Category Archives: Advertising Costs

Why You Need to Keep On Advertising

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business couple at computer In a recession, or when things are tough (as they most definitely now are), business owners and marketers tend to put a lid on their advertising spend as a means of capping their expenses. And yet, whilst understandable, it’s often a mistake to do so.

The reason that advertising is often the first expense to face the chop is that it’s the easiest thing to cut. It’s far easier to send out an instruction to your ad agency and media agency to cut, by way of an example,  TV advertising or radio advertising from a media schedule than it is to, for example, retrench staff.

History has shown that advertisers who stop advertising in recessionary periods have some catching up to do when the economy turns for the better. This stands to reason, as the advertiser who continues to advertise in a downturn will be better positioned to capitalise in an upturn as his or her advertising would have remained uppermind over time.  The advertiser who has stopped advertising will have lost ground in the minds of his or her target market. (A matter of out of sight, out of mind..)

One of the most prevalent reasons given by marketers looking to cut, or stop, advertising is: there’s no money out there, so what’s the point? Fact is, that whilst some South Africans have no money (OK, many South Africans have no money), many do..something that was brought home recently when my wife and I tried to find a week’s timeshare on the coast.  After days of searching, it became clear that there was none to be had.

How could this be, if people don’t have money? The cynic would say that they don’t have money because they spent on things like timeshare, but this rings hollow.

South Africans are spending WEEKS on holiday. And as a family who was fortunate enough to have eventually found somewhere to stay and as a result, went away for ten days, we can vouch for how much an extended holiday would cost. Eating out every day and keeping the kids entertained costs plenty. And yet, restaurants are pumping and queues at the movies or fun parks never seem to end.

Another thing that struck us is how many people have second homes on the coast: homes that cost millions. And boats, that sit idly moored to those homes..

People short of money? Certainly not all of them…

It is clear that there are many people in this country (admittedly in the upper LSMs) who have money to burn. And these are people who continue to eat, continue to drink, continue to entertain, continue to drive, continue to bank, continue to invest and continue to holiday.

Quite simply, they need to be advertised to – regardless of the state of the economy.

The bottom line is that if you’re not advertising to them, you’re not in the picture. Simple as that.

But what about the middle class? Or the lower income-earners in our country? Here a different picture emerges because they’re more under pressure, financially-speaking. That said, they still need to eat and drink, still need to buy household goods, still need to put food on the table. So they also need to be advertised to.

What marketers need to do when things are tough is box clever.

If your product is not moving, you need to think of ways to GET it moving. Discount the price, offer a “buy one, get two” offer, start a loyalty program…think out the box and get creative.

The worst thing is to put a stop to your advertising efforts. But if you have absolutely no choice other than to cut back, do it strategically. Cut back on media that you consider to be “nice-to-haves” – this might be in the form of TV advertising, radio advertising, cinema advertising, outdoor advertising, newspaper or magazine advertising – and continue with advertising that brings you response. (Digital advertising more than likely).

With people googling practically everything these days, make sure that your website is professionally optimised for search engines. You need to come up on the first page of Google when people search for the type of product or service you offer. This is imperative. It’s said that the best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of Google. Why? Because no one ever searches there. Quite simply, if you’re not on the first page of Google, you’re dead in the water.

Google Adwords are also good. If you’re running Adword campaigns, continue running them. And if they’re not delivering the type of response you expect, find someone professional to manage them.

Google Display? Also good. Keep it going.

Blogs? They work well. Blog more than you have in the past.

If your business is struggling, cut your advertising spend if you must – but at the very least – maintain a presence online. You’ll regret it if you don’t because , despite what you may believe, there ARE  people with money out there. And amongst them will be people looking for what you offer.

My name is Gerard Kavonic of This country’s smallest ad agency, Kavonic Hone and I can be reached on [email protected] and 083 444 9888. You can see what I’m about on www.kavonichone.co.za

I’d be happy to advise you.

Advertising On Facebook Or Setting Up a Google Adwords Campaign. Anyone Can Do It, Right?

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Absolutely. IF you know what you’re doing. Unfortunately, many marketers lack the required knowledge – despite them THINKING they know what they’re doing.

The sad thing is, they lose heart once they find that the only responses they get are from people looking for jobs and from people trying to sell them something.

When I first heard of Facebook (all those years ago) and was told how it was a potential gold mine waiting to be tapped, I set up ads promoting another business that I was involved in at the time and sat back waiting for the phone to ring. Needless to say, it didn’t.

