Advertising

PERSPECTIVE Three ways load shedding has affected AD VER TIS ING in media

Load Shedding has once again become one of the most used buzzwords in South Africa. We’re all wishing that Eskom had a competitor or that they worked there themselves to better the crisis being faced.

by Ryan Falkenberg, co-CEO, CLEVVA

But while we wait for government to attain a Clients will (if they haven’t already) start questioning better solution to their ‘technical problems’ the value they are getting from advertising if they lose and revert with plans to overcome this crisis, audiences during load shedding. load shedding continues to have dire implications on Yes brands are aware that performance will be everyone, particularly for television advertisers and affected (not that they’re happy about it) but there is broadcasters alike. unfortunately nothing that marketers and broadcasters

Advertising budgets have already been reduced can do at this point, as it is beyond their control. but now with the power out, what does this mean for advertisers, and the media industry in general? 3. Even Digital is affected 1. Viewership decreases getting disrupted and it seems this will continue to be

Television indisputably remains the largest media the case during our electricity crisis. It’s making our jobs consumption channel in South Africa. It is still the most as marketers even more difficult. Just as we were trying effective way of reaching a higher number of audiences at to chase audiences in the digital space, it is now going to a high frequency. However, it is no secret that such media be harder to reach them whenever we’d like to. platforms are highly affected by load shedding. We all love our smartphones, but their battery life is

Viewership is a client’s first concern when there is not as great as we’d like it to be. Power banks and portal a blackout. It means that millions of South African TV chargers can help sustain battery life, but with port households are off, reducing the potential TV audience of a connectivity it seems like it would be a struggle to get particular channel or programme which has a huge effect advertising messages across audiences. for advertisers. People would also rather save their battery to ensure

We have been experiencing stage 2 and 4 of load for instance that their alarm wakes them up in the shedding recently. With that said, it is imperative to morning, rather than to scroll through their phones only remember that having these power cuts means not to come across adverts that will deplete their battery reaching a household for at least two or more hours even further. during each blackout. This is of serious concern especially when power is cut during prime time, So what do we do? which decreases viewership even more significantly. While the country has enjoyed a few days of no It results in adverts only being seen by a handful of load shedding now, there is still an unnerving sense of people, who might not even be the target audience uncertainty around Eskom’s sustainability. President Cyril for the brand being advertised, which is then seen as Ramaphosa announced during his SONA 2020 address wastage by many. that the Eskom issue was unavoidable. This shows that

Britta Reid commented on a research article in 2019 we’ve got a long way to go and for brands, we need to published on The MediaOnline from The Broadcast think of alternative ways to reach our audiences. Research Council, on how adult ARs for the 18h00 It seems like the old school ‘wireless’ radios would and 20h00 dayparts were affected. She commented that about 2% of adults on the BRC TAMS panel were flagged as Advertising budgets have already having experienced power cuts during been reduced but now with the power stage two, compared with 15% of adults during stage four . This equates to a huge out, what does this mean for advertisers, number of audiences being lost due to and the media industry in general? load shedding and it doesn’t seem like it Lastly, cell phone network coverage has also been will get any better. be of good use at this point for people to still consume news during load shedding and this, without a doubt will 2. Concern over reach cause an increase in listenership on the radio.

Secondly, clients have become sceptical about Maybe it’s also time to put more faith into apps whether their brand will be seen by the right audiences such as EskomSePush to plan around most areas that as load shedding makes it difficult to plan schedules. I are experiencing load shedding to ensure audiences remember once when Eskom had promised two hours of are not lost. Imagine scheduling adverts to be aired on load shedding but it went off for 3h30mins. This left me a Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at the same peak wondering how many TV adverts were being aired during time as load shedding is scheduled? Let’s hope it doesn’t this time that I would have missed. come to that.