Lona Media Limited, one of the largest Out-of-Home agencies, is set to unveil what it described as the world’s largest billboard. Tagged One iNFINITY, the structure will be unveiled on the Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos in October 2022. The pre-launch of the event took place at Wheatbaker, Hotel, Ikoyi Lagos.
With the new offering, One iNFINITY will provide exposure in strategic parts of Lagos State, from the mainland to the Island. The board is thirty eight metres by two hundred and seventy seven point six square metres in size, which is about thirteen storey building.
Speaking on the new offering, Idoko Kingsley Ilonah, Chief Executive Officer, Lona Group of companies, said: “One iNFINITY is set to be the largest advertising billboard in the world. What we have launched is the preparation for our debut activation in October 2022.”
According to Ilonah, the largest contemporary outdoor advertising structure in the world measures 67,382 ft² 11 in², and it’s located in Dubai. Meanwhile, One iNFINITY is ten thousand five hundred and thirty one square metres with a display area of eight thousand twenty two square metres.
“You will agree with me that Lagos State has the fourth largest economy in Africa, and is also the most populous city on the continent. The Third Mainland Bridge also has the largest vehicular traffic in Africa with two hundred and forty five thousand cars on a daily basis plying the bridge. All this is accurate data because there is an automatic counter on the bridge. So, One iNFINITY board is in the most strategic location in Nigeria,” he said.
He explained that the board will be static for a while instead of the proposed LED because of its sheer size, adding that, with a height of thirty eight metres by one hundred and seventy seven, it will give different companies about five to six advantages to showcase their brands.
“We intend to upgrade the board to an LED as time goes on. We spent billions to put up the static board because we needed to prove to people that this can be done. We will upgrade to LED in the next six months,” he said.
Speaking on the project duration, the group chairman said it started in 2015 when Lona partnered with Niverfa, the best steel fabricator company in Nigeria and signed a contract with them in 2016.
“We are completing the project in the next two weeks. This is a multi-billion naira project and it is divided into two phases; phase one is the billboard and phase two will come much later. The entire landmass is about ten acres of land and we intend to beautify it to bring in some additional activities with the Third Mainland Bridge area.
“We are trying to give big companies in Nigeria, most especially indigenous Nigerian companies, the opportunity to be on the largest billboard in the world. Any company that advertises on this board within the period of its activation, any time the story of the biggest billboard in the world is told, the brand will come up.
“The light effect is a programmable LED, and this is the first time it would be done in Nigeria. In October when we are unveiling the board, the world will see that we have done something totally different from what they have ever seen. Guinness World record will be present at the unveiling, there will be a documentary of the board on Netflix,” he explained.
Speaking on the features of the billboard, Joshua Eze, Graphic expert at Lona Media, said: “Lighting system uses light emission of 70% and it increases opportunities for creatives to be able to enhance their campaign. They will be able to animate their campaign from being a steel banner to a place where you have an emission ray motion campaign.
“There are rays of light emission and it comes with a full spectrum of RGB lighting solution, and the entire screen can be animated. It also comes with a bigger transition technique and special LED lighting effect that brings life to a particular image on the board. If you want to activate a new product, the advertiser can use all the spotlights to direct attention to the particular product on the board. All the lights are programmable with the CMS control system and they are controlled from our office in Abuja or wherever we want to control the lights from.”
Other techniques on the board are facial recognition that allows the sensor to count the number of people that looked at the board, Augmented reality (AI), the board also comes alive and not just static, capture vehicle number plates, identifications cameras to give accurate number of cars that use the road, high speed cameras that give advertisers data metric for their exposures etc,.
Lona Media is known for its innovative works, as it introduced the first LED boards in Nigeria in 2006, and the first LED board in Lagos at the Murtala International Airport in Lagos, including the biggest board in Africa.
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