part 2: Netflix&#8217;s $3 beer</h2><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe3315683-b8f2-4cd6-bfd7-0f2dfe5357a8_1920x1080.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe3315683-b8f2-4cd6-bfd7-0f2dfe5357a8_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe3315683-b8f2-4cd6-bfd7-0f2dfe5357a8_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe3315683-b8f2-4cd6-bfd7-0f2dfe5357a8_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe3315683-b8f2-4cd6-bfd7-0f2dfe5357a8_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe3315683-b8f2-4cd6-bfd7-0f2dfe5357a8_1920x1080.png" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e3315683-b8f2-4cd6-bfd7-0f2dfe5357a8_1920x1080.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:571973,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe3315683-b8f2-4cd6-bfd7-0f2dfe5357a8_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe3315683-b8f2-4cd6-bfd7-0f2dfe5357a8_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe3315683-b8f2-4cd6-bfd7-0f2dfe5357a8_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe3315683-b8f2-4cd6-bfd7-0f2dfe5357a8_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p>In <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/communique-03-netflix-walks-into">&#8216;Netflix walks into a Nigerian bar&#8217;</a>, I wrote about the company&#8217;s strategy for the Nigerian (and African) market:</p><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;Beyond content aggregation and licensing, Netflix is now investing in originals, which brings us to our main point. The goal is not necessarily to grow subscribers here, at least not primarily. It is to expand its content bank with Nigerian content for a global audience. In other words, exposing Nigerian and African content to its more lucrative and potentially lucrative markets. It&#8217;s less about African stories for an African audience. There&#8217;s very little to indicate that Netflix thinks investing in Nigerian content will mushroom its subscriber base here. What&#8217;s more likely is that it will leverage Nigeria&#8217;s cultural influence to attract more eyeballs from around the world.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote><p>It&#8217;s been over a year, and things have changed. By the end of 2020, <a href="https://www.digitaltvresearch.com/ugc/Africa%20OTT%20TV%20and%20Video%20Forecasts%202021%20TOC_toc_306.pdf">Netflix had over 1.9 million subscribers</a> across the continent, up from 1.4 million in Q1 2020 and capturing roughly 57% of the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) market. (Showmax comes second with just over 660,000 subscribers.)</p><p>Initially, the goal was to test the waters and see where the ripples undulate to. Since it fully launched in Africa, Netflix has invested more in local content and has seen enough potential in the market to encourage deeper exploration. It is buoyed by the varying degrees of success of movies and shows like Atlantics (distribution deal), Citation, Namaste Wahala, Blood &amp; Water, <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/who-owns-the-story">&#210;l&#242;t&#363;r&#233;</a>, and Queen Sono (now cancelled because of COVID).</p><p>Last month, it introduced a Mobile Plan across Africa that it had been testing for several months. The plan caters to the continent&#8217;s mobile-first audience and feeds into prevalent user behaviour.</p><p>Due to the high cost of data and Internet service limitations, people are more likely to download content to their phones before watching. But even downloading content often takes time because Internet speed can be frustrating. So, Netflix is adapting its offerings by creating a mobile-only plan that addresses those problems.</p><p>In Nigeria, the plan costs N1,200 (roughly $2.92). In Kenya, it costs KES300. In South Africa, it&#8217;s 49 Rand. In other African countries, it will cost the local equivalent of $3.99. The introduction of this plan also indicates Netflix is going punch-for-punch with Showmax (Multichoice&#8217;s SVOD property), which also has a mobile plan for that price.</p><p>In addition to the new pricing, Netflix has also introduced Partial Play Download (globally). This feature allows users to start watching a video before it&#8217;s done downloading. However, it is only available to Android users for now, and they make up over 83% of the mobile operating system market in Africa. In comparison, iOS has just over 14% of the market share.</p><p>By all indications, Netflix is going mass-market.</p><h2>I get Netflix. You get Netflix. We all get Netflix</h2><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0c80092-5638-4adf-b455-ced5a9bcc259_406x276.gif" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0c80092-5638-4adf-b455-ced5a9bcc259_406x276.gif 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0c80092-5638-4adf-b455-ced5a9bcc259_406x276.gif 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0c80092-5638-4adf-b455-ced5a9bcc259_406x276.gif 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0c80092-5638-4adf-b455-ced5a9bcc259_406x276.gif 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0c80092-5638-4adf-b455-ced5a9bcc259_406x276.gif" width="406" height="276" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/f0c80092-5638-4adf-b455-ced5a9bcc259_406x276.gif&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:276,&quot;width&quot;:406,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:627032,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/gif&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0c80092-5638-4adf-b455-ced5a9bcc259_406x276.gif 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0c80092-5638-4adf-b455-ced5a9bcc259_406x276.gif 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0c80092-5638-4adf-b455-ced5a9bcc259_406x276.gif 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0c80092-5638-4adf-b455-ced5a9bcc259_406x276.gif 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Netflix needs to grow, and it needs to do so at zero to low marginal cost. It is betting on a future where SVOD is the primary way through which we consume video content. To get there, it needs to be in as many markets as possible. It also genuinely needs to adapt and compete in those markets. This Mobile Plan (or $3 beer) is proof that it&#8217;s ready to do whatever it needs to do to grow.