Is there another product
that you have on offer?
Just to dig deeper, when it comes to bus
advertisement there is a split of three
types of products, there is the external
which means you can do all three sides
which is a full run, the two sides and the
rear, some other clients who only want to
target the motorist can just do the rear,
so normally we will say full run is three
sixty, the rear is predominantly targeted
towards the motorists who are stuck
behind the branded vehicle. The sides
target the commuters and the pedestrians.
The inside targets the commuters, and
can be used in to disseminate educational
materials. The experiential side is where
brand ambassadors can go in, sample,
sell and distribute within the buses. We
also advertise on bus shelters and even do
activations within them. We don’t wait for
people to come to your message, we take
your message to the people.
Is there anything else in
your bucket?
The other one is the airline media, the
airport media, where you can be able to
advertise inside the Jambojet aircrafts,
which includes branding the table tray.
You can opt for air hostesses giving out
fliers or your special communique when
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the passengers are disembarking. We
also leave them with the message that
combines the in-flight and out flight so it’s
like a sponsored radio; when they finish
the safety briefing they give a one or two
line message which sounds like a radio
mention but now it’s live in an aircraft.
Online assets include advertisement
within the e-ticketing as well as on the
back of the hard copy boarding pass.
What is one key milestone
you have witnessed as the
founder of TRIA.
When I started out bus advertisement
no one could understand it properly and
nobody wanted to do it. My happiness
is seeing the medium adopted on a
widespread scale which is a culmination
of relentless investment in educating
targeted publics on these platforms. You
know people fear what they do not know
but once you explain it and break it down
as to what the potential this media has
there is acceptance.
What do you see your
company in the next five
years?
Our motto is to innovate and disrupt, and
just like we said when we came into the
transit sector, we were the first company
in east Africa to do advertisement and
activations inside an airplane. It was
unheard of, until we had to record the
whole thing for people to believe. We
proudly created an industry!
Our country unfortunately has a big
copycat culture. Rather than people
innovating and finding their own space
everybody wants to be a ‘me too’, every
Tom, Dick and Harry wants to replicate
exactly what you do but they don’t have the
competency to do it. Some end up doing a
poor job which spoil the reputation of the
entire industry. I don’t mind if you come
to copy me but then do a good job because
when you do a bad job in your pursuit you
spoil the name of everyone in the industry.
We strive to be our own biggest competition
and always ensure we are ahead when it
comes to innovation because for me the
law of creation means when you are the
one building something from zero nobody
can replicate your thoughts, your ideas,
you can try and copy what I have done but
you cannot take away my mind and brain
from me, and that is the competency we
are building to stay ahead of the game.
How do you compare Out
of Home solutions in East
Africa with other developed