I then allocated a budget to Google Adwords and set up a series of ads. I ran the campaign for three months or so. The result here too was disappointing. (Although I’m sure Google were happy).

The lesson I learnt was that as much as I THOUGHT I could set up successful Google Adwords and Facebook advertising campaigns, I was pretty clueless – even though I’ve been in the ad industry nearly 30 years.

This said, Google Adwords and Facebook advertising can work amazingly well. IF set up correctly and managed professionally.

There are way too many people out there – website designers and developers in the main – who profess to be experts in online marketing, when they’re nothing but. They may know how to design and build a website, but when it comes to marketing that site online, their knowledge is basic at best.

I’ve learnt over the years that really good online marketers in South Africa are few and far between. (Over the last few years, I’ve handed online advertising projects to a number of “online marketers” only to be disappointed by the results. Invariably, they talk the talk, but fail to walk the walk).

Fortunately, a year or so ago, I was introduced to a really good digital agency so my frustrations are now over. These guys are good and they have an in-depth understanding of how to make facebook advertising and Google Adwords work for their clients.

Setting up a Google Adwords account can be a time-consuming process as it involves setting up multiple accounts – of which a Google Plus account, Google Places account and Google Partners account are some. Detailed keyword research, competitor analysis and marketing research and analysis then need to be conducted.

Once done, and the Google Adwords have been set up and activated, the ads need to be managed. This, to see which ads are working, which are not, and if not, why they’re not. Simple things like changing words here and there could make a world of difference. (The managing of Adwords campaigns is crucially important).

Then there’s the “cost-per-click” aspect. When someone clicks on your ad, it costs you – and often-times, it could cost you more than it should.

By having a professional online marketer manage your Adwords campaign, your cost-per-click can be brought down with the aim of getting you more clicks per your allotted ad budget. (Once your ad budget has been used up, your ads stop appearing).

As a marketer, you’re looking for as many clicks as you can get – but not just any clicks. Clicks from people who have nothing better to do all day than click on ads are a waste of time and your ad budget because they have no interest in your product or service. What you’re looking for are clicks from people who ARE interested. By having your Adword campaigns managed by people who know what they’re doing, your online advertising can be targeted – so that you reach the right people, at the lowest cost.

This pertains to Facebook advertising too. You need to have the right ads on facebook, communicating the right things and aimed at the right target market, for less cost. All this may seem obvious, but online marketing is a science – and should be left to savvy online marketers who know the tricks of the trade.

With approximately 1.28 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the 2nd-most visited website (behind Google) and all these eyeballs means a lot of exposure for your advertising, so long as it’s targeted. Fortunately, targeted advertising is catered for on this platform in that you are able to target a specific group of people based on (for example) their age, geographical whereabouts, personal interests and more. Facebook can even comb through user profiles to place your ads only on pages that mention a specific keyword.

As an advertiser, you can also choose between CPC and CPM pay structures (cost per click and cost per impression) allowing you to tailor your ad campaign any which way. When all’s said and done, advertising on Facebook can be inexpensive (and profitable), if you know what you’re doing.

My advice? Call in a good online marketer, and ask to see the deliverables ie what he or she has achieved for others. It’s important that you separate the wheat from the chaff, and the talkers from the doers.

Facebook advertising and advertising on Google needs to be approached professionally. If they are, advertisers can reap the rewards.

How Does Cinema Advertising Compare With TV Advertising?

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Whilst both are visual electronic advertising mediums, they don’t really compare – not in terms of reach anyway.

Whereas Television advertising is mass media, reaching millions, cinema advertising is more niched and its reach is limited.

That said, cinema advertising has a lot going for it, and as an ad agency, I’ll often look at incorporating it into a media schedule where there is a product/target audience fit. It’s clear that the advertising medium appeals to many marketers, judging from the number and types of advertisers currently flighting ads on cinema screens around the nation. Advertisers include the large national advertisers as well as small advertisers and hence, its appeal spans the divide.

In my opinion, the strengths of cinema as an advertising medium are the fact that it allows for:

Targeting
Flexibility
Intimacy

It’s also cost-effective and affordable, and comes in far cheaper than TV advertising which, is by and large, expensive.

Television advertising is a national medium, reaching millions of people whereas cinema advertising lends itself more to geographical targeting.

