The two 3m x 6m prestigious digital billboards are located 500 metres apart, with one on the R627 alongside the popular Ballito Lifestyle Centre shopping centre, and a key route leading to and from the upmarket Zimbali Coastal Estate. The second digital billboard is in close proximity to the local Virgin Active gym and Ballito Junction Regional Mall. Both sites are also a short distance from the N2 highway connecting residents and visitors with King Shaka International Airport, Umhlanga and Durban to the south.
“These are two prime locations, with Ballito no longer just a popular holiday destination,” says Warren Dugmore, Head of Sales: Billboards at Outdoor Network. “It’s now a thriving town on its own and home to around 230,000 residents, with our two new sites both located on a busy route through the main attractions in Ballito.”
Along with the 230,000 residents, Ballito also has a secondary catchment area of approximately 510,000 people, whilst 72.7% of the population have an average household income of R20,000 or more. There’s a sizeable working population (ages 15–64) of 66.7% and just under 60% have access to the internet.
Ballito also draws a number of visitors and residents to its beaches and is centrally located on the north coast, approximately 30 kilometres from the popular Sibaya Casino and Entertainment Kingdom Hotel, and about the same distance from the airport.
“These digital billboards aim to offer advertisers the ability to expose brand messaging to consumers on both their morning and afternoon commute, with dayparting via campaigns tailored specifically to the needs of brands,” says Dugmore. “In this way, they can be optimised for audience delivery, mapping the unique audience profiles throughout the day and by day of week. The creative possibilities are enhanced by creative ad-serving to deliver the right ad to the right customer at the right time and place.”
Digital out-of-home is proving extremely popular with brands, which, according to the 2017 Peter J. Solomon Company (PJSC) Study and Recall Comparison, has the highest aided or unaided recall rate of all media.
Further to that, a 2017 Nielsen-OAAA OOH Compilation Report returned some interesting findings, with 75% of respondents saying they had noticed a digital billboard in the past month, whilst 60% said they had noticed a digital billboard in the past week. Interestingly, over half of the travellers (55%) who noticed a digital billboard in the past month noticed specific messages on the billboard either every time or most of the time they had passed one.
“The benefits of DOOH are numerous, particularly when integrated with mobile, video, social media engagement, and more,” says Dugmore.
DOOH is the future, and these two new Ballito sites keep Outdoor Network current and at the cutting edge of outdoor advertising, whilst at the same time growing its national footprint and providing brands with the opportunity to better engage with consumers.