Advertising effectiveness in NGO-corporate partnerships in South Africa

Thesis (M.M. (Strategic Marketing))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014.South Africa has a high annual road accident rate, mostly caused by drunken drivers. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and corporates use different social marketing tools to reduce this pandemic. A key mass-reaching medium is advertising. This research is aimed at understanding those factors in advertising that affect its effectiveness when addressing the social issue of driving while under the influence of alcohol. Through the literature review and the study of other programmes that have attempted to use mass media to reduce the problem, key factors were identified in both social and commercial marketing. Part of the research was to understand the factors affecting advertising effectiveness on different demographics (race, gender, age, marital status, educational level), so a wide sample size of 300 respondents completed a questionnaire. The questionnaire contained an advert addressing drunken driving. One hundred of the respondents received a questionnaire with an advert sponsored by South African Breweries (SAB);another 100 respondents completed the same questionnaire with the same advert, but this was sponsored by an NGO. A further 100 respondents completed the same advert and questions, but the advert was sponsored through a partnership between both SAB and the NGO. It was interesting to discover that females and males had different trust levels towards the advert. The less educated respondents showed more trust towards the source whilst the more educated respondents displayed less trust levels. SAB also scored high in source credibility which involves trustworthiness and expertise. NGO were not regarded as experts but their expertise score increased in partnership with SAB. However, the partnership also showed the least trust. The highly educated were also the most involved