TV ad ban leads to higher online viewership

"Traditional mediums, such as terrestrial television are no longer the primary source of information for consumers. For example, following the announcement of the advert's banning via traditional media, word-of-mouth and interaction on social media platforms lead to over 300 000 views of the advert on YouTube."

Traditional media - less of an impact

Dijkstra explains that South African consumers, of which over 8.5 million and 4.5 million use the internet and Facebook respectively, are increasingly using multiple-channels as sources of information and that banning of material in traditional media will have less and less of an impact in the future.

"In the mobile generation that we currently live in, more people use mobile phones than personal computers to engage online. This is especially true in Africa where there is an estimated one billion people on the continent and 600 million active mobile SIM cards. With declining costs, it was recently estimated that smartphone penetration in South Africa will be as high as 80% in the next few years and will be driven by our country's tech-savvy and aspirational youth."

He adds that the rise in popularity and impact of online viral advertising campaigns has also had a positive effect in levelling the playing fields, from a marketing and advertising perspective. "Smaller companies can now compete with larger and more established brands for the hearts and minds of South African consumers. All one really needs in this new social era is a very creative idea and a well-planned multi-channel strategy," says Dijkstra.