by Inge Hansen (@mecnotabene) With year-end fast approaching, advertisers are grasping at final opportunities to get their messages to consumers before the festive-season shopping has ended. This year, due to various factors, advertisers are up against more roadblocks than ever to reach viewers through TV and influence their purchasing decisions.
As retailers are stringing up their festive decorations and promoting specials earlier every year, you would be forgiven for thinking that Christmas is on our doorstop from the end of October. It does, however, bring into focus that leave needs to be applied for, holidays need to be booked and that some form of family entertainment may be required over the summer.
TV no longer the first screen
And, as the first screen in many cases is no longer television, planners and buyers are having to work even harder in this increasingly fragmented environment to reach their audiences — and often on platforms where the opportunities for advertising have not yet been optimised. As we see increasing penetration onto these alternate platforms, it highlights the need for media owners to create viable and measurable opportunities to reach viewers as they consume content.
Within the upper-income consumer group, local cinemas are already enticing families with their new releases in December, such as the Penguins of Madagascar for the kids, and the final instalment of the Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies, for the grown-ups. In the home environment, for those with premium DStv subscriptions and ADSL lines, it is possible to download or stream from a cache of 900 titles of series, movies or sports highlights via DStv Catch Up.
Also to be considered by the affluent consumer is the recently launched ‘TV Everywhere’ from DStv, which has stolen the thunder from competitors such as VIDI and Altech Node, providing subscribers with their first interconnected on-demand decoder. This is enabled by the subscriber purchasing a DStv WiFi Connector (R399 in retail stores), which uses the existing household broadband service to connect the DStv Explora to the internet.
Unmatched by competitors
This will allow the consumer access to a wide variety of exclusive and up-to-date content, unmatched by the competitors. The accompanying DStv Now App launches in December, making it possible for subscribers to set decoder recordings remotely via the app. Further functionality is that the subscriber will be able to download content or stream from several channels and view it on their smartphones or tablet.
These innovations will rapidly change how we consume TV content in a period where due, to warmer weather and later sunsets, our viewing patterns are already expected to be altered.
Right now, South Africa is experiencing an exciting period of innovation in terms of personal entertainment, and consumers are anxious to experience content in the way that counterparts in the US do.
Still a large role to play
However, due to the costs of these innovations ie data, installation costs etc, not all consumers are accessing the same platforms at the same pace and, as the majority of advertisers need to consider both the upper- and lower-market segments, traditional media such as TV still have a large role to play in our media landscape.
What with one-day passes to Ratanga Junction in Cape Town costing R172 per person and a family ticket to Gold Reef City in Joburg weighing in at R515 per family (two adults and two children), a ‘staycation’ starts to become appealing. Choosing this route will inevitably lead to increased couch time for the whole family, and with less stress on the wallet than a day out, an upgrade to DStv Premium for the month may be tempting.
For those consumers who are not in the position to afford a holiday, or another trip to the mall, free-to-air TV will be the solution to their entertainment fix.
Terrestrial TV rather light
Available schedules show that, for those wanting to relax after the inevitable day of overindulgence on 25 December, the festive fare on terrestrial TV is rather light. Although some locally produced shows may be showing Christmas specials, it appears that only e.tv is providing a variety of Christmas-themed programming, ie the ever-present Home Alone series.
Nevertheless, SABC2 does come through for those who have not made plans for 31 December with a New Year’s Eve special, which stands out from the other business-as-usual programming on offer. Other seasonal programming for this time of year includes the second test match between South Africa and the West Indies, set to take place 26–30 December and a certainty to log long viewing times.
While our top-rated shows, such as the eagerly awaited return of Generations, will continue to perform, it will be interesting to see if the expected viewership this festive season is attracted by the content on offer.
Sources:
- teeveetee.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2014-11-14T08:26:00%2B02:00&max-results=15
- Arianna: Post Campaign
Following two years at Media24 scrubbing for insights within the magazine division, Inge Hansen joined Nota Bene as an A&I analyst in March 2013. Working across multiple clients, including FMCG, alcohol and petroleum, she has the luxury of working with teams to develop robust insights that drive strategy while keeping abreast of media trends the world over. Inge loves having her pulse on the media landscape but far prefers raising her pulse mountain-biking on weekends. She contributes Thinking TV, a monthly analysis of South African TV viewership figures, to MarkLives. Follow @mecnotabene for regular media updates.
— MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every Monday and Thursday. Sign up here!