Tag: advertising budget

No matter which industry your business finds itself in, advertising forms a crucial part of any company’s go-to-market strategy to help achieve a host of business goals - from influencing consumer behaviour or driving sales and revenue growth, to gaining a competitive advantage and expanding into new markets.

In today's ever-evolving marketing landscape, where digital strategies often dominate the conversation, one element continues to stand the test of time - that of branded merchandise. International research shows that this steadfast pillar of modern marketing, commonly known as promotional products, has remained a powerhouse in successful campaigns for decades.

Recently, there’ve been more than a few conversations that lament the knock that load shedding is having on the out of home (OOH) media industry, specifically digital out of home (DOOH). We’ve seen respected marketers and other media professionals postulate (rather irresponsibly, in my humble opinion) that the ongoing drive by media owners to ensure that screens stay on probably means that innovation and expansion have been put on ice.

I will open by saying, Heritage is essentially who I am. Yes, it is tradition, but it goes beyond that. As an individual, my heritage informs a lot about me. It informs what tribe I’m from and far more insightfully how I eat, what I eat, where I go, why I go there, who I associate with and why, how I speak, how I want to be spoken to, what I wear and what I don’t, how I wear it, what I care about, what I love, who I love, what I believe and don’t, and what matters to me et cetera.

2020 proved to be a tumultuous year for advertising. Overnight, budgets were cut, strategies were changed, priorities re-looked, but some platforms fared better than others.

Marketers know that a customer’s journey from their first exposure to the brand to a conversion event will generally involve a number of touchpoints along the way. The trick is to be able to understand the role that each of these channels and touchpoints played in the desired outcome of the customer making a final purchase.

The world has changed. While some aspects of life will return to its former state before COVID-19, much will not be the same again. Brands and agencies alike need to think differently and design communications strategies that now factor in the use of digital, purpose-led campaigns, and in-home consumption vs out-of-home consumption, in essence the rebirth of creativity in a post-pandemic world.

Most of South Africa’s corporate marketers are bypassing the youth market, a 46% slice of today’s consumers who, although they may not yet have the buying power of their parents, are key decision makers when it comes to identifying trends, promoting brands and ultimately influence the majority of household buying decisions.