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eMarketplaces & Brands: Mobile conversion rates will pick up soon

by MarkLives (@marklives) What roles do brands play in today’s world of ecommerce? How does this impact on how consumers choose products? We emailed a panel of key industry executives for their take on South Africa’s ecommerce market. First up is Neil Smith of Raru.

Raru was launched in June 2014; the co-founders (Smith, Waine Smith and Jose Pereira) previously launched Take 2, which they sold in 2010. Raru’s mission is to provide “an as-wide-as-possible range in the various product categories we do. There is a strong focus also on geeky and nice-to-have products, like board games, video games, movies and the merchandise which ties in with the overall pop culture theme.” Registered customers grew by 52% from March 2017 to March 2018, and sales by 28% over the same period.

What should brand managers know about online retail through online marketplaces (such as Amazon.com and similar local operations)?
Neil Smith: Popular online marketplaces [are] where their customers are. And partnering with online players ought to be a much more cost-effective way of reaching these customers. With enough sales data. it would be possible to send specific promotions tailored to customers who, from their sales history, you know might be interested in what they have to offer. Of course, if a customer has recently bought a big screen TV, they most likely wont’t be looking to buy a new TV, but they might be interested in a Xbox One S Console which had 4K UHD Blu-ray capabilities.

How may a brand optimise its presence on these online retail spaces to make it easy for consumers find and access their products?
NS: We have something which we call Brand Pages. On these Brand Pages we can take any brand and build a mini-website around it. On the Brand Page, we would show what are the latest releases/products from the brand, what ranges are most popular, what are on promotion, add videos and so forth. This is nice way to have a quick overview for what is on offer from a brand. We can also partner with vendors to feature their Brand Pages more prominent[ly]. Enhancing brand experiences to our customers is a critical function of what we do. We work to capitalise on the existing brand attachment, and offer as broad an offering for the brand, in [an] as [easily] a discoverable method as possible.

Finally, what are your predictions for online retail’s current and future share or retail spend in South Africa; how will mobile change online buying habits; and how will it impact consumers’ offline buying behaviour?
NS: We, of course, are fully committed to online retail as we firstly know from experience what the possibilities are, and, secondly, believe more and more South Africans will look towards online to, at [the] very least, supplement their consumer spending. The key advantage of online, and it is something we are working hard on, is the ability to offer a vast array of choice you would not be able to in a normal retail environment. So expanded choice is key.

Mobile shopping is growing all the time, so having a great mobile-friendly site is really critical. At the moment, almost 45% of our traffic is coming from mobile devices. For many South Africans, their primary way of connecting online might be mobile only so, as data prices begin to fall, even more mobile shoppers can be expected. While, at present, large amount of mobile browsing may not result in a mobile transaction, just as a decade ago desktop browsing also didn’t necessarily convert to sales, so will the mobile conversion rate change as customers mature with the technology. As alternate payment methods gain traction, so we expect to see a larger portion of mobile browsers become mobile shoppers, resulting in fewer offline sales as customers instantly compare the offline offering with the vastly wider online choices.

African Echo: Dar es Salaam, city under construction

tanzania-people-africa-shop courtesy of Pixabay

by Lesole Kodisang. Anyone with a window seat and flying into Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for the first time might not immediately notice the major difference between its cityscape and those of others in developing nations. But, within minutes, they’ll soon be baffled by it: the disproportionately large number of unfinished and roofless houses.

This growing yet peaceful city in Africa is buzzing with energy and ambition that manifests itself in entrepreneurship, clearly visible as you drive out of Julius Nyerere International airport and head into the CBD. Every corner, side street, alleyway and pavement serve as the business premises of young entrepreneurs, men and women, selling all sorts of ‘stuff’.

Entrepreneurship

In Tanzania, entrepreneurship is the most-respected and -valued activity, no matter how big or small the business, to the point where parents bring out the figurative champagne when your small enterprise makes its first sale, rather than reserving it for when you land a formal job.

Only 4% of Tanzanian adults earn a salary from formal employment and 41% cover their living expenses through money generated from farming activities (not necessarily as farm labourers but as farmers themselves). The remainder are mostly entrepreneurs

While entrepreneurship is the most-preferred way of earning an income, the business landscape poses a lot of challenges for locals. Chief among these is that it is incredibly competitive — and it would be, when most people are interested in or have a business selling anything and everything from veggies to gadgets. In this environment, generating enough to cover your expenses is a big ask; generating enough income to make a profit is extraordinarily harder. What make it even more difficult are laws regulating business. These are quite unstable, with impromptu announcements on regulatory business requirements constantly being made. A case in point is the recent bill that requires bloggers to pay the government an annual fee of US$900.

Indicators of success

What has this to do with the landscape of half-finished houses, which, at first glance, look and feel neglected, abandoned or may even be relics of war?

