Outdoor advertising in the townships

Kennedy Tshabalala

Bold and noticeable outdoor advertising in the townships, compared to urban and metropolitan areas, can be defined by, or rather should be defined by, the use of vernacular language. More alert advertisers use the vernacular, the 'switched-on' advertisers use "ekasi"- "street language", and those stuck in a time warp rely on the same old, same old English when literacy levels should dictate the language choice.

Examples of these abound amongst cell phone operators who generally use well-known language, phrases, and idioms to get the message across to township residents.

An emerged and growing market

Many advertisers have realised that township residents are not an emerging, but an emerged, and growing, market, and have changed communications to penetrate the community, These marketers are situationally aware, gauge township 'hot' news, and capitalise on this in their advertising, and reaping big rewards for their intuition.

To illustrate: A theoretical cell phone advertiser becomes aware the expression 'aeish' has whatever meaning the public wishes to apply, particularly in townships. It designs and rolls out an eye-catching campaign based on that expression. A well-executed campaign, in this manner, has the potential to sell more units and packages than any campaign would generate in the most up-market of Northern Johannesburg suburbs.

Expanding opportunity

Outdoor in the townships is an expanding opportunity marketers are buying into when seeking media opportunities to launch new products, to support television and print campaigns, and to reach out and grab the attention of the residents. Take note of the new players coming into the market with out of home formats to confirm this - the trend is there, it is mounting, and advertisers who wait may be too late.

The biggest challenge Primedia Outdoor faces in the townships is the difficulty in obtaining advertising rights from councils. I can testify to this as since I entered the outdoor media business, staff turnover in councils has been staggering! This negatively impacts on rights applications because when new people are employed, existing applications have to be reassessed from the beginning and the process begins again.

Same transportation corridors

One anticipates that considerable research is undertaken to provide effective outdoor communications in the townships, in terms of the demographics of various sites, and opportunities to view. However, most townships have few entry and egress points - everyone uses the same transportation corridors, making location, size, and visibility the secret to effective communication - place sites where there are audiences, or audiences converge. Aware of this, Primedia Outdoor continuously develops new sites in the most economically active areas.

In townships, the most popular Primedia Outdoor media platforms are the 9 x 6, Prime Position, billboards, and the 3 x 6 (48 sheet), posters - the 9 x 6 because its size ensures visibility at a distance and in close proximity. The 48 sheet billboards are in demand as, being relatively small and neat, they can be erected in heavily-used transport corridors.

Regular debate

The advertising, media, and marketing industries regularly debate whether out of home media creative executions should be specifically designed for the township market or the same creative be used on all billboards no matter where they are displayed.

I contend that this is an arguable point dependant on the message to be communicated. One can use the same creative for a cell phone township promotion using the vernacular as on urban sites in English because people travel from one place to another. However, if the market is totally different, change the creative!

Increasing disposable incomes

Advertisers and marketers beginning to advertise in the townships having identified increasing disposable incomes. Soweto is an excellent example of a city on the move - with many shopping centres being developed. Steers, Romans Pizza and other exciting stores fight for space. Therefore getting consumers to trial brands is easy.

I predict the next five years will see exponential township growth providing 'early adaptor' marketers with huge rewards for employing innovative out of home branding solutions as they expand into a lucrative market. Despite the barriers faced with obtaining approvals from councils, the winners will be those who follow the trend and deliver innovative products, backed by great brand building communications, to the market.