</p><p>So, Netflix isn&#8217;t waiting for people&#8217;s pockets to get bigger. Instead, it has figured out what&#8217;s in those pockets and aims to get a share of it at a reasonable price. This leads us back to a point I made in <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/can-podcasts-scale-in-africa">Communiqu&#233; 09</a> &#8211; to scale a product or service in unfavourable and uncharted terrains, you must meet people where they are. Netflix has studied its users&#8217; behavioural tendencies, and it is adapting to serve them.</p><p>&nbsp;Last year, it walked into the bar. This year, it is ready to sit and drink with us. Cheers, everyone!</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><h2>One more thing&#8230; </h2><p>I&#8217;ve been writing Communiqu&#233; for over a year now, and each edition requires hours (sometimes days and weeks) of research, thinking, writing, editing, and design. So, if you find the insight that I provide valuable, please do me a favour: like the post and share it directly with at least two people you think will love it.</p><p>Also, if you like the quality of work that goes into the newsletter, I offer the <a href="https://www.davidadeleke.com/">same quality of writing, research, and consulting services</a> to corporate clients. Reach out to me and let's talk.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.davidadeleke.com/contact&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Contact me&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.davidadeleke.com/contact"><span>Contact me</span></a></p><p><em><strong>PS:</strong> As always, thank you to my editor <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-efagwu-6a45671bb/">Jane</a>, and my friends <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/olabinjo/">Binjo Adeniran</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/akachi-ogbonna/?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAACsy9oYBey5m-mGXs4_madMCMO5DGgNdbW0">Akachi Ogbonna</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lanaire-a-88a080b0/">Lanaire Aderemi</a> for helping me edit and refine this essay.</em></p> ]]>
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</item>
<item>
<title>
<![CDATA[ Communiqué 12: The subscription playbook ]]>
</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[ How to think about subscriptions and direct audience monetisation models in Africa. ]]>
</description>
<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/communique-12-the-subscription-playbook</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/communique-12-the-subscription-playbook</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2021 06:00:06 GMT</pubDate>
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<![CDATA[ <p>A quick one before you go ahead: I&#8217;m going back to the old newsletter format and sending the essay directly to your inbox. After a few runs, I found that the new format wasn&#8217;t working.</p><p>Back to our regularly scheduled programme.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><div><hr></div><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41a55457-7a4a-4e69-97ea-c6b92bc8b57c_1920x1080.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41a55457-7a4a-4e69-97ea-c6b92bc8b57c_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41a55457-7a4a-4e69-97ea-c6b92bc8b57c_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41a55457-7a4a-4e69-97ea-c6b92bc8b57c_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41a55457-7a4a-4e69-97ea-c6b92bc8b57c_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41a55457-7a4a-4e69-97ea-c6b92bc8b57c_1920x1080.png" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/41a55457-7a4a-4e69-97ea-c6b92bc8b57c_1920x1080.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2052289,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41a55457-7a4a-4e69-97ea-c6b92bc8b57c_1920x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41a55457-7a4a-4e69-97ea-c6b92bc8b57c_1920x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41a55457-7a4a-4e69-97ea-c6b92bc8b57c_1920x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41a55457-7a4a-4e69-97ea-c6b92bc8b57c_1920x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Are you familiar with the concept of &#8216;Economic rent&#8217;? The odds are, if you live in an African country, you are a victim of it, whether or not you know it exists.</p><p>Economic rent is a phenomenon that deforms economies, creating a situation where most of a country&#8217;s revenue comes from mining and exporting its natural resources. This revenue is mainly available to those in political power. It allows them to make decisions with minimal input from the people.</p><p>In extreme cases, they amend constitutions, rig elections, and create policies without caring about the repercussions. They often get away with this because there&#8217;s not much they need the people for economically. Our taxes are pretty much nice-to-haves. That is until revenue from the natural resources begins to dry up.</p><p>Whenever I think about &#8216;economic rent&#8217;, I cannot shake off the similarities between these nation-states and advertising-fueled media. For many years, journalism has happily piggybacked off advertising to survive and, in some cases, thrive. All print publications had to do was distribute as many copies as possible and sell those figures to advertisers, while television and radio took this formula and amped it up. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-waves-digital-publishing-nigeria-david-i-adeleke">Blogs and digital publishers came along</a> and adopted the same formula: more eyeballs = more money from advertisers.</p><p>However, those golden years are in the rearview with increased competition for our attention. One person&#8217;s social media account can be just as far-reaching and impactful as an established organisation. Still, this does not mean that the media no longer has any impact on our lives. It only means they must adapt, something that a few forward-thinkers in the industry are doing already.</p><p>In January 2021, Daily Nation, Kenya&#8217;s largest newspaper, <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/01/daily-nation-the-largest-newspaper-in-kenya-adopts-a-paywall-and-predicts-more-african-owned-publications-will-too/">announced</a> its decision to put up a paywall. No longer would its content be perpetually free-to-read. Readers would now pay $2.99 monthly or $16.99 annually to read articles older than seven days and access the paper&#8217;s archives, games, and exclusive newsletters. Mutuma Mathiu, Nation Media Group's Editorial Director, <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/blogs-opinion/opinion/no-free-lunch-no-free-content--3272564">explained</a> the rationale for this decision (emphasis mine):</p><blockquote><p>&#8220;Traditionally, people have been happy with someone selling their eyeballs in exchange for content. So you watched the ads on TV or viewed them in a newspaper, somebody paid the newspaper company and thereby subsidised the content.