Vernacular. Defined as “the everyday speech of a people.” In South Africa the media brands, programmes and titles that fit into the category are in the main incomprehensible to the average media planner, confusing, misunderstood and undervalued.
Upfront let me clarify – I appreciate the necessity and value of English serving as the lingua franca. I understand its role commercially, especially in the communications business. At the same time one has to question the validity of many advertisers utilising only English-medium vehicles for their promotional messages and query whether true effectiveness is being achieved.
One often feels that, at best, the nuance of a language gets lost when translated. At worst, it’s the meaning that gets lost. We all know those translations that come out funny – often reading or hearing something in one’s second, third, or fourth language just makes nonsense of it. Like some of these real-life examples: “please don’t throw odds and ends into the pond” (in a toilet somewhere on the Orient); “you are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid” (in a Japanese hotel); “teeth extracted by the latest Methodists” (from Hong Kong); “ladies are requested not to have children in the bar” (a Norwegian bar); “drop your trousers here for best results” (a Bangkok laundry).
Okay, so it can be amusing. But there remains a serious side to it. Whatever gets lost in translation for the South Africans that don’t understand much local vernacular, the ad industry has to question why those in control of billions of rands worth of spend do not as a matter of course (or in some cases ever) watch or listen to the biggest TV station in the country and four of the five largest radio stations.
Remember, these two media types account for over 50% of all advertising spend in the country. This fact alone should underline the need for change, empowerment and skills transfer in the ad industry.
Let’s look at vernacular media from another perspective. So while four of the top five radio stations in audience terms are vernacular – and surely this proves the power and popularity of speaking to audiences in their home tongue – is it not an indictment that a) there are no daily vernacular newspapers, and b) the country cannot support a purely vernacular magazine of any meaningful size?
It may have less to do with audience demand (seeing we haven’t tested it) and more to do with advertising support, or the lack thereof. I mean if you look at the revenue for the year ending November 2004, it seems inexplicable that Ukhozi attracted R131-million with its weekly listener base of over 6.5-million, while on the other extreme Highveld attracted R217-million (against a listenership of 1.3-million) and East Coast R208-million (listenership 1.9-million). And how do we explain that SABC 1, with 49% of adults viewing the station yesterday, attracts R1,45-billion in revenue, and MNet R987- million with less than 5% of South Africans viewing yesterday? (Source: Amps 2004). So SABC 1 gets around 1.5 times the revenue, and has 10 times the audience?
Given the preceding, and even accounting for the socio-economic make-up of the audience, there must be something drastically wrong. The past is still haunting us, with a very lopsided media environment currently in place. Couple this with a very lopsided industry view, and we end up with nonsensical anomalies that must have a major effect on marketing efficacy in South Africa.
Harry Herber is group managing director of the MediaShop