For Tanzanians, the two most-important indicators of success are starting a business and owning a house. And here’s the light bulb moment: when having a house is more important than getting a good education, it really means people do take pride in owning houses. And, so, Tanzanians are building their own houses from scratch, using their own money. In other words, they save and save and save, and then use this to build their dream homes. They don’t take out loans and a significant number certainly don’t have access to good old bonds, or mortgage finance.

The Tanzanian mortgage market is relatively new and, as a result, there are far too many barriers to entry for the potential customer, such as high-interest rates, long application processes and not that many banks to choose from. At last count, of the 50-plus commercial banks operating in the country, only half offered a home-loan facility.

Opportunity looking for a solution

The big question, therefore, for financial institution wishing to make an impact in the country is this: how do you enable — or empower — a fairly independent nation, less reliant on formal salaries and stable jobs than others, to secure ownership of their completed dream homes in a shorter time period? Is it through reimagined credit products, made-over saving facilities or schooling them in essential business knowledge that matches their entrepreneurial flair?

One thing’s for certain, Africa’s not holding its breath, and this is an opportunity looking for a solution.

Sources

AIM Strategy. TMRC (Tanzania Mortgage Refinance Company). Finscope Tanzania 2017.

Lesole Kodisang, FCB Africa integrated strategy lead, has over 10 years’ experience in strategic planning working for South Africa’s top agencies and has helped grow various top brands in different categories and industries across multiple platforms from above-the-line to below-the-line. African Echo seeks to unpack markets in Africa, highlight business opportunities and share insights into what works and what rebounds.

“Motive” is a by-invitation-only column on MarkLives.com. Contributors are picked by the editors but generally don’t form part of our regular columnist lineup, unless the topic is off-column.

EXCLUSIVE: Smollan buys into Elevator

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Experiential and activation agency, Elevator, has sold a majority (50.1%) stake to retail solutions company, Smollan.

Elevator is the result of the merger of Stretch and Point Blank in early 2017. The combined agency employs roughly 50 people, with R50m in revenue. The agency has offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, and clients includes Cell C, Lipton Ice Tea, Chevron, Pernod Ricard and Standard Bank

WPP-aligned Smollan launched in South Africa in 1931, and has grown into an international retail solutions company with over 60 000 employees (mostly functioning as sales and merchandising forces).

Talks prior to merger

According to Mike Silver, Elevator CEO, he’d been in talks with Smollan prior to the Stretch/Point Blank merger but postponed further discussion until the new combined agency could be settled. Smollan will use Elevator to build its offering in the activations, experiential and below-the-line space. In return, Elevator gains access to Smollan’s clients and pan-African footprint.

Silver says the deal adds weight to the Elevator brand and product offering and will allow the agency to grow into other markets on the continent.

Michael Smollan, chief growth and innovation officer at Smollan, says Elevator fills a real gap in expertise at the retail solutions company, which had previously tried and failed to build a similar service organically. The merger that resulted in Elevator created enough mass to become of real interest to the agency. Smollan also likes Silver’s vision for the business, considers his team sharp and passionate, and likes the cultural fit.

More-evolved set of services

According to Smollan, his business has great relationships with brands across the globe, and Elevator provides a more-evolved set of services to offer its clients and partners. Elevator also offers a more-creative and -experiential lens to an operationally driven organisation. Smollan sees Elevator expanding outside South Africa, with strategy and creative based here but execution happening at a local level in new markets.

The deal was concluded on 13 April 2018.

Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com.

Q&A: Odette van der Haar on leaving the ACA for JWT

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Odette van der Haar, CEO of the Association for Communication and Advertising of South Africa, recently handed in her resignation after just over a decade with the organisation. She will be joining J. Walter Thompson Johannesburg, also as CEO, as 1 July 2018. MarkLives caught up with Van der Haar to find out more about her career move.

What prompted the move back to agency side?
Odette van der Haar: Change is healthy, and for me, personally, it was time. I’ve been at the ACA for more than 10 years and that has been a tremendous experience. When you look to grow your career, it is necessary to challenge yourself whether inside or outside your existing organisation. The move to JWT affords me precisely the new challenge I’ve been after. I’ve talked a lot about how our industry landscape has evolved, and how agency models need to change in order for agencies to survive and thrive in the current economic climate and digital era. So, now, I have the chance to be part of the transformation process at an agency that has already adapted, with capabilities in e-commerce, experience design, social, multi-screen campaigns, performance marketing and other disciplines needed to match today’s business environment. It really is an exciting time to be part of the industry.

How did the JWT JHB approach/offer happen?
OvdH: As the ACA CEO, I often engage with agency heads and/or owners regarding vacancies in their business and, this time, it happened to be JWT, which is an agency that I have always had the utmost respect for. The agency boasts some of the best brains in the business and I could not resist the chance to work alongside people I have always held in high regard and admired.

