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WOO Regional Forum in Africa: A great opportunity, for a great medium, on a great continent
The World Out of Home Organization’s (WOO) first in-person Regional Forum in Africa will take place in Cape Town from 11 to 13 March.
Image supplied. The World Out of Home Organization’s first in-person Regional Forum in Africa will take place in Cape Town from 11 to 13 March
“Africa is a great continent and the Forum represents a great opportunity for a great medium,” says Tom Goddard, president of the WOO.
Africa: OOH’s biggest growth opportunity
There are a growing number of OOH entrepreneurs in Africa who are pioneering new ways to reach increasingly affluent audiences and to plan, buy and measure campaigns on the biggest of canvasses.
Africa is once again the biggest global opportunity for growth but this time it's growth for everyone, all the people in every country.
Africa’s thriving OOH industry
Africa, with its diversity of countries and people, has a thriving Out of Home (OOH) industry.
“Its market share is higher than in most other countries and on a continent with so many different geographies, the attractions of OOH are easy to see,” says Goddard.
OOH is unique among main advertising media in that innovation is coming from everywhere.
“Africa poses its special challenges, but those challenges are also opportunities.
“By solving problems, we improve and enlarge the medium and the lessons we learn from Africa are also relevant to those working in mature markets such as North America and Europe and those hotbeds of technological innovation, Asia, including Australasia, and the Far East,” adds Goddard.
Everywhere in the world, OOH is establishing itself as the broadcast medium for advertisers of all shapes and sizes.
“What we now call linear TV (that is, non-streaming TV) is losing share globally to digital especially and, in any case a continent like Africa with so many languages is always going to pose particular problems for TV.”
Speakers
Remi du Preez, Polygon
Lunga Mooi, Unilever Africa
Greg Benatar, Alliance Media
Dawn Rowlands, Dentsu SSA
Time Bleakley, Ocean Outdoor Group
Donald Mokgale, Avatar Media Agency
Becoming a global organisation
When Fepe International rebranded to the World Out of Home organization at its 60th anniversary Congress in Dubai 2019, it was about much more than changing the name.
“We set out to be a truly global organisation (Fepe has been focused, although not exclusively, on Europe) and even in the depths of the following pandemic we decided to take our show on the road, to demonstrate that we were, truly, a global organisation,” he explains.
Constrained by the pandemic they started with virtual Forums – Europe, APAC and then Africa in February 2022 before returning to ‘in-person’ events with its Global Congress in Toronto in May 2022.
Forums in Asia and the Middle East and a second Global Congress in Lisbon followed.
“Now we're delighted to turn to Africa,” says Goddard.
This year's Global Congress will be held in Hong Kong in June, so that's pretty global too.
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