A number of strategic insights came out, especially when comparing Out of Home advertising in Africa and Europe. One being a comment that due to the clutter and less strict regulations in Africa, the creative concepts have more impact yet are still very simple. Another insight related to digital Out of Home, In Africa, “dwell time” amongst consumers is longer therefore they have more time to view digital Out of Home adverts, thus longer to absorb creative ideas that have motion in them; whereas the fast paced commuter lifestyle in Europe with limited “dwell time” means that a message has to be communicated in a matter of a few seconds.

The discussion around the proposed ban on alcohol advertising in South Africa brought about some key insights. Alcohol advertising makes up just under 10% of Out of Home ad spend. We were reminded of the ban on cigarette advertising 15 years ago – the impact was less severe as those spaces were quickly filled by cellular advertising as that market suddenly boomed at around the same time as the ban. The question is what will fill that 10% void if the ban goes ahead? The decision was challenged by the panel and it was stated that many overseas countries lifted the ban on alcohol advertising as there was no change in the issue of alcohol abuse since implementing the ban. The question that arose was should government not look at the source of alcohol abuse as opposed to implementing a ban that has proven not to make a difference in foreign countries?  Is this not just pre-election propaganda?

“Once again we are incredibly happy with the insights that the Digibate brought to the table and this is without a doubt going to be a regular feature in the South African media marketing sector and we are very excited to grow this into a regular pool of knowledge,” said Dawn Rowlands, CEO Sub Saharan Africa, Aegis Media. “We averaged about 3942 listeners per minute of which 1 462 remained listening for the full 2 hours, which meant that the topics kept their interest.”

The Thought Leadership Digibates are held monthly in Cape Town and include a panel of experts in their respective fields. Podcasts of the digibate are available on http://thetaxi.co.za/second-aegis-thought-leadership-digibate/. The next Thought Leadership Digibate will be held in November 2011.

Speakers and panelists include:

• Erik Warburg, Managing Director, Posterscope South Africa
• Bruce Burgess, Out of Home Development Manager, Aegis Media Sub Saharan Africa
• Jacques Du Preez, Managing Director, Provantage Media
• Simon Wall, Managing Director, Tractor Outdoor Media
• Adam Cherry, Worldwide Digital Developer, Posterscope UK
• Dawn Rowlands, CEO Aegis Media Sub Saharan Africa (Moderator)

“Once again we have an outstanding line up of panelists who between them will be able to share global insights to Out of Home advertising,” said Dawn Rowlands, CEO Aegis Media Sub Saharan Africa, “Out of Home is a medium that is evolving rapidly and various insights have come to the fore, especially through Posterscope’s OCS 2 consumer survey, and these all form part of the buying decision.”

The Thought Leadership Digibates will be held monthly in Cape Town and will include a panel of experts in their respective fields. Podcasts of the previous digibate are available on http://thetaxi.co.za/aegis-digibate-at-the-taxi/. For some insights and more information on Out of Home advertising in South Africa, please click to www.oohsa.co.za. Listeners are encouraged to Tweet their comments and insights using the Twitter hashtag #AegisTL or post on The Taxi’s Facebook Fan Page.

The top 10 advertisers was dominated by 7 FMCG brands, two cellular companies and one bank. Brands that advertised in townships and rural areas a mix of wellness, financial and FMCG whereas urban advertisers fell into the technology and financial sectors.

“Advertising spend these days has become more strategic and the more insights decision makers have the better,” said Erik Warburg, Managing Director, Posterscope South Africa, “Knowing where various sectors advertise in the Out of Home sector assists in the greater picture for decision makers so that there is little margin for error.”

Sectors currently advertising most across the country are cellular networks, beers and banks, respectively.  Black Label is currently advertising on more sites out-of-home than any other one brand (across all categories), and has a truly national holding.  (A year and a half ago Raid was the brand on most sites.)  Brands that have launched recent large scale campaigns, as witnessed by this last audit, include Cremora, Kellogg’s and Lux.  There are currently many blank sites though – nationally, one in five sites is not advertising anything.  The split between large and small sites is even at 46% versus 54%.

To conclude, it is evident that within each sector it is clear to see the different outdoor strategies at play by the various brands: whereas many are focusing on the large urban areas (particularly Gauteng), others have campaigns that target rural areas, or have more nationwide campaigns.

I humbly urge clients to open their boots, I mean minds about the use of innovation on OOH for launch campaigns.

By Donald Mokgale

Posterscope’s recent Out-of-Home consumer survey has revealed who’s really looking at the Health, Wellness and Beauty adverts on display across various platforms. South Africa’s leading Out-of-Home media buying agency recently launched its second Out-of-Home Consumer Survey, OCS 2, which highlights consumer buying behaviour in relation to Out-of-Home advertising.

“The wellness sector in South Africa is booming in everything from cosmetics and vitamin pills to gyms. We wanted to show brand managers who their target audiences really are,” said Erik Warburg, Managing Director of Posterscope South Africa. “We realized that a large percentage of scholars are also taking wellness advertising into consideration. This affords us a number of opportunities for campaigns tailored to create relevant conversations amongst the youth market.”

• 44% of scholars tend to look out for health and beauty adverts.
• The majority of people who tend to look out for health and beauty ads are aged between 25 and 34.
• 4 out of 10 women tend to look out for health and wellness adverts.
• 43% of people who tend to look out for health and wellness adverts are between the ages of 35 and 44.
• The majority of people who tend to look out for health and beauty ads are based in Gauteng (51%).

Advertising Agency: Colle+McVoy, Minneapolis, USA

By Donald Mokgale