“There is excitement with the coming in of new players. I think that will bring in competition. It’s important to make the investment now in the hope that the economy will improve,” said Machadu, who is also deputy chairman of the Zimbabwe Advertising Research Foundation.
He said advertising, which had been affected by an economic crisis that devastated local industries, had recovered, growing by about 50% so far this year in terms of advertising volumes.
“We’re not yet back to the normal levels before the economic crisis,” said Machadu in an interview with Bizcommunity. The second half of this year could see a further improvement in advertising volumes, but much would still depend on the health of the recovering economy, he said.
Advertising volumes had been largely boosted by the telecommunications and retail sectors. The advertising industry could only be deemed to have returned to health once the manufacturing sector, the hospitality industry and the insurance sector came back into the picture with volumes, he said.
He feared, however, that there might be laxity in abiding by agreed payment terms within the industry in a market with a number of new players competing for a small share of advertising.
Post published in: Economy