Irrespective of the product being advertised, TV advertising will always have “wastage” – where a percentage of people will not, and will likely never be, interested in your product or service. Whilst this is the case, though, people talk. So whilst someone will have no interest in your product, he or she may know someone who may be – and may well choose to tell that person. The importance of “Word of mouth” can never be underestimated in terms of advertising. People will always be more open to making a purchase if a friend or family member has made a recommendation.

Whilst this is true of both TV advertising and cinema advertising, cinema advertising has less wastage as advertisers can better target their advertising. In terms of targeting, an advertiser with a limited advertising budget could decide which cinemas to advertise in and which not to advertise in. So if, for example, you run a plumbing supplies business in Boksburg, you could advertise in cinemas in only the Boksburg area. Or you could choose a number of cinemas in adjoining areas so as to reach a wider audience. This is a huge advantage as it means that you won’t be advertising in places where your target market is too geographically distant to take advantage of your products or service, and you won’t be wasting money unnecessarily.

Besides deciding on cinema location, the cinema advertiser could also select particular cinema releases. This is important. As Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro will always make a big splash about forthcoming releases they consider to be “blockbusters”, you’ll have the time to plan your campaign. By booking your ad in the cinemas of your choice, and before a movie that you know will be well attended, you’ll be in a good place.

Ster-Kinekor or Nu Metro will promote the movie with a view to getting bums on seats, and so long as you have an ad that “talks” to those there for the movie, you’ll be positioned to capitalise. You must have a decent commercial to flight though.

There are a number of really good advertising agencies in South Africa as well as a number of really good TV producers who could produce a quality cinema ad for you, and the costs do not have to exorbitant. Whilst a quality TV commercial could set you back R650 000 (and upwards), a cinema ad could be produced for a lot less – depending on the concept, storyboard, location and number of actors.

Unless you’re an established marketer with an unlimited budget for production, there are a number of ways to keep your cinema ad production costs down:

Have it produced in-house (there are a number of talented people about who could help you with this)
Call in a freelance TV producer
Get in a good freelance copywriter and art director (a Google search will likely bring up a few)
Insist on a simple storyboard (requiring no actors, or maybe one at the most)
Consider simple animation or pack shots with titles
Source library music (and avoid well-known soundtracks)

Do your homework and you could probably get a decent cinema ad shot for R150 000 to R180 000 excluding VAT.

Once you have a cinema commercial produced, you’ll need to have a media planner compile you a media schedule which will show you when, where and how many times your commercial will air or flight. If you have an ad agency, they’ll be able to put this together for you. (If you don’t, I could put you in contact with someone).

Advertising on the big screen ticks a number of boxes in my opinion – although it’s product-dependant ie a chocolate bar or new energy drink would lend itself to being advertised on cinema whereas a new brand of cement might not be.

If your target market is children, parents of children, or people aged 34 or less, advertising in cinema is worthy of consideration. Especially when you consider that you have a captive audience that will be receptive to your message – and focused on your message. (Something that can’t be guaranteed with TV advertising).

Also in cinema advertising’s favour is that, as an advertiser, you could bolster your advertising on-screen by, for example, give-aways, leaflets or other promotional items in cinema foyers. (It’s difficult to do this with TV advertising).

At the end of the day, cinema advertising and TV advertising are both excellent advertising mediums, with the former probably more suited to smaller companies with smaller advertising budgets looking for local penetration and television advertising more suited to companies with larger advertising budgets, looking for a national reach.

Billboard Advertising and Outdoor Advertising. One and the same?

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advertising billboardWhilst those within the advertising industry would know the difference between “billboard advertising” and “outdoor advertising”, some marketers may not – judging from the volume of enquiries I receive for eg billboards when what they are looking for are street pole posters, or maxi posters.

So, a quick explanation:

Billboards are generally the free-standing boards you see on the sides of freeways or on main roads in suburban areas. They come in all shapes and sizes, and in portrait or landscape-formats. Of all the outdoor media-types, these type of billboards are normally the most expensive (together with building wraps) and can range from around R20 000 per month to around R70 000 a month – depending on their geographical location, and how many people would see, or pass by, the billboard in question in any month. In addition, there would a reproduction cost for printing the artwork, which would be a once-off cost, ranging from about R15 000 and upwards.

Billboards could be in the form of static billboards and digital billboards; the difference between them being that on a static board, only one advertising message could be shown at a time, whereas on a digital billboard, a number of ads could be shown one after the other. Digital billboards are becoming more and more popular as they are generally cheaper to flight, the messages can be changed quickly and the creative can be “walked” around a pre-determined area, so as to reach more people in different locales.

