To shed more light on consumers’ tastes and the channels they can be reached through, GeoPoll ran a Rapid App survey in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda between the 10th and 15th of December 2020, with a sample size of 999. This report summarizes the findings on topics such as the most popular media channels, media consumption changes, trust in advertisements, the prevalence of online channels, and the most effective types of advertisements.

Most popular media channels in Africa

GeoPoll’s study found that the internet (social media and other websites) and TV are the most consumed media channels by respondents in this study. Fifty-five percent of the respondents said they access online media channels every day. In contrast, 23% said they watch TV daily. Sixteen percent said radio was their go-to channel, and only 5% said they read newspapers and print media every day. This differed from country to country and between genders. For example, females in Ghana said they prefer TV (45%) over social media (20%), compared to males (24% for TV and 39% for social media). In Tanzania, on the other hand, females preferred social media (56%) over TV (just 4%) while males were relatively even with 33% picking social media over TV (26%).

To gauge how media preferences are changing, we examined how much more or less of each channel the respondents were consuming in the last 12 months, compared to the previous year. A large majority (72%) reported that they are using social media more than they did a year ago. TV also had an upsurge in viewership, as discovered in recent GeoPoll Audience Measurement reports, with 54% saying they are watching more television, which was in direct contrast to print, which over half of the respondents (54%) said they are reading less of compared to last year.

Trust levels in Advertising 

The influence of a media channel depends, to a great extent, on if its audience can trust it, especially so for advertising. In the survey, we asked the respondents which media channel they trusted advertisements on the most. TV was cited as the most trusted by almost half of the respondents (46%). The internet and radio followed with 30% and 12% trust levels, respectively.

Overall, asked about which of traditional channels or modern channels they find more trustworthy, the respondents were split almost evenly, with 43% trusting online advertising over traditional media (41%). Seventeen percent said both are about the same. 85% of the respondents have purchased a product or service after coming across an advertisement.

Internet Usage and Online Advertising

Given how popular the internet has become and how influential it has become in marketing, we asked the respondents about their frequency of using the internet. In a week, a vast majority (80% said they access the internet every day. Over 65% said they access the internet at least four hours every day, pointing to a growing number of eyeballs on online channels addressable by online advertising. For context, it should be noted that the audience was online-only as the survey was conducted on the GeoPoll App.

Indeed, consumers find online advertisements influential. When we asked, “do you find online advertisements influential to your purchase decisions?”, 95% said they find them compelling either to a great or to some extent.

Having established the popularity of online channels over other channels, the next question becomes which specific online channel is most popular. As we have found out in other surveys we have conducted across Africa, Facebook was the most popular in all the countries we surveyed, by a big margin, with 45% choosing Facebook as the favorite channel. Overall, YouTube was second with 15%, followed by Twitter at 14%. However, the order varies when we look at the findings by country.

The Most Effective Advertisements

Many factors go into an advertisement. Channel selection, which we have already looked at, is as important as the message, the design, and the target audience, among other factors. The GeoPoll survey also sought to know what ad elements are most influential from a selection we provided. The offer (price) was the most crucial element (28%), followed by relevance to the person seeing the advert (24%) and access (convenient availability of the product, at 19%). So, it is essential to pay attention to the price and discount being offered, audience targeting options, and how the product will reach the buyers if you are an advertiser.

Finally, the survey sought to establish the type of adverts that customers find most enjoyable; hence the advertisements advertisers need to create most. In a society that craves reality, lifestyle images and videos of real people such as influencers were the most popular, as well as creatively designed banners.

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About this GeoPoll Survey

This Rapid Survey was run via the GeoPoll mobile application between the 10th and 15th of December 2020 in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. The sample size was 999, composed of random App users between ages 18 and 64. Since the survey was randomly distributed, the results are slightly skewed towards younger, male respondents.

To get more details about such GeoPoll surveys or conduct a scientific study on advertising or other topics in any region in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, please contact us.

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In order to examine how consumers are planning for 2019’s holiday season, GeoPoll conducted our annual holiday season survey in Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa. The survey was administered by SMS in October 2019. Findings demonstrate how consumers are planning for the holidays, what they feel about their country’s economy and their own personal finances, and whether they see advertisements as an important factor in making holiday purchasing decisions.

See a dashboard of key results below and further analysis below. Contact us if you’re interested in purchasing the full dataset.

Perceptions of the Economy in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa

Results around personal financial stability and perceptions towards each country’s economy show the disparity between different segments of the population; While levels of personal financial stability are relatively split between moderately stable, somewhat stable, and not stable at all, overall respondents rate their economies as either average or poor, with just 12% in Ghana, 4% in Kenya, and 14% in South Africa rating their country’s economy as either good or excellent.

