[Thought Leadership Digibates] 02: OOH and alcohol ad ban

"Once again we are happy with the insights that the Digibate brought to the table and this regular feature in the South African media marketing sector will grow into a regular pool of knowledge," said Dawn Rowlands, CEO sub-Saharan Africa, Aegis Media.

"We averaged about 3 942 listeners per minute, of which 1 462 remained listening for the full two hours, which meant that the topics kept their interest."

Strategic insights

A number of strategic insights came out, especially when comparing out of home advertising in Africa and Europe. One being a comment that, due to the clutter and less strict regulations in Africa, creative concepts have more impact yet are still very simple.

Another insight related to digital out of home in Africa, where 'dwell time' amongst consumers is longer, therefore they have more time to view and longer to absorb creative ideas that have motion in them. In contrast, the fast-paced commuter lifestyle in Europe with limited 'dwell time' means that a message has to be communicated in a matter of a few seconds.

Not just pre-election propaganda?

The discussion around the proposed ban on alcohol advertising in South Africa brought about some key insights. Alcohol advertising makes up just less than 10% of out of home ad spend. Listeners were reminded of the ban on cigarette advertising 15 years ago - the impact was less severe as cellular advertising quickly filled those spaces, as that market suddenly boomed at around the same time as the ban. The question is what will fill that 10% void if the ban goes ahead.

The panel challenged the decision and it was stated that many overseas countries lifted the ban on alcohol advertising, as there was no change in the issue of alcohol abuse since implementing the ban. The question that arose was should government not look at the source of alcohol abuse as opposed to implementing a ban that has proven not to make a difference in foreign countries? Is this not just pre-election propaganda?

The debate was held on Thursday, 20 October 2011.

Listen to the podcasts

If you missed the show, download or listen to the podcasts here on Bizcommunity or here on The Taxi.

Listen every month

The Thought Leader Digibates are held monthly and include a panel of leading media-marketing experts who will discuss, debate and share their knowledge - gleaned over years of experience - with a wider audience. The official Twitter hashtag is #aegisTL.