The idea of this paper is per one of PAMRO’s objectives: to exchange knowledge and to learn from one another’s successes and failures.

1. 2010
12th PAMRO Media Research
Conference.
PRESENTATION 1 - 23rd August 2010
CECILIA PATTERSON, CEO,
MTC MARKETING RESEARCH SOLUTIONS
BOTSWANA
[MEDIA RESEARCH IN BOTSWANA - DEFINING KEY
PLAYERS AND FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES (the next
chapter: Research Practitioner’s Perspective) ]
This paper looks at what we have learnt about Media Research over the last 10 years in
Botswana and will challenge where our achievements are taking us as well as scrutinize
opportunities and challenges we face as we continue the media research story.

2. Media Research In Botswana – Defining Key Players and Future Opportunities
(the next chapter: Research Practitioner’s Perspective)
1. PROJECT SUMMARY
The views and results given in this paper are the result of the AMPS project run by MTC Marketing
Research Solutions in Botswana. The findings are based on analysis of experiences over the last 10
years. This paper seeks to provide a review of some of the key issues and concerns as the issue of
the industry relationships is a challenge – full of contradictions. Without these RELATIONS, then there
is no point.
10 years ago, Media Research in Botswana was a relatively new concept. Though it still is, there is
some changes as more marketers today are showing interest and are asking for measurement.
One of the ways to achieve measurement is through media research.
Generally, a few key industry players are taking part in media research and they need to take part
for the sake of increasing profits for their shareholders and or clients. Therefore we need to explain
how and why this situation has risen but we also seek to map out how this situation can be
changed.
As the market landscape changes and also due to recession, every marketer is looking for research
to help keep advertising waste to a minimum therefore doing away with mass marketing and
segmenting their target markets while ensuring that;
 The media selected are appropriate to reach the targeted audiences.
 There is impact being achieved by the advertising
Consequently this paper looks at:
 What we have learned over the last 10 years as well as challenges and where our
achievements are taking us
 The opportunities and challenges we face as we continue the media research story in
Botswana.
2. PROJECT BACKGROUND
PAMRO (Pan African Media Research Organization) is not for profit organisation that has a clear
goal; to provide a common currency in Africa, to ensure the highest quality of media research
and to harmonize media research methodologies in Africa; so that we will eventually have a
continental media research database that would help investors or anyone that uses the media
with buying and selling of advertising space and time.
As a result PAMRO has provided a harmonized questionnaire for AMPS studies to its members that
provide media research in several African countries including those countries that do not have a
*foundation, thereby supporting one organisation per country to take this initiative forward.
[Comments]Note: *Foundation is a body that collects levy that funds the AMPS studies.
Currently AMPS information is available in over ten countries: Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya,
Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Only five of these
countries have regular data due to funding made available by the foundation or syndicates of
these countries. The other five countries produce the data once in every 2-5 years and this is
where we are; here in Botswana today - 10 years later.
The purpose of the AMPS is to provide a portrait of:
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3. Media Research In Botswana – Defining Key Players and Future Opportunities
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 The users of media (audience sizes and wide-ranging characteristics including detailed
demographics) as advertisers need to know who reads, listens to or watches what and in what
numbers.
 The consumption of products, services and brands; (purchasing, usage and ownership)
 Comprehensive characteristics of the users; of media, products, services and brands that can
be used for defining a multitude of target groups, including the life stages, lifestyles, activities,
interests and attitudes.
 The Living Standards Measure
 Audience measurement
So what are we talking about?
The Amps survey / media research assists:
 Media owners in:
o the selling of their media
o strategic editorial and programme planning.
 Marketers and advertising agencies in:
o keeping advertising waste to a minimum
o developing segments of the targeted audiences
o developing of sales strategies
o buying of advertising space
In Botswana, Media research is the measure of all traditional media such as newspapers, magazines,
radio, television, and out of home media using traditional methods – Pen and Paper.
3. THE NEXT CHAPTER: RESEARCH PRACTIONER’S VIEWS
3.1 KEY PLAYERS
 Defining the Key Players
The question has always been who are the key players?
There are a number of key stakeholders and we all can be powerful partners, but the truth is that out of
all the stakeholders, the key player is the marketers (clients).
This should not be taken as a negative analysis but we have arrived in a situation that requires the
industry to understand it. We are all working for marketers and our interest should be to help our clients
(the marketers);
I. To grow their businesses
II. To make profit for their shareholders
 Why the marketers are the key stakeholders?
The reason marketers are key stakeholders is that they make the businesses of all stakeholders involved
namely:
 Advertising Agencies - buyers
 Media Owners - sellers
Marketers either go direct or go via their appointed advertising agency.
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4. Media Research In Botswana – Defining Key Players and Future Opportunities
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Either way, the marketer needs to be convinced about how they will get return on investment as ROI is
the exact output they expect from advertising. Therefore, Advertising Agencies, Media Owners
including Research Agencies need to be held accountable for the services rendered to the Marketers
as we all have a job to help the client increase their market share. It is under this hypothesis that the
Marketers need to know the truth.