What will your short- and medium-term strategy for JWT Joburg entail?
OvdH: In the short-term, I aim to get to the know the talent and clients, and build mutually beneficial relationships with all the agency’s stakeholders. In the medium term, I would like to assist in growing the agency and its clients’ businesses.

What do you consider your career highlight at the ACA?
OvdH: One highlight? The past decade has been filled with so many highlights at the ACA but leaving the company in a much-healthier, -successful and -respected position than when I first arrived makes me immensely proud.

What is the most-valuable learning you take from the ACA with you to JWT Joburg?
OvdH: The business of advertising and communications requires creativity in every sphere, not just in content generation. That said, creativity in business can never be at the expense of good governance and devaluing the currency of the business – our intellectual property.

What advice would you offer your successor at the ACA?
OvdH: A: Ensure that you develop mutually beneficial relationships with all the ACA’s stakeholders because these relationships will ensure the success of all the endeavours of the ACA. There is still a lot of work to be done at the ACA and this will require continued support from the agencies, Government and the broader industry players.

If you could offer one piece of advice to SA’s ad industry at large?
OvdH: Continue to support the ACA because self-regulation is what has created an environment in which agencies have the opportunity [to] thrive commercially. Times may be tough at the moment but there is no better time than the present to be innovative, creative and disruptive in terms of the status quo.

Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com.

Shelf Life: Hendrick’s Gin ad by Tulips and Chimneys • Freshstop food lines

Cheryl Hunter (shelflife at marklives.com)’s weekly pick of all things new — ads, product, packaging, design, insight, food, décor and more!

The surreal escape

Hendrick’s Gin’s tagline of “Undeniably peculiar, utterly delicious” could also be said to describe creative studio Tulips and Chimney’s animations — resulting in a surrealist new ad for the gin brand.

Director Ree Treweek says: “We have long been admirers of the Hendrick’s Gin aesthetic; its Victoriana surrealism is so aligned with our style that you can imagine our delight when we were approached by the [American] creative agency, Quaker City Mercantile, to create an animated spot for the Scottish brand.”

The resultant “Escape” is an invitation to escape the conventional and embrace the delectable: “No one likes commuting. It is a mundane necessity for so many, and that’s why we love this script so much. Taking something painfully ordinary and giving it that extraordinary Hendrick’s sense of wonder was an absolute joy.”

The heroes journey home from the daily office grind to delicious cocktails in a truly weird and wonderful mix of impossible juxtapositions and hybrid creatures dressed in Victorian fashion. There are crowds of narwhals, a dapper gentleman in a tuxedo with the head of a cucumber, a sophisticated lady juggling knives between palm trees, and painted ceramic whales.

Hendrick’s vintage papercut aesthetic ties together the varied environments: “We loved the idea that the architecture itself reflects the theme of the spot, and is alive and changing. Our commuters’ office block works like an old-fashioned clock hand, while the homes of our lead characters resemble an alligator and a swordfish. We played with scale within the environments and built on the idea that things are constantly changing, from the lighting to the sky tones.”

For the spot’s distinct look, Tulips and Chimneys created layered illustrated artwork in Photoshop, which was then animated and composited in After Effects. When compositing, it added a subtle grain to the film and made use of vignettes, dust, scratches, film burn, light leaks and other imperfections common in old film stock.

“We’ve stayed fairly close to the look of the brand, but added depth, atmospherics and some subtle moments of surprise.”

tulipsandchimneys.tv • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram
hendricksgin.com • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram

Freshstop’s growth strategy

FreshStop, described as the largest and fastest growing convenience retail brand in South Africa, has introduced two new branded food lines to its branded food stable — Hot Dog Bar and Africaz — joining existing food lines Crispy Chicken, Grill to Go, Hooked On Fish, Doughnut Delite and Biltong Bars.

Says Michael Joubert, FreshStop APC brand manager, “Convenience retail brands must have a solid food strategy to be successful and our selection of fast-food concepts, with low costs of entry and shared operational expenses, form part of the future view of our business.”

FreshStop launched its first in-house fast food brand, Crispy Chicken, in 2014 and it quickly gained brand traction and customer support: “Chicken is still the biggest food driver in SA and our Crispy Chicken brand has proved what a difference it can make to a business’s bottom line. We currently have 41 Crispy Chicken outlets nationally and we plan to roll out an additional 8 to 10 outlets this year.

The two new food lines aim to add interest and themes to the food offering, as well as appeal to new customers.

Africaz has been launched in three FreshStop stores in KwaZulu-Natal, offering flame-grilled chicken with Africaz sauce; it has shown great value with sales in excess of 60% of store turnover, and has added phenomenal value to FreshStop’s overall business.

“Over the years, we have learned that where there is a focused food strategy, the brand will do well. Convenience food is growing across all retail sectors and it is currently contributing to about 25–30% of our business where we have foods service offers, and we know that our core food service lines will be the growth point for our Re-Fresh and new store conversion strategy.”

freshstop.co.za • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram

Shelf Life is MarkLives.com’s weekly column covering all things new. Notify us of yours at shelflife at marklives dot com. Want to sponsor Shelf Life? Contact us here.

