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Marketing South Africa

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    SA online market proving its worth

    Online usage is showing a steady and healthy growth, according to the latest figures released by the members of the Online Publishers Association (OPA) for the period July, August and September 2007. “Compared to 4.8 million unique users in 2006, the local online fraternity has seen a growth of more than 3 million unique users to 7.8 million unique users in 2007,” says Matthew Buckland, chairman of the OPA. “This is a 163% growth in the SA industry – a growth that shouldn't go unnoticed.”

    “Our current online market is an estimated 4 million people; in fact it's the size of the Irish population. If you were a brand manager, would you ignore an entire country?” asks Buckland. “The OPA has always put out a strong message to the SA marketing fraternity that online advertising should be part of the integrated marketing mix, so that brands can leverage their full potential in reaching its specific target markets”.

    “Both the US and UK online industry[ies have] seen brands including online in the ad spend mix – in the UK total advertising spend online is 12% and in the US 8%. This is greatly encouraging and we are already seeing some of this starting to happen in our local market; currently our total advertising spend online is just over 1% but continues to show promising growth,” says Buckland.

    Surprising turn

    Despite the current cost barriers to both hardware and Internet access, there has been a surprising turn in the market as a result of an unexpected increase in broadband penetration. Substantial growth, based on the recent third quarter reports from the OPA, is clearly seen in the following online arenas – news, sports, property, finance and careers. With the addition of a number of prominent sites as members of the OPA stable, it has allowed the OPA to be far more representative of the broader market. More encouraging than this is the fact that so many brands have now included online into their marketing mix and are executing extremely creative campaigns online as part of their integrated marketing mix.

    “The OPA will continue to encourage local brands to include online advertising in their mix,” says Buckland. “The local online market is a very lucrative audience, so why wouldn't you talk to them directly, and in a place where they are clearly comfortable and are in fact inviting you to communicate directly with them? “

    The OPA encourages marketers and brand managers to go onto the OPA's website – www.opa.co.za and get updated figures on local sites traffic. If you are new to the online advertising arena, it also has a basic guide to online advertising to assist you in developing an online strategy.

    Buckland ends by saying, “With such strong growth in the local online arena, we would certainly encourage brands to take some of their traditional ad spend and place it strategically online and talk directly to their specific target markets.”

    2007 vs 2006 – Quarter 3 (July, August, and September)

    Top Online Publishers: these figures are only calculated on South African users accessing these publications. Comparative between 2006 and 2007 3rd Quarter unique browsers

    Publisher2006 Q3 unique browsers ave2007 Q3 unique browsers ave
    Media241,067,6721,669,872
    Independent Online628,299796,371
    MWEB683,380697,533
    InterfaceN/A673,350
    Ananzi (Pty) Ltd413,647439,223
    SuperSport Zone229,821333,344
    Johncom145,752300,508
    CareerJunction209,016281,229
    iafrica.com217,058254,142
    Yellow Pages South Africa141,366226,998
    Auto TraderN/A211,552
    bidorbuy (Pty) Ltd114,085207,405
    Mail & Guardian Online154,572201,718
    JunkmailN/A187,689
    Private Property123,417166,366
    Electronic Media Network98,074162,470
    Bizcommunity.com108,328151,734
    Moneyweb Holdings76,822107,866
    MultiChoiceN/A103,011
    Telkom SA107,750100,796
    ITWeb Limited67,92999,977
    365 Digital Publishing29,06392,102
    SABCNews.com71,23484,178
    5FM78,18780,728
    Creamer Media (Pty) Ltd40,44779,253
    Ramsay, Son & Parker61,52163,998
    UCMN/A42,097
    New Media8,44722,358
    African Media Entertainment (AME)N/A12,875
    Business in Africa3,5483,007
    TOTAL4,879,4357,853,750

    Top Online Publishers: these figures are calculated on both local and international users accessing these publications. Comparative between 2006 and 2007 3rd Quarter unique browsers

    Publisher2006 Q3 unique browsers ave2007 Q3 unique browsers ave
    Media242,503,0472,883,780
    Independent Online2,206,8751,773,866
    MWEB878,870832,091
    InterfaceN/A781,822
    SuperSport Zone480,069567,815
    Ananzi (Pty) Ltd531,892533,721
    Johncom257,552501,317
    iafrica.com553,156451,561
    Mail & Guardian Online582,933446,648
    Auto TraderN/A437,005
    bidorbuy (Pty) Ltd228,862353,842
    CareerJunction248,931317,873
    Moneyweb Holdings199,256272,306
    Yellow Pages South Africa174,542250,528
    Electronic Media Network175,362229,163
    Bizcommunity.com161,701210,725
    Junk MailN/A206,367
    Private Property152,386187,329
    365 Digital Publishing77,881160,534
    ITWeb Limited106,390152,119
    Creamer Media (Pty) Ltd118,542151,708
    SABCNews.com188,386135,564
    MultiChoiceN/A132,768
    Telkom SA129,953115,588
    5FM102,011103,003
    Ramsay, Son & Parker94,55090,269
    UCMN/A60,636
    New MediaN/A25,387
    African Media Entertainment (AME)N/A15,303
    Business in Africa25,3739,460
    TOTAL UNIQUE BROWSERS10,178,52012,390,100

    So who exactly is online in SA?

    • The latest Nielsen//Netratings show that currently 55% of all online users are male and 45% female.
    • The average age of our online users are between 25 – 29
    • 61% access the Internet from their place of work
    • Only 31% of all online users have Internet access at home.
    • 77% of all online users have had some form of higher education since leaving school
    • 52% are English speaking, 27% are Afrikaans speaking and the balance speaks one of the many African dialects – Zulu being 6% and Xhosa 4%.
    • 62% of our online users have cellular phones with Internet access
    • 83% are employed full time and work more than 30 hours a week
    • 19% hold clerical or administrative positions, whilst only 14% hold managerial positions
    • 46% of all online users are married
    • 14% of online users are either from the financial, insurance or real estate industry
    • 25% live in households that have four members in them
    • 52% own their own homes and have bonds
    • 17% have an annual household income of R400 000 or more, 16% preferred to not say what their income was and 10% earned less than R50 000 a year.
    • 56% have satellite dishes
    • 31% live in Johannesburg, 16% in Cape Town, 13% in Pretoria and 8% in Durban and only 3% lives outside of South Africa.

    • The OPA has recently expanded its membership to include Vodacom.co.za, SA Goodnews, African Media Entertainment and Thunda.com in its ranks. For more information, go to www.opa.co.za.

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