Bites: News in brief

Contestants in Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island

OUTWIT, OUTPLAY, OUTSPEND…

The eighth season of Survivor South Africa is doing so much more than keeping us glued to our screens. With this series being shot on South Africa’s Wild Coast, an innovative partnership with the Eastern Cape Development Corporation has resulted in a massive boost to the local economy. “The ECDC investment of R2-million towards the production of Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island on the Wild Coast resulted in an economic impact value of more than R10-million,” said ECDC CEO Mandla Mpikashe. “Of the more than 103 jobs created by the production, 55 were held by women and 60 were held by local youth.”

NIELSEN TESTS BRANDED INTEGRATION METRIC IN NETFLIX’S COBRA KAI

A recent Nielsen report, Branded Integrations Come of Age in a Streaming World, has pointed out the value of product placement in shows streamed on subscription video-on-demand platforms (SVOD). “Given that SVOD content is free of advertising, product placements and branded integrations provide advertisers and agencies with a modern way to integrate brands into the burgeoning streaming realm while simultaneously gaining incremental reach,” said the report. The issue is in the metrics used to measure and monetise placements. Nielsen, working with clients, came up with a metric using the 30-second TV ad as a base. In a note, Nielsen said: “The methodology adjusts for duration and integration type to arrive at valued, equivalised impressions. The resulting metric illuminates both delivery and incremental reach. Importantly, the metric provides full visibility of the value of branded integrations in the SVOD space. That visibility means advertisers and agencies now know that they reach their target and get what they pay for.” The methodology was tested in Cobra Kai’s fi rst month on Netfl ix, for Mercedes-Benz and Dell. [See story on page 26]

FOUR CHANGES THAT WILL MOVE THE TV MARKETPLACE FORWARD

Global tech outfi t Comcast has released a new report titled What’s Next for TV Advertising. In it, the authors suggest there are four changes taking place that are driving the industry forward. These relate to a much broader and more diverse market, encompassing TV and digital video. Bottom line? A lot more investment is required to “build the marketplace of the future”. 1. Technical solutions, standards, and working practices must be developed to support addressability across different pools of linear and digital inventory. 2. Agency and advertiser workfl ows should be transformed to take full advantage of new digital-like capabilities and deliver the effi ciencies required. 3. Platforms and industry-wide practices are needed to support the greater application of data to multiplatform inventory. 4. It is important to identify opportunities and, as an industry, collaborate in the development of standards, solutions, platforms and capabilities, sharing investments, and leveraging the benefi ts of scale.

BOLLYWOOD MOVIES DUBBED INTO ZULU AND ENGLISH

Zee World, channel 166 on DStv, reaches approximately 50 million households in Africa. Now it has started dubbing its popular Bollywood movies into Zulu and English. “We started dubbing in Zulu as a natural next step to make our content even more relevant and easily understood by our viewers,” Zee World said. “We decided to start with Zulu as it is largely spoken in southern Africa.”