Media ShopTalk: w/c 20 July 2009

On the 20th of July 1969 Neil Armstrong was said to have walked on the moon.
As always there are always those who question the validity of
stories, and this is one of those stories nobody really knows the real
answer!

It is documented that a lot of thought when into the famous line "That's one
small step for man". In fact it is said that Neil Armstrong was supposed to
say "That's one small step for a man" - however he left out that one little
vowel that changed the meaning forever! If you have some time take a look
at www.timesonline.co.uk and you read for yourself exactly how people feel
about this tautological error. A Mr Peach, who is now 73 years old,
apparently was the person to come up with the line "That's one small step
for a man, one giant leap for mankind".

But let's take another look at 1969. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately,
the USA are the only people that seem to have kept records of what things
cost as well as other interesting information.

The average cost of a new house: $15 550

Average income per year: $8 550

Average monthly rent: $135

Average cost of a new car: $3 270

Toyota Corona: $1 950

Gas per Gallon: 35 cents

Transistor radio: $8.10

Hits from 1969

I Heard It Through The Grapevine Marvin Gaye 1969 Honky Tonk Women The
Rolling Stones 1969 Something In The Air Thunderclap Newman 1969 In The Year
2525 Zager & Evans 1969 Bad Moon Rising Creedence Clearwater Revival 1969

The cost of clothes:-

Easter Bonnets: $6.96

Mens Winter Jackets: $10.98

Corduroy Shirts: $3.99

Ladies skirts: $5.00

The cost of food:

Apples: 49 cents for 3 pounds

Bananas: 19 cents for 2 pounds

Chicken: 29 cents per pound

Porterhouse Steak: $1.19 per pound

But we have managed to source one local item of "history". The Carlton
Hotel's menu from 1963... Not 1969 but it clearly gives us a good
indication of what things used to cost!

If only those prices were still applicable today!

Which brings us to the media part of the newsletter! Media Inflation
Watch. The latest figures for up until June 2009 have just been released.

We all know that Media Inflation has increased year on year and that
this is in correlation with the CPI figures. The following slides
looks at what R100 in 1999 is equivalent to in subsequent years. This graph
reflects the All Media Advertising rate, Media Inflation and the
CPI. It is clearly evident that the media rates have increased above
the CPI figures from 2004 and this year we will probably see the largest
increase.

By media type, let's take a look at the media inflation figures:

For the latest period analysed, TV is the only media type that is showing
very little growth, however coming off the background of the forward buying
rate card that SABC introduced a while back, the rates
overall have come down. Radio has shown the largest increase in
rates - on average 22.8% up year on year. The inflation can be seen
across all stations. Print's growth of 16.4% has been largely driven
by the daily and weekend newspapers and the business to business magazines.

The average increase across all media is sitting at 9.8% and the predicated
CPI figures for the period in review is 7% which is from Nedcor. The good
news is that these figures are down from 12.8% and 11.5% respectively for
the year period of 2008 so we may well end up with lower media inflation in
2009.

More detailed information by media type is available so please contact you
MediaShop Strategist or Planner accordingly.

One wonders what R100 will be equivalent to in 2025 not to mention how much
eating out at a restaurant is going to cost, how much a 30"
advertisement on TV is going to cost or a radio commercial!

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