by Inge Hansen (@mecnotabene) South Africa is well-known for its sports-mad culture, which has created generations of passionate couch referees. Whether it’s a weekend friendly at the local club, an international final or a crazy 89km run across a province, our emotional involvement in the outcome of sport is high. This brings out the patriotic nature in all of us, leading to a real sense of national pride and bringing people from all walks of life together in support of their teams.
A cursory glance around the average office park on a Friday during the Rugby World Cup would have revealed an overwhelmingly green and gold picture as everyone got into the spirit of #bokfriday, in preparation of the weekends clash. Although this activity is not unique to South Africans, there is something really special about the spirit of Ubuntu that emerges when we rally behind our national teams.
Phenomenal monetary success
This national pride and interest are what builds the platform for the phenomenal monetary success that has come from World Cup events, with this year’s Rugby World Cup (RWC) having broken global records for both attendance and television viewership.
Despite many countries, including ours, still struggling to fill stadiums on a regular basis for live events, tickets sales for the RWC continued to soar. Even in the tough economic times being experienced globally, the Ireland vs Romania match at Wembley Stadium surpassed all previous RWC records, with a fan attendance of 89 267.
Although being set on a global scale, this still does not compare to the crowds for the Superbowl Final in the US, which holds a record of more than 103 000 fans in attendance. This major football final also boasts a TV viewership of 111m people, with TV adverts during the game costing an incredible US$150 000 per second. Luckily, local advertisers didn’t need to budget for such a premium price, with 30-second ratecard costs during the SA vs NZ match having sat at R150 000 on Supersport 1 and R90 000 on SABC 2.
Increasing adoption of social media
One of the factors said to have contributed to the major successes of this year’s RWC has been the increasing adoption of social media among fans. With the hashtag #RWC2015 flying across various social platforms, fans engaged with the games, celebrities, brands and each other at a whole new level in comparison to previous years, creating new interest.
Large-scale events such as these are therefore an opportunity for advertisers and marketers to reach into their wallets and connect with large audiences who are ready to engage around their passion point. This year’s RWC featured global sponsors such as MasterCard, Land Rover and Heineken, brands which would have had local-level campaign roll-outs in addition to their global coverage to ensure that they maximised their impact.
Locally, following an intense build-up to our first match against Japan, a look at the ratings reveals a high of 10.8 GRPs against all individuals on SABC 2, with viewers glued to the game. This high tapered off after the final whistle, as the disappointment of our 32-24 loss was felt. This upset was immediately voiced on social media with various memes and commentary doing the rounds on many platforms, with grim predictions for our next match.
Viewership drops and increases
This could have been a contributor to the notable drop in viewership for the next match against Samoa, which SA subsequently won. After that, there was a clear viewership increase as the RWC progressed, with a build-up in viewership for the matches against Scotland and USA, with the much-anticipated initial quarter-final match against Wales having had a higher average viewership than the SA RWC opener against Japan.
Despite this seemingly voracious interest in rugby, soccer still rules the roost as fans trumped the recent Nelson Mandela Challenge, featuring SA vs Senegal on SABC 1, with higher ratings than all of the RWC games at the time of writing this column.
However, the global stage that the RWC offers has opened up many avenues for brands to get involved and reach new audiences, with innovative methods and platforms helping keep budgets in check.
References
- News24 Archives: Record viewership for RWC 2007
- Statista: TV viewership of the Super Bowl in the United States from 1990 to 2015 (in millions)
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.
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