Michael Ringier, the Chairman of Swiss media group, Ringier AG, has arrived in Nigeria for his first visit years after the group dug roots in the African market.
He arrived in Nigeria on Monday, May 14, 2018, with Ringier AG CEO, Marc Walder, Deputy Chairman of the group’s Board of Directors, Dr Uli Sigg, and member of the group’s executive board, Robin Lingg.
With the operations of the Ringier Africa Digital Publishing (RADP) and Ringier One Africa Media (ROAM) in African countries, the team’s visit is expected to showcase and engage the local teams on the current business of Ringier in Nigeria and Africa.
The team had dinner with international Ringier Africa managing directors late on Monday at the Eko Hotel – Sky Bar in Lagos, before proceeding to the RADP HQ in Lekki on Tuesday, May 15.
During a session where team heads made presentations on the topic, “Insight market, business and operations”, Michael Ringier was briefed on the inner workings of the group’s operation in Nigeria.
While making his presentation, Head of Editorial and Editor-In-Chief, Pulse Africa, Osagie Alonge, explored a brief history of Nigeria and what the average Nigerian consumer is most interested in consuming.
He noted, “The gateway to getting into young people’s minds is through entertainment and as the Nigerian entertainment market and media is one of the fastest growing worldwide, it only makes sense that Ringier heralds bringing everything regarding entertainment to the Nigerian audience through online platforms as the world becomes more digitized.”
He also noted that Nigerians outside the country are some of its frequent consumers as they feed on the excitement that Pulse provides.
“Nigerians in the diaspora are tuned into Pulse and that’s quite a large audience. The traditional or native publishers don’t give them that excitement of news in real time and so Pulse provides that,” he said.
RADP CEO, Tim Kollmann, presented an overview of the group’s operations in Nigerian when it initially started as Pulse.
“What makes us unique is how diversified we are and how much more diversification we are trying to input into the market,” he said.
General Manager at Ringier Africa AG, Leonard Stiegeler, informed the Ringier AG team that the group offers the African market unique services that no one else is offering, which makes it the best.
He said, “We, RADP, are the only ones providing a really integrated solution to brands for any campaigns or digital advertising. No one else is doing that.
“It’s easy to just put up banners on Facebook or Google, but we’re not only doing that, we’re providing exceptional creative services with Play Studio, Social Media management, etc. It’s definitely tougher but that’s why we’re the best to provide these services.”
While reacting to the presentations, Ringier AG CEO, Marc Walder remarked that RADP is on the right path to becoming an industry giant. He further noted that the group should stick to doing what makes it unique.
He said, “I think so far RADP is doing a great job with reach and distribution and you are well on your way to becoming a fully integrated company and giants of this ever-growing industry.
“We need to really create positive synergies between publishing and the marketplace. What we are doing currently is really very good so we need to educate and infuse what we do and the value of it into the market. What we create and how we go about creating it has way more value than just billboards on the way to the airport.”
After the presentation, the Ringier AG team proceeded to a meet and greet walk around the RADP office as well as engage in a question and answer session with RADP’s editorial team.
Source: Pulse.ng
