Wealthy golfers reveal their advertising preferences

Each digital GU screen is refreshed on every hole with a new advertisement and during that time features vital, accurate information necessary to play the best golf shot including distance and pin placement. This is accompanied by an advertisement in the lower left hand corner of the screen, with the ability to change during the course of the hole and is refreshed with a new advertisement at the next hole.

"The latest GU research was conducted at two premier clubs in Gauteng - the Ernie Els Club in Pretoria and Serengeti near OR Tambo International Airport - given that both of them are representative of our footprint and the profile of player that frequent the clubs where we're represented," says MD of GU, Pieter Groenewald.

Declined to reveal income

"This year we looked at the business roles of our target market whereas the previous round focused on lifestyle factors," according to Groenewald. This allowed the GU team to drill down into a more specific profile of the audience who is exposed to its clients' advertising which revealed that despite only 0.3% of South Africans earn more than R40 000 a month, 60% of the GU audience earns more than that.

In terms of gross income 29% of respondents indicated that they earn more than a R1 million per year, which is significant. Even more significant, however, is the 28% who declined to reveal their income which usually indicates earnings at the top end of the scale.

"If one were to combine both figures this means that 57% of our audience earns more than R1 million with a broader figure of 60% earning more than R800 000. In addition, our research showed that 70% of our audience is in senior management or an owner or director of a company, while 89% either influence decisions or are major decision makers within their business," reveals Groenewald.

High flyers

The research also asked a flying frequency question to establish whether the GU audience really are high flyers. These results confirmed that they most definitely are, given that 19% fly at least once a week, 49% fly more than two to three times a month and 85% fly once a month. "This is important because traditionally when you want to reach these high flyers, clients utilise airport advertising where brands instantly become part of a highly cluttered environment," explains Groenewald.

When golfers were asked what they would like to see on the GU screens, they said they view it as a medium that informs and persuades particularly. "From this we can extrapolate that our media type is not really about a call to action but is key in terms of information and persuasion. So if, for example, BMW launches a new range of vehicles the GU platform is an excellent way of communicating the specs of the car in a highly visible manner."