Cheryl Hunter (@cherylhunter) has written for the South African media, marketing and advertising industries for more than 15 years. A former editor of M&M in Independent Newspapers and contributor to Bizcommunity, AdFocus, AdReview and the Ad Annual, she has also produced for various television networks and currently consults on communication strategy and media liaison.

EXCLUSIVE: The Odd Number wins Wimpy

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Odd Number has been appointed as lead agency for Wimpy, following a five-way pitch that included incumbent agency FCB Africa, King James II, Grey South Africa and Net#work BBDO.

Xola Nouse, The Odd Number co-founder and managing director, says the agency is honoured to be working on such a truly iconic South African brand. “The partnership comes at the right time for our agency, and for the local advertising industry as a whole — it says a lot about Wimpy’s commitment to South African business, and to the future of our industry.”

“Our Year 3 strategic objective in our five-year plan as an agency was always to achieve high growth and enhanced market positioning in this financial year,” he says. “We’ve certainly done so with this recent win and partnership with Wimpy.”

“We are proud to announce that The Odd Number has been appointed as Wimpy’s creative partner,” says Jacques Cronje, Wimpy marketing executive. “We have huge confidence in the agency and feel that there is real creative synergy between the agency and the brand. We look forward to a successful and dynamic partnership in the years ahead.”

The Odd Number, launched in 2015 by Nouse and Sibusiso “Sbu” Sitole, was named MarkLives’ South African agency to watch in 2018. It also received MarkLives’ 2017 Ad of the Year for its Inspired By My Constitution campaign for Brand South Africa. Co-founder Sitole was named as MarkLives’ most-admired creative leader in Jozi for 2017.

The agency has been on a succeful client acquisition drive, nabbing work from FNB Business, The Nelson Mandela Foundation and Miller Genuine Draft during the course of 2017. Other large clients includes Brand South Africa and BBC Worldwide. The agency currently has a permanent team of 25 people.

Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com.

B2B Customer Centricity: Why competitor differentiation matters

by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) In this second Q&A with Laura Ramos, Forrester’s VP and principal analyst serving B2B marketing professionals, we’ll examine how a centric approach may be used to differentiate a B2B enterprise from its competitors.

Differentiation seriously matters. In B2B: A Game of Clones?, I presented reasons that being seen to be positively different is the engine that drives profitable sales. I also suggested the steps marketers should take to distinguish their organisation from the competition and be recognised as the obvious choice in their markets.

Back2Basics: In terms of proving to customers why they should even consider a particular offering, what role does customer centricity play in differentiating a vendor from its competitors? How does it make them stand out from the crowd?
Laura Ramos: When it comes to B2B marketing, few vendors differentiate on customer experience, choosing instead to feature products and offerings in their marketing, and selling messages and failing to engage with customers throughout their lifetime. Last year, Forrester reviewed 60 B2B websites to see which ones passed a very simple set of tests for customer centricity. Only six of the 60 passed. They did so by, for example, focusing homepage content on buyers not products, providing content that targets different roles, or using narrative or video to tell customer stories. More details on this are on my Forrester blog post, Empathy Is Key To Engaging B2B Buyers.

Simply put, if your message, content and brand deliverables are focused on customers, you’ll stand apart from 90% of the crowd. As prospects discover and explore technology solutions to their key business problems, the type of content they find most helpful in decision-making is information from peers: case studies, testimonials, industry examples. In our most-recent customer content credibility study, 71% of the responding B2B technology and business buyers agreed that hearing from your customers is most important to them. (Source: Forrester report, Peer Stories And Credible Data Attract And Engage B2B Buyers.)

Vendor: “We are an intrinsically 100% customer-centric enterprise.”
Buyers: “So what? How does that help me and my organisation?”

B2B: It seems to me that a centric approach should loom large in a vendor’s brand — so that customers can recognise and buy-into the benefits it creates for them. How can centricity be positioned as a brand-attribute that becomes a clear sales-creating differentiator?
LR: Turning customer-centricity into a brand attribute and sales-creating differentiator requires walking the talk — it means marketing must evolve from “saying” to “doing”. This is a big switch for marketers tethered to comms-oriented benchmarks like reach and frequency. From the CMO on down, marketers must take on new responsibilities associated with not just creating a brand but of developing a unique brand experience.

A customer-centric brand experience solves customer problems while also demonstrating your brand in every physical or digital customer interaction. Working with your company should be immersive — customers should know it’s “you” every time they see, hear, or talk about you. A consistent, customer-centric brand experience is key to winning and retaining customers long term and, provided this experience is majorly positive, the result will be easy to measure in increased sales and loyal, longer customers relationships.

