If the outdoor advertising market in Africa is any indication, the “dark” continent is considerably less shady than history would have us believe.
Huge potential for economic growth lies behind the Western media’s long-running narrative of war, disease and poverty, and whether or not you believe in consumerism as an answer to Africa’s problems, the fact of the matter is that serious revenue is now being generated by outdoor as a medium. Billboards, it seems, are one symbol of Africa’s latent promise.
Clive Kemp and Robin Phillips of The African Extension are media professionals who have been working in Africa for a number of years. Their business focuses on purchasing advertising space for both South African and international brands within the African market.
“Outdoor media in Africa has historically been of huge value,” explains Phillips. “Unilever stands out as one company that has used outdoor extensively to build highly successful brands in African markets. The beauty of outdoor is that one is operating in a low literacy region. Therefore, the illustrative value of billboards is very valuable, as it familiarises people with the ‘look’ of the brand.”
Phillips believes that what has boosted the use of outdoor is a certain failing of electronic media in Africa, which has earned a notorious reputation amongst advertisers for non-compliance. “Many advertisers have moved their spend from electronic media to outdoor. Simultaneously, the entire structure of outdoor in Africa has improved in terms of delivery, size, quality and finish.”
Kemp supports Phillips’s theory. “Non-compliance has been a problem, largely due to the fact that in many regions within Africa, one is dealing with an unstable environment with little infrastructure. Electricity in Africa is sporadic — 50% of the continent’s electricity consumption is in South Africa — and from a print media point of view, circulation is small, distribution and quality are poor, and of course literacy levels are low.”
Clear Channel has been operating in Africa for the past 14 years. Currently, they do business in 14 sub-Saharan countries, including Angola, Mozambique, Botswana and Tanzania, with in excess of 5 000 billboards spread predominantly across urban areas.
CEO Barry Sayer speaks with experience of the value of outdoor in these markets. “As a medium, outdoor is highly popular and effective. It has the ability to communicate with partially illiterate populations, who may struggle to interpret a radio message when confronted with a brand or pack on a store shelf.”
Peter Davies, area director for McCann-Erickson, Middle East and Africa, echoes these sentiments. Davies believes outdoor media pan-Africa is getting stronger and that the spend going into it is on the up. This is partly due to lack of television coverage in certain parts of Africa, and very importantly due to the growing availability of decent sites.
Politics however, still plays a role. “We find the biggest difficulties are the multiple selling points one has to deal with. For example, in West Africa in particular, one has to hand-build a plan, buying off sometimes up to 15 agents.”
Davies segments the continent into four major markets. Southern Africa, which accounts for about half of everything (GDP, consumer spend and media spend); English-speaking West Africa, primarily Nigeria, which is growing fast as the politics improves and which accounts for around 30% of the pot; French-speaking West Africa, driven by the Ivory Coast, Senegal and Cameroon; and English-speaking East Africa, primarily Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (the last two combined have around 20% of the pot).
Davies estimates the total value of these key regions from an advertising spend point of view at around US$1-billion.
So how do the different regions vary? “West Africa is very lively and boasts a vibrant media scene, and the fact that the county is largely under-regulated provides for an interesting environment,” says Phillips wryly. “The vivacity of the Nigerian people and their media tends to steamroll any attempts at regulating the media.”
Kenya, on the other hand, is extremely well regulated. “In East Africa, Kenya is certainly dominant,” says Phillips. “Their media industry is excellent and they have developed sound methodologies and effective ways in which to serve their audiences.”
Dave Carruthers, marketing director for SABMiller, manages over 40 brands in the SABMiller stable in 11 countries across the continent. He believes the politics and environment of a region is easily manageable as long as one takes cognisance of local customs and business practises.
“We enter African markets with a view to creating partnerships or joint ventures,” says Carruthers. “For example, in Tanzania, we bought our brewery in 1994 and had 40% of market share. Today we have over 85% of the market and are often cited by the Tanzanian government as the ideal of how a foreign company can come in and integrate the best of both worlds.”
