Where's all that World Cup clutter, then?

Now if only I could lay my hands on some coverage here in East London*...

Where is it all? Hidden on the sports pages of my daily newspaper? I seldom go there but, quite frankly, I would have expected shameless reams of world cup sports copy on the news and features pages by now. There is, after all, only 22 days to go.

On the go for a while

Nevertheless, preparations by media houses across the land to cover the world cup have been on the go for a while - some started the planning as much as a year ago - and many a hope has been pinned on a turn-up in advertising revenue on the back of the event, especially after marketing budgets were slashed last year amid the recession.

But as early as March this year, there were signs that the tournament might not be an early Christmas and that many local advertisers were holding back on spending during the event as they feared being lost amid all the footie clutter.

Virginia Hollis, joint MD of The MediaShop, one of South Africa's biggest media-planning firms, says that, besides increased expenditure from official sponsors such as MTN and Coca-Cola, she hasn't seen the expected upsurge in advertising. In the first three months of this year, there was an increase in television advertising -and also in radio - but this came off a low base because adspend was so decimated last year. Hollis expects advertising to pick up in August, when advertisers feel more confident about reaching SA audiences without having to cut through the soccer clutter.

22 days to go

But, with 22 days to go, how much clutter is there really at the moment?

I can't say I could name who the Bafana captain is. I've yet to hear the world cup song on my car radio and I'm not really sure who's performing at that world cup concert after the hoo-hah over the lack of local artists [meanwhile, 94.7 up here in the highveld is playing Shakira and Freshlyground's Waka Waka to death... it's even starting to grow on me - managing ed].

I'd say SA is looking remarkably uncluttered for a host nation with three weeks to go before one of the biggest sporting events on earth [lots of flags starting to spring up here in Jozi, from cars to shop windows and shopping malls, there are soccer balls EVERYWHERE (included soccer ball street lights at the Oriental Plaza) and I've seen a number of street posters, some billboards and event signage, but I hear that Pretoria generally does a much better job - managing ed].

Besides Radio 2000, the official world cup radio station, there is not much buzz at the national broadcaster, which is also the official world cup media partner. The talk in media circles is that FIFA is not finding the bumbling SABC behemoth particularly easy to pin down and that there has been a distinct lack of planning for the event from the state broadcaster. Additionally, it's been hard for the commercial media houses to get access to Bafana Bafana.

FIFA getting its just desserts?

Considering how ruthlessly FIFA runs the contest - often at the expense of the public interest of host nations - maybe it is getting its just desserts in the SABC. [I might add I asked the SABC for an interview with Radio 2000's station manager about the world cup more than two weeks ago, to no avail.]

It looks to me that the media players who will truly capitalise on the world cup are those in the immediacy game - the broadcasters and online publishers - which are also well organised. So it's more likely that the likes of Naspers' SuperSport International will have a blessed world cup instead of the SABC.

So what's up at SuperSport, which not only coins it at the best of times with its DStv channels but also has the fourth biggest Online Publishers Association (OPA) website in SA (with just under 1.4-million unique users in the April Nielsen Online figures)?

Well, the world cup planning started more than a year ago and there will be a 24-hour world cup channel - in standard and high definition (HD). It will broadcast all 64 matches live in four languages - English, Afrikaans, Sesotho and isiZulu - and there will be analysis by big football names such as Doctor Khumalo, Gary Bailey, Ernst Middendorp, John Barnes and Daniel Amokachi.

Variety of magazine shows

There will also a variety of magazine shows such as Chase the Makarapa, a kind of an Amazing Race in which eight contestants from SA, China, India, Brazil, Poland and Nigeria will adventure across SA Africa in search of tickets for nine matches.

On SuperSport's website, there will be live streaming of all the matches, in addition to nine TV crews around the country feeding the site with news on the field and off, among other features.

To fully appreciate the scale of SuperSport's world cup operation, one must remember it is the exclusive world cup pay-TV broadcaster for Africa and will be broadcasting to 48 sub-Saharan countries, many of which - such as Nigeria - are far bigger soccer nations than our own. Of course, securing the exclusive pay-TV rights came at a pretty penny.

Clinton van der Berg, SuperSport International's communications manager, says the broadcaster aims to achieve two key things from its world cup coverage: to up the advertising revenue and, he says, all the world cup air space is booked up; and the long-term benefit of signing up more subscribers though churn is expected after the tournament.

Sports a big audience draw card

Sport is a big audience draw card for SA TV and online operators. Till now, says Van der Berg and Sport24's editor and publisher Andrew Lanning, it's rugby that has always been top of the pile. At both SuperSport and Sport24, the 13 biggest OPA SA website according to the Nielsen Online April figures with under 580 000 unique users a month, soccer is now catching up.

Sport24, which has the benefit of referrals from the country's biggest OPA website, News24, started taking its advertising proposal to market a year ago and sold out three of the four packages by the end of 2009.

Of course, online advertising is small potatoes compared with other media but this didn't stop Sport24 investing in its world cup coverage. Lanning says a special world cup match centre for the website was commissioned from India and it will go live next Tuesday.

Capitalising on the fact that salary slaves without TVs or radios in their work places go to the 'Net for breaking sports news, Sport24 will be offering, among other things, breaking news, a mobile website and a Flash application that gives fixtures, live results and statistics. There will also be a Sport24 World Cup component across all the 24.com websites to attract more traffic.

Upturn not been substantial

Over at savvy Primedia Broadcasting, which owns radio station such as 94.7 Highveld Stereo, 567 Cape Talk, and Talk Radio 702, broadcasting CEO Terry Volkwyn confirms that the upturn in advertising revenue on the back of the world cup has not been substantial.

Volkwyn says editorial planning for Primedia's radio stations has been on the go for five months, especially for the research-heavy talk radio. The key challenge has been to plan compelling world cup coverage and to keep their eye on the ball on the non-world cup content for those not interested in the event or who might tire of it.

Volkwyn says she has been surprised at the lack of buzz over the world cup, especially at the SABC. "As the official broadcaster you'd think they would have whipped up a lot more support a lot earlier," says Volkwyn.

"There are great opportunities for us and we're smaller and nimble, have lots of resources and the sponsors are keen so we can get things going... But there's not a lot going on, I feel. I don't see it on the streets of Joburg. It's starting a little bit now but... the city [of Johannesburg] hasn't gotten behind it. They didn't inspire buildings to get stuff up like flying flags. It just seems pretty flat."

Bring in the vuvuzelas, I say - sounds like a golden opportunity for the wily commercial media houses to me.

*Gill Moodie is based in East London in the Eastern Cape - managing ed

Last updated at 5.11pm on 19 May 2010