Once again this year, Simon Kemp and his team at Kepios have produced DataReportal 2023, which provides valuable indicators for assessing the importance of digital, its place in the media mix, and deciding how much to invest in it. It shows that more and more people are connected to the internet in Africa, that social media remains the primary use, and that mobile is the most dominant platform. Reading this type of report without context, one might conclude that Internet penetration is relatively low and that it remains an additional source of reach in a media plan. This is far from the reality.
When we place the figures for digital penetration in the context of the population with income, who can consume, who are educated and therefore able to understand advertising, we are close to or even beyond 70% digital penetration. This estimate mainly takes into account the population over 30 years of age. Better still, when we know that the media mix works like a system of communicating vessels, where the informed and educated population is the first to receive information and then passes it on by word of mouth to the rest of the population.
These findings are reshaping the way strategists are called upon to perceive and use digital technology. An advertiser is essentially looking for customers for their products and services; they do not address the entire population, but rather the audience in their target category. The available figures, for example 5.1 million Ivorians on social media every month, represent a critical mass sufficient to make digital the leading medium. The communications sector must move away from its anachronistic view of television as the "lead medium," where campaigns were designed for television and then adapted for other media. The sector must reject the laziness of using billboards as the "lead media" in a context of an illiterate population. The multimedia universe provided by digital technology, where voice, image, video, and animation are combined, is a cocktail that can reach all users, even those who do not speak French. In the Zongo district of Cotonou, for example, traders rely on WhatsApp voice notes to discuss their transactions. Digital has become the lead media; that is a fact.
However, enthusiasm for digital must be balanced by the multi-channel experiences of audiences. When we look at the media landscape, traditional media occupy a sufficiently important place that major advertisers cannot avoid them if their goal is reach, which contributes to mental availability, as discussed by Professor Byron Sharp and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute in their famous book How Brands Grow. Digital can serve as a starting point for consumer campaigns, but it needs to be amplified and given credibility by traditional media, which remain a mark of prestige, but also of truth in the sub-region. Furthermore, digital penetration is unevenly distributed between men and women, coastal countries and Sahelian countries. It is therefore necessary to rely on data to create a relevant media mix for each territory. However, it is possible to argue that in segments such as B2B marketing and luxury goods, digital is now virtually autonomous. The audiences in these segments are fully connected and, for some, are beginning to develop a certain exclusivity.
Digital budgets in the region are growing; you only have to go online to see banners from major local advertisers. However, this growth masks limited use, which is focused on programmatic platforms such as Eskimi in Display. Marketing directors and their advertising managers continue to treat digital as a nice little extra. Even the use of influencers is barely established. Digital budgets need to include the creation of digital content (rather than digital adaptations), the use of different digital channels, especially video, which is becoming increasingly popular, and the development of skills among professionals on both sides of the budget, client and agency.
Digital has been part of the marketing arsenal for two decades. Enormous progress has been made, and all traditional formats are now available in digital. Its ability to be a mobile and interactive medium has captured the attention of audiences and allowed it to establish itself. We must therefore take a cold, hard look at the available data and transform the media mix. This is necessary so that marketing professionals at advertisers can continue to stand their ground in executive committees against financiers who doubt their effectiveness and usefulness in relation to sales teams.
Kwame Senou
Kwame is a consultant in Strategic Communication and Public Relations. He is the President of THOP The Holding Opinion and Public, a group of integrated communication agencies in French-speaking Africa.