Decades after Out-of-Home advertising became one of Nigeria’s most visible media formats, stakeholders are commissioning the sector’s first independent audience study, and admitting, frankly, that the industry has been guessing all along.
For years now, gigantic billboards and digital screens have dominated major cities, highways, airports, and commercial districts across Nigeria. It is hardly possible to drive through a major road without seeing transit advertisements informing the public about products and services.
Yet behind all that visibility, one question has gone unanswered: who, exactly, is the audience, and how are they engaging with what they see?
It is against this backdrop that stakeholders in Nigeria’s Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising industry have begun a study aimed at providing the sector with the data-driven insights it has long lacked.
At a press briefing in Lagos on May 27, 2026, OOH Academy Nigeria officially commissioned Research Brooks Limited to conduct what the organisers described as the first comprehensive and independent audience study in the modern history of the sector.
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The project, titled the “Nigeria OOH Advertising Consumer Penetration &Audience Behaviour Study,” is being championed by OOH Academy Nigeria, organisers of the Location Marketing (LOMA) Conference and Awards, in partnership with TMKG Consulting, and with support from several stakeholders across the OOH ecosystem.
Speaking at the commissioning, Kingsley Onwukaeme, Founder of OOH Academy Nigeria and Convener of the Location Marketing Awards, described the study as alandmark initiative, and offered a frank diagnosis of why it was needed.
“For over a decade, since I personally joined this industry, there has not been any comprehensive independent study of this nature focused on understanding OOH audience penetration, consumer engagement, movement patterns, audience behaviour, and industry market realities in Nigeria.
“An industry as important and visible as Out-of-Home advertising cannot continue to rely solely on assumptions, estimates, or fragmented data,” he said.
Onwukaeme noted that consumer attention is evolving alongside technology, and that cities are becoming smarter and more connected, placing a demand on the industry to evolve through credible intelligence rather than instinct.
Beyond this study, he said the initiative is intended to become an annual publication under the flagship title, “LOMA Outlook: The State of Out-of-Home &Location Marketing in Africa,” building a longitudinal record of how the sector develops year on year.
The study, he added, would deliver insights into audience behaviour and mobility patterns, consumer engagement with outdoor media, media visibility and effectiveness, market intelligence, industry spending trends, and emerging opportunities shaping the future of the sector.
Onwukaeme stressed that the initiative is ultimately aimed at “building a more transparent, credible, measurable, and trusted Out-of-Home advertising industry driven by facts, research, and intelligence.”
Explaining the study’s methodology, the CEO, Lead & Principal Investigator at Research Brooks Limited, Mr Jonathan Kalu, said the research has been designed as a pan-Nigeria exercise anchored on credibility, rigour, and the generation of reliable data to support industry decision-making.
According to him, the study will cover 12 key cities across Nigeria, including Lagos, Ibadan, Benin, Asaba, Onitsha, Enugu, Aba, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, and Sokoto, representing a significant geographic spread aimed at ensuring national balance and representation.
Kalu disclosed that the research will adopt a mixed-method approach, comprising a quantitative phase focused on audience reach, penetration, and behavioural patterns, alongside a qualitative component designed to provide deeper insight into consumer perceptions and engagement with outdoor media.
The sample will target socio-economic classes A to D and will be structured around indicators such as purchasing power, household assets, and living standards.
“At the end of the day, we are looking at 1,800 quantitative samples, 12 focus group discussions across the cities, and 30 in-depth interviews. We believe this is robust enough to give the industry something it can truly be proud of,” he said.
To avoid the trap of over-promising, Kalu placed the project timeline at 10 weeks.
“We truly do not want to over-promise and under-deliver. Even though we may complete it earlier, we are comfortable with this timeline so that nobody is taken unawares,” he added.
Kalu maintained that Research Brooks Limited remains committed to delivering an independent and evidence-based intelligence report, stressing that no compromises would be made in safeguarding the integrity of the research process.
To reinforce the study’s independence, an oversight committee of experienced industry professionals was constituted to supervise the process.
The committee includes Emmanuel Adediran, Business Unit Lead at Plus Acuity and a media strategist; Ikechukwu Ogbonna, former Head of Consumer Research at Dentsu Nigeria and a former Kantar executive; and Felix Ehikhuemen, a former leader within the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) and founding member of the African OOH Congress.
Emmanuel Adediran, who chairs the committee, framed the study’s value in commercial terms.
He said despite the sector’s resilience and steady growth over the past five to ten years, it has continued to operate without a unified measurement system, and that gap has cost it investor confidence.
“Once the report and its insights become available, brands and businesses will be more willing to invest in the sector because measurable data makes investment easier to justify, Adediran emphasised.
Ehikhuemen echoed the urgency, arguing that the industry can no longer afford to delay the adoption of structured intelligence systems, particularly in a technology-driven global environment.
He called for stakeholder alignment to ensure the findings produce action rather than applause.
TMKG Consulting, which brings over 20 years of experience in OOH monitoring and audit data, also pledged to support the study with its existing datasets.
The initiative has also drawn the attention of the sector’s key regulatory and professional bodies.
The Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), and the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) are all officially aware of and engaged with the process.
The final report is expected to be unveiled at the fourth edition of the LOMA Conference and Awards in September 2026, where copies will be distributed to industry stakeholders to inform policy direction, market growth, and data-driven decision-making.
As Nigeria’s advertising industry navigates digital transformation and shifting consumer behaviour, the study arrives at a critical moment, and perhaps a turning point.
For the first time, the industry will no longer depend on guesswork or fragmented data.
With the launch of a landmark audience study, Nigeria’s out-of-home advertising sector is entering a new era of data-driven decision-making, one that may well shape the industry’s trajectory for the next decade.
