If there’s one thing that we are good at as South Africans, its “sneaking one past the goalie”.
I mentioned in my previous Lockdown Chronicle that Nielsen is reporting increased TV audience ratings in a number of major US markets during these early weeks of voluntary isolation.
One wonders how it will play out here in Mzansi and which channels and programmes will be the beneficiaries. One thing we know for sure it won’t be the sports channels.
Having said that, I have to acknowledge that many #media stakeholders are valiantly trying to extract whatever residual value remains in programming and sponsorships, and stoking up viewers’ sporting passions and rivalries, by rerunning classic games and generally creating new sporting narratives.
There was an interesting show this morning with Pele deliberating on whether Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi was the GOAT. Personally I wouldn’t look further than Pele himself. Now there was someone who knew how to sneak one past the goalie.
But I’m not necessarily talking about actually scoring a goal in the football sense (because Bafana Bafana’s last decent goal was scored by Shabba against Mexico in 2010), but also metaphorically.
Basically we enjoy bending the rules.
Like not doing your homework. Or not paying SABC for your TV licence. Or Eskom for electricity. Like driving your unlicenced taxi through a red robot. That sort of thing.
Actually. On reflection. Who am I kidding? Saffers just don’t follow the rules.
One of the biggest barriers to adoption of ES as a functional planning tool has been the lack of trending…it is certainly no longer a valid argument for continuing to use, as many agencies are, five-year old data from AMPS.
On the very first day of #Lockdown2020, over 50 people were arrested for ignoring the rules. Sorry to say but there’s also more than enough video evidence of “skop” and “donner” and even a little bit of “skiet” to know that Cyril’s plea for the armed forces to win over the hearts and minds of the people has fallen on deaf ears.
After watching some of the video content, I can’t help wondering how someone could imagine for one moment that they would get away with carrying a case of quarts down the road on LD-Day. Sneaking one past the goalie requires some finesse. I mean, what’s wrong with an old fashioned ‘inspuiting’? That’s a time-honoured South African tradition that has served generations of rugby-goers well over the years.
Nobody would have got arrested yesterday for carrying around a bag of naartjies!
But I digress.
Someone else tried to sneak one past the goalie yesterday when ES2019 AB was released. This is the most recent of the Establishment Surveys in the post AMPS environment and it will also be the last under the joint banner of BRC and PRC.
What is interesting is that this release gives us a great opportunity to trend some of the key datasets over a three-year period from Jan-Dec 2017 through to Jan-Dec 2019. One of the biggest barriers to adoption of ES as a functional planning tool has been the lack of trending. Not that the argument held much value in the first place, but it is certainly no longer a valid argument for continuing to use, as many agencies are, five-year old data from AMPS.
That’s one of the big advantages of Lockdown2020. We’ve got time do the kinds of things we always mean to but never get around to. So over the coming days I will review some of the key trends coming out of ES2019 AB.
Unless I run out of naartjies of course, in which case I’ll have to go out shopping.
Gordon Muller is Africa’s oldest surviving media strategist. Author of Media Planning – Art or Science. Mostly harmless! Read his Khulumaedia Blog here.
