First community research results from Compass24

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Linda Gibson, Ads24's CEO, says, "The research initiative was prompted by a widespread advertising industry perception that alternative long-term growth mediums need to be identified in order to develop effective marketing strategies for the years ahead."

Western Cape findings

• the community paper reading community is 1.8 million people or 52% of the province's population;
  
• 94% live in formal urban areas and 91% are LSM 6+;
  
• 72% prefer advertising in the newspapers to knock-and-drop publications;
  
• 62% are aged between 20 and 49;
  
• 29% have accessed the internet over the past 12 months

Scientific tool

The results of the research revealed that societies are becoming more community-focused; community newspapers are becoming a differently relevant advertising medium; and community-centricity implies a different attraction to community newspaper titles.

Gibson maintains that media planning for community papers needs to be carefully structured and supported by tools similar to those employed for mainstream papers.

"It has been proven repeatedly that return on investment for mainstream papers impact sales directly. For community papers, there is no continuous planning tool enabling planning and positioning. This is why we embarked on the project," she says.

She is confident that the research will provide reliable and current reach figures for community papers, as statistics embedded in a broader consumption context.

"Enable more informed planning"

"It's a context that will enable more informed planning for advertisers, making it less of an intuitive process that is the case at present. The ultimate aim is to create a sophisticated, scientific tool able to support and justify the credibility of community paper ad spend."

Research has been carried out in communities in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Northern Cape and North West. The company will be rolling out the results to these regions over the next few months.