</p><p><strong>The trouble is that people are spending more time on their phones</strong> than they do on TV or newspapers. They want to catch up with the news on those devices and <strong>they do not necessarily want to be bothered with advertising</strong>.&#8221;</p></blockquote><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><h2>The case for subscriptions</h2><p>There are two conflicting realities to consider. The first is that advertising remains a more attractive proposition and a relatively easier business model to run than all its alternatives. The second is that, as Mathiu highlighted, advertising is increasingly becoming an inconvenience to the audience.</p><p>So, it now matters more than ever where and how people experience ads, and digital publications are hardly the best purveyors. (People want to read or watch your content, but they don&#8217;t really want to see ads. They can do that elsewhere. Ask any media company to show you the ratio of engagement for organic vs sponsored content, and you will get the gist, that is, if they even have actual figures to show you.)</p><p>These realities underlie Daily Nation&#8217;s decision to put up a paywall and will further influence media operations and strategy in the future. So, the challenge here is how the media can capture more value directly from its audience without relying so much on advertising revenue. For now, the subscription model is many people&#8217;s answer to the question.</p><p>With 7.8 million subscribers, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/business/media/nyt-new-york-times-earnings-q1-2021.html">the New York Times</a> is the global exemplar. Its subscription business has snowballed in the last decade, setting it on course for its target of 10 million by 2025.</p><p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F900fb80b-608e-4557-87f0-e5c263bf1f0e_827x684.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F900fb80b-608e-4557-87f0-e5c263bf1f0e_827x684.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F900fb80b-608e-4557-87f0-e5c263bf1f0e_827x684.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F900fb80b-608e-4557-87f0-e5c263bf1f0e_827x684.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F900fb80b-608e-4557-87f0-e5c263bf1f0e_827x684.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F900fb80b-608e-4557-87f0-e5c263bf1f0e_827x684.jpeg" width="827" height="684" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/900fb80b-608e-4557-87f0-e5c263bf1f0e_827x684.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:684,&quot;width&quot;:827,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:65170,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F900fb80b-608e-4557-87f0-e5c263bf1f0e_827x684.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F900fb80b-608e-4557-87f0-e5c263bf1f0e_827x684.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F900fb80b-608e-4557-87f0-e5c263bf1f0e_827x684.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F900fb80b-608e-4557-87f0-e5c263bf1f0e_827x684.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p>In Africa, Daily Nation sits on a scanty list of platforms and publishers thinking like this. Here, subscription barely comes up in conversations, mainly because economic realities don&#8217;t encourage it.</p><h2>What is it like running a subscription business in Africa?</h2><p>It is easier for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than it is to build a subscription business in Africa. Moreso with media products or services.</p><p>By asking your audience to pay for content, you are competing with the necessities of life &#8211; food, shelter, health, leisure, etc. It&#8217;s tough when most people don&#8217;t have substantial disposable income. What&#8217;s more? The number of people who do is paltry. So, advertising remains the lifeblood of most media companies.</p><p>However, the companies that rely on advertising, like the resource-rich nation-states, are likely more concerned with pleasing their sponsors than optimising for their audience. (This is not always the case, but it often is.) It shows in the quality and quantity of what they produce. It is even more pronounced with increased competition from look-alike platforms, blogs, and social media handles that require little to nothing in overhead cost. They all try to outdo each other and pull in as many eyeballs as possible, sometimes at the expense of truth, integrity, and quality.</p><p>Running a model that forces you to care what your audience thinks of you and the content you serve them is a more challenging proposition than catering to advertisers. It&#8217;s even more difficult when the audience is used to consuming content for free.</p><p>So, in the bid to capture more economic value directly from the market, it is not enough to put up paywalls and ask for money. There have to be good enough reasons for people to part with their cash for as long as you want them to. Providing content that is worth paying for is not enough.</p><h2>The challenges of the subscription model in Africa</h2><p>I must emphasise here that the real challenge for the media is figuring out how to become less reliant on the steroid that is advertising revenue. And, as I already mentioned, the subscription model is how many are thinking about solving this problem.</p><p>Running a subscription-based business in Africa means you have to deal with the following issues:</p><ol><li><p>An audience that is not used to paying for content and would rather not pay for it. People who don&#8217;t want to pay for content will always find ways to game the system.</p></li><li><p>A shortage of talent to create content worth paying for. Anyone with enough expertise to create content worth paying for about an industry/niche is likely already working in that industry and earning a lot more than media can offer.</p></li><li><p>The payment infrastructure challenge. It is still difficult to charge for subscriptions in foreign currency and collect payments recurrently because of how nascent the market is.