Maria McCloy Advertising
CD-ROM advertising and promoting products on the Internet are becoming increasingly popular, but certain brands and advertising companies are finding that one of the best ways to reach South Africans is to target them when they’re travelling to and from work.
The commuter market numbers can’t be ignored. Ken Varejes of Johannesburg company, Comutanet, says the latest All Media Products Survey (Amps) shows that 72% of South Africans use taxis, 18% use buses and 6% use trains. In the past seven days 11,9-million people used a taxi, 2,9-million used the bus and just under a million used the train. Varejes believes that, in total, there are 18,3-million commuters.
Comutanet – whose clients include Anchor Yeast, Zama Zama, Checkers, Disprin and Haze – was one of the first companies to realise the viability of taxi advertising and marketing. In 1987, the company was called Taxinet and it focused entirely on the taxi industry. Last year the company branched into branding buses and trains and was renamed.
Coca-Cola, Yfm and Bull Brand have also displayed their product logos on taxis and product promotions have been held at Comutanet offices based at taxi-ranks round the country. As Varejes says: “We have the opportunity to give a visual and physical aspect to an advertising campaign.” Taxi- drivers who brand their vehicles receive R1 800.
In addition to the branding promotion, Comutanet also offers an audio advantage by distributing 22 500 90-minute music cassettes – featuring a funky mix of kwaito, hip-hop and R’n’B sounds as well as 15 minutes of advertising – to 4% of taxis every month. The cassettes are labelled Star Music and include national presenters using Highveld Stereo DJ manager Bob Mabena, a Gauteng cassette featuring DJ Oscar Wa Rona, a Western Cape tape using Nat Dogg and a KwaZulu-Natal cassette hosted by Dr Mkhize. Only the KwaZulu-Natal tape includes traditional music, but gospel editions are released over Easter and Christmas.
Is advertising picking up? Representatives of RadioActive and Radmark – who book ads for SABC Radio and Yfm respectively – say that while Star Music ad rates are cheaper, there is no competition for advertising as there is no guarantee that taxi-drivers will play the tapes.
Varejes claims “an unduplicated listenership of 8,7-million per week” and asserts that drivers use the tapes because they get free new material every two months while being able to keep the other cassettes. Themba Smuts of local groups Jacknife and T’Jester has proposed an alternative name for the music we now refer to as kwaito: Taxi Bounce.
Other companies such as GMR and Moving Media have also moved into the taxi market. GMR specialises in branding short distance trains and stations in metropolitan areas as well as doing station product promotions for the likes of Nestl, Clover, Kellogg’s, SAB and the SABC. Managing director Alan Glass says the company is not using bus advertising space currently because the concept is “a bit pass, councils are putting a lid on it.”
Mobile Media recently opened a division called Taxi Graphix which could break the Comutanet monopoly. Moving Media says it has the potential to reach 15-million commuters a day, with 80 000 regular taxis and 140 000 unregulated taxis on the road, and more than two million commuters on the trains.
There are those who regard the impact of taxi advertising as negative. Mobile Media – a company specialising in catching the eye of commuting consumers with moving billboards – says that if branded taxis are not well looked after, this image reflects poorly on the brand. Comutanet’s Varejes says the company’s positioning at ranks around the country negates this by promoting awareness.
The importance of reaching consumers has been powerfully met by other companies, too. The Rainbow Nation Community Towers project – huge screens broadcasting entertainment and educational programmes – is placed at commuter points. A major part of Yfm’s successful marketing campaign consisted of stickers placed on the rear windows of taxis.
Glass says GMR was the first company to brand train exteriors and was also responsible for branding the full train set entered into the Guiness Book of Records as the largest moving outdoor site in the world.