By Rakhee Naik. Ad fatigue has become one of marketing’s favourite talking points. But are people really tired of advertising, or simply tired of bad advertising? The evidence suggests the latter.
South Africans haven’t stopped paying attention, and they certainly haven’t stopped buying. They’re rejecting a certain kind of advertising while rewarding work that earns their attention. In effect, they’re giving the industry a new brief.
Consumer insights agency KLA, using data from YouGov Profiles+ which tracks internet-connected South African adults aged 18+, looked at how South Africans feel about advertising. The findings suggest people aren’t rejecting advertising altogether, they’re expecting more from it.
The fatigue is real
Fifty-nine percent of South Africans feel bombarded by advertising, 51% find advertising outright annoying, 49% say personalised ads creep them out, and half feel they don’t see their own lifestyle represented in advertising enough. That’s a meaningful slice of the population telling brands the volume is too high and the aim is often off.
People who find advertising annoying are even more likely than the average South African to feel bombarded. They’re also more likely to find personalised ads unsettling, and to feel their lives aren’t reflected in the advertising they encounter.
Too much advertising is driving avoidance
Digital advertising is hard to avoid. Two-thirds of South Africans (66%) say they’ve noticed an online video ad in the past week, and around half (49%) saw one within the last day alone. Only about one in ten say they haven’t noticed any. This is saturation – which is why so many of them are actively managing it.
Roughly six in ten South Africans use some form of ad blocker or anti-tracking software, and among the annoyed group that figure climbs to around three-quarters, with only a quarter using nothing at all. The most common reason South Africans install ad blockers is to avoid annoying adverts – cited more often than increasing online security or guarding against malware and viruses. Among the annoyed group, half block to escape annoying ads, with avoiding distraction and avoiding intrusive advertising following close behind.
People aren’t reaching for these tools primarily to stay safe. They’re reaching for them to be left alone by bad advertising. That’s a distinction marketers should take into consideration.
Annoyed does not mean disengaged
But people who find advertising annoying haven’t switched off completely. They’re more likely than the national population to enjoy advertising at the cinema, and they lean marginally stronger on noticing ads at airports, trusting what they see on posters and billboards, and enjoying ads featuring their favourite celebrities.
Two-thirds of them say billboards with dynamic content, like breaking news, capture their attention. That doesn’t sound like a group that’s tuned out. It sounds like one that’s more selective about what earns its attention.
They are also more likely to trust products recommended by celebrities or influencers significantly more than the average South African – 59% against 48%. And on the bigger questions of how brands ought to evolve, they’re no less convinced than the rest of the country. The fatigue, in other words, isn’t a closed door, rather a redirection. The findings suggest people haven’t turned against marketing. Their expectations have simply changed.
Useful advertising still performs
Channels that offer genuine value still cut through. When South Africans are asked which retail communications they actually notice, offers via social media lead at 60%, followed by a brand’s TV commercial and online newsletters at 53% and branded emails at 50%. And when asked which communications have led them directly to a purchase, the same channels top the list – social media offers at 43%, branded emails at 39%, online newsletters at 38% and TV commercials at 33%. The formats that survive ad fatigue are the ones doing something for the consumer, not merely at them.
Almost eight in ten South Africans (78%) agree that brands need to find innovative ways to market themselves and their products. Three-quarters (75%) say that to succeed today, brands must connect with customers in real life. And 83% – more than four in five – say they like trying new brands.
South Africans haven’t lost interest in brands. If anything, they’re open to trying new ones. What they’re rejecting is advertising that interrupts without adding value. Ad fatigue isn’t a verdict on whether brands should market – it’s a brief on how: experiences, activations, real-world presence, useful offers and faces that look like their own. The brands that read fatigue as rejection will pull back and miss the moment. The ones that recognise it for what it is will find a market that is, by its own admission, still very much open to being won.
Methodology
YouGov Profiles+: Segmentation and media planning tool providing comprehensive consumer insights, with data collected daily. The tool offers powerful capabilities to build and customise detailed portraits of consumer behaviour and preferences.
Sample: South Africans who ‘tend to agree’ or ‘definitely agree’ that they find advertising annoying (n=305) compared to a Nationally representative sample of South Africans 18 years and older (n=8236)
Dataset: Profiles+ South Africa, 14 June 2026.
Rakhee Naik is a managing consultant: Insights at KLA.
