The one way of assessing 2011 is obviously to look at adspend. Whilst not 100% accurate, it is the only means that we have of tracking spend across media types and picking up on broad media trends.
September 2011 figures have just been released, which allows us to have a look at 9 months of data for 2011. We have also compared 2011 spend trends to 2009 and 2010 to see exactly what the impact of the Soccer World Cup was in 2010 and if the recession has had a major impact, as yet, on 2011.
The total spend (excluding self promotions) from January – September is R22.8 billion compared to R20 billion same period 2010 and R17.2 billion same period 2009.
2011 adspend is therefore up 14% from last year which, by all accounts, is rather surprising. The industry was expecting a rather bleak year – post Soccer World Cup and the global recession being the main concerns.
The following graph shows the adspend by month and it clearly shows that from April 2011, adspend has increased considerably month on month to new highs within the three year review period.
When we look at adspend including self promotions we see the full impact of the media owner’s own advertising. Steady growth year on year for the nine months in review, from R25,6 billion in 2009 to R30,7 billion in 2010 and R39.4 billion in 2011.
The peaks and troughs of the advertisers spend mimic those of the total spend with a spike in March 2011. A spike in May would have signified the municipal elections which were held on the 18th of May.
Looking just at 2011 adspend figures, by media type, the table below shows that TV has the highest amount of self promotions than any other media type. This is no great surprise as, with the number of TV channels ever increasing, the stations all have more to offer and more advertising time available.
September 2011 itself however is not dramatically different. TV continues to have a huge amount of self promotions, followed by radio and then print.
TV has demanded the highest share of advertising spend followed by print and then radio. Radio adspend is almost of half of print!
Increases in adspend across all media types:
· Cinema has increased from R28 million to R63.8 million
· Internet has increased from R42.5 million to R70.6 million.
· Out of Home has increased from R88.5 million to R125.3 million
· Print from R618 million to R961.9 million
· Radio from R255 million to R460.6 million
· Television from R718 million R1.371 billion
As we are in the last quarter of 2011, we predict that adspend for October – December will no doubt continue to be up month of month however with a plateauing effect. Advertising rates, specifically on Television, are at an all time high for the last quarter and those clients that do not have to compete with end of year sales and gifting have traditionally pulled out the silly season.
This story was published with the kind permission of The Media Shop.