In Kenya and South Africa, a higher percentage reported being not stable financially compared to 2018; In Kenya, 35% reported being not stable, compared to 31% in 2018, and in South Africa 27% reported being not stable financially in 2019, versus 21% who said the same in 2018. In Ghana, however, the percent who are not stable financially decreased from 24% in 2018 to 19% in 2019.

Despite the fact that respondents were unlikely to report being very stable financially, most respondents still predict that their holiday spending will increase this year compared to last year.  In Ghana and Kenya, 43% and 42% respectively reported that their holiday spending will increase, in line with the percentage who reported the same in 2018. Only in South Africa do more respondents believe their holiday spending will decrease than increase; 33% expect their spending to increase, while 39% expect it to decrease.

When we examined why holiday spending may decrease this year, we found making less money and having less savings to be the most-cited reasons across countries, although in Ghana and South Africa respondents were more likely to have less savings, while in Kenya a higher percentage of respondents (47%) report making less money than those who have less savings (39%). For those who expect their holiday spending to increase this year, the most common reason was items being more expensive in Ghana and Kenya, while in South Africa the largest portion of those who expect their spending to increase cited having more savings to spend on the holidays.

In terms of where they expect to get money for holiday spending, the largest group of respondents in each country, 36% overall, plan to use savings, while working more jobs (30%) and reducing other spending (26%) were the second and third most common options.

Africa Holiday Shopping Predictions for 2019

Despite reports of online shopping growing throughout sub-Saharan Africa, including around holiday events such as Black Friday, our study finds that most holiday shopping is still done offline. Overall just 12% report that they will do most of their shopping online, with the highest online shopping numbers being in Ghana, where 14% report that they will shop mostly online, and the lowest in South Africa. While certain purchases may be made online, we find that local markets are the most popular place for holiday shopping in Kenya and Ghana, at 57% each, while in South Africa responses are more split between supermarkets (39%), local markets (27%), and chain retail store (27%).

We also examined the factors that contribute to making holiday purchase decisions, finding that although financial stability is moderate to low, product quality remains a priority over product price. Overall 41% list price as an attribute that is important to them when shopping for others over the holidays, while 52% list quality as an important attribute. Brand name is a less important factor, with only 9% listing this as a consideration when shopping.

While gift purchases are often a focus of retailers around the holidays, GeoPoll’s study finds that the majority of money spent around the holidays goes towards food and drink for entertaining, rather than gifts for others or themselves, general socializing, or travel expenses. Overall 42% report spending the most on supplies for entertaining, with this number being highest in South Africa, at 48%. Ghanaians are the most likely to spend the majority of their money on gifts for traveling, while South Africans also are more likely to spend on travel.

The Impact of Advertisements on Holiday Spending

Advertising spend increases globally around the holidays, and digital media in particular been growing as an important source for retailers looking to reach their target audiences with news of sales and product announcements. Digital ad spend has been increasing not only in the US, where $6 billion was spent over the period from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, but also in Africa and the Middle East, where expenditures on social media and other digital advertising channels are increasing.

To find out the impact of all these advertisements on consumers, we asked respondents how often they pay attention to product advertisements when looking for holiday gifts, finding that most respondents, 37% ‘sometimes’ pay attention to advertisements. Overall 22% report that they always pay attention to advertisements for holiday spending, with the highest proportion of those respondents coming from South Africa and the lowest from Ghana, while 17% say they often pay attention. A combined total of 24% say they never or rarely pay attention to advertisements, demonstrating that more people are paying some attention to advertisements than those who do not take them into account at all while shopping.

Illustrating the growing importance of digital media, we find that social media is a strong second behind TV as the biggest source of advertisements for holiday products: While 35% say they most often see holiday ads on TV, 29% report that social media platforms are the biggest source of holiday advertisements and 9% report that they most often see ads on online news sites. Radio, traditionally one of the widest-reaching mediums for advertisements in Africa, was listed by only 12% as the medium where they most often see holiday advertisements.

Gather Data on Holiday Plans with GeoPoll

Using GeoPoll’s database of respondents throughout emerging markets and mobile survey platform, you can conduct custom research on how consumers plan to shop and entertain this holiday season. In addition, GeoPoll Audience Measurement provides advertisers with the most up to date data available on the best timeslots to reach your target audience. If you’re interested in conducting your own research with GeoPoll, please contact us today.

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Among other findings available in the full report, which can be downloaded for free here, the study finds that the suspension will have a large impact on the media industry, which has benefited previously from advertisements from betting – following the suspension it is estimated that the media industry will lose 10% of 2019 advertising expenditure, equivalent to a loss of KES 14 billion.