</p></li><li><p>Competition for value. Even if your content were valuable and worth paying for, to what degree? A service is only as beneficial as its alternatives. If your product is information (in whatever form and variation), multiple operators and industry experts already give away free content online to build their social capital, and you must compete with them.</p></li></ol><p>While these issues are not unique to Africa, they are some of the hurdles anyone operating a subscription business will face now or in the future. So, here they are in summary:</p><ol><li><p>Audience&#8217;s unwillingness to pay for content.</p></li><li><p>Talent scarcity.</p></li><li><p>Inadequate payment infrastructure.</p></li><li><p>Competition for value.</p></li></ol><p>So, knowing these, how do you do good business despite them?</p><h2>How do you solve a problem like subscriptions?</h2><p>While writing this essay, one of the people I spoke to is Preston Ideh, the CEO of Stears, a technology company that provides data services and runs a subscription publication, Stears Business. (<a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/communique-01-stearss-600k-war-chest">Stears Business was the subject of my first newsletter.</a>)</p><p>When I asked him which companies he considered successful with the subscription model in Africa, he replied, &#8220;It is hard to define what success is. Subscription figures are not enough. You have to consider average revenue per user (ARPU). Net subscription growth is also important to track. If user churn is high, then that&#8217;s a big problem.&#8221;</p><p>To buttress that last point, he mentioned how certain players use strategic decisions to retain users. He talked about how Multichoice, the subject of my subsequent analysis, spaces out its flagship programmes to keep users and attract new ones. Shows like <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/big-brother-super-bowl">Big Brother Naija</a>, for example, air during the football off-season when users would be less likely to renew their subscriptions.</p><p>While it may be difficult to define success, we can&#8217;t talk conclusively about the subscription model in Africa without referencing Multichoice. It is the most prominent player in the game and arguably the most durable. Since 1995, it has been charging subscription fees through DStv, its direct-to-home digital pay-TV service.</p><p><a href="https://www.multichoice.com/companies-brands/">Multichoice</a> has close to 21 million subscribers to its services (DStv, GOtv, Showmax, etc.) across 50 markets and $3.9 billion (53.4 billion Rand) in revenue. No other content provider comes close. South Africa is its primary market (with 43% of its subscribers) and the most lucrative (<a href="https://investors.multichoice.com/pdf/annual-results/FY21/mcg-fy21-results-booklet.pdf">generating over one-third of its revenue</a>).</p><p>Beyond providing content that people are willing to pay for, Multichoice understands the market in ways that many other content providers don&#8217;t. Its success offers a template we can apply to any media subscription business in this market.</p><h2>The Multichoice template</h2><ol><li><p>Adaptability.</p></li><li><p>Tiering.</p></li><li><p>Categorisation.</p></li><li><p>Differentiation.</p></li><li><p>Appeal.</p></li><li><p>Community.&nbsp;</p></li></ol><p></p><h4><strong>1. Adaptability</strong></h4><p>Multichoice&#8217;s ability to adapt to any market's economic and technological climate is one of its biggest strengths. For example, while Netflix poses a threat to its existence, Multichoice still has the edge over it for the simple reason that, as things stand, not as many people can afford a Netflix subscription on the continent.</p><p>The rising smartphone and Internet penetration rates aren&#8217;t commensurate with income levels. Then there are the hurdles of high data prices, limited mobile phone capacity, and unfavourable user behaviour, all of which I <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/can-podcasts-scale-in-africa">explain here</a>.</p><p>By crashing the price of its decoders and tiering its offerings, Multichoice continues to grow in this market based on its understanding of what works and what doesn&#8217;t. This brings us to the next point.</p><h4><strong>2. Tiering</strong></h4><p>Multichoice understands the complexity of the market, and its prices reflect that. There&#8217;s a package for everyone. It operates two different satellite TV services for different market tiers: DStv for the middle to the upper tier and GOtv for the lower tier.</p><p>Within both services are different packages. DStv packages range from $3.7 to $36.8 monthly ($1 = &#8358;500, parallel market rate). GOtv packages range from $3.28 to $7.2 monthly. No matter what your income level is, there is a Multichoice package for you.</p><h4><strong>3. Categorisation</strong></h4><p>Multichoice understands that when people subscribe, they often do so for specific content categories. No one subscribes because they want to watch everything.</p><p>This understanding reflects in the way it categorises its content and determines package prices. The higher the cost of content acquisition, the higher the price of the category that content falls under.</p><p>For example, the cheapest DStv package covers locally produced movies and TV shows, music, and telenovelas. If you want to watch the English Premier League (which <a href="https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/premier-league-supersport-south-africa-2025-tv-rights-deal-extension">costs hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire</a>), you have to subscribe to the higher packages.</p><h4><strong>4. Differentiation</strong></h4><p>Multichoice invests heavily in differentiated content to a degree of exclusivity. You can&#8217;t access most of its flagship programmes anywhere else &#8211; the English Premier League, La Liga, WWE events, Big Brother Naija, etc., as long as you&#8217;re within the regions it operates.</p><h4><strong>5. Appeal</strong></h4><p>The content Multichoice offers is not just exclusive, it is appealing. Think about the English Premier League, La Liga, the movies and shows on Africa Magic, Telemundo, Zee World, and the grand appeal of reality TV shows like Big Brother Naija.</p><p>Multichoice knows what different segments of the market want and goes to great lengths to provide it. This, of course, includes burning through loads of cash, something not everyone can do.