Addis Ababa’s Digital Dawn Is Here—But It’s Not Cheap

By Aksah Italo
Published on 11/17/25

Addis Ababa captures the pulse of a city in flux. As vehicles rush past newly risen high-rises gleaming under the moonlight, the landscape unfolds as a defining chapter in Ethiopia’s ongoing story of modernization.

As night falls, the city’s main avenues and boulevards glow with an almost theatrical brightness, leaving a lasting impression on all who pass through.

This transformation is no coincidence. It is the product of a deliberate and sustained urban drive under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD), an administration intent on ensuring that first impressions endure, both for its people and the world looking in.

A wide alleyway off Bole Rwanda Road, once an unnoticed path for travelers hurrying to the airport, now hums with the pulse of a digital age. Neon lights, glowing screens, and pixelate buildings bathe its corners in an unending twilight of motion and color.

The newest attraction is Tropical Mall, a 13-storey complex housing more than seventy shops, a sleek emblem of Addis Abeba’s growing modernity. Its 30-square-meter pixel display stretches gracefully across the façade, casting a luminous glow that turns heads and draws admiration from passersby.

Yet, beneath this veneer of prosperity and progress lies a different narrative.

In Bole, every shimmer tells a story of quiet coercion. Building owners, instructed to uphold the district’s “beauty standards,” were ordered to mount  pixel screens on their buildings.

Tropical Mall joined the parade reluctantly. Its owners say they were threatened with closure and forced to invest over 10 million birr in a digital display they had never planned to install.

“We had to do it,” said Awel Ahmed, the mall’s technical head.

He explained that the decision has strained the company financially, and the management has yet to see any tangible marketing return. Awel added that potential advertisers remain hesitant, the cost of digital promotion is high, and many fear their messages will simply be lost.

“It’s hard to see the benefits now,” he said.

Ethiopia’s marketing sector is in the midst of a quiet revolution. Traditional billboards are vanishing, replaced by LED screens, light boxes, and animated digital banners. Visual storytelling is dominating campaigns once driven by posters and painted signs.

Over 3,100 business owners across Addis Abeba have redesigned their façades to comply with new city directives. In corridors designated for redevelopment, the transformation is even starker.

Every shopfront now glimmers with digital light. At night, towers rise above the mist, their beams sturdy as cliffs, delicate as silver rods. Along the corners, cafés, malls, and glass-fronted buildings stand in quiet, confident beauty.

In many ways, the project mirrors the urban renewal ethos of New York City’s High Line, where an abandoned freight rail line was reborn as a lush, elevated park, a model of how design, community engagement, and sustainability can reshape a city’s spirit.

In Addis Abeba’s  the light itself has become the new landscape and the night, a canvas which glows with pride.

Many businesses are learning to thrive on this illuminated frontier.

Keste Damena Foam & Plastic, one of Ethiopia’s leading domestic foam manufacturers, has emerged as one of the beneficiaries of the country’s growing digital marketing landscape. The company recently partnered with more than three outdoor-digital advertising firms as part of its broader strategy to modernize its outreach.

Founded in 1996, Keste Damena is a second-generation, family-owned business led by Yehedgo Abeselom (Bobby). Over the past eight years, the company has steadily expanded its marketing horizons, from hiring brand ambassadors to making a decisive shift toward digital advertising.

General Manager Daniel Gudisu credits the firm’s innovative campaigns for its recent growth, noting that sales have risen by nearly one million birr.

“It has helped our business,” he said.

Daniel acknowledged that the move to digital marketing has come with costs, including up to three percent increase in marketing expenses. However, he noted the value of the medium’s dynamic reach.

“Digital ads, with their moving images and creative storytelling, capture consumers in ways nothing else does,” he explained

Since last year, authorities have mandated the use of light boxes, digital screens, and LED displays, phasing out traditional banners and billboards deemed inconsistent with the city’s new urban aesthetics. Noncompliance invites hefty fines and administrative sanctions.

For some advertisers, the policy became an opportunity. A handful of forward-looking firms have leveraged the shift to introduce 3D digital advertisements, marking a new era for Ethiopia’s marketing landscape.

Leading the charge is Yene-AD, a pioneering 3D-advertising agency that has been making headways. Yene-AD operates the country’s first anamorphic “naked-eye” 3D LED billboard, a striking 155-square-meter screen that brings products to life in vivid, three-dimensional motion.

Within a year of its debut, the company attracted more than twenty major brands, each eager to showcase their campaigns in this futuristic format. The success has set off a ripple effect, inspiring others to follow suit.

Yet the digital dawn has cast long shadows for others.

One of the most affected is Akias Advertising, a 14-year-old firm once thriving on traditional billboard placements. Chief executive Akias Teshome says the transition has hit small and medium-sized enterprises hardest, as many can no longer afford the steep costs of digital advertising.

“We’re under a lot of pressure,” he said. “Our client base has shrunk by about 70 percent.”

He reveals that marketing budgets are tightening across industries, while the cost of advertising and associated taxes continue to rise.

“Advertising expenses have increased nearly tenfold,” Akias explained. “Businesses are running for their money. The marketing sector is on a steep decline.”

The city’s policy requiring pixel-lit façades and illuminated screens has redefined the skyline, but also rewritten the economics of visibility.

The history of outdoor advertising stretches back centuries, to a time when merchants hand-painted signs to lure customers to their stalls. By the 1920s, billboards had evolved into a modern industry, embracing bold typography, neon lighting, and eventually even early experiments with three-dimensional displays designed to stop passersby in their tracks.

Urban planners, however, question the speed and manner in which these changes are imposed.

An urban designer and planner, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged the need for improved color regulations and visual harmony in the city’s rapidly changing skyline but raised concerns about how these new standards are being implemented.

“It can be burdensome,” he said, emphasizing that successful urban projects must build on the city’s social capital, which requires genuine public participation.

Others, however, see things differently.

Million Kibret, a business and investment consultant, expresses optimism about the digital evolution of advertising. He believes the shift marks an opportunity for businesses to thrive through innovative design and enhanced consumer engagement.

Million also challenges the notion that advertising agencies are on the losing end of this transition. Citing a new study conducted by his firm, he revealed that digital advertising revenues have increased by nearly 50 percent, contradicting industry complaints of decline.

He argues that the digital transformation offers unprecedented potential:

“Businesses can now leverage technology to introduce engagement metrics and conversion tracking, tools that were once unavailable to agencies relying on traditional billboards.”

As the capital embraces the glow of its new digital age, the city peels back another layer of its transformation. For some, like Keste Damena, the lights signal progress and profit. For others, like Tropical Mall, they flicker as reminders of mounting costs and uncertain returns.