‘At ViacomCBS, We Curate Relevant Contents That Excite Our Audience’- Bada Akintunde-Johnson, Country Manager, ViacomCBS

Bada Akintunde-Johnson is the Country Manager (Nigeria) for ViacomCBS International Media Networks Africa. Bada has been running the entire scope of Viacom’s Markets overseeing brands such as MTV, MTVBase, Nickelodeon, Comedy central, BET and MTV Shuga. In this interview with Brand Communicator, your frontline brand and marketing magazine, he discusses core and operational philosophy of the ViacomCBS brand, its reach, how it is adapting to change in the new operating environment occasioned by coronavirus pandemic, among other sundry industry issues. Excerpt:

Current State of Media and Broadcasting Industry

There have been great developments in the industry in recent years that have seen a shift in media consumption from what we used to know in the past. Now, media content is being made available to the audience across multiple touchpoints, whenever and wherever the audience needs it. While in reality, these developments have greatly impacted media consumption on traditional platforms like TV, radio and print, it has not entirely wiped them off as we feared it would in the past. What has happened is that, even those traditional platforms are evolving themselves to be more accessible to their audience. I believe there is ample room for growth in the industry, especially in Nigeria, where we are yet to digitise our broadcast structure. When this happens, we would see tremendous growth as real-time data would now be available to stakeholders to work with.

Challenges Confronting The Industry

I think the primary challenge now is access to accurate industry data. As I mentioned earlier, the digitization of our broadcast structure would greatly help with this. I also believe that piracy and copyright infringements are still some of our biggest challenges in the industry, despite significant effort to reduce their impact and strengthen intellectual property rights in Nigeria. Piracy and counterfeiting constitute major hindrances to the development of intellectual property rights in Nigeria while actively hindering the growth and development of the media and entertainment industry.To curb it, we need to start by raising the awareness of piracy and copyright infringements issues in Nigeria. The government can also support by providing a conducive environment for the practitioners in the industry like tax concessions. The entertainment industry in its present form needs support and structure from people outside the industry to flourish, especially from the corporate sector.

Core Values And Operational Philosophies 0f ViacomCBS Network Brands

At ViacomCBS Networks Africa, our values drive everything we do, from the quality of content we produce to how we engage with our audience. As a business, we are very committed to our audiences. We see it as our responsibility to provide platforms where our audience can be educated and entertained, while also being able to share their stories. We have done this through MTV Shuga and diverse productions ranging from Nickelodeon ‘Kids, Race & Unity’with Alicia Keys as host, to Behind The Story on our MTV Base platform where personalities, celebrities and talents share their stories of grass to grace. In terms of being able to remain relevant in the market, I would say it is because we are able to connect with our audience to understand their educational and entertainment needs. We have demonstrated this through the unique shows we create on our brand channels such as Celeb Living and Guy Code on MTV Base, as well as the Nelson Mandela Day ‘Let’s Read’ that featured Nigerian kids on Nickelodeon. What we also have going for us as a business is our capacity to adapt and innovate. Despite the challenges of Covid-19 and the lockdowns, we were able to virtually execute a very social impact driven campaign, the Africa Day Benefit Concert, where working with our partners at YouTube and Unicef, we raised funds to support individuals impacted by the pandemic. Our innovation has also been expressed through our virtual tentpole event executions that still delivered huge value to sponsors. That is what we seek to achieve as well with our 2021 MTV Africa Music Awards, hosted by Kampala Uganda, the Pearl of Africa. So, despite the situation we find ourselves, as a business, we never stop innovating and adapting. This is in addition to our drive to consistently deliver excellent services to advertisers through bespoke content solutions that fulfil their marketing objectives, as well as, our flexibility at aligning to their media amplification needs.

Contributions to the Growth of Nigeria’s Media Entertainment Industry

The roles our channel brands, for example MTV Base and Nickelodeon, have played and continue to play in propelling local talents to global limelight is undeniable. Apart from giving artistes platforms to showcase their talents and recognise their works, we have also made considerable investments into the creatives who work behind the scenes for these artists. It is common knowledge, for example, that MTV Base invested in Nigerian videographers back in the mid-2000s, exposing them to world class production training and equipment that they did not previously have. What many may not know, however, is how much work we still do in the background to ensure that Nigerian and African music retains its pride of place and achieves increased global visibility. For instance, on BET, we have featured some Nigerian and African talents like Omah Lay, Rema, and Sampa The Great from Zambia, on the BET Amplified International content. On the other hand, on MTV Base, we have scheduled programming contents such as Spanking New, Official Naija Top Ten (ONTT), 100% Naija, and others that we use to support and showcase African talents from their upcoming status to getting international acclaims.

