Karim Konaté is Associate Director of Omedia. He is based in Abidjan. Before joining Omedia in 2014, Karim spent more than twenty years in communications, in Paris, Abidjan, and Dakar, working successively for the agencies Lintas, McCann-Erickson, and Leo Burnett.
Omedia has offices in several African countries. Can you tell us which ones and what your geographical development plans are?
Founded in 2005 in Senegal, Omedia also has offices in Côte d'Ivoire and Mali.
We currently have no plans to open other offices elsewhere, as we are able to operate from these three offices and their teams in the 16 markets where we are asked to intervene, namely, in addition to the three countries mentioned above, Burkina Faso, Benin, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Niger, Togo, DRC, and Sierra Leone. We are also able to intervene on request in other African countries, particularly English-speaking countries (Liberia, Ghana, Kenya, etc.).
Médiamétrie is a shareholder in Omedia. What exactly are your respective roles?
Indeed, Médiamétrie has been a shareholder in Omedia since 2018. This partnership was a natural progression after many years of collaboration between the two organizations in conducting audience research. Generally speaking, our association is not based on a division of roles, but rather on a shared desire to develop synergies that will benefit marketing and media players in the markets in which we operate. It is also an opportunity for our two organizations to deepen our relationship with our mutual clients. Ultimately, it is a value-added partnership. Omedia benefits from the methodological and technological expertise of the French leader in audience measurement, while Médiamétrie relies on a firm that is firmly rooted locally: born in French-speaking Africa and dedicated to the continent.
However, there is indeed a division of roles in the recurring audience studies that we conduct jointly in Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, and Cameroon. Omedia is in charge of collecting data in the field, while Médiamétrie processes this data and produces the results.
What services does Omedia offer in the countries where it operates?
Overall, we have three areas of activity:
First and foremost, we conduct all types of ad hoc market research at the request of economic or social actors who desire it. These may include, for example, studies of usage and attitudes towards a category of products or services, studies of brand awareness and perception, satisfaction studies, studies of the impact of advertising campaigns, pre-testing of offers, services, and concepts, studies designed to measure a company's potential for establishment or development, mystery shopping, audience studies as mentioned above, and even organoleptic tests of food products, etc. Through these studies, we strive to provide our clients with answers covering all kinds of issues. This is why these studies can be described as quantitative (in which case we will survey several hundred or thousand individuals) or qualitative (exploration of small groups of people or isolated individuals). These ad hoc studies are therefore conducted in all the countries where we operate, beyond our countries of residence.
We also carry out media monitoring and tracking in Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire. More specifically, we track and analyze all multi-media advertising investments in Senegal, and mainly TV in Côte d'Ivoire. Beyond these two markets, we cover television channels in 11 countries, including 24 national television stations on a permanent basis and potentially 40 more on demand.
As part of this activity, we monitor the smooth running of our clients' advertising campaigns.
Finally, we initiate our own studies, which our clients and prospects can subscribe to. We currently produce a biannual barometer of top-of-mind brand awareness in Ivory Coast and Senegal, and in June the results of the Digital Usage Observatory, which we initiated, will be available in the same two countries. And then, as always, with Médiamétrie, we measure TV and radio audiences.
What is the status of audience measurement in Côte d'Ivoire? Do you think it is possible to achieve a single audience measurement?
Omedia and Médiamétrie have been producing television and radio audience measurements in Côte d'Ivoire for 10 years now. Better still, for the past year, audience measurement has become quarterly, with even monthly interim reports that allow us to track changes in viewer behavior on a monthly basis. To date, this measurement has won over several channels, agencies, and advertisers. It is thus contributing to the momentum that has been building for several months in the media ecosystem, driven in particular by the launch of new DTT channels. This is reflected in the media's very high audience figures and in the strong momentum of the advertising market, despite the complicated health context.
As for "single audience measurement," the question is not addressed to the measurer alone, but to all market players. It is a collective issue, and everyone is aware of the stakes. In this sense, rather than talking about "single measurement," let's talk about a "collective and shared" system. Omedia and Médiamétrie, as always, are at the disposal of market players, both public and private, to offer the best solution, in accordance with the scientific and methodological rigor required by such a shared system.
Every month, you publish the gross investments of advertisers in Cameroon, Senegal, and Ivory Coast. How do you see the advertising market evolving in these three countries in the medium term?
Yes, these are indeed the gross advertising investments in television media. Tracking these investments is one thing, but anticipating their evolution is not easy!
In Côte d'Ivoire, the last 12 months have seen the media achieve record levels, once again largely due to the arrival of DTT and the launch of the NCI, Life TV, and La 3 channels (the latest addition to the RTI group). 2020 was already better than 2019 with the launch of A+ Ivoire. With the competition that all these new channels bring and the legitimacy that the first two historic public channels enjoy with advertisers, we can expect continued positive growth over the coming months.
In Senegal, the trend for the first three months of the year shows a clear decline compared to most months of 2020. Even though the Ramadan period will, as every year, have had a positive impact on investment, we can expect a decline compared to last year if the trend for the first quarter of 2021 continues.
In Cameroon, there has been relative stability from one year to the next, with less marked variations from month to month. 2021 should continue in the same vein.