Why Plaqad’s new marketing communications tool is a big win for local brands, agencies

BY SAM ADEOYE

Forget whatever you might have heard from your neighbour who waxes lyrical about how it’s absolutely possible to run a successful business, as her brother from Jos has done, with nothing but a boatload of capital aka initial cash investment. There’s something your friend is omitting: in this age and time, downplaying the importance of analytical data is a direct flight to Hasbeenville. 

So, while his fancy cars and mansion in the village may suggest that he’s got it all down pat, your friend’s brother wouldn’t go to sleep on any night without first analysing all the data relating to his business — it’s what the successful ones do.

But many emerging small businesses fall naively into the pit of inadequate market research before and during the course of building their enterprise. While some company founders are simply ignorant, for others, it is just too much work to combine actual commercial day-to-day with the analyses of data from several disparate sources and maybe all over the place. However, without reliable market intelligence, running a business is like driving blindfolded. Eventually, the business — SME, promising local brand, or marketing agency — crashes and burns.

No matter how tedious a market research and data analysis process may seem, its importance can’t be overstated. In this dog-eat-dog world, where businesses now have to literally crawl on their knees to tickle the fancy of fickle consumers, data is indeed king. It is a very important component of business strategy and decision making.

Existing market research methodology, lack of quality data, and unverifiable research outcomes are some of the top challenges that have been identified as keeping market researchers awake at night. Although 2020 is the year in which technological tools became more abundant for the ease of doing business, the difficulty in gathering information about specific target markets or customers persists and is not peculiar to local brands and agencies. In particular, it is of great worry to influencers, content creators and publishers, especially as it’s become increasingly difficult, among the market players, to separate noise from facts.

This is why a recent announcement by Plaqad, a Lagos-based tech startup, that it has launched an end-to-end marketplace and analytics platform for influencers, content creators and publishers should be music to everyone’s ears. I know it is to mine.

According to the company, the new analytic tool will bring together the people, the tools, the products, and other resources required by businesses to run successful campaigns on a single platform. Plaqad further says the tool will make it easier to bridge the gap in communication between disenfranchised brands and their audiences, regardless of budget, location or size.

“The software company combines an influencer platform, an online freelance marketplace, with a robust social media tracking analytics platform to help brands run end-to-end social and web campaigns,” Plaqad’s statement reads. I must say this innovation, which is brand new to the world, including the developed markets, is just as commendable as it is exciting.

Why Plaqad, which describes itself as an independent software company embarking on a global expansion, can be trusted to deliver on its promises is in the sterling track record it has established since its founding in 2018. The company, for instance, has so far onboarded no less than 15,000 influencers, content creators and publishers, while generating a revenue of over one million dollars.

To put into perspective the significance of Plaqad’s analytics tool for local brands and agencies, in 2019, global advertising spend was $563 billion according to data by Statista. And according to a new report by IMARC Group, a leading market research company, titled “Advertising Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2019-2024”, the advertising market is predicted to reach US$ 769.9 Billion by 2024, strengthened by the growth of digital media.

Plaqad is also the force behind SocialCred, a one of a kind tool that measures and ranks online influence in a scientific manner. The tool, the startup says, will promote transparency in influencer marketing while also countering influencer fraud, separating real influencers from those simply faking it.

“We care and are passionate about mobilizing people,” said Plaqad’s CEO, Gbenga Sogbaike. “Plaqad is here to sanitize the real from the fake.” This is another reason for every local brand and agency to applaud the launch of the analytics tool. Local brands and agencies who spend a ton of their money on advertising and manual data collection with little to no results can heave a sigh of relief, as they can now trust that the data collected will be of the highest quality.

This sounds like a really big deal and by choosing to carry on its back the monumental weight of clarity in the influencer marketing industry, Plaqad could just be the David to the establishment goliaths in the global PR and Marketing software battle.

The Plaqad analytics tool is a win for local brands. A win for agencies. A win for influencers, content creators and publishers. A win for Nigeria. A win for Africa. And indeed, a win for tech.