 Audience and media research for higher ROI
Ideas on which audiences are listening to certain radio programs cannot come from boardroom
discussions between the office executives or friends that we hang out with for the following reason:
o Are these people targeted audience for the product in question?
o Is the aim of your campaign to develop awareness or is it sales focussed?
Unless that is the targeted audience for the products in question then it is ok.
Information like this should be based on hard data derived from field audience research that includes
respondents from demographic profiles of the targeted market for the client.
Marketers (Clients) need to know that AMPS is a secondary source of information and cross tabulations
can be performed in order to extract information from the required targeted audiences and or
segments.
 Important to note
Confusion should not be made between ABC and Amps research. What is important to note here is
that; even if the print order or ABC of a publication is known, the marketer needs to further have an
idea of:
 who is reading
 how often is the publication read by the same people
 how many people are reading a publication as this is different for every publication.
 how do the consumers read these publications i.e. how many read thorough cover to cover
etc.
 How many are consumers are reading a publication
It should be noted that this information is also not static and may change with time.
Hence the need for the regular research to be able to know the factors that influences those changes.
It is important for marketers to realize that readership / listenership / viewership is not just about the
number of readers but also who the readers are. This information can only be supplied by decent
audience and media research. And this requires funding. Proper research is not cheap and aim of
process management for the research has to be speed and efficiency. I will discuss funding later.
Secondly, worldwide findings are that; unfortunately, some media owners, very often lie about their
figures or base it on own research which often is classified as unreliable research.
To have independent, dependable and credible figures available would protect honest media owners
against such.
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5. Media Research In Botswana – Defining Key Players and Future Opportunities
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Even more important, is the fact that every marketer needs comparable figures for all publications to
justify spend. It must be done in exactly the same way in the same survey to ensure that you are
comparing like with like. Only then it is fair towards all players as this creates an even playing field.
3.2 CHALLENGES FACED IN BOTSWANA
 Issue 1: Industry Relations
The starting point was from years 2001 through to 2004. At that time attempts to mobilize a syndicate to
pay for the study failed. During the same time we asked for help from SAARF (South African Advertising
Research Foundation) and ZARF (Zimbabwe Advertising Research Foundation) – who are the most
experienced markets in Southern Africa, to talk to the industry in Botswana. At that time, a number of
issues emerged which lead to the conclusion of industry relationships conundrum.
The underlying perceptible issues analysed were as follows:
1. Advertising agencies believed that they should be responsible for this work. Unfortunately, some still
think they should as our current findings are that there has been an attempt for a syndicate to do
some kind of AMPS study.
2. Marketers were split – There were two types:
oThose that left decisions to be made by their advertising agencies / listened to their
advertising agencies and
o Those that was afraid that this would cause media owners to increase their already
expensive rate cards.
3. Media Owners believed this will lead to an increase in fees for their licenses while others believed
the data could destroy some businesses.
In summary, our findings on industry relations were:
1. Advertising Agencies
 Advertising agencies knew and know exactly what this work is about.
 Each one that was involved / contacted to be a part of this initiative at the time claimed to
have own internal research departments. Therefore there was no need for an independent
research company from advertising agencies to carry out this work.
2. Marketers / Advertisers
 No appropriate marketing insight departments to take decisions for the marketer as this was
outsourced, essentially leaving us to deal with their advertising agencies.
 Lack of information / source of reference resulted in benefits of media research not
understood.
 Fear of rate card hike - those with information, unfortunately did not see clear benefits at that
time.
 Some showed lack of understanding of the need and use of this data. Some marketers openly
said and I quote ‘we just know which medium to use for our marketing activities’.
3. Media Owners
 Most showed interest but took a laid back position and some also lacked understanding of the
need and use of this data.
 An example of this and I quote ONE media owner with regards to AMPS data; their response
was ‘No thanks. I get emails from happy readers and I have my sales print outs which is my own
feedback program’
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6. Media Research In Botswana – Defining Key Players and Future Opportunities
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 Issue 2: Staring point and Funding
After almost five years of talking and struggling to get buy in, it was time to take necessary steps to
get the project to the next level. With PAMRO’s experience, there was a realisation that just talking
about it was not going to improve the situation. And so AMPS data was born in Botswana.
Eventually the starting point in Botswana became the same as in other countries; where a PAMRO
member company volunteers to begin this work using its own resources while positioning itself as a
local company capable of conducting this work and at the same time educating the market on
the benefits available to all those that are economic active industries.
In South Africa it took 02 years before the foundation was set up
In Zimbabwe it took 14 years before the foundation was set up
In Kenya it took ??? years before the foundation was set up
The question is how long is it going to take us in Botswana to get organised?
Equipped with this knowledge and coupled with passion for research plus need to gain experience
of this data in the local market, by year 2006, MTC Marketing Research Solutions – a Botswana
registered company, took on the PAMRO initiative to include Botswana market in this innovative
development and included AMPS survey in its survey programmes.
When the first (B) AMPS was out, it was actually very well received by both the marketers and
media owners. The following were first in line to get a full report or parts of the report;
1) Three broadcasters (2 radio and 1 TV)
2) Four print media owners (x3 news papers and x1 magazine)
3) Marketers – both multinational and parastatal
Currently, the Botswana AMPS study is carried out every two years after the release, of the results of
the previous study.
