Marketers are well aware of the need to rapidly adopt AI across almost all aspects of their work spectrum, with a significant majority already utilising AI tools to automate tasks, analyse and interpret data, personalise customer experiences, and optimise campaigns.
There is especially a substantial shift towards data-driven marketing strategies powered by AI; however, there is still a steep learning curve, when it comes to leveraging AI for hyper-personalised customer experiences in the advertising space – not least because this bold new digital world has introduced a sophisticated upward spiral that is moving at lightning speed – especially in the telco and financial space.
Digital ad waste – the elephant in the room
In the past, marketers have been hesitant to raise the issue of digital ad waste – mostly because the real (rands and cents) impact of digital advertising has been one of the most difficult phenomena to measure.
The findings of a recent study of more than 130 000 online advertisements by Amplified Intelligence revealed that 85 % failed to convert into new customers.
Behind this is the attention threshold for advertising that has a meaningful impact on brand building, which is 2.5 seconds. 85% of these ads failed to reach this critical benchmark, and thus hold the attention of potential clients.
This failure is a growing concern that directly impacts ad budgets and effectiveness. Another main culprit is ‘bots’. A sizeable portion of online traffic comes from these ‘digital window shoppers’, ever generating fake impressions and clicks and never converting into real customers.
Generic, untargeted ads fail to resonate with customers resulting in low engagement and missed opportunity. As consumers interact with ads across multiple devices, tracking their journey becomes increasingly complex, distorting attribution. All these issues contribute to billions in lost ad spend.
To combat this waste, advertisers would do well to look into adopting AI driven solutions and using telco data for fraud detection, hyper-personalisation and improved attribution, to maximise impact and eliminate inefficiencies.
Telcos: The transformers
Telcos sit on a goldmine of real-time mobility, network, and online engagement data, which, when combined with AI, unlocks powerful geospatial intelligence.
By analysing footfall patterns, app usage and online behaviour, telcos can help brands select optimal store location, predict high demand areas and tailor real-time advertising campaigns.
In a world of myriad strategies and implementation choices for businesses looking to understand the behavior of customers across density, interest, and behaviour, many use cases can be developed from where to position a fuel station, build a shopping mall and position out of home (OOH) advertising.
Let’s look at OOH advertising that is evolving beyond static billboards into a real-time, multi touch engagement channel. Leveraging automation, it will now be possible to use integrated adtech/martech stack (toolbox) for omni-channel orchestration of messaging and generative AI, to develop assets tailored to users with a seamless relationship between the billboard and personalised communication and offers.
Picture this – a busy intersection detects a surge in commuters, instantly switching nearby digital displays to a relevant car insurance ad which is further reinforced with a personalised retargeting ad later that day on a mobile app, with a specific offer.
Personalisation is far more than just one size fits all messaging – it’s behaviour-based communication that delivers. By closing the gap between physical movement, digital intelligence and omni-channel engagement, AI and telco data work together to reduce advertising waste, ensuring cross platform experiences that drive meaningful conversions.
Music, indeed, to the ears of marketers.
Reaching untapped markets
While South Africa has relatively high bank account penetration, averaging 85% of adult population, the broader sub-Saharan African region lags significantly with only 49% of adults owning an account [World Bank, 2024].
The considerable mobile phones (SA smartphone penetration at 82%) in this region creates a unique opportunity for financial services to use geospatial data in transformative ways. They can expand credit and insurance access to thin-file customers who lack traditional credit history but represent a huge untapped market.
The integration of physical and virtual footfall intelligence from telcos into underwriting models enables dynamic risk assessment that moves beyond using static demographic, and transactional data. Insights derived from mobility patterns and online behavior serve as alternative credit worthiness indicators, allowing for policy pricing and evaluation to become less biased.
This approach creates a more equitable financial ecosystem where individuals previously excluded from formal financial services, can gain access based on their actual behaviors than limited historical records.
Telco operators: The new players in digital advertising
As ad fraud, cookie deprecation and regulatory shifts disrupt traditional digital advertising models, AI and telco identifiers are emerging as a powerful duo in this new era in digital advertising. No longer can advertisers rely on probabilistic tracking and broad segmentation.
The competition is simply too steep. The market is too volatile.
Industry leaders in Africa are already embracing this shift. [Dentsu Merkury], for example, has built an identity-based ecosystem that merges AI driven consumer insights with deterministic data to enable people-based marketing.
This is achieved, for example, through MerkuryID, giving brands access to a privacy-compliant audience pool of over 20 million verified profiles, for hyper-targeted marketing, with genuine human engagement.
Another is [MTN Ads IDs] that offers a deterministic layer of audience activation and user recognition, ensuring brands reach real, verified users without relying on third party cookies.
Let me share a real-time example of how this works. According to data shared by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA, 2023), eight out of ten traders in South Africa have no bank account, while 60% of those who do possess one, only use it for processing payment.
This is a significant segment of low-income earners and small entrepreneurs, not to mention an appealing segment of the market for retail and financial services. Recognising this opportunity, MTN Ads has developed alternative risk assessment parameters that enable more accurate profiling of product affordability for unbanked MTN customers, in that way, driving financial inclusion.
It is clear to me that the future belongs to precision, privacy, and performance.
Hyper personalisation and data
The future equally belongs to brands that anticipate, not react – those that use deterministic data to unlock seamless digital experiences. With deep insights into app usage, online engagement and mobility patterns, telcos like MTN and Telkom are already democratising their first party data, bridging the gap between physical movement and online behaviour.
This empowers brands to build highly relevant experiences that feel less like marketing and more like intuitive customer engagement – reducing ad wastage and increasing conversions. As digital identities evolve from fragmented cookies to holistic profiles, we must ask – are we witnessing the birth of true one-to-one marketing at scale or the final commodification of human attention?
Measuring real impact
Now is the time for telco companies to make a valuable contribution to the industry, by tapping into their expertise, knowledge and experience of AI and technology – the foundation upon which this sector has thrived.
What sets leaders in the telco sector apart is their ability to measure actual business outcomes beyond clicks and impressions. By connecting online ad exposure to instore visits, purchase patterns and long-term customer values, telcos are uniquely positioned to provide advertisers with unprecedented visibility into their marketing effectiveness – eliminating the guesswork in campaign optimisation and allowing brands to confidently allocate resources to channels and content that drive genuine business results.
This approach resonates with the goals of the MMA’s awards platform The SMARTIES now in its 12th year – which sets the benchmark in Africa, rewarding and recognising business outcomes and results over creativity, strategy, and execution.
As technology reshapes the industry SMARTIES South Africa Awards 2025 will introduce AI marketing as a brand new category this year, with sub-categories including AI-Powered Audience Engagement; Innovative Use of AI in Advertising; and AI-Driven Creative Excellence.
To submit your work for SMARTIES 2025 click HERE.
Geoff Masuta is the MTN Group head of advertising and a longstanding member of the MMA SA. He is committed to using innovation to transform businesses and improve lives across the continent. With over 15 years of experience in the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) sectors, he has dedicated his career to building solutions that empower Africa’s emerging markets, one platform at a time.
