OMNICOM MEDIA GROUP SA: Omnicom Displays Dominance and Innovation in Africa

The Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the advertising industry in its early days. As various restrictions came into play around the world, and society’s patterns realised holistic change, the way advertisers allocated their budgets shifted. At first, spend was pulled completely or halted as companies took stock – how long would restrictions on movement last? How could brands pay ad bills when their turnover had been hit so hard? With stores forced to close, was marketing even a priority? For ad agencies, the situation was challenging, and there was no single solution.

Of course, brands suffered through the pandemic, but quickly realised the need to continue advertising and engaging with customers, both existing and potential. The key was agility and being able to move to new channels, with new massaging, in new styles as consumer behaviour changed.

“It was definitely a tough time with a lot of uncertainty across our portfolio of clients. People reacted quite cautiously by stopping a lot of their advertising spend,” says Cameron Maclear, Managing Director for Africa at Omnicom Media Group.

This global agency provides end-to-end solutions for clients, connecting them to their target audiences using a data-driven approach that is powered by some of the best people in the industry. Working internationally through some of the most respected organisations in marketing, communications, and technology, alongside powerhouse brands, Omnicom is an industry leader and was quick to react to a rapidly changing and highly unpredictable marketplace. Flexing muscles nurtured over decades of successful operation in the industry, the company continued to service its clients effectively, learning at all times.

“We were fortunate to have just won the Diageo business and we were going through a transition phase in Africa, doing a lot of work with international teams. The work from home scenario wasn’t too bad from our perspective, and our leadership also reacted decisively in terms of blanket salary cuts across the company which cushioned us a lot,” Maclear tells Enterprise Africa.

Rather than opting for heavy staffing axing, leaving itself exposed to capacity challenges in the bounce back, Omnicom in Africa worked through 2020 and quickly returned to a positive position in 2021. This year, there has already been a significant demand from the market for fresh data and new insight, with long-term changes in consumer behaviour starting to become more apparent.

“Overall, from a market point of view, GDP growth across sub-Saharan Africa has been on a steady decline in the last 10 years and Covid amplified that significantly,” admits Maclear. “We have seen a return to growth in 2021, but from a monetary point of view there has been a massive impact in terms of inflation, volatility in currencies, and unemployment. With regards to media, we saw a massive increase in the amount of television viewing and online video consumption as well as social media usage across the countries as people were staying at home.”

ONLINE RETAIL

While perhaps a shift in channel for some brands, Omnicom was quick to identify opportunities in ‘new media’. Behind the rest of the world with e-commerce, Africa’s industry has much room for growth. Substantial investment into distribution centres and warehousing has been realised over the past five years, and companies are gearing up for more of an online sales push. Omnicom Media Group South Africa – JSE-listed but owned by the global Omnicom Group, headquartered in New York – calls on its international expertise and global knowledge sharing capability when it comes to servicing clients with online strategy – something few others can boast.

“Key to a lot of our clients is e-commerce and the online retail environment – we saw that grow exponentially through the pandemic with the lockdowns at various stages across Africa. Focus on that, and effectively measuring that so that clients could optimise towards conversion is a new space in Africa, and Covid was a catalyst. It helped us developed competence and capability from a media perspective across these spaces,” says Maclear.

“The benefit of being majority owned by international organisation based in America and Europe is that we are at the leading edge of technology and best practice globally,” he adds. “We also have the ability to tap into those resources and technologies and, to a degree, we are responsible for rolling those technologies out and making them work. There is often a gap that needs to be bridged, depending on country, and that is a key focus of ours – establishing an end-to-end process that is transparent, organised, and geared towards attribution, performance, measurement, and reporting. Also, the adoption of other tools and systems that we use globally that allow us to be more integrated and closer to our counterparts internationally, that can support and assist us in improving our service delivery, is vital.”

Big-name clients for Omnicom at regional level include Diageo, MTN, Red Bull, Unilever, Pepsi, South African Tourism and then within each country there is a regional layer of clients that is serviced alongside a number of local customers made up of brands like StarTimes in Kenya and Nigeria, DStv in Kenya, JavaHouse, and some banks outside of South Africa.   

As these brands saw challenges – and continue to witness pressure on marketing budgets – the strain on ad agencies to deliver ROI was growing. Today, every penny spent is scrutinised by marketing managers and agencies must be able to demonstrate effectiveness of campaigns. With Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet (parent of Google) set to control half of total ad spend in the global market by 2025, detailed understanding of the numbers is essential so placement can be measured. This is where Omnicom’s data-driven approach, calling on global know-how, offers so much for clients in Africa looking for growth across digital spheres.

“Digital commerce is taking off and the media side of that is quite nascent in Africa,” details Maclear. “There are a lot of efforts around building capacity and competency there, while learning from more developed economies. Amazon is set to launch in South Africa and that will have a massive impact on the landscape here. Across the rest of Africa, there is a lot of effort going into growth in key countries where we have been smaller previously. We are putting a lot of effort into making things more measurable in terms of collecting operational data and structuring that so we can leverage AI to visualise that for us. Building that consistency in ways of working across countries that are at various stages of development and skill level, becoming a centre of excellence, supporting our Africa offices in terms of expertise in new environments, with new technologies, and with new ways of reporting will help provide transparency for our clients.”

This is not a knee jerk reaction for Omnicom. The company has already built a strong position across Africa and controls market share in a number of markets. With 250 staff in South Africa and the likes of OMD and phd part of the group, African expansion alongside economic growth on the continent was a longer-term strategy for Omnicom, even before the pandemic. Now, the requirement from brands is the same but the journey through delivery is slightly different.

“Given our experience, expertise, and network on the continent, we have quite a rich database of information relating to the media landscape, environments, consumer insight, and business information across 20 countries on the continent. It’s a well-established network that has been developed over 20 years,” Maclear highlights.

“Maintaining relationships and trust that we have built up over time is key. We are the most established network on the continent, and the largest from a billing perspective. That is a result of building those relationships and maintaining them, ensuring that the people are happy because they are your greatest asset.”  

NEW MEDIA CHANNELS

Going forward, the challenge for all involved in marketing is to encourage spend back into the market and into the hands of experts. Omnicom Media Group is clearly an industry leader and has the knowledge of the African market that others do not. Its end-to-end product and service portfolio make it the obvious choice for those looking for a provable, effective, measurable campaign – rolled out across various platforms – that will drive results.

“There is an ever-expanding need for expertise across a number of new media channels and media landscapes that have evolved, depending on the country you look at,” confirms Maclear, adding that the group is looking at developing a new brand within its portfolio, similar to phd, but with a focus on consumer-centric media strategies. 

Maclear is happy where the business sits right now, considering the nature of the past two years. Having worked in the business for 15 years, having started out as a head of the Standard Bank account, this seasoned marketer has climbed the ladder in Omnicom Media Group and believes there is a lot more to come in a very exciting African market.

“Digitisation of media and even the switch from terrestrial to digital transmission of broadcast content has made things fragmented, social media has taken off and the ability to measure and target granularly by interest or location makes it a very dynamic, transparent, and innovative space. We have also seen rapid urbanisation in Africa, particularly from the youth market, and an emerging middle class across a number of African countries – there has definitely been development and progress,” he concludes.

Thankfully, by utilising decades of international experience and by always operating with a client first strategy, Omnicom Media Group in Africa continues to thrive and deliver results. In a world of marketing opportunities that has been shaken and rattled by the pandemic, new media, changing economic and societal situations, and emerging trends, it has never been clearer that brands must partner with a data-driven, experienced partner if they are to achieve success. Omnicom is an industry leader and will continue to grow with bold and inventive new ideas.