Broadcasting
Cracking the Code – Unravelling the Complexities of Omnichannel Communication Excellence in the Retail Space
By James Gachie, Industry Lead at Infobip
Implementing an effective omnichannel communication strategy can provide retailers with a distinct edge in the competitive market, but the move can also present significant challenges for businesses operating within the ever-changing landscape of modern retail.
To overcome these hurdles and unlock the full potential of their omnichannel strategies, retailers should look to partner with the right communication technology specialist, invest in the appropriate technology and continually adapt to shifting customer expectation.
Omnichannel communication refers to a customer-centric approach that allows enterprises to integrate various channels and touchpoints to provide a seamless and consistent experience across all interactions with the customer.
A successful omnichannel communication strategy starts with integrating channels, meaning that a retailer must ensure that all communication channels are interconnected, working together to provide a synchronised experience for the customers. Secondly, it requires personalisation and contextualisation, which entails leveraging customer insights to deliver tailored recommendations and offers. In addition, customer engagements need to be contextualised, meaningful and targeted.
Lastly, an effective omnichannel approach must include aspects of data integration and analytics to guide decision-making regarding ongoing customer engagements. Data collected from various channels and touchpoints should be integrated into a single platform, enabling the organisation to invest wisely in the channels that exhibit the highest growth and yield the best results.
Difficult to achieve
Attaining a comprehensive omnichannel strategy is often difficult to achieve, due to the high technological complexities involved in its implementation, often becoming a major stumbling block for many businesses. For example, integrating multiple communication channels and touchpoints can be technically complex, especially in environments where multiple vendors offers different channels. However, by partnering with the appropriate communication technology partner, organisations can access a unified platform and comprehensive overview for all customer interactions across various channels, thereby simplifying the process and mitigating complexities.
Another common challenge around omnichannel implementation is that of data management and integration. For an omnichannel communication strategy to work, a company must rely on effective data management across various channels. Unfortunately, this is no easy task when coupled with the need to meet data privacy, accuracy and consistency requirements.
To implement an omnichannel communication strategy, a retailer must assess its current systems and infrastructure to identify the gaps and mutations that may hinder a seamless integration. From there, they should deploy a unified commerce platform that will act as a central hub for managing and integrating various channels and touchpoints and cross channel data synchronisation.
By synchronising customer data, organisations can establish a singular, reliable customer database that relies on first-party data to build detailed customer profiles that enables communication that is personalised and contextualised. Integration of customer data from various touchpoints further enables segmentation and customer profiling based on diverse metrics, including gender, geographical location, and age, for example.
Evolving customer expectations
However, retailers must also ensure that they stay ahead of evolving customer expectations and adapt their strategies to deliver consistent and personalised experiences across different channels in their omnichannel communication strategy. This is where personalisation at scale or hyper personalisation comes into play.
By leveraging customer data for segmentation and customer profiling, retailers can deliver a personalised experience and provide product recommendations, promotions and messaging targeted at either individual customers or segments. To achieve this at scale, companies will need to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation, which will not only ensure that the messages reach the right individuals, but also keep profiles updated by constantly tracking customer behaviour.
To successfully implement an omnichannel communication strategy, companies should explore partnerships and collaboration, mainly because building these tools and solutions is not the core business of retailers. At the same time, retailers should also embrace cloud solutions that will allow them to scale, to be flexible and to assimilate integration across their existing solutions.
As the retail landscape moves towards conversational everything – marking, support, experience, and commerce – an experienced partner is key to supporting retailers to deliver personalised customer engagements, implement communication strategies and capitalise on the growth of conversational formats.
More than 100 channels have signed on to broadcast free-to-air digital content under Nigeria’s Digital Switchover (DSO) programme, marking a major milestone in the country’s transition to digital broadcasting.
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, saying the development followed the unveiling of FreeTV, a free-to-air direct-to-home (DTH) national platform supported by satellite and Internet Protocol (IP) delivery.
According to the commission, the platform offers a broad mix of content targeted at Nigerian households.
It said the channel line-up includes 14 news and current affairs stations, 15 general entertainment channels, six kids and family channels, two lifestyle and talk shows, three music and entertainment channels, one business and finance station, and five movie channels.
The commission added that 57 of the channels are already live and accessible through the FreeTV app and the NigSat satellite platform.
It advised viewers to download the FreeTV application from Google Play Store to access the services.
Director-General of NBC, Charles Ebuebu, said the initiative would improve television access and viewing quality for Nigerians.
“We will deliver digital TV with clearer pictures, more free channels, and opportunities for every family.
“It is one simple change for a better future,” he said.
Ebuebu noted that with over 100 stations onboard and a satellite-led strategy, Nigeria’s digital migration was making significant progress.
The DSO project was launched in 2008 following the Geneva 2006 Agreement (GE06) as part of efforts to modernise the nation’s broadcasting ecosystem.
Its objectives include improving picture and sound quality, freeing up spectrum space for broadband development, and supporting Nigeria’s creative industry.
The commission acknowledged that the project had faced delays despite its official launch in 2016 and an earlier pilot phase in Jos.
