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Telcos, banks drive up advertising spend
How 2011 compares with last year.
Advertising expenditure in Uganda for the first three months of 2011 increased by Shs18 billion, compared to the same period in 2010, according to data from Synovate, a local research firm that provides monitoring solutions for organizations and the marketing sector.
Industry exposure in the first quarter of 2011 rose to Shs97 billion, compared to Shs79 billion in the same quarter of 2010.
Synovate Uganda Country manager, Ms Virginia Isingoma Nkwanzi, hinged growth in advertising spending to competition in key sectors of the economy including telecoms and banking, coupled with huge election advertising expenditure in the recently concluded February general elections.
“The current high commodity and fuel prices have not affected advertising in anyway, instead expenditure on advertising has continued to grow,” Ms Nkwanzi explained.
Telecommunications companies including Airtel, Warid, MTN, Orange and Uganda Telecom have invested a lot in publicising new products and tariffs following a price war that saw industry call rates fall by more than 60 per cent.
Airtel further invested millions of shillings in building a new brand name after it rebranded from Zain to Airtel late last year.
Presidential, parliamentary and local council candidates also invested much money in advertising in the first quarter of 2011.
Ms Nkwanzi was speaking at the launch of an automated media monitoring system dubbed Adcatch that will enable it to harness the speed of technology to track media commercials and ensure timely advertising reports.
The system is expected to eliminate the tedious and time consuming manual media monitoring process and ensure high levels of accuracy since advertisements will be auto detected.
The new system will start with radio before bringing on board the television and print media platforms.
Ms Nkwanzi said that they opted to start with radio because it has grown faster than other media platforms in the country and it receives the biggest advertising expenditure.
She noted that the system seeks to ensure that advertisers get full value for their media purchases, provide proof of broadcast and that advertisers receive make-goods for missed and unclear spots. It will also prevent fraud and is a means of validating expenditure.
Customers will be able to access real time reports online, unlike before when they had to wait for a week.
“Our clients have been unhappy with the old system, so this upgrade is in real time and will help maintain our credibility,” Ms Nkwanzi said in Kampala on Thursday.
The system will also monitor music so that artists know the number of songs played and their frequency by a given media house and bill the media house accordingly. Synovate also uses it in Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia and Ghana and has capacity to keep advertisement for 10 years.
