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Our History
The West Africa Publicity founded on 31st August 1928 started the outdoor advertising race in West Africa. Although the company did not develop advertising beyond the posting of double and quad crownposters on walls at strategic locations. There were also metal signs for Good Year Tyres; Ovaltine nailed on trees by sales promotion team of West African Publicity. There were also Hercules neon sign on Tom Jones Hall. As West African Publicity acquired more local accounts such as Kingsway Stores, Nigerian Breweries, Nigerian Tobacco Company and many others, there was a feeling in the agency that its ownership of an outdoor medium had disadvantages in the growth of the agency as spenders of client's advertising budget on an in-house media. The then Coast manager, Mr. P.H. Harris had to make recommendations to the U.K. for the separation of the outdoor section from West African Publicity. As preparatory measure to the separation of the outdoor section from West African Publicity, all billboard on Railway Property were handed over to Mr. M. Freemont in March, 1957, Railways having set up an outdoor advertising department in 1956. In July 1958, Messrs. J.W. Mills, Chairman and Managing Director of Mills and Rockleys, a U.K. based outdoor advertising company and Mr. G.C. Campbell of Franco Signs Limited visited Nigeria on visibility survey. They visited Ibadan, Kaduna and Enugu with the writer for on-the-spot assessment of the country's potentials. It was a year later that a separate company, Afromedia Nigeria Limited was registered precisely on 28th October, 1959.
AFROMEDIA NIGERIA LIMITED (1959 - 1974) With the separation of the outdoor section from the agency, West African Publicity changed its name to Lintas Limited and moved office to No.4, Tinubu Street while Afromedia Nigeria Limited remained at No. 4, Custom Street with new management staff from Mills & Rockleys. With the arrival of Mr. D.M. Casey, the developments of the company and outdoor started in earnest. The first assignment of Mr. Casey was to undertake a nationwide tour to assess the situation on ground based on his brief in London and Lagos. After an extensive tour of the country it was decided to start the erection of 40-sheet and 16-sheet billboards in Lagos to replace the existing 8-sheet, double and quad crowns billboards which were being phased out. The first 40-sheet was erected at the junction of Apapa Road and Denton Street with the number LA 1, and a 16-sheet board was erected on the wall of 4, Custom Street corner of Phoenix Lane numbered LA 2. It is relevant at this stage to report that the registration of Afromedia Ghana Limited and Afromedia Sierra Leone Limited was simultaneous with the company in Nigeria. The responsibilities of overseeing the two companies in Ghana and Sierra Leone was vested on the manager in Nigeria, and thus from time to time he would visit the two companies to supervise their operations. Having established operational base in Lagos, it was decided to open offices in Ibadan and Kano. This was done with the appointment of Area Supervisors from existing West African Publicity staff whose services had been transferred to Afromedia Nigeria Limited. Billposters and joiners who were previously stationed at UAC outlets were withdrawn to Ibadan and Kano area offices. The eastern area office was opened later at Aba. With three functional area offices at Ibadan, Kano and Aba, the next stage of development was the mechanization of the methods of erection of billboards and billposting operations by the use of company owned vehicles in place of the existing arrangements where the operations were undertaken by the use of public transport which was most unreliable. While Mr. Casey was training the technical staff, a new manager, Mr. M.D. Redman, arrived Nigeria in February 1961 also from Mills and Rockleys, U.K. to set up a planning system based on the U.K. pattern.The system involves the proper documentation of all billboards giving such details as date of erection, landlord's name , address of billboard, annual rent payable to landlord or Local Government council, and campaign. The above details are entered are entered on a card for each billboard and this is fixed ona kardex. With this system in place, it was possible for two billposters to visit several towns in each billposting area office during a period of six days, Monday through Saturday, using company vehicle. The system also makes it possible for all billboards in an area office to be reposted during a period of eight weeks circle, but with maximum flexibility so that a major campaign could be started any week and the vast majority of posters could be in position during that week. Late in 1961, Mr. D.M.Casey the first Afromedia Manager had to return to the U.K. for personal reasons and was replaced by Mr. P.J. Kelly. It must be placed on record that Mr. Casey worked assiduously during his tenure and laid a firm foundation for the continued growth of the companies in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. Even after his exit, he still maintained contact with some of us resulting in social meetings during our visits to the U.K.
