Story by Patience Nyagato
THE Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) says advertisers can leverage various channels and platforms offered by the national broadcaster, which is predominantly the broadcaster of choice, after various surveys indicated that its channels are doing well on the market.
The national broadcaster’s radio and television stations present an opportunity for advertisers to meet their business objectives as they come with a huge followership for its various flagship programmes.
“Radio is still predominantly the channel of choice in Zimbabwe as far as we know from the surveys we have had,” said Ms Adelaide Chikunguru, ZBC’s chief executive officer.
“This is the conversation that we need to have. You find out we have several channels that are doing well on the market and we have new babies on the way including Khulumani and the way ZBC is going we are still investing in radios. We also have Central FM in Gweru, and because of what we have seen we are still investing in radio channels.”
ZBC radio and television stations have several programmes that speak to different audiences and have been cited in the ZAMPS as channels of choice.
“We want to say to our advertising agencies that our platforms are available. The ZAMPS results indicate all our radio stations are growing and Radio Zimbabwe is the number one radio in terms of numbers. We have several flagship programmes that have the numbers,” said Mr Alwyn Munatswa, ZBC’s Acting Director of marketing.
“We provide the platforms and channels which they can use to take their products and services to the people of Zimbabwe. All 16 languages are included. We have the highest reach and credible authoritative platform that we offer through our six radio stations,” said Mr Robson Mhandu, ZBC Director of Radio Services.
“I know with agencies it a game of numbers, it is leveraging on those numbers and we are saying as ZBC TV, Jive and all the social media platforms that ZBC owns which amount to over 2,5 million followers if you include those from ZBC News Online and others,” said Ms Merit Munzwembiri, the acting director Television Services.
Advertising agencies who attended the stakeholders meeting this Friday concurred that ZBC has a lot of platforms with diverse audiences.
“Interesting thing is they have talked about new products and most importantly what the different platforms do for the different types of consumers,” said Mr Alex Chisiri, Barkers Ogilvy managing director.
“There is a lot of opportunity for agencies and clients to advertise in different channels. We usually use traditional channels but they have shown that there is more,” said Mr Dustin George, the directory for Simply Creative.
According to Zimbabwe All Media Survey Report, ZBC television and radio services are doing well in the media sector with Radio Zimbabwe being the number one radio station with the highest following in the country.