Celestine Achi is the founder and Chief Digital marketing strategist at Cihan Group. Celestine is a seasoned Digital PR strategist, social techpreneur, digital PR blogger and also the founder of KairoswebTV. He is a graduate of the University of Nigeria Nsukka; an Associate member of the institute of management consultants; Nigerian institute of Public Relations; a member of the African evaluation association and a reviewer, the scientific journals of the WSEAS working group on energy and ecosystems as it relates to poverty alleviation. In this interview with peter ugwu, Celestine bares his mind on the digital marketing & PR in Nigeria while expanding on the concept behind setting up Kairoswebtv.

 Big Data, Analytics & Digital Marketing In Nigeria

I can authoritatively say that big data analytics is the next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity and infact the the next big thing to happen to the digital world. In other words, any media or brand that shy away or still not digital analytics conscious stands a chance to lose reputation and revenue. That is the next big bang that will occur globally, therefore, for the wise brand, plugging to digital analytics becomes a must.

The ‘Bullish’ Kid In The Block- KairosWebTv

What we have here today as KairosWebTv is a propitiatory system, a next-generation online Tv that is not dependent on YouTube or any open source like WordPress. What actually informed this particular innovation is to inspire and motivate our viewers. Secondly, we want to create a sort of happyTv; we are reading all the bad news on other platforms, let us make viewers happy, especially in the face of global turmoil. What we have done is to introduce seven (7) channels. Each channel, specifically, meets our objectives. For instance, the Entrepreneur Channel seeks to inspire and motivate aspiring entrepreneurs and emerging others. To help us do this, we have the likes of Fate Foundation, Real Success (SA) and some motivational speakers like Les Brown and Leslie Samuel from the United States and in Africa, we have Brian Walsh, Sam Adeyemi and Fate Foundation who can give us content on this. Aside that, we have an in-house one hour programming called ‘the Testimony’ where we meet both the successful and ‘unsuccessful’ entrepreneurs to tell their stories. The essence is for those coming behind to will see the very high and very low.

KairosWebTv also recognizes the need to inspire creativity. That is why we have the Winlos Channel; your source to go for creative, inspiring and hilarious skits, sketches and dramatic illustrations on real life issues that inspires. The TechSavvy Channel delivers news and insights on the latest technology trends, while ‘E-Event” Channel will be exclusively for live streaming of events, products launch, conferences, among other, while the EduSense Channel, an edutainment channel will be utilized to inspiring pupils, students and undergraduates on core subjects. Now, as a way of giving back to the society, we have a Digital PR Channel that offers masterclass training and courses in social media and Digital PR. Any organized that wants to be relevant, mediawise, in this digital disruption era, must have competencies in digital marketing and other kits. So, we want to train people FREE, through online channel.

Scaling Up Digital Marketing Skills In Nigeria

Some few months ago, we organized the Digital Marketing Masterclass in collaboration with the PRCAN. Why we introduced the masterclass was to address the particular issue of lack of DigitalPR skills which informed the introduction of a DigitalPR channel on KairosWebTv. Therefore, we want to use that channel to train Nigerians, free, on digital PR and social media related topics. On weekly bases, we will be training them online. There is also an aspect of pay-per-view, which will be on premium subscription. And that model will look at analytics and advanced topics.

Rolling Out KairosWebTv To Viewers

For some reasons, we don’t want to toe the line of developing an app for the platform. He space is already clogged and virtually all platforms today wants to get an app; getting an app has become ‘officious’ rather than disruptive. But, as long as your platform is responsive and scalable, you don’t really need an app. What we intend to do is to unleash contents on the go; where ever you are, with your tablet or smartphone, you can have access to KairosWebTv. Like I mentioned during our media launch of the platform, it is data friendly. Every piece of content is fusion-encoded; whether you are using 2.5G or 4G LTE, you still get to save significant data.

The Impact On Digital Broadcasting Migration

Well, as you can see, we are already playing in that field. People have this notion that digital disruption has not started, but fortunately, it has commenced in earnest. I keep saying that any traditional medium that fails to hook unto digital transformation now, is already a dying medium. It might be probably too late for them. Same time, digital migration is not finite; digital disruption happens daily. Even as we speak, digital disruption is taking place somewhere. That’s why we are saying this platform is not just available, but scalable.

Welcoming Digital Migrants, Retaining Digital Natives

Although we do not want to blow our trumpets for now, but we have measures to attract digital migrants while keeping the natives constant. We are up to date on real time information on digital migration and disruption. We are doing that in collaboration with a topnotch media platform. So, as it happens, we already know where it is going. We are the one of the firsts in Nigeria to break the news that Facebook is introducing Response Time unto Facebook pages. Through that process they can tell you that this page is very responsive or not. So, up to date information that drills-down to digital analytics, we have equipped ourselves to leverage that.

Overcoming Copyright Related Matters

Yes, we understand the seriousness of copyright issues. In view of that we have two models: the in-house, where we generate our contents. We have one hour programming on each channel. But beyond this, for every content partner that signs agreement with us, part of the spirit of that agreement is that they must have total right or partial right to the content, otherwise, we will not upload. We have actually entered into partnership with a particular crew in Nollywood. The idea is for us to churn out drama series for Nigerians, with the aim of overriding the ‘telemundo’ spirits in some Nigerians, replacing same with the Nigerian Telemundo. In that light, we are open to partnerships as long as the contents are genuine.

Specific Content For Particular Audience

We are using an audience specific ‘retargeter’ tool to deliver our contents based on audience behaviour and interest online. What the tool does is that it tells me the behaviour of a particular audience on Facebook or Twitter or whatever channel. Shockingly enough, disruptive outbound techniques convert at a much lower rate than inbound marketing strategies, where someone chooses to engage with your brand and actively seeks you out and this is what we seek to achieve in KairoswebTV. In majority of the Websites, you see advertisements scattered all over the spaces, you are losing audience which leads to high bounce rate.