[PARTNER CONTENT] Whether you’re an SMME venturing into your first location outside of South Africa, or the CEO of a JSE listed company, you understand, without a doubt that advertising is necessary for sustaining sales and achieving growth in a new market, writes Marnox Media’s Sipho Fakela.
Even though there are many ways to get your messages across to your desired target market these days, (daily you hear of things like ‘earned media’ or ‘owned media’ or content marketing), when it comes to getting your message in front of your intended audience, paid advertising is unbeatable.
This is very much the case in the rest of Africa, except for a few developed markets that have matured digitally and can produce good returns for brands through “earned, owned media and content marketing”, even though these are often supported by some form paid advertising media.
Fortunately, in the rest of Africa, traditional media is still very much alive and relevant, even though it has slowly become commoditised, putting a lot of brands at risk of being advertised or promoted in ineffective platforms, because brands only focus on getting the cheapest rates or the biggest discounts.
Understanding the ins and outs of paid media can be challenging for most business owners venturing into the rest of Africa, but this is where it helps to have an Africa media buying agency that knows what they are doing.
More often than not, when we meet with a new prospective client, they admit that they previously did not see a need for an Africa media buying agency for their ‘rest of Africa’ portfolio. This is more prevalent when it comes to campaigns for smaller, neighbouring countries like Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi & Eswatini.
When we dig a little deeper, we learn they either had a lack of understanding about just what it is an Africa media buying agency does and/or how we offer any benefit to the company or its creative or lead agency that does not have any media planning/buying expertise.
This is when we share some of the benefits of working with a reputable Africa media buying agency.
They handle all the admin of dealing with Africa media owners
If you’ve ever dealt with a state-owned broadcaster situated outside of South Africa, you’ll know that it can take an entire month just to get an advertising Rate Card. When you work with am Africa media buying agency that represents a multitude of media owner across the continent, they become the point of contact for all the headaches and admin that comes with buying media outside of South Africa.
Negotiation clout
No offence, but as an SMME venturing into the rest of the continent for the first time, or a big SA brand that has previously worked through an agency to buy media in a particular country, now going direct, you won’t have the buying power an Africa media buying agency has with media owners. That’s because an agency can leverage the collective budgets of all their clients to benefit each client they represent. This buying power can help your campaigns have better cost and ad positioning, across a basket of media owners or platforms, not just the one you spend the most money on.
They have years of experience
Would you rather go to a heart surgeon that is fresh out of med school because he/she is the cheapest or one that has performed hundreds of surgeries over 25 years and charges accordingly? As a professional, reputable Africa media buying agency, we understand the markets, languages, consumers, challenges and opportunities that exist in those countries. We know how the economies, government and cultural dynamics shape the media consumption in each market. We have also established long-standing relationships with different media vendors and can work these influences on your behalf and to your benefit.
A ‘big picture’ perspective
A reputable, experienced Africa media buying agency can offer a fresh and unbiased perspective on the media landscape of a country and which platforms your brand should use to achieve your goals. As independent consultants & representatives to over 300 media owners across the continent, we have no bias towards one medium/media owner over another, which allows us to offer advice based solely on your marketing objectives, research (if available) that guides the rationale for choosing that platform. We know we’ve done our job when you get what you need, when you need it and at a cost you can comfortably afford.
They do the grunt work
Let’s be honest – as a brand/marketing manager/director, you have far more important things to do with your time than to field calls from Africa media sales reps, dealing with cross border currencies, exchange rates, upfront payments to media owners, among other things you’re stuck doing when buying media directly in Africa. Working with a reputable Africa media buying agency will help you to free up your time so you can focus on high priority tasks. This will allow you to help scale your business and increase your brand’s footprint in the continent over time.
If you’re like a lot of our clients who, at one time, didn’t really understand the value that Africa media buying agencies offer their bottom line, we hope you recognise that value now.
Do you have more questions about the benefits of working with a reputable Africa media buying agency like Marnox Media? Please feel free to give us a call.
We love helping business owners, traditional advertising agencies and global brands leverage the power of paid advertising in the rest of Africa, to grow market share in each African continent that they venture into.
