CYBERTORIAL* The dominance of OMD in major African markets has been reaffirmed by the results of RECMA’s latest research. Michael Bratt looked at the numbers and spoke to OMD managing director, Marco Santos, to find out more.
For the twelfth year in a row OMD was placed first for market share in South Africa (with 20.3%), according to the latest Research Company Evaluating the Media Agency Industry (RECMA) results. The company also tops Nigeria with the same percentage market share, came third in Ghana with a 19.4% share and was placed second in Kenya with a 21.3% share.
“The story we are trying to tell is obviously when you take all that volumetric spend across all the major markets, we are by far the leader… Now there is no smoke and mirrors. It’s real, it’s transparent and it’s audited. We are the largest African network out there,” comments Santos. This was the first time that RECMA published results for other African markets, besides South Africa.
OMD is constantly looking to reinforce and expand its presence in Africa because it sees the value that the continent offers.
Santos credits the heritage of the business as the reason behind OMD’s success in Africa. It started operations across the continent in 2002 by creating partnerships, with Nigeria being its first region.
“The reality is we started the process way before any of our competitors. So the network we have is not only established, but it is branded and trading as OMD. So it’s not through affiliations, it’s through actual contractual binding representation of the OMD brand and acquisitions… We’ve got a proven track record and that’s the reason more and more clients are sourcing OMD/OMG as their African solution,” Santos explains.
OMD is constantly looking to reinforce and expand its presence in Africa because it sees the value that the continent offers. It is home to some of the fastest growing economies in the world, a lot of foreign direct investment is being pumped into countries whose potential has not yet been fully reached, and there is still room for growth. Through acquisitions and organic growth where possible, OMD forges ahead with an aggressive growth strategy.
CYBERTORIAL* is sponsored content.