The rise of the human billboard: Is this Kenya's strangest hustle?

NAIROBI, KENYA: Kenya has no shortage of innovative and creative entrepreneurs ready to take advantage of any economic situation.

One of their latest innovations is the ‘human billboard’. Every day, a horde of young men and women walk around major towns carrying placards – one may mistake them for protestors, but they are not.

There is one such ‘human billboard’ who wears a white coat, and mimes drinking and eating to advertise a restaurant just before Blue Post Hotel in Thika.

This hustle fascinates me. Is it cheaper than fixed billboards? Are human billboards paid a monthly salary or paid per day? What are the entry requirements to be a human billboard? When asked by their friends, what job description do they give? Who came up with this idea of human billboards?

Unemployment has led our youngsters to such unique jobs – they need medals for their patience. Imagine holding a billboard all day in the sun.

The fact that human billboards move around probably makes them more effective than fixed billboards. They follow the potential market, conglomerating around roundabouts where motorists have time to notice the boards. They keep changing their locations throughout the day. Moving in a group probably makes them more effective.

Human billboards might be effective for another reason – we are always demonstrating on the streets, either calling for higher pay or supporting our politicians. We can easily relate to human billboards because of these demos.

It’s interesting that human billboards are competing with non-human billboards, including vans with electronic screens on all the sides. Unable to take on such alternative adverts, it seems creative entrepreneurs turned to human beings.

As human billboards thrive on our streets, recent reports show that digital advertising grew by 17 per cent last year, with Google and Facebook taking 54 per cent of that market. By 2021, more than 50 per cent of advertising will be digital. Do human billboards indicate we’re lagging behind? Or are we being creative in using abundant resources – in our case, human labour?

Symptom of creativity

The use of human billboards is a symptom of our creativity. It also shows how entrepreneurs can creatively reduce the costs of advertising.

Unemployment has led our youngsters to take on jobs that are not common anywhere else in the world. The use of human billboards indicates our economy needs scaling up. We need to shift to jobs that demand higher skills and higher pay. Why can’t we design the electronic billboards? Why can’t we design websites for adverts instead of using human billboards?

The use of human billboards is a sign that our economy needs restructuring. We need to scale up and make use of modern technology in marketing, in agriculture, in education, in Government and other sectors.

A high unemployment rate is not a good enough reason to remain at low levels of economic development. What skills would help human billboards earn more money and live a better life? Can we ensure our education captures those skills? Does that include STEM and other skills that are transferable across nations and sectors? 

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