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The Boomerang Effect That Loadshedding Has Had On Business Advertising In South Africa & What You Can Do To Stay Ahead

South African’s were just beginning to return to a state of normalcy, given the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions and the impact it had on the workforce. With many employees settling back into fulltime, return-to-work lifestyles, without the constant anxiety of unforeseen disruptions, it was all going so smoothly when…

BOOM!

Enter Stage 6 Loadshedding.

Alas, with loadshedding rearing its ugly head once again – and South Africa being thrown into record-breaking Stage 5 & 6 stages  – businesses have had to take on the brunt of the consequences. Stage 6 means 6 hours of loadshedding per day for most people, often striking at peak times of the workday.

How Loadshedding is Affecting Advertising:

Where do people engage most with your brand in 2022?

The internet!

(and if this is not the case, you need to seriously rethink your brand engagement strategies).

So when your audience can’t connect to the internet, or when their phone & laptop batteries have died and cannot be charged, there is obviously no one to engage with your brand.

Secondly, those really fun, unique ads that your marketing department spent hours tailoring to reach a specific target market at a specific time through a specific platform?

Well… they can’t reach a target market that’s not connected to the Internet of Things. Those optimal times now become what Eskom decides are “Accessible Times” instead.

Furthermore, when power comes back there’s usually a mad rush for people to complete outstanding work tasks – which means people don’t have enough time for leisure tasks, including the usual amount of time devoted to their daily browsing of social media.

So you’re spending money on ads that aren’t being seen when they’re supposed to be seen, by an audience that isn’t even focused on seeing them.

What a dilemma (not to mention waste of resources)!

Here’s What Your Business Can Do To Keep Ahead:

  • Invest in radio ads (Loadshedding killed the TV star)
  • Know your audience’s loadshedding schedule and run ads outside of their slots
  • Make sure to have a Plan B, C & D to implement in case loadshedding stages change for better, worse, or are suspended respectively.

Extra Tips For Retailers:

  • Advertise outside of loadshedding hours so that people go shopping during loadshedding
  • Invest in inverters and generators for the above point to work

Keep receipt books on hand that record both customer and shop copy

IF your business needs a full scale Digital Marketing makeover, Contact Us to discover how we can work our magic on you today!

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Keegan Long
Keegan Long

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