Outdoor advertising is a more encompassing term than billboard advertising and includes all outdoor advertising types – ranging from billboards, maxi posters, mini posters and street pole posters to building wraps, signage at taxi ranks, dustbin advertising, trailer advertising and bus shelter advertising.

Of these, the most expensive are building wraps where a side of an entire building can be branded if need be. Not only can this be impactful, it can be incredibly costly and can generally only be afforded by large marketers with expansive ad budgets. (Typically, companies in the banking, insurance, telecommunications and liquor industries).

Maxi-posters are also popular and are to be found between the north-bound and south-bound lanes of major freeways. These are extremely effective, so long as the creative messaging is kept simple and eye-catching. The rule of thumb here is to communicate the USP (Unique Selling Proposition). There’s no point in having a poster with a long headline that a motorist travelling at speed would have no chance of absorbing.

But this is true of all outdoor. You have to keep things simple, and understandable. Eye-catching is also good.

Take street pole posters. Generally put up in series of three or four, if the message is complicated, you’ll lose most motorists and your advertising money will be money down the drain. Street pole posters are cost-effective and hence popular with advertisers with limited advertising budgets. Anyone with R15 000 to R20 000 available could probably afford a series of street pole posters (depending of course on what an ad agency or design studio might for charge for the creative concept and design) although that said, one would normally get a better result by having more than one row of street pole posters.

Then there are mini-posters. Like street pole posters, they can work well. But their success is largely dependent on the creative.

In general, outdoor advertising is incredibly popular with marketers and probably always will be.

Many marketers will look at billboards in conjunction with radio advertising and as a strategy, this makes a lot of sense in a country like South Africa.

As with all advertising, however, billboard or outdoor advertising needs to be approached strategically and professionally and the process typically commences with identifying your target markets and researching their media consumption habits. There are ad agencies and media agencies specialising in outdoor advertising who can crunch the numbers. More than this, they could give you current outdoor availability in a specific area, provide reproduction and rental costings and recommend and purchase space on your behalf. Simplifying the outdoor or billboard advertising process as a result.

Whichever the outdoor advertising type, there will always be three costs:

The cost that an advertising agency will charge you to conceptualise the advertising message and supply artwork

The cost that the media owner will charge you to print the artwork

The cost that the media owner will charge you to flight your advertising per month 

If you ever need help in this area, I’d be happy to point you in the right direction.

What Can An Advertiser Do on a Small Advertising Budget?

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As a small advertising agency, many of my recent enquiries are coming from small or medium sized-companies with small advertising budgets. Probably not surprising, due to tough trading conditions, in which budgets are under pressure, and my positioning in the market as This country’s smallest advertising agency (in which I’m often – erroneously – perceived as This country’s cheapest ad agency). And it’s not that I mind receiving these enquiries.

Rather, it makes me question whether a limited marketing budget of, say R30 000 per month, is actually sufficient in this day and age.

Prior to the advent of social media and the effectiveness of online marketing, a budget of this size would have been problematic – for the simple reason that conventional advertising media would have required a significantly more substantial investment to make them work.

One has only to look at the costs of TV advertising, radio advertising, print advertising or outdoor advertising these days. They’re not for the faint-hearted.

Unless a marketer has a budget of at least R1 million to spend on TV advertising, it’s probably not a medium worth considering (unless the marketer has a cheap TV commercial in mind – one that could be produced in studio – and intends only a short burst of airing the commercial).

Radio advertising? Expensive if one intends advertising on morning or afternoon drive time, but less so if not. One could probably get away with an advertising spend of R100 000-R150 000 dependent on station choice and duration of a radio campaign.

Advertising in newspapers or magazines? Also expensive, unless you have a small black and white ad in mind, or you’re looking to advertise in a Caxton paper or a trade journal.

Outdoor advertising can also be costly, especially if you’d like to advertise on a freeway or at an airport. Building wraps are also extremely costly. Whereas street pole posters and other forms of outdoor advertising are less so.

Limited advertising budgets are often difficult to work with, but for my money, I would in nearly all cases recommend an online marketing approach, in which one’s target market(s) are driven to a website through:

Google Adwords
Blogging
Remarketing
Social Media

That said, the effectiveness and success of an online marketing campaign is often dependent on the website itself. Today, one’s website needs to talk to one’s target audience. It needs to, at a glance, tell people what you’re about. First impressions count. Your website needs to stand out, be liked, be easily navigable, be built correctly and be professionally optimised for search engines.

