Johannesburg - A call to action by Brenda Koornneef brought 180 of the country’s top marketers to a crisis meeting in Bryanston yesterday (Wednesday). But Koornneef, who is chair of the Marketing Association of SA, had already moved decisively towards resolving the problems, demonstrating the benefits of having a proactive umbrella body for the broadly defined marketing industry.
This kind of leadership has been missing for several years – since the collapse under a burden of debt of the Marketing Federation of SA. Corporate members, who saw their contributions disappear into the liquidator’s maw, were reluctant to commit again and risk getting their fingers burnt a second time.
Those reservations appear to have mostly been overcome now.
Several interlinked crises face the industry, and Koornneef is emphatic that concerted action by the relevant industry organisations and other stakeholders is needed. The issues are:
- Chaotic state of the SABC. The national broadcaster is lacking leadership and staff morale is at a low ebb, resulting in turmoil for advertisers. Ads that are booked are not flighted, or are wrongly flighted, billing is a mess and it’s difficult to find anyone willing or able to make decisions or to rectify problems. But Koornneef is confident that the new commercial head, Anton Heunis, will restore viability.
- The research funding crisis. The SA Advertising Research Foundation, the levy collection body, MAMCA, and the Advertising Standards Authority depend on a 1% levy of advertising, allied with a direct grant from the Print Media Association for the R90m they need annually. (MAMCA was formerly known as the Levy Collection Agency.
But the collection system is beginning to frail, while research needs (for the All-Media and Product Survey, AMPS, television and radio audience research among others) are growing in response to the fragmentation of media.
Without this data, marketers operate in the dark, not knowing which media to use for their targeted advertising. The research industry needs at least twice as much money as it’s currently getting, at a time of growing restlessness among stakeholders. Out of Home Media SA, representing the outdoor advertising contractors, recently pulled out of the levy system with the intention of carrying out its own research.
It was persuaded to return but to continue making its contribution to the Association for Communications and Advertising. Other beneficiaries of the system are not contributing to it.
A big issue was the question of who “owns” the 1% - the people who pay it (the marketers) or the people who collect it (the media owners). Not that it really matters, as both groups benefit. While this was an issue, paralysis prevailed on other issues.
Koornneef proposed, to general approval, that in future half the levy would come from each side, ensuring equal commitment from both sides.
- The marketing industry structure. There are too many industry bodies, with too many boards that have to approve decisions. Koornneef proposed that Saarf, the ASA and MAMCA boards (which essentially represent the same stakeholders) should be dissolved and replaced by a single board. Each of these organisations would have an executive committee.
A lot remains to be done, but Koornneef, who is also marketing director of Tiger Brands, has made a start.
“It remains extremely important that the marketing industry should play its rightful part in the management of our industry environment,” she says.
”We cannot allow ourselves to be at the mercy of decisions which impact on our industry being made by other industry players, such as media owners and the advertising industry.”
- Fin24.com