Due to the popularity of SABC1’s TV soap, Generations, ad agencies are often asked for their thoughts pertaining to advertising on the program.
Straight to it then: advertising on Generations is prohibitively expensive so if you’re don’t have a budget running into the early millions, flighting a TV commercial during this program may not be for you. Not when you consider that a thirty second flighting could set you back upwards of R130 000 excl VAT. And that’s for just one flighting.
Flight your ad on, say five episodes of Generations and you’re in for R650 000 odd. Could you flight your commercial less than five times? You could, but does it make sense to? Probably not. The reason being that advertising gets taken in over time and that whilst there is nothing wrong with quick advertising bursts, there should be advertising bursts over a sustained period for your intended message to hit home.
So unless you’re a national brand and a big advertiser like Colgate Palmolive, ABSA, FNB, Cell-C, MNet or Vodacom, you’d best look at advertising during TV time slots where the costs are lower. The likes of Isidingo, Carte Blanche, Top Billing etc are all popular amongst advertisers, and whilst not cheap, deliver the necessary ARs (audience ratings) at a more palatable cost.
This is not to slate Generations in any way. If you have a marketing budget that extends to advertising on this hugely popular TV series, and your product or service is aimed at its viewership, it’s a good buy and you won’t go wrong.
According to Richard Lord, managing director of The Media Shop, who spoke on Jenny Chrys-Williams’s 702 program recently, marketers are attracted to TV programs with large viewerships (measured as ARs). This stands to reason, and Generations enjoys the highest ARs of them all – more even than the 2010 World Cup soccer final.
I’m not sure of the exact figures but something like 6 million people watch Generations on a weekly basis. That is massive, and no other program comes close to delivering this sort of number.
What’s important also is the loyalty aspect. People tend to watch every episode. So if you’re advertising regularly on the program, your product or service stands a chance of being associated with the program. Always a good thing.
An example of this was Samsung’s advertising on the recently-ended Brothers and Sisters. Annoying it may have been to some, but there was always a Samsung commercial somewhere in the program and people who never missed an episode of the series would come to associate the brand with the program. That couldn’t have done any harm to Samsung as a brand.
But, back to Generations: let’s assume that as a marketer you have the required marketing budget but no ad agency. How best to go about it? My advice is that you contact a good marketing agency (there are a number that will come up in a Google search) or that you contact the likes of The Media Shop, whose services will come to you at no cost -assuming of course that they get to plan and buy your media.
Media independents like The Media Shop (there are others) will negotiate you the best rate to advertise and it won’t cost you a cent extra as they make their money from being paid a media commission from the media owner. (The SABC in this case).
By going though an ad agency or media buying and planning facility, you will also be advised as to the advertising options possible on a program like Generations. Rather than flighting a regular thirty second ad, a shorter duration commercial may deliver more bang for your buck. It will certainly buy your greater frequency. Or maybe a product placement could work better for you.
(A number of locally-produced soaps will be open to weaving your product or service into their storyline to give it more credibility and product placement is sometimes more effective than conventional advertising).
Whether this is the case with Generations however is a moot point as it is a very popular program and you may well have to join the queue. The point being that an advertising agency or media house will be able to do the negotiating for you.