Marketers needn’t formally own all customer-facing functions to fulfil their responsibility for customer experience, but they must ensure it consistently represents their brand values, regardless of who delivers it. To make this transition stick, we believe marketers need to adopt three new habits:

Be human: treat your customers like your friends or colleagues — with empathy.
Be helpful: aim to solve real customer problems, not just create catchy taglines.
Be handy: flex to accommodate changing market conditions. Keep it simple and find lean ways to get things done.

(Source: Forrester reports, Three Steps To Modernize Marketing Thinking and Empathy: The Hallmark Of The Customer-Obsessed B2B Marketer.)

B2B: Commoditisation is a major threat to B2B margins. It creates markets where price is regarded as the only differentiator across competing vendors — so customers search for the cheapest. How does centricity help to justify and secure the premium prices that produce higher margins?
LR: When you treat customers like people, demonstrate empathy for their business problems, aim to solve those problems, and flex to accommodate change willingly — buyers learn they can trust you and that trust breeds loyalty. Loyal customers don’t see you as a commodity, but as an asset to their business. They deliver greater lifetime value at generally better margins because they aren’t looking for special consideration or concessions. If your brand experience helps them succeed, they will be more flexible and forgiving, which creates less pain and frustration.

Most importantly, they will advocate for you — tell others about their experience and reinforce the (true) perception that working with you is more valuable than going with a lower-cost alternative.

Following on from this overview of how centricity can be used as a powerful differentiator that attracts and retains profitable customers, we’re going to look at how a centric approach enables B2B companies to identify key audiences for their marcoms; target those audiences; and measure outcomes. Next up: B2B Customer Centricity — how it allows marketers to create the right messages for the right people.

Only Connect: Technology & the power of influence

seven-photo-of-person-wallmount courtesy of Pexels

by Bradley Elliott (@BradElliottSA) Did you know that influence in social networks has a shape? That budget has impact on a brand’s reach on social networks but smaller brands can outperform bigger ones, which have more money, if they are smart, if they use the right technology, and if ‘underdog brands’ are differentiated and are creatively clever? These are just some insights from a recent research study conducted by Arthur Goldstuck of World Wide Worx.*

Fifty major SA brands which use social networks to connect with customers and audiences cooperated in this local research by allowing access to their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts for three months, enabling the collection of 100m pieces of data, generated by 5.25m individuals who’d interacted with them.

Shape

The research revealed that social influence has a shape and that this shape changes for every single brand, much like a fingerprint. It is a unique indicator of the power of influence that lives in a brand’s social community. By influence I mean real influence: the ability to affect behaviour. Let’s face it, when brands invest as much money in social as they do, they want to know how much of an impact this will have on what matters — revenue growth.

I’ve been speaking to digital teams across the country and I can tell you that reach currently features heavily in social media reporting. I am not knocking reach but, as a metric, it doesn’t show that which influences online behaviour, the sharing, engaging, interacting, tagging and word of mouth that propels people to do something. That something is to purchase your product, or influence others to do so.

This means that choosing the right technology to manage, analyse and report on social metrics is important. What you want to look for is technology that can identify behavioural data points so that influencer scores are assigned to individuals in audiences who drive influence for a brand. You want to be able to ‘tier’ an ever-changing dynamic — the propensity to drive change in influence in human networks. You want to be able to measure velocity (the speed in which content gets engagement as a result of one particular individual), a much more-powerful and -accurate metric for discerning the power of influence and influencers in branded community on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Relativity

Think of velocity as influence relativity. It is the metric that determines a brands return on investment in social media channels. Velocity is the speed at which messages travel through human networks (like Facebook), and the rate at which these bits of content are amplified.

Yes, reach is an important element of the influencer equation but it’s only part of the whole picture. Big social spend does buy reach, but what really counts in influence is having the ability to affect behaviour. In social media, this comes in the shape of sharing, engaging, interacting, tagging and gaining word of mouth from those people that you reach.

Good digital technologies will indicate the relative power of people to influence — to share, engage, and promote your message. And when I talk people, I’m not looking at celebrities or experts, but everyday humans who have signed up to receive your brand message. They’re in your community on any given social media because they want to be a part of your brand’s community.

Algorithms

The future of great influencer marketing lies in unlocking a thorough understanding of these communities with influencer algorithms that analyse engagement types and behavioural data points, and uses data to assign influencer scores to those who carry influence for a brand, within their specific social media community. In short, the technology you use needs to discern three things in order to measure the power of influence in your branded social community:

At what point did an individual join the conversation and what impact did that interaction have on the conversation?
Did it result in reaching and impacting the right audience through the right channels, and at the right time?
Which individuals and clusters of people were responsible for this increase in velocity?

There are hundreds, thousands and even sometimes millions of influencers who exist within a brand’s social media community who may be identified with the right technology. They cost nothing and are authentic. You may harness the power of this influence with creativity, strategy and differentiation to help your propel your brand messages and to become brand champions. But you do need the right technology fuelled by smart algorithms to unlock this behaviour changing potential.