</p><h4><strong>6. Community</strong></h4><p>This is one thing Multichoice has learned over the years that many content providers seem not to grasp: the power of community. There is no high-performing programme or channel on Multichoice&#8217;s platforms that does not tap into the power of community &#8211; sports, music, competition, drama, etc.</p><p>These communities are so potent that they continue to draw in more people, and conversations around them extend beyond Multichoice&#8217;s native platforms. (I talked about this briefly in <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/big-brother-super-bowl">the last newsletter</a>.)</p><h2>Conclusion</h2><p>Until now, we have looked at the market as it is and not as it can be. The rationale of the subscription model is simple: to get an audience to pay for content. We&#8217;ve seen how Multichoice does this and what we can learn from it. But there&#8217;s another element to consider. In a market like ours that is low-income and heavily utilitarian, content is not enough. Multichoice&#8217;s success is not the norm, it is an anomaly.</p><p>As long as income levels remain where they are, most people will be unmotivated to pay for content except in extraordinary circumstances. However, if there are additional offerings that make paying a fee worth it, then we will see the tides rising. So, it is less about content value and more about subscription benefits.</p><p>South African publication, <a href="https://thefix.media/2020/01/22/membership-models-in-emerging-markets-the-case-of-south-africa/">Daily Maverick, understands this dynamic well</a>. In late 2018, it launched a 200 Rand-per-month ($14.73) membership model, which now has over 8,000 members. Its content remains free-to-read, but the membership option takes things up a notch. It eliminates ads and gives access to discounted event tickets, members-only webinars with Daily Maverick journalists and editors, the ability to comment on articles, and exclusive newsletters. It also offers members Uber Eats and Uber ride vouchers.</p><p>While this may not be ideal, it still shows what is possible when the media is willing to move beyond advertising dependency and think more creatively about making money.</p><h2>One more thing&#8230;&nbsp;</h2><p>I&#8217;ve been writing Communiqu&#233; for over a year now, and each edition requires hours (sometimes days and weeks) of research, thinking, writing, editing, and design. So, if you find the insight that I provide valuable, please do me a favour: like the post and share it directly with at least two people you think will love it.</p><p>Also, if you like the quality of work that goes into the newsletter, I offer the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.davidadeleke.com/">same quality of writing, research, and consulting services</a>&nbsp;to corporate clients. Reach out to me and let's talk.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.davidadeleke.com/contact&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Contact me&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.davidadeleke.com/contact"><span>Contact me</span></a></p><p><em><strong>Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this, please like the post and share it with your friends. If you haven&#8217;t already, please subscribe:</strong></em></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p> ]]>
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<title>
<![CDATA[ Communiqué 11: What do Big Brother Naija and the Super Bowl have in common? ]]>
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<![CDATA[ It may appear absurd to compare it to the Super Bowl. However, a game show that receives 915 million votes from an audience of 309 million during a global pandemic is worth paying attention to. ]]>
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<link>https://www.readcommunique.com/p/big-brother-super-bowl</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.readcommunique.com/p/big-brother-super-bowl</guid>
<dc:creator>
<![CDATA[ David I. Adeleke ]]>
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<pubDate>Mon, 03 May 2021 22:43:15 GMT</pubDate>
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<![CDATA[ <div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F49b80da2-f8e8-496e-a83c-56694dc8cd3d_2880x1620.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F49b80da2-f8e8-496e-a83c-56694dc8cd3d_2880x1620.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F49b80da2-f8e8-496e-a83c-56694dc8cd3d_2880x1620.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F49b80da2-f8e8-496e-a83c-56694dc8cd3d_2880x1620.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F49b80da2-f8e8-496e-a83c-56694dc8cd3d_2880x1620.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F49b80da2-f8e8-496e-a83c-56694dc8cd3d_2880x1620.png" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/49b80da2-f8e8-496e-a83c-56694dc8cd3d_2880x1620.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2067971,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F49b80da2-f8e8-496e-a83c-56694dc8cd3d_2880x1620.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F49b80da2-f8e8-496e-a83c-56694dc8cd3d_2880x1620.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F49b80da2-f8e8-496e-a83c-56694dc8cd3d_2880x1620.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F49b80da2-f8e8-496e-a83c-56694dc8cd3d_2880x1620.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Big Brother Naija (BBN), Nigeria's version of the Dutch reality TV competition franchise, will hold auditions for its sixth season from May 3 to 16, 2021. Last season was huge, and this season has every chance to be even bigger. The winner will earn N5 million more in prizes than last year&#8217;s winner (bringing the prize up to N90 million).</p><p>I watched the show religiously for the first time in 2020, and I could see why it has legions of fans. For months, it dominated social media conversations, garnering over 1 billion impressions on Twitter and Facebook. Big Brother Naija is prime television. Besides religion and politics, nothing else drives engagement and conversations like it.</p><p>On the surface, it may appear absurd to compare it to the Super Bowl, the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL) and the most-watched television event in the United States. However, when a game show receives 915 million votes from an audience of 309 million (according to DSTV Media Sales figures) spread across the continent during a global pandemic and an impending economic recession, it is worth paying attention to.