Against the backdrop of a recovering economy, radio in South Africa continues to grow its market share. Radio is on a roll and isn’t looking back anytime soon. About time the industry sat up and took notice, don’t you think?

When it comes to making that all-important and meaningful connection between brands and listeners, advertisers today are speedily realising that with useful content such asnews, weather, traffic, economic reports, sport updates, beauty, financial literacy and cookery features to take advantage of, maximising these positive environments through sponsorships is the ultimate differentiator in an otherwise cluttered media space.

More and more radio stations are reporting growth in sponsorship revenue as a result and advertisers continue to reap the returns.

Not so new to the circuit, but with a profile that’s growing, is the concept of ‘branded content’. Sometimes referred to as ‘destination programming’, commercial messaging is cleverly embedded intoregular programming and thus, not easily discernible as advertising. The obvious benefit for the advertiser is that listeners are more likely to experiment with brands that educate, empower, entertain and reward them.

That said, there is little doubt that social media platforms have strengthened the voice of the consumer, in much the same way as they have enhanced the stations’ ability to connect and get feedback from consumers in real time.

The extent of immediacy created by radio and social media platforms is frightening – in a good way! Through listener votes, tweets and facebook ‘likes’, new-age consumers can easily indicate what they want and are likely to purchase.

More and more brands are leveraging this positive environment coupled with presenter credibility and building qualified databases through which they can send targeted messages.

Adding short codes to radio ads along with a call-to-action has become commonplace. And it is this affinity that exists between Radio and social media that is driving the growth in Radio revenue. 

Eugene Zwane

General Manager, SABC Commercial Enterprises