*Full disclosure: Continuon’s influencer technology and algorithms were used in this study.

The founder of Continuon and Platinum Seed, Bradley Elliott (@BradElliottSA) is a serial entrepreneur who’s created a number of businesses in the digital and technology sectors. He believes that marketing needs to be reinvented so that it becomes more useful to humans and brands. He’s also a collector of fine whiskey. Bradley contributes the new monthly column, “Only Connect”, which focuses on influencer marketing, to MarkLives.com.

ABC Analysis Q1 2018: The biggest-circulating newspapers in SA

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Audit Bureau of Circulations of South Africa has released newspaper-circulation statistics for the period January—March 2018 (ABC Q1 2018); see our magazine ABC analysis here and a summary of key metrics provided by the ABC here.

2 July 2019: Indy circ figures fall in ABC restatement

Note: we compare the current figures with the same figures for this time last year, and not with the previous quarter. Green equals growth; red declined; purple maintained, new entrant or renamed; orange discontinued or resigned; pink no submission or suspended; brown minimal newsstand sales; and grey changed frequency or moved to a new category.

Key insights

Total newspaper circulation increased by 0.8% on the previous quarter, but declined by 4.4% year on year. Daily newspapers declined by 15.7% YOY, weekly newspapers by 12.5%, weekend newspapers by 9.2%, local by 6.0% and free newspapers by 1.1% year on year.

ABC member circulation totals:

Daily newspapers: down from 1 211 887 to 1 051 223, compared to the previous corresponding period
Weekly papers: down from 506 730 to 425 204
Weekend papers: down from 1 436 844 to 1 306 436
Local papers: down from 354 641 to 333 282
Free papers: down from 6 254 874 to 6 187 758

Daily papers

In Gauteng, Pretoria News has fallen from 15 038 to 12 600 (sales below 50% of retail cost = 2 483). Beeld has fallen from 41 286 to 36 182 in the previous corresponding reporting period [851 copies go to Print Media in Education (PMIE)]. The Star is down from 84 857 to 75 836 (sales below 50% = 10 080). Sowetan is down from 80 010 to 70 120.

In the Cape, Die Burger (Eastern and Western Cape editions) has declined from 49 483 to 47 420. The Cape Argus has decreased from 29 707 to 27 946 (3 088 to PMIE), while the Cape Times has also declined from 31 212 to 29 994 (2 491 to PMIE). Son has fallen from 73 757 to 62 842.

In the Eastern Cape, Daily Dispatch has fallen from 20 509 to 18 575, and The Herald from 17 721 to 16 584.

In KwaZulu-Natal, the Daily News is down from 24 278 to 23 105 (1 074 = sales below 50%) and The Mercury has fallen from 26 185 to 25 659. The Witness has declined from 13 651 to 11 681.

The Citizen has grown from 43 480 to 45 358 (single copy sales: 30 081) but Business Day has declined from 21 555 to 20 350. The Daily Sun has continued its fall from 174 483 to 141 187. Isolezwe has fallen from 95 430 to 86 342.

Volksblad has declined from 15 527 to 13 991. Diamond Fields Advertiser declines down from 8 362 to 7 794 (860 = sales below 50%).

The MarkLives Big Daily Newspaper List*

Daily Sun: 141 187
Isolezwe: 86 342
The Star: 75 836
Sowetan: 70 120
Son: 62 842
Die Burger: 47 420
The Citizen: 45 358
Beeld: 36 182
The Cape Times: 29 994
Cape Argus: 27 946

Weekly & weekend papers

Pretoria News Saturday has declined from 8 946 to 7 510 (sales below 50% of cover price: 1 666). The Saturday Star is down from 51 202 to 45 172 (sales below 50% of cover price: 4 670); the Weekend Argus Saturday edition from 35 043 to 33 934; and Independent on Saturday from 37 489 to 36 144 (sales below 50% of cover price: 5 172).

Saturday Beeld has fallen from 38 918 to 37 253; Saturday Burger from 62 452 to 61 749 and Saturday Dispatch from 16 573 to 14 639.

City Press has declined from 71 710 to 58 566 (in Q1 2014 total circ stood at 118 676) and Rapport from 124 854 to 113 636 (single copy sales: 87 129; in Q1 2014, total circ stood at 177 016). The Sunday Times has declined from 262 569 to 260 132 (single copy sales: 159 131; in Q1 2014 total circ stood at 405 458).

Sunday Tribune has declined from 55 389 to 50 064 (sales below 50% = 6 628). Sunday Sun has collapsed from 86 081 to 62 674 and Sunday World has also dropped from 60 527 to 47 835.

Ilanga Langesonto has declined from 41 111 to 34 146 and Isolezwe ngeSonto has fallen from 72 282 to 65 489. Isolezwe ngoMgqibelo has fallen from 74 365 to 64 676.