</p><p>The Super Bowl is the most-watched single station broadcast in US history, and its record viewership came in 2015 with an average of 114.4 million viewers. BBN pulled in more than double that last year. In comparison, the average viewership of the most-watched FIFA World Cup Finals is 562 million (Brazil 2014).</p><div><hr></div><p><em>This is a monthly newsletter about the media business in Africa. Subscribe so you don&#8217;t miss any updates: </em></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-imag" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa0167f81-3ce4-4bb9-b788-38579b0a7599_1080x1080.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa0167f81-3ce4-4bb9-b788-38579b0a7599_1080x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa0167f81-3ce4-4bb9-b788-38579b0a7599_1080x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa0167f81-3ce4-4bb9-b788-38579b0a7599_1080x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa0167f81-3ce4-4bb9-b788-38579b0a7599_1080x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa0167f81-3ce4-4bb9-b788-38579b0a7599_1080x1080.png" width="1080" height="1080" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a0167f81-3ce4-4bb9-b788-38579b0a7599_1080x1080.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1080,&quot;width&quot;:1080,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:49474,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa0167f81-3ce4-4bb9-b788-38579b0a7599_1080x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa0167f81-3ce4-4bb9-b788-38579b0a7599_1080x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa0167f81-3ce4-4bb9-b788-38579b0a7599_1080x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa0167f81-3ce4-4bb9-b788-38579b0a7599_1080x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a></figure></div><h2>Similarities between Big Brother Naija and the Super Bowl</h2><h3>1. Both are prime television real estate.</h3><p>Big Brother Naija and the Super Bowl are at the pinnacle of television programming in their respective markets. The Super Bowl is America&#8217;s most-watched television event. In Nigeria, it&#8217;s BBN, especially on eviction nights when housemates (as participants are known) are eliminated. However, BBN&#8217;s audience extends beyond Nigeria into several African countries, including Angola, Botswana, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Africa, etc.</p><p>In addition to having a large audience, both shows dominate conversations in ways that few other topics can. They produce and are products of cult followings. Fans talk about their favourite teams and housemates with strong emotions that are impossible to overlook.</p><h3>2. Both rake in enormous advertising revenue.</h3><p>Category sponsorship of BBN costs N750 million ($1.5 million*) while product sponsorship costs N200 million ($416,666*), and each season (which lasts 90 days) has multiple sponsors. This does not include other sponsors who pay as much as N50 million ($104,167*). The sponsorship packages include 30-second ad slots, product integration, online activation, and other offerings.</p><p>* = Parallel market rate (N480/$1)</p><p>Super Bowl advertising goes for as high as $5 million for 30 seconds. In 2020, advertisers <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/251585/super-bowl-advertising-spending/#:~:text=Super%20Bowl%20advertising%20revenue%202003%2D2020&amp;text=In%202020%2C%20companies%20spent%20449,advertising%20during%20the%20Super%20Bowl.">spent $449 million</a> on in-game advertising, up from $339 million the previous year.</p><p>However, this is where their similarities end. While the Super Bowl&#8217;s producers and advertisers have learned to leverage the programme&#8217;s elite status, Big Brother Naija&#8217;s producers and advertisers are yet to realise the extent of their power.</p><div><hr></div><p><em>This is a monthly newsletter about the media business in Africa. Subscribe so you don&#8217;t miss any updates: </em></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><h2>Television advertising in the age of social media</h2><p>For a programme that airs in <a href="https://africamagic.dstv.com/show/big-brother-naija/season/5/faqs">49 African countries</a>, Big Brother Naija can and should do better with the quality of its advertising. This is important because what happens on television does not stay on television. People watch things and talk about them with their friends or online, a concept now more pronounced with the advent of social media.</p><p>There is a link between traditional television advertising and online social media conversations, as a study in <a href="http://www.gandrllc.com/wp-content/uploads/JAR-54-4-454-468-How-Digital-Conversations-Reinforce-Super-Bowl-Advertising.pdf">the Journal of Advertising Research</a> found. It concluded that the relationship is mutual and that both media platforms work together to enhance brand engagement. When people watch something they like on television (a show, movie, advert, etc.), they are more likely to talk about it online. This essentially converts paid media into socially-driven earned media.</p><p>For example, a TV show that airs to a large audience on Sunday night will likely be the main topic of discussion on social media by Monday morning. You see this often with some shows from Africa Magic, Game of Thrones, How to Get Away with Murder, The Men&#8217;s Club, Skinny Girl in Transit, etc. Talking about the shows online generates a ripple effect, attracting more attention and eventually converting interest into viewership. The same holds true for advertising. People see great ads during major TV events, they talk about them online, resulting in more publicity and exposure for the advertised product.</p><p>Super Bowl advertisers have understood this over the years, to the point that Super Bowl advertising has become its own sport. Advertisers ensure their ads are of the highest quality and are engineered for virality. Year after year, trade publications and mainstream media rank and review the ads, and advertisers battle to top the lists. Essentially, they know that if they play their cards right, the money invested in those 30-second ads will lead to significantly higher exposure online that they would otherwise have paid for. But this was not always the case. Super Bowl advertising was not always the sport that it is today. It took a special ad from one company to break ground and show others what was possible.