The animated escape for a tight-squeeze economy South Africa's economy is facing a tightening of the belts, and with it budgets in the marketing and advertising industry. Roger Smythe, JHB MD for Masters & Savant Worldwide states that advertising agencies and marketers may have huge budget walls to climb when faced with the production of television commercials; especially when television time slot prices across most of the broadcasters continue to climb to record highs.

"Television still remains one of the primary methods through which companies and brands reach audiences; however, the production cost of commercials coupled with the rising cost in television airtime may see brands bow out from using this media," says Smythe. "Instead of deleting television from the media campaign, we advise that agencies and marketers first explore animation as a commercial production method as animation often requires far less budget than live actions commercials for the same length of ad."

"Through the use of animation, marketers save tens of thousands of Rands since animation does not require the large line item costs such as large production teams, equipment hiring and shoot insurance. Further, the turnaround time of an animated commercial is often shorter than live action commercials, further saving costs associated with time," says Smythe.

Broadcasters have started to increase their airtime costs, this placing pressure on marketers to decrease the airtime frequency of commercials. Smythe explains that animation empowers marketers, ad agencies and media agencies to budget manage more effectively.

"By using animation as a means to product a commercial, marketers may be able to utilise this savings to increase the budget for media placement, this ensuring the effectiveness of the overall marketing campaign," says Smythe.

"Aside from using animation as a alternate creative method to communicate with the target audience, the fact that it may be able to assist in times of a budget crisis places this production method among the best tools for brand to ensure it meets its objectives," concludes Smythe.

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