 Issue 3: Industry buy in
Currently we are still to certify buy in from everyone involved. The result has been that new
partnerships are now on the agenda. The starting point is thus that these three legs of the industry –
media owners, marketers and ad agencies, need to be well organised so that the research must be
jointly controlled and funded by all involved media owners, marketers and their Ad agencies. What
is needed is a Marketing Association to represent the marketers, a Media Owner Association and a
AAA representing the Ad agencies.
We are aware of other associations that are set up and are relevant for this project but again some
of them do not have members.
When all of this is in place, then media research associations like PAMRO with the help from SAARF
(South African Advertising Research Foundation), can negotiate with the above named
associations instead of the individual companies which makes life a lot easier and allows for all
interests of each association to be considered as each association works will all involved within their
industry. People that belong to associations also influence each other which often lead to more
acceptable values and practices.
Lastly, buy in from all of the above, will make the cost of the research bearable for individual
companies as this cost would be shared.
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7. Media Research In Botswana – Defining Key Players and Future Opportunities
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3.3. FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES
 Achievements
To date, we have two AMPS studies in the Botswana market – conducted 2006 and 2008.
To address the lack of understanding of the need and use of this data; MTC hosted SAARF visit to
Botswana in June of 2007 to provide introductory training seminars to the industry, in particular, to the
new users of:
(1) Amps Survey,
(2) Amps Diaries – measurement of electronic media,
(3) Segmentation tools in Amps known as LSM (Living Standard Measures)
As a result more marketers have shown interest in the audience and media research. The received
overwhelming response to attend the 2010 PAMRO conference is evidence of interest in audience
and media types of research. Today it is clear that the landscape of the market in Botswana is
changing. This is excellent progress! However, there is a danger as locally we seem to not have self-
belief. There are still groups rejecting audience and media research and this is sabotage to our own
potential to growing the market.
We are beginning to see more and more marketers questioning measurement of advertising
effectiveness and they demand to be shown the effects of any form of advertising including TV, radio,
press, bill boards and internet. This is good news!
It should be noted that Amps data can achieve this to some extent, previous studies would show the
potential effectiveness and follow up studies, coupled with sales or responses to the campaign would
confirm to the marketer if the campaigns worked at specific times and in particular mediums.
Amps is the only single source survey on pan African level and is a good source of secondary
information for segmentation, and comparing different markets including interrogation of local
audience measurement etc.
4. NEXT STEPS: FUTURE PLANS
i. The next BAMPS study - Third Botswana Amps is planned to be conducted in the last quota
of 2010 as a syndicate.
ii. The report will be made available to these paying clients first.
iii. Later we will call for subscriptions to the reports
iv. In 2011, we plan to make available OLD information online for free where clients can
purchase the pdf reports by sections for the current information.
v. Databases will be available for purchase to computer bureaux that media owners
subscribe to.
vi. Decision to be made by end of this quarter to exclude media from South Africa as we
have noted; no media owners from South Africa purchased the data or showed interest in
the data according to reports we received from the subscribing computer bureaux
companies that were holding the data on our behalf. Essentially reports are, there is no
demand for Botswana AMPS data in South Africa. For now this is open for discussion.
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5. COMMENTARY
 Advise to new country members
What is important; is to note that should you experience in your market what WE have experienced,
perseverance is required.
Also understand in close detail what will work or not work in your market as you continue to be
fluent in the world of research business acumen.
This is time consuming and expensive. It is more difficult without funding and requires creativeness.
However, be adept at connecting what has worked in other markets; be deep-rooted in the
PAMRO approach (no need to reinvent the wheel).
 Food for thought
I have food for thought for the marketers and media owners before I go.
There are 2 sides to the concern that was raised by the informed marketers – ‘audience research
may cause a hike in pricing by media owners’.
What about the other way around?
As per the earlier mentioned worldwide finding: What if some media owners locally, in the absence
of industry figures, have an opportunity to give figures that are more than the actual figures in terms
of readership? Thus this situation, does it not mean then that Marketers are probably overpaying if
there is such a situation?
I would pose same or similar question to media owners ... if you as media owner say prints the
highest print run in the country and make most sales and yet your advertising space is sold at the
same price as your counterpart that prints half of your run and who cannot even sale a quarter of
that run. Will being able to have this sort of information be a bad thing then or an advantage to all?
If it was my money being spent, I would like to know exactly what I am getting for it!
6. CONCLUSION
o Lessons learned are directly applicable to all types of key players.
o Although these findings in Botswana were similar problems to those around the continent
where PAMRO initiatives were and are; it was evident then that there was need to change
these perceptions in our market and talking alone was helping. With the actual work done
and having point of reference, this has helped the situation.
o Another puzzling lesson or finding is that everyone wants information but strangely enough,
they are not prepared to pay for it which poses a huge challenge. For continuation sake,
this needs to change.
Lastly, let’s all remember that researched information is key to development in any country.
- END -
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