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By Ayo Onikoyi
Little Femi Ogundoro is the President and CEO of Maxima Group, owner of Views Channel, currently operating on the StarTimes platform. The channel is a versatile theme channel for young people that focuses on lifestyle, entertainment, food and other diverse interests.
In this interview with Potpourri, he examines the challenges of digital television and its future, as well as the journey he took to become the owner of a television station in Nigeria.
What to do?
In simple terms, what we do is basically an integrated media and marketing communication. It may be a group, but it is integrated. So if you check out the companies in this group, from Maxima Productions, the production agency that tells the stories through audio-visual materials, to Maxima Integrated Media, which is the creative store and the media marketing services, to your timeless value services that create the brand image of multinationals. and we produce these things. Initially, we were just creating ideas and giving them to people to produce, but we realized they did not do it right. So we had to move from the simple conceptualization to the implementation of these things.
Experience was one of my main tasks between 2005 and 2007, we had our great success in 2007, but for the experience, you will need a lot of money. At that time, we had three companies. I had a production company whose content was intended for television, experience and brand. I struggled because I could not finance the three companies at the same time, contrary to what everyone wants to give you money. Nobody wanted to give you money. Banks will only take and not give, so I had to stop the experience and focus more on television and branding. We have managed to integrate each of these things into what we call Maxima Media Group and within this group we have five different activities.
When did it become comfortable to manage five companies?
It's a trip and it's not like we've just started running the five. First of all, I reinforced my abilities to be able to do it, in terms of education and exposure. I hired for free in different projects just because I wanted to live this experience. Many people will want you to pay for them to learn under your roof and when they are finished, they will want to move to the next place with what they have learned from you.
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It is a very messed up system! We did it one at a time. we broadcast content on television, brand and we ran them as businesses, one after the other, but I reinvested 100%. I come from an environment where I saw everyone who started a business in the 80s or 90s fail. I've seen businesses disappear as soon as the owner is gone.
I said in my mind that I was not going to run this kind of business, so from the beginning I have not received a financial allowance for a long time. So all the money we have earned has been recovered. In order for you to manage a production organization, you need to know about finance, marketing, sales, and production. For you to run a brand company, you need to know, understand and get involved. I do marketing during the day and at one point I have lived in my office. I did not spend the money I saved.
When did you start thinking of Views Channel as a 24-hour platform, what need did you have to satisfy?
In 2009, it was at that time that it became very clear. You can not talk about Views Channel without talking about Views and Tunes. It was also a trip in two phases: the first phase was Views and Tunes, which resulted from the fact that the artists in the industry at that time did not know much about companies and did not have a mechanism. channel through which they could receive comments on any matter.
So I created a platform that everyone can connect to at the same time. We take you on the street with your video and your video and ask questions about it, but the only ones who could do it at that time were the multinationals who had money.
We will get the comments from the street and we will communicate them to the people of the industry. This is essentially what brought the sights and the tunes. So in a TV show, you'll see a question about the industry and it's an experience. This uses 360 degrees to tackle one room at a time. He caught up very quickly; we started on Super Screen and MBI and before we knew it, we went in 7 stations, then in 14 stations. We went to Ghana. In a quarter, she became number two after Foresight TV in Ghana with VarSat1.
The format was fantastic. But when Facebook arrived, we used it to promote the show and remind them to watch TV, but Facebook and social media, in general, became the portal where people wanted to go because it There was no light. People were therefore attracted to the digital world, and at that time their relevance dropped considerably.
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But since it was not the only thing we were doing, we returned the script, went back to the same target audience and realized that they still wanted to speak and stay on TV, they wanted to be stars but there was no platform even though social media were now there. So we pulled out and refocused on the platform because it expressed more the pbadion of young people.
Fortunately, whites had already begun to describe a generation of people by the name of Millennials, and as this was the group of people we were trying to talk to, we were interested. We have renamed it as Views Channel, where young, young people from 16 to 35 years old can really focus and let them know that education is very important, but one of the points essential to check is what you are pbadionate about.
Views is on Startimes. Why not DSTV?
I went to DSTV three years ago and they looked at my size and it can be said from their body language that I did not look like one who can own a TV channel. I even went back and I called the brand leader of the time, and it was pretty much the same thing, because he thought that owning a station on DSTV was way beyond me. So I went back and I told myself not to worry, that I would do what I do. I've noticed that in life, when you create value, people will linger there.
This may not happen instantly, but over time they will come to you, but you must understand your USP (Unique Selling Point). We moved on to something else when DSTV did not accept us then and then introduced two of the Startimes doctors and I did not really see the photo I had envisioned. First, they are Chinese, so the language barrier is there. I explain something about my market but they did not understand it, it was the guys around them who understood a little, but they were not in charge. I boarded the plane and I went to South Africa for a five – minute meeting with their GP in Africa to continue on this issue. The guys in Nigeria were still grumbling and when the doctor was in Nigeria he asked to see me. We met several times and he approved it.
So, what kind of content is on the channel?
The type of content you find there is born from millennia reviews. So, if you look at the kids and what they want, because the terrestrial TV was not giving them what they wanted, they turned to YouTube.
They do not want music even if they like music; movies and music are the two things kids love the most and the third is food. And we are sure of what we want to do after the Views channel; in fact, we have been working on it for three years. His name is Food Bae. It is the first of its kind in Africa. We serve a variety; it's for Millenials and Generation Z. So that indicates the type of content we put in it.
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How do you make money with all this?
We have advertisers and that's a way. It's a grace for us, that's how I'm going to describe it. The Views channel will have a year in August and seven brands have been announced on this platform. In fact, Startimes called me one day to ask me if I was showing ads for free and I said no. For us, it is not so much money, because we are not where we were a year ago.
Do not you think digital TV is going to be in danger in the future?
It is already endangered, but the content is king and the content is the future. If you have convincing content, people will be interested. It's also a function of what you do with the content because you can have good content and, if it's not marketed properly, it's like blinking in the dark.
What are your projections for the future?
Everything is a matter of value to me. The refusal of some people to adapt to change is what led to their death. So for us, to the extent that there is value, we continue to move forward. On the media, for example, you want to create platforms that can inform, educate and entertain as you go.
As for the group, I'm not going to continue to lead it, so the overall goal is to find people who can do it better than I do now. The dream is that we are listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange market. Watch Universal Studio, CBS and TBS. There is a network. Those who built them built what will survive them. Can we do the same thing? These guys have been here for decades and they are still here and they do not seem to be going anywhere.
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