Reasons Behind “Path To Purchase’’ Research Work

It is our contribution to the body of research on the interplay between households and how purchase decisions are made, using data from our research on our Nickelodeon channels. We sought to understand how children are involved in the purchase decision process, and why they now have more influence in that process within the home. Again, it is a demonstration of how much we seek to understand our audience a lot better. Our decision to share the results of the research done is to enrich the current knowledge on the subject and to aid advertisers within the kiddies and family consumer product space make the right marketing decisions. The collaborative process of purchase decisions in the home cannot be denied, and we believe we owe the consumer industry the opportunity to learn from a trend that we observe is more prevalent today. This is asides all the research work we do to accurately understand the youth audience in Nigeria and across the continent. We have built and continue to grow our insight communities, across different territories that enable us to continuously engage our audience that drive insightful decisions to create a distinct advantage for our business.

Value For Advertisers In Nigerian Market

At ViacomCBS Networks Africa, our channel brands reach the entire family (across all age groups). So first, we offer a plethora of options audience-wise. If you want to speak to kids, our Nickelodeon channels are the best fit for advertisers; considering the youth market then look no further, MTV and MTV Base are home to your audience;for an audience that is older, our BET and Comedy Central platforms are the perfect channels for advertisers to place their adverts and promotional messages. Beyond the audience options we offer, we also have reach. In Nigeria, beyond our channels on DStv and GOtv, we also have broadcast blocks for our MTV Base and Nickelodeon channels on terrestrial platforms like Silverbird Television (STV). And across Africa, we reach over 100million households. Therefore, every advertiser that has a pan-African campaign should be speaking to us. It is also important to note that we are flexible, as we are always willing to listen to the needs of advertisers to create tailored solutions that will help them achieve their marketing goals.

Competitive Edge of ViacomCBS

I would say our understanding of the audiences, and our ability to use that understanding to curate relevant contents that excite our audience. We are also deeply committed to providing our platforms to amplify the voices of youth, drive social justice and active citizenship.

 ViacomCBS As The Go-To Media Network In Nigeria

Our programs and shows are specially designed for each of our target audience such as MTV Cribs, Celeb Living, Fit Fam, Guy Code, and Girl Code, and these have been winners with our audience. We also have relevant music themes and countdown shows like Official Naija Top Ten (ONTT), 100% Naija, Top 5 songs for individual artists e.t.c.

Remaining Relevant in Today’s Fast-paced World

We are listening to our audience, and keeping a keen eye on the trends in the market. Currently, we are aggressively rolling out our streaming platform called Paramount+, across the European and American markets. I believe based on business insights, this will be rolled out to other markets as at when due. We are also making a lot of investment in creating amazing contents across all our brands that can sit on digital platforms like YouTube. In the past few months, the Covid-19 pandemic has made us to reinvent how we execute many of our Award events. From the BET Awards to the Europe Music Awards (EMAs), Video Music Awards (VMA) and even the MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMAs) which in 2021 will take place in Kampala, Uganda, Pearl of Africa, we continue to bring the awards to audiences in an innovative virtual show event format.

CSR Initiatives of ViacomCBS in Recent Years

Recently, we collaborated with YouTube, Unicef and the World Food Programme to host the Africa Day Benefit Concert in a bid to raise funds for people most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the lives of many and disrupted economic activity, increasing the threat to food security and children’s survival and wellbeing. The Concert was organized not just to raise funds, but also to remind us we are one and we are all in this together. This is aside our yearly ViaCommunity activities. ViaCommunity is the global umbrella for all of our social impact and purpose-driven initiatives where we support those in need within our community. Last year, we visited a community of widows to support them, this year, due to the Covid pandemic, we virtually had a session with kids from the Slum 2 School Foundation, where we spoke to the kids about different career choices within the media and entertainment industry, as well as encouraged them to take their studies seriously.

Five to Ten Year’s Projections for ViacomCBS in Nigerian and African Market

At ViacomCBS Networks Africa, we are very committed to a reimagined Africa and to telling a reimagined African story, not just for the rest of the world but for Africans in Africa. We are very intentional about showcasing the beauty, the creativity and the sheer amount of talents that abound in all the different countries in the continent with MTV Base as with all our different other channel brands including MTV, BET, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. We will continue to invest time, money and efforts into the various sectors that we play in as well as continue to collaborate with our industry partners. As a business, we are certainly going to continue our growth in Nigeria and across the African market, ensuring we deliver the best of engaging contents to all audience categories.