WHY WE ARE THE #1 LIFESTYLE PLATFORM

In the last month, whether you live or had visited Lagos or Abuja, it would've been hard for you not turn on your TV, radio, scroll through social media, take a walk or drive without encountering the Nairabox brand.

We have come to the end of a very interesting year and as I type my reflections, we are still selling tickets for the Yemi Alade concert, which is closing the event season officially with her headline event happening in Abuja tonight to crossover to 2019.

This year started a bit rough in the beginning with a major restructuring of the executive management which led to a big switch in strategy and direction of the company. As one of the founders and one who has been part of the executive management since inception, it has been the toughest part of the journey of this company thus far.

My partner Mr Tokunbo Adetona and I came up with a new direction, the focus would be to drive the business of Nairabox, the business of lifestyle. We came to the realization that in the 3-years of our existence, we had created a sleeping giant. We were the only company who had successfully aggregated all the major cinemas across the country, enabling people buy cinema tickets seamlessly online at their own convenience. So if you were in Akure or Ibadan, Warri or Benin you could safely and conveniently purchase a cinema or event ticket digitally. Thus, we decided to wake the sleeping giant as it were and enable other platforms, platforms with a larger user base provide this experience to their customers.

We kicked off our partnership with Diamond bank powering their Cinema and Event tickets feature on their mobile banking app, also two other products known as GEMZONE and Xclusive Plus. Other such partnerships include 'Access mobile', FCMB, First Bank, Sterling One pay, Unity Bank, ALAT by Wema, Remita and a lot more are still integrating to go live in 2019. Needless say these partnerships caused a significant increase in the online sales of Cinema and Event tickets, but this particular feat was not enough for us.

We then saw an opportunity to co-brand the growing movie going experience. We partnered with movie distributor companies, one being the distributors for Disney in Nigeria and worked with them on the release of 'BLACK PANTHER' and 'THE AVENGERS', from advance ticket booking, to the guest listing at the premiere. We created a lot of buzz via social media that created a frenzy adding to the global buzz, it worked. Online accounted for 10% of the tickets sold (via Nairabox and Partners) of the two highest grossing movies at the Nigerian box office in 2018. 10%? you ask? Yes, before now online sales never did 0.1%, so this was a pretty huge milestone for us.

Moving to the events sector, after the success of Davido's 30 BG concert in 2017, which we handled exclusively, we saw the competition wake up and at least 15 new ticketing platforms sprung up, it was clear they could smell the new oil in the entertainment industry. The problem with the Nairabox team, resting on our laurels is never an option, we needed to set a bar for ourselves that also seemed impossible for us to achieve. As more ticketing platforms came up, we also had new event promoters in the game looking at setting new records. In Q1 we had Castle Lite calling on us to exclusively distribute their tickets for the J.Cole concert, we were mandated to sell out Eko convention center, strictly Nairabox (online), it was sold out in 2 weeks. We then went on to do 'Homecoming' which had UK Grime Artist Skepta as the headliner and Naomi Campbell giving good graces, we sold this event out too. These international concerts were a good introduction into 2018, we turned it up a little with another exclusive partnership with Universal Live a subsidiary of Universal Music Group Nigeria, which kicked off their series of events with the Major Lazer concert which happened in August with over 7,000 attendees at the Hardrock Beach front, stay tuned in 2019 for more from Universal.

Tis event season! This is from late November - 31st of December, here are some of the major concerts in 2018 we handled; Davido live in concert (Abuja), Wizkid Live in Abuja, Simi Live in concert, Wande Coal, Adekunle Gold (3 days concert), Davido live in Concert (Lagos), Burna boy Live, Native Land, Yemi Alade Live in Concert (Abuja) just to name a few.

The event industry has grown rapidly since my last article, as of last year of our exclusive concerts only 40% of tickets were sold online, the rest sold through physical outlets or at the venue. Now, over 80% of tickets sold for our events, were purchased online. In fact, setting a new record for Nairabox and the events sector at large was Burna Boy's - Burna Boy Live concert which saw 100% of the tickets sold was strictly online, a 5,000 capacity venue. Every concert listed above 'SOLD OUT' through the Nairabox platform, including selling out Eko Atlantic for Davido's Live in Concert, which sold out 12 days of being announced. It's safe to say that the days of people fearing purchasing tickets online are long gone. Notwithstanding, we still have a few things to work on.

We are currently improving the accessibility of our online ticket platforms to make purchases for our customers even easier.

We're also working with event promoters to develop ticketing desks and the experience of ticket redemption at events.

My predictions for the event space in 2019, we will have more international acts perform in Nigeria, there will be more artists joining Wizkid, Davido and Burnaboy on the Superstar list which will mean more promoters springing up to invest in concerts. A lot more than 15 new ticketing platforms will surface or maybe one or two international ones will come in, LET THEM COME! we are ready!

To everyone who took their time to read this, I do not know what you have taken from this but I will leave you with this, in whatever you do always deliver, be consistent and have a pure heart, this does not mean you should not compete but compete with integrity. Hardwork always WINS!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Jay Chikezie Co-Founder Nairabox