MR. P.J. KELLY Before the arrival of Mr. P.J. Kelly in 1961, outdoor advertising has already gathered momentum with the establishment of the following advertising agencies in addition to Lintas:
As the main founder of the association, he was the president while the late Mr. P.O. Dibia of Railway Advertising Service was the secretary. However, Mr. Olu Fadiro of Daily Times was elected president some years later. In 1963, Mr. Kelly commissioned Research Bureau Limited to conduct Nigerian media survey. It centered on interviews with a random sample of 200 men and 200 women in each of the 10 main estates in Lagos, and in each of the former regions namely, the East, the West, and the North. The result was presented to agencies and advertisers in 1964 at Bristol Hotel. The result gave credence to the poster medium in Nigeria in terms of coverage, and repetition for representative groups of sites in each town sampled. Afromedia, coming through the successful results of the media research, also commissioned Mr. A. W. Steward from the U.K. to do the classification of the billboard nationally in Nigeria and Ghana. The basis of the classification was a visit to all towns where Afromedia has billboards and taking photographs of each site, classifying them into grades ABC according to locations and activities in the area. The exercise took two years to complete and at the end, all billboards were graded and arranged in route order. Billboard prices were revised upwards in accordance with each grade, the planning system which was earlier installed by Mr. Redman was further enhanced by the reduction of travelling time and more productivity by billposters. Messrs. Steward and Redman returned to the U.K. in 1965 and 1966 respectively. The writer who worked with Mr. Redman throughout his stay in Nigeria developed relationship with Mr. & Mrs. Redman, which culminated in friendship which, has lasted till date.
OUTDOOR ADVERTISING CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA In 1954, Mr. Kelly, having spearheaded the development Outdoor industry in Nigeria, foresaw the need for a body to deal with Government at later years. As there were only Afromedia and Railways in outdoor advertising at the time, it became necessary to get the big advertisers like Nigeria Tobacco Company Limited, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Lever Brothers Nigeria Limited and Guinness Nigeria Limited to be interested in presenting a common front against unnecessary control in the future. In this connection, an association known as Outdoor Advertising Contractors Association of Nigeria (OACAN) was formed. The first meeting of the body was held at the boardroom of Afromedia Nigeria Limited at 17, Creek Road, Apapa in April 1964 with the following in attendance.
The Association and its founding members remained the representative body of the outdoor media for some time until other outdoor operators came on the scene at a later date. It must be said that the association made a strong representation to Government/ Lagos City Council on the first advertising Bye Law promulgated in 1965 by the Lagos City Council. Although Afromedia remained the flagship of the development of the industry in Nigeria over the years and most importantly during the tenure of Mr. Kelly 's management. 1961-1972. It is important to mention that some companies came on the scene to play their parts according to their resources before they voluntarily closed shops. The notable ones among the motley companies are as follows:
POSTER PRINTING Before the inauguration of Afromedia in 1959, all posters displayed in Nigeria were printed in the U.K. and shipped to Nigeria. Few years later the management of Afromedia considered the ideas of printing the posters locally and consequently when the office was moved from No. 4, Custom Street, Lagos in 1962 to No. 17, Creek Road, Apapa, a printing shop was established.
SIZES The term sheet (4-sheet, 16-sheet and 40-sheet e.t.c.) as used in the poster industry is based on the U.K. practice and refers to a measurement of 30'' + 41'' known as double crown. It was during Mr. Kelly's tenure that the first half tone 16 and 40 sheet posters were printed at our Apapa factory and Afromedia has remained a leader in all development of the industry in Nigeria. Outdoor advertising business blossomed until the unfortunate civil war of 1966-1970 when advertising in the Eastern and Mid-Eastern states was disrupted resulting in the loss of valuable assets and personnel by members of the Outdoor Contractors Association of Nigeria. At the end of the hostilities, Mr. Kelly undertook a tour of the affected states in order to resettle the surviving staff and to find ways of re-activating operations in these areas. Outdoor advertising gradually returned to its pre-1966 era with the local industries reactivating their productions and re-opening of their eastern and mid-west area offices. Mr. Kelly having completed his term returned to the U.K. where he is enjoying a quiet life at Suffolk. Mr. Trevor Owen: Mr. Owen who had been with Afromedia as Display Manager since 1962 took over as the general manager of the company. The management staff of the company resisted he UAC sale of the company to an individual during the indigenization of the company in 1973. The Company was thereafter sold to the Nigerian Management Staff in March 1974. The Nigerian management introduces new outdoor advertising structures as listed below:
CONTROLS Outdoor advertising in its various forms has for.... >>> full story
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