Jacaranda 94.2, the country’s largest independent, bilingual radio station has announced that it will be a partner of the 2011 Pendoring Advertising Awards as a silver sponsor. According to Jacaranda 94.2 marketing manager Jenny Griesel, they hope their sponsorship will promote innovative and impactful Afrikaans advertising.
In the past year Jacaranda, which boasts more than two million listeners in four provinces (Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and Limpopo), grew its overall Afrikaans listenership by 31% to 754,000, compared to 574,000 one year ago.
The growth in listeners is driven by the station’s Gauteng target audience – a 32% growth in Johannesburg Afrikaans listeners, and a 19% growth in Pretoria Afrikaans listeners. Jacaranda’s overall Afrikaans audience in Gauteng now stands at 406,000 (SAARF RAMS 2011/3).
The station is also involved as a strategic partner of the Innibos arts festival, Blue Bulls rugby and provincial cricket.
Says Griesel: “We are one of only a few commercial stations that offer advertisers the opportunity to place their advertisements in Afrikaans, thus speaking straight to their hearts and minds. Moreover, as this audience has proven to be loyal to brands, financially savvy, wise spenders and proud of their language, marketers increasingly realise that they have an excellent chance at achieving success by speaking to them in their home language.
“The station has also proven its capacity to attract Afrikaans audiences away from English radio and print, by super serving them in their home language,’ says Griesel.
“Through our Pendoring sponsorship, we want to show our commitment to advertisers to be able to deliver Afrikaans audiences to them. Moreover, due to our focus, strategic partnerships, marketing initiatives and programming, we are well placed to hold this market for many years to come,’ she believes.
“We constantly work to harness new listeners, including Afrikaans speaking listeners. Jacaranda’s strategy going forward is to not only fiercely defend its Pretoria stronghold, but to grow East and West Rand Johannesburg audiences as listeners in these areas tend to be most friendly towards the station’s bilingual format.
“We also recognise the importance of community champions and celebrity presenters that our Afrikaans audience appreciates such as Darren Scott, Martin Bester and Barney Simon who all present weekday shows on the station. We recently added the popular Rian van Heerden and Pieter Koen to our presenter line-up,’ Griesel adds.
Jacaranda 94.2’s sponsorship is shared with its Sales House Radmark, who is equally excited about the prospect of engaging with the creative industry.
Pendoring GM Franette Klerck says the support of South Africa’s biggest independent radio station as a silver sponsor is a feather to Pendoring’s cap. “In numerous ways, including Afrikaans advertising, Jacaranda 94.2 clearly shows that it deeply cares for its Afrikaans listeners, thus eliciting an ardent and loyal Afrikaans following. By respecting the wishes of Afrikaans consumers and communicating with them in their mother tongue, marketers should likewise benefit richly,’ stresses Klerck.