In terms of the weeklies, The Post has declined from 40 154 to 37 310 (sales below 50%: 2 796) and Ilanga has fallen from 72 635 to 56 481. The Mail & Guardian has declined from 30 148 to 26 945. Soccer Laduma is down from 284 276 to 252 041.

The MarkLives’ Biggest Circulation Per Issue Newspaper List*

Q1 2018

1. Sunday Times: 260 132
2. Soccer Laduma: 252 041
3. Daily Sun: 141 187
4. Rapport: 113 636
5. Isolezwe: 86 342
6. The Star: 75 836
7. Sowetan: 70 120
8. Isolezwe ngeSonto: 65 489 +3
9. Isolezwe ngoMgqibelo: 64 676 +1
10. Son: 62 842 -1

Sunday Sun: 62 674 -3
Die Burger (Saturday): 61 749
City Press: 58 566
Ilanga: 56 481

*South African titles only. Must have a cover price. Excludes free papers.

For comparison

Q1 2014

Sunday Times: 405 458
Soccer Laduma: 317 013
Daily Sun: 283 216
Rapport: 177 016
Sunday Sun: 172 741
The Times: 142 603
Isolezwe: 119 846
City Press: 118 676
Sunday World: 113 757
The Star: 101 711

Ilanga: 100 853
Sowetan: 99 403
Isolezwe ngeSonto: 93 268

ABC Analysis Q1 2018: The biggest-circulating consumer mags in SA

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Audit Bureau of Circulations of South Africa has released consumer-magazine circulation statistics for the period January–March 2018 (ABC Q1 2018); see our newspaper ABC analysis and a summary of key metrics provided by the ABC. Apart from highlighting several figures that stand out for us, we’ve included table of web traffic for consumer titles for Q1 and also updated our list of the biggest-circulating consumer titles in SA.

Note: we compare the current figures with the same figures for this time the year before, and not with the previous quarter. Green equals growth; red declined; purple maintained, new entrant or renamed; orange discontinued or resigned; pink no submission or suspended; brown minimal newsstand sales; and grey changed frequency or moved to a new category.

Key insights

Total magazine circulation declined by 16.1% year on year. Consumer magazines decreased by 4.8%, B2B magazines declined by 0.8%, custom magazines fell by 27.1% and free magazines declined by 21.7% year on year.

The business press

Finweek has climbed from 17 342 to 18 203 (total free copies = 4 330). Financial Mail is also up from 12 673 to 13 454 in the corresponding previous reporting period.

Your Business Magazine has declined from 10 565 to 8 520; Forbes Africa has fallen from 20 388 to 14 762 (total free = 6 471); Entrepreneur has decreased from 16 941 to 15 973; and Noseweek is down from 12 658 to 12 223.

Landbouweekblad has fallen from 31 001 to 27 307 and Farmer’s Weekly has declined from 12 312 to 11 557.

Biggest-circulating business magazines in terms of paid-for (sales, bulk and subscriptions) circulation

Entrepreneur: 15 973
Finweek: 13 873
Financial Mail: 13 454
Noseweek: 12 223
Forbes Africa: 8 291
Your Business: 7 109

Biggest-circulating business magazines in terms of total circulation

Finweek: 18 203
Entrepreneur: 15 973 +1
Forbes Africa: 14 762 -1
Financial Mail: 13 454
Noseweek: 12 223
Your Business: 8 520

Position movement relative to Q4 2017.

Entertainment & celeb news

Taalgenoot has grown from 68 427 to 69 111.

People has seen its circulation decrease from 38 155 to 31 388. TV Plus (Afrikaans) is down from 34 900 to 28 428 and the English edition has slid from 25 247 to 15 323.

Bona is down from 78 053 to 68 143 in the previous corresponding reporting period. Drum has continued its collapse from 51 227 to 37 305; Huisgenoot has fallen from 208 322 to 190 613; and YOU has fallen from 107 108 to 95 421.

The Big Issue has fallen from 10 146 to 9 994.

Home & gardening, leisure

Condé Nast House & Garden has inched up from 32 996 to 33 544 (total free jumps dramatically from 3 967 in Q4 2017 to 7 152 in Q1 2018). Food & Home Entertaining has also grown from 22 339 to 23 125 (total free: 3 889). Tuis Home has climbed from 77 966 to 85 296 (total free has jumped to 7 552) and VISI from 14 820 to 15 082. MyKitchen (TFG) has grown from 90 342 to 102 477 (it recently moved from the custom category).

House & Leisure has declined from 25 902 to 20 653 (total free: 1 969). Woolworths TASTE, listed as a custom magazine, has declined from 30 150 to 29 904 (single copy sales: 23 436). SA Home Owner is down from 42 149 to 36 736 (total free: 7 691), and SA Garden and Home from 53 107 to 42 842 (total free: 4 387).

ELLE Decoration comes in at 18 034, following a frequency change.

