With a GDP of €24 billion in 2018, Senegal ranks fourth among French-speaking sub-Saharan African countries, after the DRC, Côte d'Ivoire, and Cameroon. However, its advertising market is worth around €40 million, making this French-speaking African country one of those with the largest advertising market in terms of volume and number of advertisers.
In Senegal, television accounts for a very high share of the market, representing 85% of total advertising investment, as shown in the table below.
Breakdown of investment by media
TV 85%
RADIO 6%
PRESS 4%
OUTDOOR ADVERTISING 5%
TOTAL 100%
Source: Pige insight 2018
Private channels were launched in Senegal a long time ago. TFM, the leading channel in Senegal, was created in 2010 and ranks first in the Senegalese landscape with a 22% audience share, making it the most powerful channel (in its territory) in all of French-speaking Africa.
All of Senegal's private channels now account for more than 40% of total television viewership and have long since taken the lead over public service broadcasting, which now accounts for only 3 or 4%.
Read also: Africascope – Top TV Audiences in Senegal in 2019
With at least seven commercial services competing for viewers, Senegalese advertisers are constantly being asked to invest in TV. Nearly 770 took the plunge in 2018, compared to just 200 in Côte d'Ivoire.
Faced with these powerful private channels, other national media are struggling. The press, billboards, and radio together account for only 15% of the advertising market. The number of advertisers in other media is much smaller: around 200 in billboards and 300 in radio and the press.
Well established for many years and benefiting from the sustained growth of the Senegalese economy in recent years, private television groups were able to develop before the rise of digital, which is beginning to attract growing interest from agencies and advertisers.
For now, it is clear that the coronavirus crisis will have an impact on the advertising market in Senegal, as it will everywhere else in the world. It is already raising many questions for brands about what message to convey during the crisis. It will raise others when, after the difficulties, it is time to reinvent themselves and move forward.
What is true for brands will also be true for the media.