100 days on, SA still flying the flag

Coverage on the World Cup dominated at some R7.1 million of coverage but this value was closely followed with a mass of stories on the xenophobia that flared up soon after it ended. Coverage on xenophobia totalled some R5.3 million. Other issues that achieved good coverage included stories about South Africa related to tourism, tourism month and President Jacob Zuma's visit to China. The Mpumalanga province obviously did its homework because it was the most publicised region garnering some R624 600 worth of media coverage. The Fly The Flag campaign also had a strong publicity presence getting around R516 505 worth of coverage during the period.

"Although the police and national defence force mobilized very quickly to stem the threat of xenophobic attacks following the World Cup, the high volume of coverage shows what a significant news item it was, despite the fact that the violence was not widespread and was contained," says Oresti Patricios, CEO of brand and media intelligence company, Ornico.

The tracked media set included in the analysis was agenda setting titles including daily, weekly and regional newspapers, magazines, trade publications, broadcast brands and other media that influence the national discourse.

Patricios added that Mpumalanga's media win should show other provinces the value of piggy-backing on high news climates and seasons like the World Cup to achieve positive coverage. Other regions that benefited from the boom in media coverage during the period under review included KwaZulu-Natal and Soweto.

"The public relations practitioners who handled the Mpumalanga account were obviously very smart and capitalized on the attention to drive publicity for their province. This high volume of coverage has very real benefits, as not only does it create top of mind presence for the province as a regional brand, but it draws investor, tourist and public interest on what is happening in the region." Patricios says it was smart of the province to drive this coverage during a time when it was likely that a number of tourists and investors were still in South Africa.

Low responses

"Surprisingly the Western Cape featured fairly lowly with only R152 778 worth of coverage for the period. This is unusual because the Western Cape is normally the jewel in the crown of South African tourism and has a number of aspects from tourism, to technology, to wine, to the economy to publicise. The possibilities for promoting the Western Cape are endless."

Further disappointments in the media coverage stakes were the Johannesburg Tourism Company that received negligible coverage, as did the issue of trade in South Africa, the annual The Standard Bank Joy of Jazz and Mandela Day.

"All of these are heritage items that need to be promoted in order to boost South Africa as a destination brand which is relatively easy to do given that all of these easily attract positive publicity," he adds.

A total of 1 340 stories on South Africa were recorded after the first 100 days of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The focus was on news coverage and because of this Ornico excluded DJ banter on radio which would have influenced the figures heavily. The news value was deduced using advertising rates from South African Rates and Data.

Stats

Positive, Negative and Neutral Coverage for South Africa: