Deloitte was quoted last week by South Africa’s BizCommunity.com as reporting that “an average of 9% of all radio ads booked [on South African radio] are not broadcast as scheduled. Based on an estimated spend of R3 billion on radio advertising in 2008, this error equates to R270 million [USD $35.6 million] erosion of ad spend per annum.”

“Through our research and market testing of this concept, it’s become apparent to us that there are significant operational inefficiencies in radio and television broadcast where advertising campaigns are flighted incorrectly. The scope of errors which we verified were not aired at all, broadcast in the wrong time channel or flighted as scheduled but the wrong material was used,” commented Audine Brooks, business leader for Deloitte’s Advertising Broadcast Certification service.

In the last month, some of the Deloitte findings show:

• Client’s radio campaign ran at a 24% error rate – resultant compensation claim was thirty fold the related certification fee
• Another major advertiser’s radio activity consistently results in an 8% error rate, damaging the reach and frequency intended by its marketing strategy
• Another TV campaign ran at 5% error rate, R149k in value booked but not broadcast accurately.

This report was quickly questioned by commenters on the BizCommunity website, suggesting that the results were not representative of the industry as a whole; and it’s perhaps fair to question Deloitte’s motives in releasing the data, given that they seem to be offering a broadcast monitoring and certification service that would address any such problems in a timely fashion.

Nonetheless the whole story is a useful reminder of the transient character of the broadcast medium, and the need for proof of broadcast in some form.

If a radio station broadcasts in the forest and there’s no-one there, can they charge advertisers for the airtime?

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Tags: advertising campaigns, broadcast medium, compensation claim, operational inefficiencies, radio ads, radio advertising, radio airtime, South Africa, tv campaign