South Africa's banking sector has accounted for R1.2 billion of ad spend in the period to end July 2012; a 38% increase over last year's spend. With the latest Media Inflation Watch (MIW) figures showing all media inflation at a 10.3%, the figures illustrate how hard banks are fighting to grow market share in an extremely difficult economic environment.
"For banks wanting consumers to consider brand-switching the first point of reference should be the Ads24 Path to Persuasion model," says Karen Dyke, head of insights and strategy at Ads24. "It gives media strategists clear, media-neutral guidance in terms of individual advertising channel strengths."
The study for the banking category shows that newspapers are particularly effective in driving consumers through the Consideration and Trial phases of the Media Path to Purchase.
"This is a critical consideration where new business drives are concerned. A strong media mix includes internet, newspapers and television or radio, with radio and television playing the same role."
All of South Africa's major banks have increased their advertising spend; however Standard Bank, First Rand Group and Nedbank show the highest growth in spend of 67%, 45% and 43% respectively.
Radio reflects the highest investment growth of 124%, followed by out-of-home at 60%, direct mail shows a loss of 100%, internet spend has shrunk by 9%, and print has shown growth of 10% over the same period.
Path to Persuasion is a media neutral, qualitative media measurement tool that identifies what role different media formats play in delivering products and brands to a number of different consumer markets. The banking category research covered 181 respondents in urban centres throughout South Africa.
"We now have a database of 2300 respondents, giving us the ability to look at optimum media mixes according to demographic information on 11 business categories. Bearing in mind that the key strength of Path to Persuasion is a media-neutral approach to optimising the media mix, it's a powerful tool to aid media planners in their media investment strategies." The data is available to clients on the Telmar software.
The next wave of research is due to go into the field in the next six weeks, with results due towards the end of the year.
