Warc, 23 August 2013
JOHANNESBURG: South African adspend on digital channels is
set to expand very rapidly, and the sector's recent growth may have been
underestimated by the industry, media agency executives have suggested.
Latest adspend figures from Nielsen, the market research
firm, suggest that around 3% of all marketing investments in South Africa are
made online, but leading industry figures said the true proportion could be as
much as three times higher.
"We feel digital is a key medium and has been
under-read by AdEx," Ian Manning, MediaCom CEO, told the Financial Mail.
"We estimate it's just under 10% of the market."
"It is going to grow. It has expanded more than people
acknowledge," Manning added. "I estimate that in the next year
digital spend will increase by 30%-40%. The share of spend that digital makes
up will increase to 15%."
His comments were echoed by Michelle Meyjes, CEO at MEC
Group, who likewise placed digital at 10% of overall investment, although her
projections were more modest. "I think we'll see a 3%-5% increase year on
year," she forecast.
Whatever the figure turns out to be, it is clear the digital
landscape is altering rapidly. The Digital Media & Marketing Association
recently said South Africans are now spending more time online than with
traditional media.
This presents a new set of challenges to media agencies.
Wayne Bishop, managing director of media agency PHD in Johannesburg, said the
difficulty in digital media-buying was not so much in implementation as in
predicting where the market would move next.
"Due to the advanced degree of measurability of online
media, we can accurately trade, serve and map inventory to follow the consumer
in real time, but this is limited to the current landscape," he stated.
"What we don't know is which social network will be the
next Facebook, how many more pages will be launched before the end of the week
and what type of content might resonate in the market," he added.
One way agencies are tackling the issue is to increase their
expertise. Manning said he was sending people overseas for training and that
around 20% of MediaCom staff were now digital specialists.
Data sourced from Financial Mail; additional content by Warc
staff
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