This archive report was first published on 21 June 2020.
As you walk down the streets of Nairobi, you may notice that the city's iconic billboards are no longer as vibrant as they once were. Gone are the eye-catching advertisements that adorned the facades of buildings, replaced by blank spaces that tell a story of economic struggle.
According to Job Ndubi, managing director at Elegance Technology Ltd, business has never been worse for billboard printers, with a 90% dip in sales over the past few months. "We are now doing in a month what we used to do in a day," he says.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the outdoor advertising industry, with many companies struggling to make ends meet. The county's revenue streams, which relied heavily on billboard advertising, have dried up, and companies are now looking for alternative ways to reach their customers.
"Businesses have to survive before they can thrive," says Patrick Wameyo, a financial literacy educator and small business consultant. "When the times are tough, businesses have to lower costs that can be cut without killing them."
As the pandemic continues to sweep through the corporate world, forcing companies to cut costs and lay off employees, the future of billboards in Nairobi looks uncertain. While some companies are optimistic that the industry will recover, others are bracing themselves for a permanent shift to digital advertising.
"Social media cuts across age and social class barriers," says Wameyo. "As such, companies can spread their messages and reach as many clients as possible at any given time."
However, not everyone is convinced that billboards are a thing of the past. Winnie Kimeres, a business executive at Think Outdoor, believes that billboard advertising still has a unique value proposition that cannot be replicated by digital media.
"Companies pay, say, Sh140,000 to have their adverts on a billboard for a whole month. That is very manageable," she says. "Campaigns and products in the first phase of launch do very well on billboards. Companies prefer that customers see the products on billboards before adverts from other less visible or attractive platforms kick in."