</p><h2>Apple&#8217;s &#8216;1984&#8217; ad and the re-invention of Super Bowl advertising</h2><p>On January 22, 1984, Apple aired its blockbuster &#8216;1984&#8217; advert during the third quarter of the Super Bowl. That created the template for what Super Bowl ads are today: cinematic, engineered for virality, and optimised for social engagement.</p><p>According to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-brief-history-of-super-bowl-ads-1517434980">the Wall Street Journal</a>, &#8220;The ad sparked a creative revolution among advertisers and garnered massive media attention.&#8221; To the extent that &#8220;by the 1990s, companies sought bragging rights for making the best ad of the night.&#8221;</p><div id="youtube2-VtvjbmoDx-I" class="youtube-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;videoId&quot;:&quot;VtvjbmoDx-I&quot;,&quot;startTime&quot;:null,&quot;endTime&quot;:null}" data-component-name="Youtube2ToDOM"><div class="youtube-inner"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/VtvjbmoDx-I?rel=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;enablejsapi=0" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" gesture="media" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowautoplay="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="728" height="409"></iframe></div></div><p>Long before social media democratised virality, &#8216;1984&#8217; sparked controversy, caused debate, and shattered everyone&#8217;s perception of what a conventional Super Bowl commercial should be. It also helped the organisers and the advertisers realise the programme&#8217;s full potential. From then on, the cost of advertising in the Super Bowl ballooned. Advertisers employed tactics to outdo one another, some going as far as reserving the bulk of their annual advertising budget for those 30 seconds alone.</p><div><hr></div><p><em>This is a monthly newsletter about the media business in Africa. Subscribe so you don&#8217;t miss any updates: </em></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.readcommunique.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><h2>What does this have to do with Big Brother Naija?</h2><p>Advertisers in Nigeria are notoriously biased towards functionality, and this is understandable. Psychographic analysis of the average person in the mass audience shows that they will almost always prioritise what a product or service can do for them and how easily accessible it is over how appealing it looks because of the Naira&#8217;s ever-decreasing purchasing power. (Basically, functionality and availability take precedence over aesthetics.) As a result, advertisers assume that the same premise applies to media consumption preferences.</p><p>This assumption influences the constraints they impose on their advertising agencies and the standards they use to judge the viability of an ad. It is not necessarily wrong, but it neglects the bigger picture, especially if the ads run during the BBN season.</p><p>Here&#8217;s the thing, though. The quality of Big Brother Naija adverts reflects the state of the industry, just as the quality of Super Bowl adverts reflects the state of the American advertising industry. Advertising in Nigeria used to be far more creative and audacious than it currently is.</p><p>I spoke to an industry expert about this and they highlighted two main reasons:</p><ol><li><p><strong>The tendency for safe ads.</strong> Advertising is largely driven by what the client wants. And, as we have established, Nigerian advertisers tend towards functional ads that will immediately move the sales needle. These ads are often built around trending topics and personalities. Timeless ads (which require deeper regard for the elements of storytelling) don't seem to have an immediate effect on sales figures, so they are unlikely to be approved. The fault for this, the expert says, rests between the agency and the client.</p></li><li><p><strong>The dearth of talent and the stifling of good ideas.</strong> Good ideas don&#8217;t come easily. You have to hunt for them, and only a handful of people are properly equipped to do this in many agencies now. Agencies can do better with the quality of training they give their staff, especially concerning cognition.</p></li></ol><p>On the other hand, when clients are consistently adamant about functionality and senseless virality, the advertising creative who was once teeming with great ideas will eventually be forced to dial them down and conform to the status quo. That is if they want to keep their job and please the client.</p><p>Knowing this, however, there is a special case to be made for advertising on Big Brother Naija. It is expensive. So, anyone who can afford it can&#8217;t possibly lean on budgetary constraints as an excuse. That said, Big Brother Naija adverts are currently not optimised to make the most of their platform. Perhaps this is because the advertisers underestimate the value of the asset.</p><p>If over 300 million people from 49 African countries watch the show over three months and 10% of them see an ad three times or more, that&#8217;s a solid foundation to build on. Then imagine that 10% of those 30 million people talk about the advert on social media repeatedly. That&#8217;s extra engagement from 3 million people who will expose your product to thousands more within their network. Engagement you did not have to pay for.</p><p>When viewers talk about Big Brother Naija online, they talk about everything, just like Super Bowl viewers. They talk about the housemates, the drama, the game nights, how housemates dress to the Saturday night parties, and the adverts. They talk about the adverts, too. They ridicule the bad ones (which, frankly, are the majority) and praise the good ones.</p><p>There is another layer. The mainstream media is now more sensitive to and influenced by social media conversations than ever before. If something trends online, it will spread to radio, television, newspapers, blogs, and other media outlets. We&#8217;ve seen this trend whenever something significant happens on Big Brother Naija. We&#8217;ve seen it happen when Twitter users descend on a controversial topic, and it floods the airwaves by noon. These are behavioural patterns that Big Brother Naija show producers and advertisers can more deliberately capitalise on.