(With “professionally” being the key word here: too many so-called online marketers today think they know about optimisation but ending up doing an average job. Far rather, get someone who understands optimisation and specialises in the field).

Once your website has been professionally optimised for search engines and has had the aforementioned boxes ticked, a Google Adwords campaign should be looked at. (Unless you know what you’re doing, get a professional in to set it up and manage it for you).

Regular blogging is also important. As is remarketing. As is social media (if done correctly). But these will be dealt with in upcoming blog posts.

The most important thing with online marketing is get someone who knows what they’re doing in to do it for you. Unless you’re really clue-d up in this area, it’s best to seek outside help. Done correctly, an online marketing campaign can do wonders for the bottom-line and a business with a limited advertising budget should look at one as a first port-of-call.

I work with some of the best online marketers in the industry. I could put you onto them if need be.

Nando’s Directional Sign – Street Pole Posters Successful Pointers

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Nando’s advertising is well-respected and well-known. Normally for stirring controversy. But between its TV ads, which invariably succeed in getting the brand on the front pages of newspapers, and its radio commercials and newspaper ads are street pole posters which drive traffic to its outlets.

In a discussion I had recently with someone who works on the Nandos advertising account, the street pole posters seem to be working well. Not at all clever or controversial (unusual for this often off-the-wall marketer), they are achieving their objective which is to point motorists to the nearest outlet and to get them to purchase.

From a marketing point of view, they also point to how a brand that is witty and irreverent can have TV, radio and print as its flagship mediums raising laughs and street pole posters doing the business of driving traffic to its stores.

At the end of the day, Nandos is in the business of making money and clearly not in it for the controversy it stirs in the marketplace, or the smiles and sniggers it puts on people’s faces. There is only one place it can make money and that is by getting people into its stores, of which there are now hundreds around South Africa in practically every shopping centre and on every second street corner.

Because they are seen by motorists everywhere, street pole posters are a perfect fit for this marketing-led company. More so because it’s an advertising medium that lends itself to creativity, it’s also one that’s cost-effective. Marketers wanting to get their brand “out there” and who don’t have marketing budgets that make television advertising, radio advertising or magazine possible find that advertising on street pole posters fits the bill in more ways than one.

(Depending on the geographical location, one could advertise on a street pole poster for around R1 200 per month. So a series of three or four posters, run consecutively, would set you back less than R5 000 excluding VAT which is a pittance in advertising terms. (Note that this a rental cost only. You would still need to budget to have the posters conceptualised and designed). Nando’s have street pole posters all over the place however so the costs can start to run away with you if you’re advertising on a national basis.

Just out of interest: a visit to the company’s new website www.nandos.co.za shows an impressive number of countries in which it is now represented, giving proof to the effectiveness of its marketing campaigns. Readers may be surprised to learn that Nandos now has outlets in Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Canada, Cyprus, Fiji, India, Ireland, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Namibia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Swaziland, UAE, UK, USA and Zimbabwe… making it a truly global brand.

As an advertising agency, I’m often asked to produce “nandos-type advertising”. Clearly, it’s the sort of advertising that resonates with a lot of people. So hats off to its marketing department and ad agency Black River FC who has really set the benchmark for this genre of advertising.

Clearly, humorous and topical advertising has its place – and I’m all for it (where appropriate of course). In the meantime, here’s an idea for a street pole poster campaign that Nandos (or indeed one of its competitors) may like to consider.

“You’re warm. You’re warmer. You’re hot. Now you’re hot, hot, hot” with the first poster furthest from a Nandos outlet and the last poster closest to it.

Just an idea, but maybe one worth considering the closer one gets to winter?

Where Best To Find Them 2013 Advertising Rates

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Unless you’re an established marketer and have a full  service advertising agency working on your advertising account, obtaining advertising rates (and making sense of them) can be a time-consuming, frustrating, daunting and often difficult process.

As someone who runs a small advertising agency in Johannesburg, I sense this on a daily basis as I’m often fielding calls or receiving emails from businesses requesting rates to advertise on television, radio, billboards, newspapers and magazines.

Unfortunately, many of these requests for rates are not easy to see to, for the simple reason that there are so many variables at play. With combination rates on offer and discounted advertising packages for first time advertisers, it’s no simple matter providing the information required in a way that would be understood by someone new to, or unfamiliar with, marketing.

