The increase in the use of the internet by African youths was the focus for the 2nd Youth Marketer Converge Conference, which held recently in Lagos, Nigeria as the co-founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales and other experts gathered at Eko Hotel on the theme “digital, mobile and social, what are youths really searching for?”.
Using the statistics from Wikipedia, Jimmy said that the future of the internet in Nigeria was laced with mobile computers which will be available at very low costs and high internet bandwidth to escalate computer penetration in the near future. In his Keynote address, Wales also revealed that Yoruba language is the most successful African language with 25 million speakers and 1 million monthly page views on Wikipedia as well as seven editors with 29,857 articles. He also said that the average age of internet users is 26.
In wrapping his presentation, Jimmy foretold the future of the internet in Nigeria as being laced with mobile computers at a very low cost, high internet band width which he said was already being experienced in some parts of Nigeria. In addition, he enthused, “the internet speed in my room is faster than the internet speed in New York City, this simply shows that there will be an immense growth in internet use in Nigeria in the nearest future and everybody seems to be warming up to that”.
The first plenary session and opening ceremony, chaired by Yinka Akande, Director General of the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria had speakers like Lola Talabi-Oni, CEO Brentt Consulting; Babatunde Bank-Anthony, Executive Secretary, LSSSF representing the Executive Governor of Lagos State and the Keynote Speaker, Jimmy Wales. Lola Talabi-Oni made a presentation on youth consumer trends for 2012 highlighting mobility, Olympic fever, citizen journalism and cashless economy amongst others as areas that brands should explore. She opined that any brand that wants to remain in business in 2012 and intends to retain or increase its consumer base must be willing to adapt some of these trends in its marketing strategies.
Rendering credence to Lola’s opinion, Babatunde Bank-Anthony said that since Lagos State comprises of sixty percent youth population, any serious brand that wants to do serious business in Lagos State must be willing to dance to the tune of the needs of the youths and one major need of most youths in Lagos state is the need to start their own business and be their own bosses. Babatunde said that as a result of the growing unemployment rate in Lagos, youth empowerment is no longer the sole obligation of the government but has become a matter of public-private partnership which private organisations must contribute to to get a measure of brand loyalty from the youths.
Other speakers that made presentations at the event include: Lanre Aina, Business Development Analyst Google Nigeria, Wale Ewedemi, Director General, Creative Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria and the CEO of Digitlab South Africa, Mike Saunders who spoke on “social media is more than facebook, twitter and linkedin”. Japheth Omojuwa, Curator, Omojuwa.com; Tolu Ogunlesi, Art Director, British Council Nigeria; Enyioma Anaba, Group Head Marketing, Interswitch and Beatrice Olumhense, Accounts Manager, Nokia West Africa all gave insightful presentations on Youth marketing strategies and emerging practices.
The initiator of the event, Funke Babatola re-iterated the event as an eye-opener to brand managers and individuals who service the youth demography in Nigeria on the needs of youths and how to meet such needs using the new media that are easily accessible to most youths and other platforms for many more young people who do not have access to ICT.
The second day was tagged, YMC Interactive; a more practical session which featured a face-off between brand managers and young people. This platform provided the brands direct feedback on their products and marketing activities. Participants who attended were representatives of First Bank Nigeria Plc, Nigerite Limited, Multichoice Africa, Skye Bank, Lagos State Ministry for Youth Development amongst many others.
The youth Marketer Converge Conference (YMC 2.0) was proudly sponsored by First Bank of Nigeria Plc.{jcomments on}
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