We also find that the majority of those aware of the betting suspension are bettors, a natural conclusion given the amount of press coverage around the suspension and the effect the changes will have on those who have been gambling regularly. The study finds that 73% of Kenyans that are aware of the suspension are bettors and that a majority are unhappy regarding the suspension. We also find that, while 40% plan to save the money they have been using to bet, 60% still intend to spend it elsewhere, on other items or other betting channels.

As GeoPoll has reported on previously, football betting is the most popular type of betting in Kenya, and tournaments including the World Cup and AFCON bring in large amounts of betting activity. This report finds that a majority of respondents plan to continue watching AFCON, which will be completed with the final between Senegal and Algeria on July 19th, and the English Premier League, however, 18% and 19% will stop watching the respective tournaments following the suspension.

The full report, which includes detailed insights on the suspension’s effect on the advertising industry, as well as demographic profiles of those aware of the suspension and more in-depth analysis, is available for download for free here. 

The post Betting in Kenya: New GeoPoll-Ipsos Report appeared first on GeoPoll.

In June 2017, GeoPoll engaged 3,710 youth respondents aged between 15-35 years old in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa with the aim of understanding how the shift towards mobile usage due to increasing mobile and internet penetration is affecting the reach and consumption of advertising in those countries.

In the first part of this series on advertising to youth in Africa, we focused on the rise in consumption of digital advertising among this demographic. We explored on the advertising call to action, as well as the role that online channels are playing in being a source of information for consumers in their buying process.

In this second and final part of the series, we focus on advertisement recall as well as the most creative advertisements as voted by our panel of respondents of this straw poll. The aim was to determine how easily consumers recall advertisements they encounter on different media daily, which media channels they consume these ads from, and which advertisements they felt were very creatively done hence the recall factor.

The insights from this survey are not representative of the total population in these countries, however, they do give us some valuable pointers on the consumption of advertising by the youth demographic. It also provides insights for marketers, media buying and creative agencies on how their target market is responding to their messaging.

Advertisement Recall
Advertisement recall measures a respondent’s recollection or recall of an advertisement.  The respondent’s answers provide insight to the most memorable attribute of the advertisement. Generally, ad recall is requested immediately after the respondent views the advertisement. Recall is lessened over time. The GeoPoll audit retail service is one of the most effective ways of measuring ad recall. It is done using the mobile phone via sms as the respondent consumes the advert from whichever media.

The advertisements with the highest ad recall among youth consumers across the multiple platforms included in the survey are by the Coca-Cola Company. Their TV advertisements enjoying the highest recall at 13%.

As we breakdown the advertisement recall by channel, the top 3 most recalled brands by youth consumers from TV advertisements were: Coca-Cola, Omo and Ariel. From the print adverts: Omo, Airtel data packages and Coca-Cola had the highest recall. From radio: Coca-Cola, Omo and Ariel reigned high. Finally; Omo, Coca-Cola and Ariel had the highest ad recall from their out of home advertising.

Most Creative Advertisements
Coca-Cola advertisements were picked as the most favorite among respondents across all media due to their creativity and ad-recall factor. Looking at advertisements in the respective media channels, the 3 most listed favorite TV adverts across respondents who consume TV are: 1) Coca-Cola at 11% 2)Nivea Personal Care (6%) and 3)Indomie Noodles and Omo at 2% each.

From those who consumed print, most voted Nivea advertisements as leading in creativity, followed by Omo and Always. From radio,  Coca-Cola advertisements lead closely followed by Nivea skin care; Tigo and Movit tie at number 3. Among the respondents who consumed internet, Coca-Cola was voted as number one, Nivea skin care and Tigo followed closely. Finally, from Out Of Home (OOH) advertisements, Nivea body lotion advertisements were voted as number one closely followed by Coca-Cola, Omo and Movit tie at number 3.

Brands and Youth Consumers
The strive by marketers, creative agencies and media buying agencies to capture the attention of their target market in unique ways is greater now even as the consumer and media platforms become more segmented. Getting the consumer’s attention is not as easy now; the future promises some curveballs.

Download the full infographic on Advertising to African Youth Consumers today!

*This GeoPoll rapid survey was conducted in June among 3,710 youth in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania using the GeoPoll Mobile application.

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This was a key takeaway from the recent PAMRO conference  which took place in Cape Town, South Africa from 27 – 30 August 2017.  The conference brought together over 100 delegates representing the media and media research landscape in Africa.

The increases in population and constant changes in the dynamics of environments, increased fragmentation of TV, radio and even print, suggest that the oldest form of advertising, the ‘billboard poster’, whether static or digital, is still the most cost-effective and impactful medium to reach the mass or the new niche markets  – Akinyi Okulo, Client Services Manager,  Media, GeoPoll

OOH’s Return On Investment Is Becoming Measurable For the first time, a common currency is available allowing advertisers to compare Out of Home (OOH) media measurement with other channels on a like for like basis.