Generalist requests for “the cost to advertise on television” or “the cost to advertise on radio for a six month period” are akin to asking “the price of a car”. What type of car? A new car? A second hand car? What model? Clearly the price of a 2013 Mercedes Benz would be different to that of a 2007 Toyota Corolla.

And so it is with advertising. There are just so many variables at play and so many considerations to take into account.

Take TV or radio advertising, where a fifteen second commercial on Soweto TV would cost far less to flight at six in the morning than a thirty second commercial would cost to flight on MNet during evening prime time, and a radio spot aired during morning or afternoon drive time on Highveld will be more expensive than one aired mid-morning or mid-afternoon on Kaya FM.

In newspaper or magazine advertising, a quarter page black and white advertisement hidden on page 23 in a Caxton newspaper will be much cheaper to flight than a full page full colour ad with a product sachet affixed to it in a glossy magazine like FHM.

And in outdoor advertising, where a small billboard in the back of beyond would cost a fraction of the price of a large billboard occupying pride of place on Johannesburg’s M1 motorway.

I’m stating the obvious of course but the point is that advertising rates vary enormously and that potential advertisers should be cognisant of this. What’s also important is to be as clear as possible in one’s request for information. A request for “Rates to advertise during etv’s 19h00 news bulletin on a Tuesday or Thursday evening” would be much easier to provide than “rates to advertise on TV”.

But who should you approach for advertising rates? Whilst there is nothing wrong with approaching a media owner directly (be it SABC, MNet, DSTV, etv, Soweto TV, Primedia, You or Huisgenoot magazines, Clear Channel, Highveld, 702, 5FM, Jacaranda, Metro FM or Kaya FM as examples) you will likely only be sent a rate card or a number of rate cards for you to make sense of. And unless you’re a seasoned marketer, you may find it difficult deciding which advertising package, radio station or TV time slot will be best to take advantage of so as to deliver the most bang for your buck.

Also, the media owner wants your advertising business so any notion of objectivity goes out the window. My advice to anyone interested in advertising a product or service would be to ask your marketing consultant (if you have one) to put you in touch with an experienced media buying and planning agency.

Because these agencies are independent and work with pretty much every media owner in the country, they’re objective and besides providing you with rates to advertise, can advise as to which advertising mediums will work best for you within the parameters of your marketing budget.

And because they earn their commissions irrespective of the advertising media booked, they will do their best for your brand regardless of whether TV advertising, radio advertising, outdoor advertising, cinema advertising, print advertising, online advertising – or any other form of advertising is put to you on a media schedule.

Best of all is that so long as they get to place your advertising, their services and expertise typically come to you at no cost.

The Costs Of Not Advertising.

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Having written before on the costs of advertising, here’s a write-up on the costs of not advertising – although these are self-explanatory and should be obvious to most. In no particular order, the costs of not advertising one’s business are:

* stagnating sales
* the potential downsizing of your business
* laying off of personnel
* paying of retrenchment packagesd
* the possible closing of your doors

There are others, but suffice to say that they make gloomy reading. The reality is that in a recession (or economic slowdown as it’s often called) all businesses need to be advertising in some form or another. Unless you can survive by way of monthly cash injections by some kind benefactor, assistance from outside investors, help from understanding bankers or people spreading awareness of your company through word of mouth, advertising your products and services has become as important as paying your monthly rental or electricity bills.

With tough economic conditions prevailing and with no real end in sight, small businesses are battling. (Medium sized and large businesses too but they likely have more ability to survive).

The sad reality is that smaller businesses are caught between a rock and a hard place : Advertise, and put even more pressure on already-strained cashflows – or don’t advertise, and face a long and uphill battle ahead. It’s a difficult one but I honestly don’t believe business owners have a choice.

Whilst advertising is expensive, it’s imperative. One just has to work within one’s means and cut out the frills. Mandatory is a website. (It never ceases to amaze me how many companies out there still don’t have a web presence and justify this with the assertion that, in their particular industry, people don’t look at websites…..what also amazes me is the number of sub-standard websites out there).

Having a decent and correctly-built  website is critically important, this is just the beginning however. It then needs to be optimised for search engines and marketed online with the objective of attracting traffic. An unvisited site is about as useful as no site at all. Driving traffic to one’s website is achieved through the likes of  Google Adwords, blogging and social media and these tools are invaluable in this day and age. Social media in particular has become hugely important. It’s no longer a nice-to-have and a case of setting up Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles. There needs to be an on-line strategy in place and there are some very good people out there who can help you in this regard.

