We all know that if you try to get this country into perspective, South Africa is the perfect “average” country in the world. South Africa’s average personal income falls in the LSM 5 group. But we know the dangers of averages, and this is a perfect example. Simply put, it’s a case of one foot in a bucket of ice, one foot in boiling water. Still we are polarised into the have-a-lots and have-nothings. Not really LSM 5 – more LSM 2 or 3 and LSM 10. It’s within this context that I want to look at world-wide media spend trends, and see how and where we fit in, or don’t.
Let’s start by looking at what clients want today. In a US survey of industry leaders, Joseph Jaffe, in the aptly titled “Life after the 30 second spot” found some great insights. We all know that there is more to life than 30 seconds and full page adverts. But if you scratch the surface, there is gold for ad-agencies. Jaffe found that clients wanted creative that was integrated across all channels.
But more important to them was creative that changed consumer behaviour. Advertising therefore that bites. That makes people do, think, and act differently. But in the end what clients wanted most from their advertising was ideas that break through the clutter. And the logic of this is so simple – the sheer volume of advertising, coupled with the huge growth in the number of channels means that clients have to spend more and more to stay exactly where they are. The better idea has to be the answer – especially when consumers are growingly more ad-savvy, and impervious to the bull dished out so often.
And this has resulted in a first world environment moving away from traditional above the line media options. One is seeing a definite increase in marketing and advertising budgets, but the media spend (as we know it) is fairly static. There is certainly a defined move towards non-media marketing, driven by multiple factors – not least of all the quest for accountable media, and the internet’s many guises as a marketing tool (note I don’t say advertising vehicle).
And other more accountable, more measurable channels are benefiting too. So PR, CRM programmes, event marketing and sponsorships, product placement, innovative and new forms of POS, and like ideas are all forging ahead, together with the plethora of acronym based new media (SMS, MMS, XYZ and so on. Alright, there’s no XYZ really—)
The result of all this? Global adspend has slowed to around 5.1 percent in 2007. Noticeable dips are seen in the USA and other advanced markets, where 3.7 percent growth is seen. Traditional media growth is restricted to the emerging market sector, where because saturation hasn’t happened yet, the increase is still a healthy 11.9 percent. And remember, for some inexplicable reason, South Africa’s adspend growth is measured at more than twice this.
And the media? Globally internet is up 25 percent year-on-year, but TV only 4.2 percent, and all of magazines, radio and press, less than three percent on 2006. Oddly enough they were outstripped by outdoor, with a 7.2 percent growth year-on-year.
So the world is changing and fast. Media channels have exploded, and more interactive, exciting, new, measurable ways of communication are pushing themselves to the fore. And whilst South Africa may still be languishing in the emerging market paradigm of how things should be communicated and advertised, remember we have a foot in both buckets. So change is just around the corner—
Harry Herber is group managing director at The MediaShop Group.