We were honored to have our very own Matt Angus-Hammond, Global Key Accounts and Custom Research present “Audience Wars: Out of Home Media Takes a Stand” at this year’s conference.  His presentation demonstrated to attendees  the ability to measure audience and campaign effectiveness with Out of Home media measurement by the OOH advertising industry. Through use of satellite image and mobile phone technology, we can now calculate audience metrics for OOH channels using the same units of currency including GRPs, frequency, impacts, reach and audiences.

His presentation (pdf) demonstrated to attendees the ability to measure audience and campaign effectiveness with Out of Home media measurement by the OOH advertising industry. Through use of satellite image and mobile phone technology, we can now calculate audience metrics for OOH channels using the same units of currency including GRPs, frequency, impacts, reach and audiences.

“The PAMRO 2017 conference highlighted the dynamic, even turbulent, situation media finds itself in across the African continent and indeed worldwide. For example, GeoPoll’s OOH audience measurement case study revealed the channel’s extraordinary ability to reach huge numbers of people, something which the increasingly fragmented television and radio media can no longer claim. But exposure does not necessarily mean effectiveness, and Marshall McLuhan’s old adage ‘the medium is the message’ is looking shaky. The message is everything. Content is king.” – Matt Angus Hammond, Global Key Accounts and Custom Research, GeoPoll

As mentioned during Mr. Angus-Hammond’s presentation, brands and advertising agencies can now better understand which locations have the highest audience size on weekdays and weekends by key demographics as well as see when and where target audiences travel throughout the day.

Cuende Partnership
It’s in partnership with Cuende, that we offer media measurement from television, radio, and print to the Out of Home advertising industry. Cuende is a leading outdoor advertising data provider in Europe and Asia that uses satellite imagery to measure traffic at specific locations throughout the day. 

OOH and TV/Radio Measurement Come Together

We were honored not only to have Mr. Angus-Hammond present at this year’s PAMRO conference, but he was joined by Akinyi Okulo, Client Services Manager, Media, GeoPoll who spoke on the tendency to compare OOH advertising to TV and Radio. Ms. Okulo spoke about our media product, KGMM, which measures TV, Radio and newspaper audience ratings across 11 countries in Africa to provide overnight media data.

“The future of audience measurement is fenced within the context of content.  PAMRO 2017 has presented a unique opportunity for peer learning as well as exploratory methodologies on identifying, tracking and measuring content.” Akinyi Okulo, Client Services Manager, Media 

Download Mr. Angus-Hammond’s full presentation now

The post Out of Home Media Takes a Stand at #PAMRO2017 appeared first on GeoPoll.

Client X had identified a target market for Y, their leading FMCG brand, and had developed a 30 second TV commercial to support Y’s sales in Nigeria. Agency Z media planners had drawn up a campaign of 147 spots over 4 months for the commercial. GeoPoll were invited to demonstrate how this plan could be improved upon with our Media Planning Suite. 

The Agency Z media plan was designed with the help of traditional diary data, extensive experience and good instincts. Below shows their media plan, which included 64 ad spots for a total of 364.2 Gross Ratings Points (GRPs)*. The total cost of this campaign was approximately $105,150.

GeoPoll’s media plan relied on detailed, continuous, 30-minute audience data integrated into our audience targeting and planning platform. GeoPoll’s media plan utilized fewer (62) spots, more effectively targeted, to gain a larger number of GRPs: 511.7, at a lower cost of approximately $102,290. 

GeoPoll Audience Measurement data added (accounting for additional GRP’s and lower costs) NGN 6.4 million ($32,500) to the value of this campaign, a 31% improvement in ROI.

With no detailed, recent data to draw from, media planners are forced to focus mainly on prime time viewing slots. They know that there are opportunities elsewhere, but without data they can’t take the risk. But prime time costs money, and you reach lots of people you don’t need to.

GeoPoll’s Media Planning Suite uses real time, 30-minute audience data to identify the most efficient spots for a campaign’s target (often outside prime time), and predicts the GRP’s for each spot. Fewer spots, more efficiently selected, improves ROI for the client and reduces clutter for the audience.

To use GeoPoll’s Media Measurement Service to see real-time TV ratings and increase your ROI on media plans in Africa, contact us below.

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*Gross Ratings Points measure the total of all Ratings throughout an advertising campaign. Rating is the proportion watching a station out of the total sample at that time, multiplied by 100. If 50 people out of 500 surveyed watched Station X, the rating for Station X would be (50/500)*100) = 10.

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