Of course, before embarking on-line, a corporate identity must be developed – but this can be kept to the basics if money is tight. A decent logo, business card, email signature, letterhead and perhaps a corporate profile and you’re done.

Advertising on street pole posters and billboards, advertising on radio, cinema advertising, TV advertising and advertising in newspapers and magazines can be pencilled in as a “phase 2” and wait  until business has either stabilised or grown to a point where they become affordable.

Advertising is costly and as much as you’d like to have your target market exposed to your brand at every turn, the struggling business needs to work within its means. A professionally-optimised website marketed correctly on-line and through social media, and all else can follow.

Advertising Costs And Budgets

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I don’t know what it is, but as a Johannesburg advertising agency, it seems that every second enquiry  I  receive these days is from companies with advertising budgets exceeding no more than R40 000 or   R50 000 per month. Maybe this is due to my positioning of this country’s smallest ad agency where  I’m perceived to focus on smallish marketing budgets: I don’t actually – a number of my clients have much larger marketing budgets to work with.

Whilst a marketing budget of R40 000 or R50 000 per month is not to be sneezed at, it certainly makes us advertising-types don our thinking caps as these are fairly restrictive marketing budgets given the cost of advertising in South Africa these days.

Typically, the questions I’m asked are: Will an advertising budget of R40 000 per month allow me to advertise on TV? (The answer is no – not effectively). Will an advertising budget of R40 000 per month allow me to advertise nationally? (The answer is no). Will an advertising budget of R40 000 per month be sufficient to advertise on radio? (The answer is, maybe, possibly). And will an advertising budget of R40 000 per month allow me to advertise on billboards around Johannesburg? (The answer is, not in a way that would make sense).

Today, advertising budgets are unquestionably under strain. Gone are the days when as an ad agency, you had the latitude to be experimental. Now, the marketing budget needs to perform the best it can within the parameters set. And this puts enormous pressure on advertising and communications agencies as well as marketers of brands.

We now need to critically analyse all media types and negotiate harder with media owners. We now need to be more imaginative – and think out-the-box where we can. But clients need to be realistic too.

If the SABC charges R140 000 excluding VAT for one thirty second flighting of a TV commercial on a program like Generations, then a R40 000 monthly advertising budget is simply not going to allow for advertising on Generations – as much as the client’s daughter might think it the best program ever and insist that her dad has his ad aired during it.

Advertising is costly and being so, advertising agencies have a responsibility to advise their clients correctly. Personally, I hate to see clients wasting money. Just yesterday, I met with a prospective new client who wanted to “test the waters” by running a small ad-once-off – in a newspaper or magazine. I’ve talked them out of it because I honestly do not think it’s the right thing to do.

My advice to clients is: either commit yourself to marketing over the medium or long-term, and invest the necessary funds required, or don’t advertise. “Testing the waters” by placing a small ad here or there in the hope that it will get the phone to ring will in all likelihood not work.

And to clients who cannot afford to spend more than R40 000 or R50 000 per month on advertising, I say: First, invest in a decent website and get it professionally optimised by search engines. The emphasis being on “professionally” because search engine optimisation is an art in itself and should be given to someone who specialises in the field, not to someone who “thinks” he can do SEO. Once the website is built correctly (I recommend WordPress) populated with the right content, and the right amount of content, and made live, a Goggle Adwords campaign should be set up – and managed on a monthly basis. The next step is to blog – and blog regularly.

Of course, social media is also important. But it’s of little use just setting up Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles. You need to assign someone to manage them and get them to work for you. There are some very good people out there who would be happy to take on this role.

Then there’s YouTube: get a professional to shoot a video and upload it for you.

Once your website is live and optimised for search engines, your Google Adwords campaigns are being managed, your social media strategy is in place, you’re blogging frequently and you can be found on Youtube, give thought as to what to do with your remaining marketing budget. Depending on the nature of the business, the nature of the product, and who it is aimed at, as a client you may want to look at advertising on street pole posters or on radio or on cinema. You may want to advertise strategically in trade publications or advertise by way of advertorials. A decent advertising agency should advise you in this regard.

But on a limited budget, your priority must be to have a good and professional online presence.
This is the most cost-effective way to advertise and your website has to work for you and deliver results.