Telecoms emerge as leading advertisers

22 Mar 2013

Telecoms and brewers are among highly competitive industries in the country, a factor that forces them to scramble for adverts space in newspapers and airtime in radio and TV stations, the latest report by Push Observer shows.

According to the report, telecoms dominated the four top positions in the quarter, followed at far by brewers and bottlers. CRDB Bank is the only financial institution that featured among the top 20 in the list of firms leading in advertisement spending.

Airtel Tanzania leads the rest of the advertisers' group after placing almost 13 000 units of adverts, compared to Tigo that scored slightly less at 10 000 units. The third and fourth are Vodacom that scored slightly over 8 000 units and Zantel which had 7 800 units respectively.

Other companies are the Tanzania Breweries Limited, Pepsi Cola, Coca Cola, Startimes, SBl and Twaweza scored between 2 000 and 6 000 units. "From our data, we can also reveal key trends from all industries of which the most competitive include the telecoms and alcoholic beverages as expected," Push Observer's managing director, Ruby Alcantara told the Daily News.

The report entitled Television and Radio Tanzania Adverting Data Report shows that out of 17.59bn/- spent on advertisers during the last quarter of last year, 31% went to TV, while 69% was for radio. The report further showed that in the last three months of 2012, a total of 99 540 spots were aired as per published rate cards.

Alcantara said the report's main purpose is to outline some of the trends in last year's fourth quarter, showing the advertising campaigns and trends. The firm, according to her, will release this year's first quarter report that geared to shed some light on the effect of media house compliance from analogue to digital switchover.

"The report is expected to come out in May," Alcantara told the Daily News. The firm believes that the adverts volume will increase for stations with better coverage. In the recently days electronic media owners have complained to the roof over the switchover, claiming most viewers failed to access decoders thus cutting themselves off the air.

Owners are saying they preferred the analogue and digital system to operate in parallel until the international deadline of 2015. Push Observer's client service manager, Ellen Mutalemwa said "The reports will be a regular publication that will be made available to clients upon request."

Source: allAfrica