ATM screen advertising is becoming increasingly popular in South Africa, according to ATM Solutions Inc., an independent provider and operator of ATMs in Africa, and their ATM screen advertising partner, SP Media.

The companies are citing the success of a Suzuki Automotive South Africa ad campaign aimed at promoting the Vitara 4x4 as an example which is currently running on 2,000 of ATM Solution's ATM screens throughout South Africa.

“The fact that consumers rank the ATM as one of the most popular technological convenience devices — second only to cellular phones — and that the ATM is regarded as one of the most utilized consumer touch points in retail banking, makes the ATM a popular advertising medium given the captive, financially active target audience it provides,” said Wayne Abramson, CEO of ATM Solutions.

ATM Solutions' advertising partner SP Media is a company that uses ATM screen advertising to promote and communicate third-party brand messages on a selection of 4,000 ATM screens nationally. The company also has established partnerships for screen advertising on metro buses and in sports arenas.

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“We have found that ATM screen advertising provides a cost-effective platform for regional or national brand campaigns and that this medium is highly effective in any call-to-action campaigns such as competitions, limited product offerings and mobile/online registrations,” said Charl Timms, CEO of SP Media.

According to SP Media, the SASA campaign generates millions of impressions per month, and ATM users will view four production and artwork changes for every quarter of 2011.

Timms said that during an ATM screen advertising campaign, static and motion screen animation can be applied creatively to promote and communicate the brand message. Graphic animation of the brand message can be displayed for a five second timeframe over a number of screens during the ATM user experience.

“What is great about utilizing this form of advertising is that we can customize the medium, adapting it as our advertising campaign evolves over the year. We want to have a continuous presence within the marketplace and at the same time own the advertising space," said Francois van Eeden, national marketing manager at SASA.

While SP Media couldn't provide exact figures in terms of floor foot traffic in the dealerships for the Suzuki Vitara 4x4 campaign, test drives before the campaign were around 44 nationally per month. After the screen advertising on ATM Solutions' 2,000 ATMs began running, there were a reported 465 test drives of the vehicle on average per month nationally.

Whether or not third party ATM screen advertising will truly catch on throughout the country remains to be seen.

"Third-party advertising is offered at less than 20 percent of ATMs in South Africa, compared to more than 75 percent for bank advertising," said Chris Herbert of Retail Banking Research, a provider of research and consulting services in retail banking, banking automation and payment systems.

Other brands that have utilized ATM screen advertising include Incredible Connection, Oriental Plaza, Livescribe, Ster Kinekor Theatres, Eskom and Intec, among others.

"ATM screen advertising is a popular tool for top of mind awareness, brand recognition or call to action campaigns, as is currently the case with Suzuki Automotive South Africa," Timms said.