</p><p>Now that we&#8217;ve established all this, what does the ideal scenario look like going forward for BBN adverts?</p><h2>A roadmap for going big with Big Brother Naija adverts</h2><h3><strong>1. Optimise for social engagement.</strong></h3><p>Let&#8217;s go back to learning from the Super Bowl. According to <a href="https://forbusiness.snapchat.com/blog/61-percent-of-snapchatters-are-gearing-up-for-the-big-game">Snapchat</a>, &#8220;In 2020, there were notable spikes in conversation for advertisers like Google and Pringles when their commercials aired [during the Super Bowl].&#8221; Remember what the research says. There is a relationship between what people watch on television and what they talk about online. People talk about Super Bowl ads in the same way they talk about their teams. But these ads do not generate the level of conversation they do by chance. They are designed to do so.</p><p>Super Bowl advertisers often release their ads on social media while they air on television to maximise engagement. In addition to releasing the ads on multiple platforms, the companies also infuse social media-friendly elements. They use characters and storylines and explore topics they know will get people talking. Apple set the stage with &#8216;1984&#8217;. Nobody had done it before. It only takes one company to pick up the gauntlet here.</p><p>If a company is going to spend so much to advertise on the biggest TV show on the continent, it makes business sense to go the whole nine yards and milk the exposure for all it&#8217;s worth. If the show&#8217;s audience will be talking about it constantly for 3 months (and beyond), then it is worth asking how your company can positively be a part of those conversations. And optimising your ads and marketing strategy for social engagement in a way that is not tacky but worth talking about is the route forward.</p><h3><strong>2. Respect the audience.</strong></h3><p>The quality of storytelling and production in an advert reveals two things. One, it demonstrates how much the advertiser values their target audience and how sophisticated that audience can be. (If you think your target audience are idiots, your ad shows it.) Two, it indicates their understanding of the medium through which they are advertising. Super Bowl advertisers are deliberate with the quality of their adverts because they value the audience and understand how big of a deal advertising during the Super Bowl is.</p><p>Big Brother Naija is a cultural phenomenon and easily one of the biggest television events in the world. But most advertisers on the show do not realise the extent of its power. It&#8217;s likely that, or they don&#8217;t appreciate the audience enough. If they did, they would do better with their adverts.</p><h3><strong>3. Show producers must help to improve the quality of the adverts.</strong></h3><p>Incentives drive business (like human nature). The only way the show producers of Big Brother Naija will be motivated enough to step up their production and advertising quality is if they have enough incentive to. Here, I&#8217;ll present one out of several.</p><p>Africa is not the wealthiest continent, but it is vast and has enormous economic potential. This is not a vacuous cliche. It is a fact that is integral to any global or forward-thinking company. And it is something that international companies looking to expand are aware of. <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/spotify-in-nigeria">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://davidiadeleke.substack.com/p/communique-03-netflix-walks-into">Netflix</a>, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and many others, know this. All technology companies that desire global scale must expand into (and contribute to the development of) emerging economies such as those in Africa. And, in the process of expansion, they will spend billions of dollars on global marketing. Some of those billions could go to Big Brother Naija, but only if there is a strong enough attraction.</p><p>This means that the show producers have a unique opportunity to attract bigger fish than they currently do. However, they will need to think differently and improve their production quality, attention to detail, and the quality of marketing material they allow on the show.</p><h2>Conclusion</h2><p>I think that Big Brother Naija is big enough to replicate the economic power of the Super Bowl. But the producers first need to improve the quality of their offering. From conversations with past sponsors and advertisers, I know that they can do better with their planning, timelines, and execution. (Although this is sometimes dependent on how quickly sponsors pay up.) The planning inefficiencies also affect the timelines of said sponsors and advertisers and how well they make their marketing material.</p><p>The producers have a far more sophisticated audience than they realise, and the show has a much higher ceiling than is immediately apparent. They must recognise their show for what it is, a global event, and adjust production and commercialisation accordingly.</p><p>The Super Bowl does this well and has a much smaller audience than Big Brother Naija, but it commands astronomically more money. There are reasons for this, and the closer Big Brother Naija&#8217;s producers can look into them, the bigger the show can become.</p><h2>One more thing&#8230;&nbsp;</h2><p>I&#8217;ve been writing Communiqu&#233; for over a year now, and each edition requires hours (sometimes days and weeks) of research, thinking, writing, editing, and design. So, if you find the insight that I provide valuable, please do me a favour: like the post and share it directly with at least two people you think will love it.</p><p>Also, if you like the quality of work that goes into the newsletter, I offer the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.davidadeleke.com/">same quality of writing, research, and consulting services</a>&nbsp;to corporate clients. Reach out to me and let's talk.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.davidadeleke.com/contact&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Contact me&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.davidadeleke.com/contact"><span>Contact me</span></a></p><p><em><strong>PS:</strong> Thank you to Festus Iyorah, Laura Ede, Adams Dharmy, and my anonymous advertising industry expert for helping me edit and refine my points in this essay.</em></p> ]]>
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