It said nationwide implementation had remained slow due to infrastructural and logistical challenges.
According to NBC, a major turnaround came after President Bola Tinubu approved a N10 billion intervention fund in August 2024 to accelerate the project.
The commission said the funding enabled the adoption of a new satellite-first model under a partnership between NBC and the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT).
The strategy replaces the earlier terrestrial tower-heavy rollout with direct satellite broadcasting using the NigComSat-1R satellite.
“This technological leap is expected to accelerate nationwide rollout by over 65 per cent while avoiding infrastructure bottlenecks,” Ebuebu said.
He added that about 10 million Nigerian households already own satellite-ready televisions or DVB-S2 set-top boxes and can immediately access the channels.
For households without compatible devices, NBC said hybrid set-top boxes combining satellite reception and internet streaming would be introduced.
The commission added that the DSO initiative would also support local content creation, with 40 per cent of channel slots allocated to independent and regional producers.
It said plans were also underway for local production of five million set-top boxes annually, a move expected to generate more than 20,000 jobs.
Music streaming platform Spotify has introduced a new verification system, “Verified by Spotify,” to help users identify authentic human artists and distinguish them from AI-generated music content.
Spotify
The company disclosed that the new verification badge, represented by a green checkmark on artist profiles and search results, would be rolled out in the coming weeks.
Spotify said only artists who meet specific authenticity requirements would qualify for verification.
According to the company, eligibility criteria include consistent listener engagement, compliance with platform policies, and proof of an active presence beyond the platform, such as live performances or verified social media activity.
“In the AI era, it is more important than ever to be able to trust the authenticity of the music you listen to,” Spotify said in a statement.
The company added that more than 99 per cent of artists actively searched by users are expected to be verified at launch, covering hundreds of thousands of musicians across multiple genres and regions.
Spotify’s move comes amid a rapid rise in AI-generated music on streaming services.
Music platform Deezer recently reported that approximately 44 per cent of daily uploads on its platform are fully AI-generated, while Apple Music has also recorded growing uploads created using artificial intelligence tools.
Spotify stated that profiles primarily dedicated to AI-generated music or virtual personas would not be eligible for the verification badge.
The company said the policy forms part of broader efforts to improve transparency and build user trust on the platform.
In addition to the verification badge, Spotify is also rolling out expanded profile details for all artists, including release history, touring activity, and career milestones.
The company described the feature as similar to “nutrition facts” for music, offering listeners clearer insight into an artist’s background and credibility.
Spotify noted that the initiative is part of wider measures to address growing concerns around AI in the music industry, including impersonation, spam uploads, and reduced visibility for human creators.
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) have jointly sued the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) over what they described as an “arbitrary, unconstitutional, and unlawful” threat to sanction broadcast stations and presenters.
The development was disclosed in a Sunday statement signed by Kolawole Oluwadare, deputy director, and Onuoha Ukeh, general secretary of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.
According to the statement, SERAP and NGE challenged a recent directive by NBC, warning presenters and journalists against “expressing personal opinions as facts,” “bullying or intimidating guests,” and failing to maintain neutrality.
The statement reads, “SERAP and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) have filed a lawsuit against the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) over the arbitrary, unconstitutional, and unlawful ‘Formal Notice’, which threatens to sanction broadcast stations and presenters for allegedly ‘expressing personal opinions as facts, bullying or intimidating guests, or failing to maintain neutrality.’
“The NBC had recently threatened to sanction broadcast stations and presenters who ‘express personal opinions as facts’ or ‘bully and intimidate guests,’ claiming it had ‘identified a sustained increase in breaches of the 6th Edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code across news, current affairs, and political programmes.’”
In the suit marked FHC/L/CS/854/2026 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court in Lagos State, SERAP and NGE asked the court to determine whether the various provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code relied upon by the NBC in the directive are inconsistent with the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended) and the country’s international human rights obligations.
According to the statement, the groups disclosed that Femi Falana (SAN), human rights lawyer, would lead a team of senior lawyers to represent SERAP and NGE in the lawsuit.
SERAP and NGE asked the court to declare that the provisions of the 6th Edition of the Broadcasting Code used by the NBC are vague and constitute a fundamental breach of press freedom guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution and international human rights standards.
The statement added, “SERAP and NGE are asking the court for a declaration that the provisions of the 6th Edition of the Broadcasting Code used by the NBC are vague and overly broad and constitute a fundamental breach of freedom of expression and media freedom guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution and international human rights standards.”
The groups also sought an interim injunction to restrain the NBC, its agents and other authorities from imposing sanctions on broadcast stations and presenters based on what they described as “unlawful provisions of the 6th Edition of the Broadcasting Code”, pending the hearing and determination of the motion.
“SERAP and NGE are also seeking an order of interim injunction restraining the NBC, its agents or privies, whether jointly or severally or any other authority, from imposing sanctions on broadcast stations and presenters based on the patently unlawful provisions of the 6th Edition of the Broadcasting Code, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed simultaneously in this suit,” the statement concluded.
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