Mobile advertising is set to become more popular as traditional electronic advertising methods are hit by power outages, escalating interest rates and soaring fuel prices.
This is according to Riaan Groenewald, CEO of Multimedia Solutions. Groenewald says the SABC's decision to drop its long-term advertising rates is a major indication of the extent to which these factors are affecting advertisers' return on investment.
The SABC recently announced it would drop long-term advertising rates by 15% because of the "difficulties faced by the South African advertiser".
"The SABC announcement is important because it highlights the fact that adverts are not being seen by large portions of the population at various times because of load-shedding. This has a direct impact on the value of adverts and, therefore, has to result in a lowering of the cost of a 30-second TV advert," he says.
Currently, there is no research data on the impact of load-shedding on TV and mobile advertising trends.
The impact of power cuts will be even more difficult to work out as Eskom has suspended load-shedding, he says.
However, the fact that winter is on the way and Eskom expects rolling blackouts for years to come, means TV advertisers will still spend money to advertise to people who can't access their TVs due to power cuts, he says.
"The millions of rand spent on advertising during prime time are most likely not reaching the people in areas where there are power cuts at least once or twice a week," he says.
Big, captive audience
Groenewald says advertisers are already motivated to use mobile advertising, as it provides them with a bigger scope to reach consumers.
Vodacom, MTN and Cell C have a combined subscriber base of 36 million, while there are only 24.5 million adult TV viewers in SA and over 28.5 million radio listeners. This means the mobile phone is already a bigger channel than TV.
Groenewald notes that mobile phones remain on for as long as they have battery life, giving the advertiser access to the consumer regardless of power outages.
Mobile phones provide advertisers a captive audience during power outages, as they are the only communication devices people can continue to use during a blackout, he says.
Mobile Web sites can provide news feeds, weather feeds, feedback options and even the ability to initiate purchasing decisions regardless of power outages.
MMS campaigns can also be utilised to drive consumers to mobi sites during load-shedding. A branded mobile game gives consumers the opportunity to play a mobile game, driving the name and business of the company into the consciousness of the customer during power outages, he notes.
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