For his part, Davies takes a philosophical view on politics in the region. “Politics, economics, and media are inextricably linked everywhere. People often forget that Africa is a rich continent. Rich in commodities, skills, aid money looking for a productive home and funds sent home from Africans abroad. So the minute you get good politics – peace, justice, corporate governance — you rapidly get an economic upside, consumption grows, companies advertise, and the media benefits.”
Given these upbeat views, there’s not much argument against the fact that outdoor offers enormous marketing opportunities for local advertisers looking to move into Africa. And there are a bunch more media professionals who have seen this gap—and capitalised.
Greg Benatar, director of Alliance Media, says his company has invested heavily in Africa over the past 10 years, both in terms of direct financial investment as well as investment in empowerment and human capital. “There is a growing demand from both local and international brands that use outdoor as a medium of communication for sites in key markets around the continent.”
Zwelakhe Sisulu, chairman of Outdoor Network, takes the view that as a platform for Africa, outdoor is the continent’s fastest-growing medium. “Politically, the continent is changing,” says Sisulu. “Africa is moving into a period of greater political and economic stability, and in turn these factors are creating a new environment. There is greater selectivity in terms of consumerism and greater sophistication in terms of product. Outdoor is the ideal medium for this burgeoning market.”
Certainly, major local and global brands believe that Africa holds untapped potential. SABMiller, L’Oreal (Dark ‘n’ Lovely), Vodacom, MTN, as well as various FMCG’s and soft drink companies, have all had a presence in Africa for some time now.
Hilda Gullacksen, regional media manager for Coca-Cola, Southern and East Africa, says Coca-Cola utilises outdoor in Africa largely as an awareness medium. “Outdoor placed in a strategic position is immediately visible and can reach a large number of people.
Billboards can be placed in a wide range of locations and messages can be customised to suit specific geographical regions.” But, Gullacksen believes, there is still potential for greater creativity. “Africa is still relatively untapped in terms of the innovative use of the medium, such as building wraps, spectacular signs and such.”
With this expanding world of opportunity literally at our feet, it’s easy for South African business to forge ahead guns a-blazing. Yet experienced marketers warn against adopting a teacher or “imperialistic” approach.
Benatar from African Alliance believes their business has not been tainted with this brush. “As an African company, Alliance Media’s African offices are staffed by local individuals who use local suppliers in order to grow and empower the country in which we operate. We have a strong corporate philosophy to use as much of the local resources as possible in order to develop our business.”
Likewise, Dave Carruthers emphasises the importance of adopting local business practices. “These markets don’t actually need us to be teachers. We need to be adaptors; adapting the best of what we have to offer to the best of what the local market has to offer us. SAB has taken all its learnings from South Africa and applied those skills when dealing with emerging markets, and we have succeeded extremely well based on this philosophy.”
Phillips says attitudes vary from country to country. “Generally, the Kenyans are often irritated by the ‘know-it-all’ approach of South Africans. The Nigerians are far more pragmatic. As long as they can find some gain out of the relationship they accept foreign ‘differences’. Certainly South Africans are occasionally the butt of in-house jokes. Closer to home though, the Southern African countries are more reliant on us and we understand each other better.” Like others, The African Extension works to understand the market within which they are operating. “You can’t sit [in South Africa] and run African operations. That’s a very colonial approach. From a business perspective, you need to extend your base and open offices continent-wide. That’s the way to operate in Africa.”
So it seems the prognosis for outdoor in Africa, and indeed business in Africa in general, is enormously bullish. “The business that South African media players are bringing to Africa is all positive,” concludes Phillips. “The gains are there. Every time we do business in Africa, we are investing money into those countries. When we spend with the media owners there, we are injecting hard currency.”
Zwelakhe Sisulu sums up the outlook perfectly. “South African businesses should take a view to be in Africa. That’s the future, the natural extension for local business.” Sisulu forecasts that if businesses are not investing in Africa within the next five years, getting in thereafter will be extremely costly. “Africa is open and keen for business. We want partnerships; so do they. The possibilities are endless.”