Men’s market

Very Interesting has grown from 15 199 to 18 140 (total free = 5 669) in the previous corresponding reporting period, while Men’s Health has inched down from 29 305 to 29 002 (total free: 4 668).

GQ is down from 20 656 to 18 128 (total free: 4 144); Popular Mechanics has fallen from 32 759 to 30 540 (total free: 3 782); and Stuff is down from 13 465 to 11 006 (total free falls to 734). Tech (not sure why the publishers categorise this as a men’s title) falls from 64 420 to 62 659 (total free = 4 658).

Destiny Man changed frequency; no updated data is available.

Health, fitness, sport

Kick Off is up from 21 679 to 23 534 and Golf Digest has jumped from 8 402 to 12 469. Sports Club (TFG), meanwhile, has declined from 165 008 to 150 659.

Game & Hunt/Wild & Jag has jumped from 9 331 to 16 036 yet SA Hunter has declined from 46 965 to 45 407.

Hitting the road

TFG Motor has grown from 39 829 to 41 916 (total free = 4 661). SA 4×4 has declined from 18 375 to 14 733. Leisure Wheels has fallen from 19 082 to 14 977 while CAR has fallen from 72 060 to 68 032 (total free = 9 012). Speed and Sound has declined from 26 472 to 22 061 and Super Bike from 9 133 to 8 666 (total free: 4 629).

Bike SA changed publisher and no updated data is available.

Weg!/Go! has grown from 57 710 to 60 944 (total free = 7 296) but Getaway has inched down from 44 772 to 44 474 (total free = 3 606) while SA Country Life has declined from 33 247 to 31 523.

Woman’s general

ELLE has grown from 17 533 to 22 907 (total free jumps to 8 042), True Love has inched up from 33 216 to 33 896(total free = 5 396) and Sarie has increased slightly from 71 463 to 71 509 (total free = 9 575).

Glamour has changed frequency and no updated data is available.

Fair Lady has fallen from 40 611 to 37 171 (total free: 5 118), Destiny Magazine has declined from 27 544 to 25 709 (total free: 6 700) and Cosmopolitan from 37 075 to 32 490 (total free = 2 785).

Good Housekeeping/Goeie Huishouding has declined from 41 802 to 42 500 (total free: 2 147). Move! has fallen from 82 421 to 69 943. Vroue Keur has dropped from 53 250 to 48 431. Woman and Home is down from 81 140 to 69 148 (total free: 5 484).

Kuier has declined from 100 214 to 90 769, Rooi Rose has decreased from 75 744 to 67 138 (total free: 4 738) and Finesse is down from 43 429 to 39 933. Essentials has declined from 25 674 to 20 920.
Your Family is down from 33 099 to 26 798, and Women’s Health has decreased from 40 083 to 39 864. Marie Claire has fallen from 24 053 to 19 643.

The MarkLives’ Big Magazine list*

Q1 2018

Huisgenoot: 190 613
Sports Club (TFG): 150 659
Kids Super Club (TFG): 120 630
MyKitchen (TFG): 102 477
YOU: 95 421
Kuier: 90 769
Tuis/Home: 85 296
Sarie: 71 509 +7
Move!: 69 943 +3
Woman and Home: 69 148 -2

Taalgenoot: 69 111 -1
Bona: 68 143 +2
CAR: 68 032 +3
Rooi Rose: 67 138 -5
Foschini Living Space: 64 763 -4
Tech (TFG): 62 659 -3
Weg/Go: 60 944 New entry

*By total circulation. Must have a cover price. Annuals excluded. Movement on the Big Magazine list compared to Q4 2017 data.

Comparison Q1 2013

1. Huisgenoot 285 520
2. YOU 165 330
3. Drum 121 768
4. Move! 119 480
5. Sarie 104 862
6. Bona 98 267
7. Kuier 95 846
8. Rooi Rose 96 621
9. Woman and Home 90 830
10. CAR 89 620

Ideas/Idees 89 321
Tuis/Home 85 654
People 82 464
Cosmopolitan 83 049

See also

Entrepreneurship

Indicators of success

Opportunity looking for a solution

Sources

Talks prior to merger

More-evolved set of services

The surreal escape

Freshstop’s growth strategy

See also

Shape

Relativity

Algorithms

Key insights

ABC member circulation totals:

Daily papers

The MarkLives Big Daily Newspaper List*

Weekly & weekend papers

The MarkLives’ Biggest Circulation Per Issue Newspaper List*

See also

Key insights

The business press

Biggest-circulating business magazines in terms of paid-for (sales, bulk and subscriptions) circulation

Biggest-circulating business magazines in terms of total circulation

Entertainment & celeb news

Home & gardening, leisure

Men’s market

Health, fitness, sport

Hitting the road

Woman’s general

The MarkLives’ Big Magazine list*

Q1 2018

Comparison Q1 2013

See also