Formerly Managing Director of Havas Africa in Ivory Coast, Sabine Gomis-Faure joined PhoenixPHD Ivory Coast last July as Director of Business Francophone Africa. In this interview with Adweknow, she shares her vision of the evolution of the advertising market in Ivory Coast.
What are Phoenix PHD's areas of expertise?
Our activities include consulting, strategy, and media buying across all media, including digital, for major international and national brands.
PhoenixPHD is affiliated with PHD as part of Harmonies Media's affiliation with Omnicom Media Group, a global network of communications agencies.
Two new channels were launched in Côte d'Ivoire in 2019. How would you rate NCI and A+ Ivoire now that they have been launched?
They are fairly high quality and have had a promising start.
The advertising campaigns launched by these channels to raise their profile among the general public also seem to be gaining traction on social media.
What are your expectations for other channels such as Life, RTI 3, and 7infos?
The expectations are the same for all these channels: entertaining, informative, unifying beyond the principle of DTT (better picture and sound).
However, each of these channels will need to have its own identity, a distinctive positioning, but also audiences and an attractive commercial policy that is responsive to our needs.
We are eager to know their respective launch dates, even though 7info, the first Ivorian news channel, already exists on the Internet (with its website) and should meet strong demand from the Ivorian population and the diaspora.
What do you think advertisers expect from these new channels?
Relevant, innovative, local, and diverse content that meets the expectations of viewers, but also new advertising formats and, above all, high-performing audiences with the publication of reliable data, particularly via our audience measurement tools.
This Ivorian audiovisual landscape, enriched by new channels, has already been integrated by PhoenixPHD into its strategic thinking for its advertisers and should be closely monitored by all.
In your opinion, how will budgets be divided between television and other media? And within television, between RTI and other channels?
With Ivorians consuming an average of four hours of television per day, television's market share will undoubtedly increase slightly at the expense of other media such as the press, but not digital, which continues to grow (44% penetration in 2019 vs. 27% in 2018).
As for television, we will undoubtedly see growth in the audience share of DTT channels.
Both new channels and existing channels will have to adapt their strategies in this new competitive environment.
Do you think the elections will slow down market growth? Are advertisers cautious and hesitant to invest because of political uncertainties?
Our advertisers are not hesitating to invest at the moment, but the trend will undoubtedly be for a stronger first half than the second.