By Charles Lee Mathews. As brands crowd onto the same high reach platforms, the challenge is no longer finding audiences, but giving them a reason to notice you.
In South Africa, where WhatsApp reaches some 96% of internet users — around 29 million people — the platform has become the infrastructure for daily life. But as marketers pour capital into high-engagement social feeds like this to harvest cost-effective, targeted conversations, are these channels nearing saturation? Does doubling ad spend on saturated networks still double revenue, or does it just inflate the cost of acquiring each customer?
“The issue is less about platforms becoming ineffective and more about the increasing cost of being undifferentiated on them,” says Phillip Kamungoma, digital portfolio lead at Connect.
He says the maths is simple: more brands chasing the same audience means more content flooding in, less attention to go around and a harder job of standing out. Kamungoma frames this as attention saturation rather than platform saturation. “A platform can continue to deliver reach and efficiency, but if every brand uses it the same way, the incremental value of being there starts to decline.”
A sea of sameness
Kamungoma believes that when everyone follows the same playbook, the playbook stops being a competitive advantage. “The advertising industry is increasingly facing a sea of sameness, with brands competing across the same platforms, using similar formats, targeting similar audiences and often communicating in similar ways.”
Marketing fundamentals teach that a sea of sameness only benefits those who differentiate. But what to do? “Brands need to move from a channel-first mindset to an audience and opportunity-first mindset,” says Kamungoma. “The question should no longer simply be ‘Which channels should we use?’ but ‘Where and how can we earn attention that our competitors are not earning’?”
The opportunity is to identify different audience behaviours, moments, contexts, affinities, and environments that let brands cut through the clutter, rather than simply adding more volume, Kamungoma advises.
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A matter of human attention
Byron Marais, head of digital at Publicis Groupe Africa, believes that high-performing platforms became overcrowded years ago. “The question becomes whether your two seconds on screen are worth more than the next brand’s.”
Like Kamungoma, he believes that “the channel can’t be the strategy. Differentiation is still the holy grail — brand, creativity, data orchestration and a good product, which isn’t new.”
“Volume kills engagement. Relevance revives it. Match the right message to a high-propensity audience and volume works for you, not against you,” Marais says. “Use the channel within its limitations. If you don’t have the time to tell a story, lead with distinction.”
Chris Botha, group managing director, Park Advertising, isn’t convinced. “I don’t see the channel strategy itself as the problem. For many years, South Africa essentially had two television channels, and somehow advertising survived. Brands being in the same place isn’t new — that’s generally where the audience is,” says Botha.
Be where the audience is
“More consumers generally attract more advertisers, which generates more data, which can lead to better targeting, better algorithms and ultimately a better advertising product,” he continues.
“The danger comes when the commercial load starts interfering with the reason people came to the platform in the first place,” Botha says. “That’s the tipping point. Consumers don’t necessarily mind advertising; they mind advertising that interrupts, irritates or adds no value. Platforms understand that equation well because if advertising drives audiences away, everybody ultimately loses.”
Botha doesn’t think South Africa has hit that tipping point yet. “The fundamental challenge of advertising hasn’t really changed. Consumers are bombarded with thousands of commercial messages, so why should they notice yours, and more importantly, why should they remember it?” he asks.
“That was the challenge on television 30 years ago, and it remains the challenge on TikTok, Instagram or WhatsApp today. We sometimes become so obsessed with the newness of the channel that we forget the old rules of advertising: be distinctive, be relevant, be memorable and give people a reason to care.”
As Botha points out, reach is procurement. Difference is not. No amount of spend on a 29-million-user platform can manufacture distinctiveness, a great strategy or cultural relevance. Nor can it save mediocre creative.
Charles Lee Mathews is a senior editor to MarkLives MEDIA and a senior writer to MarkLives.com, as well as co-founder of The Writers, a writing consultancy.
