Tanzanian brands have been urged to
embrace and adopt digital advertising to reach their target consumers if
a sustained growth of commerce is to be achieved.
On average, the Tanzanian user looks at
their smartphone more than 200 times in a day, which consists of time
spent checking social media feeds to messaging on WhatsApp and e-mails.
Data from Internet World Stats shows
that Tanzania recorded 7,590,794 million internet users as of December
2014 translating to 15.3 per cent Tanzanians being consistently online.
With more Tanzanians using smartphones
coupled with the ever reducing data prices and increased speeds, the
internet is one medium that no brand should ignore.
Squad Digital Managing Director Mr
Manish Sardana says that the Generation Y group, 18 - 34 year olds who
make approximately 20 per cent of Tanzania’s total population are
inseparable from their smartphones, hence brands should develop
communication that is mobile friendly.
This generation also thrives in current
affairs hence a brand that helps them keep up-to-date will have an upper
hand. He added: “Brands have to work harder because this is more
complicated than just having a Facebook page or Twitter handle.
At Squad we leverage three pillars of
‘Storytelling’, “Co-Creation of content between the brand and consumers”
and “Social Currency - a reward for consumers to participate in the
story telling process.”
More than ever, Tanzanian brands have
realized this fact and are embracing this channel as they continue to
see its value in reaching and engaging with their audiences.
Jamii Forums, Tigo Tanzania and Airtel
Tanzania have done this with much success and have all been voted among
the top 10 brands in Tanzania in the use of social media by Social
Bakers, the leading worldwide authority on social media analytics.
KCB Bank was in February 2015 awarded at
the Social Media Africa Awards (SMAA) in Nigeria for the best use of
social media by a financial institution in Africa which is a testament
that social media is today is the most efficient platform for customer
service saving customers valuable time and helping brands save
substantial costs on managing customer service.
Digital experts point out that
millennials trust recommendations from their peer network more than
traditional push marketing strategies which they believe to be a spin.
In addition, they review blogs before making a purchase and extremely
value authenticity as more important than content.
Digital marketing professionals must
therefore create exciting brand content that is inherently shareable by
the social media community.
“The world has moved from the era of
Unique Selling Proposition to Unique Selling Conversation. Given
absolute product similarity, brands that drive exciting conversations
end up growing their business better,” concluded Mr Sardana.
A study done by London School of
Economics (LSE) says that brands with the most conversations grow 4
times faster than the category average.
These conversations will have to
increase tenfold with Tanzanians spend twice as much time online as they
spend on television according to IPSOS.
In May, Facebook launched a new feature
called Instant Articles that will host nine major news outlets allowing
content from these outlets to load faster on desktop and mobile Facebook
platforms.
Now more than ever, the world’s largest
social network is poised to become the world’s largest news service as
well.
The fact that some of the biggest names in news globally are
getting on board with Instant Articles is about going where the readers
are and engaging them the way they want. Shouldn’t brands do any better?
Source: Daily News, reported from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
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