When African football fans sit around this year watching the FIFA World Cup, their preferences and habits will be measured by market researchers and used by big corporations to sell them things.
GeoPoll, a real-time mobile survey platform, today launched its Audience Measurement Service, which offers the first-ever daily TV ratings in five African markets — Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana.
The launch of this service was timed to coincide with the FIFA World Cup. GeoPoll company will publish game viewership data from these countries during the World Cup as locals cheer for their teams, and global brands spend big bucks on advertising.
“There’s 300 million people in those five markets,” said Steve Gutterman, CEO of Denver-based GeoPoll, in an AFKInsider interview “We’re going to talk about the viewing habits related the World Cup of a third of the people in Africa.”
Currently, Nielsen provides overnight ratings in South Africa, a market of 50 million, according to Gutterman. Information for the rest of the continent is almost nonexistent, he said.
GeoPoll conducts surveys in Africa across multiple sectors, competing with large market research firms including Nielsen, WPP and Ipsos. But when it comes to measuring TV audiences there, “it’s much more wide open,” Gutterman said. “We have not seen any overnight delivery in any country except South Africa.”
First Phase Rollout
In the first phase of its overnight TV ratings rollout, GeoPoll will be able to tell its customers what shows people are watching on TV in five key African countries, chosen for their large populations, lots of advertising and dynamic economies, Gutterman said.
In subsequent phases, GeoPoll will provide data on not just who’s watching and what they’re watching but where they’re watching, what they’re eating and drinking while watching, what brands they have an affinity for and what they’re thinking about buying in the next 30 days, Gutterman said.
More countries will be added to the GeoPoll surveys throughout Africa in coming months including Democratic Republic of Congo, Tunisia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Cameroon.
GeoPoll says its new service fills a crucial gap in market research in Africa, delivering next-day TV audience data.
“It’s true market share of what people are watching which is really really hard to get,” Gutterman said.
Until today, if you wanted to measure TV viewership in Africa, there were three companies that provided 3-month-old data without much insight on the demographics and psychographics that determine ad campaigns or programming, Gutterman said.
“We’re going to do it overnight,” Gutterman said. “We’re measuring people instead of households. That opens up endless possibilities.”
Why is this important in Africa? Well, particularly during events like the World Cup, people will be watching TV in groups rather than at home in their living rooms.
“It is hard to reach people in Africa, particularly those who live outside urban corridors and don’t have Internet access,” Gutterman said.
In Africa there’s 10-to-15-percent Internet penetration, 5-to-10-percent land-line penetration and 75-percent cell phone penetration, according to GeoPoll data.
“In some countries in Africa, there are more cell phones than people so the cell phone is the defacto form of infrastructure and the hub of economic and social life for many people,” Gutterman said. “Subsequently reaching people through their mobile device is far more efficient than trying to reach them through any other means.”
GeoPoll’s mobile survey platform gathers data through text message surveys. The number of people participating in the mobile surveys is “statistically significant,” Gutterman said — several thousand per country.
Survey participants will be paid, though Gutterman declined to say how much. They’ll answer questions several times a day. “It’s a decent amount for taking what should be a 10-minute survey,” he said.
Participants are among the 150-million people Geopoll said it has in its mobile network. Survey respondents are from all walks of life and income levels. They’re not necessarily affluent, Gutterman said. What each has in common is a mobile phone.
The overnight TV ratings, delivered 365 days a year, will establish a standard for delivering data insights in emerging economies, said James Eberhard, founder of GeoPoll and parent company Mobile Accord, in a prepared statement.
“Advertisers, brands and broadcasters have been relying upon limited data, which can’t keep up with shifting target audiences and programming,” Eberhard said. “Our overnight insights will give these groups a more accurate picture of consumer behaviors and preferences as they spend hundreds of millions of dollars to engage rapidly growing audiences.”
Who will be buying this information?
There’s four main groups, Gutterman said: media owners in Africa (broadcast and radio stations); advertising agencies; brands and any organization interested in the media industries.
“Theres a huge, huge demand for and opportunity to provide real-time relevant market information,” Gutterman said.
GeoPoll will be putting out information daily on the World Cup starting June 12. It will post the information to its website, geopoll.com.
With offices in Denver and Washington, D.C. GeoPoll recently added a third office in Nairobi. The company has 50 employees.
“This media measurement product is one of a series that we have been and will be rolling out that will give our customers really valuable insight in markets where there has been traditionally very little information,” Gutterman said.
In addition to audience measurement, GeoPoll supports a number of strategic sectors including finance, food and agriculture, and telecommunications. All data is gathered with text messages, voice and web-based communications to reach respondents in areas without Internet connection.
