appendix8

To conceptualise a range of possible marketing options which could be used to assist in ensuring effective implementation and sustainability of an SABC education service and to promote the service to teachers and students.

Output
An analytical description of a range of options for marketing approaches to sustain/ underpin an integrated education/ school service; a service which is intended to support schooling through the use of radio and television broadcasts and appropriate non-broadcast support services. These proposed approaches are informed by the research findings detailed below.

Research Method
This research has been conducted on behalf of SAIDE. It was approved on the 7th July, to take place over approximately three weeks. The research findings are submitted herewith to SAIDE for inclusion in their comprehensive report to the SABC on the use of radio and TV as a school educational service and as a distance education medium in general.
The research process comprised:
(1)    Consultation with (3X) (educational) marketing experts and with (11x) relevant stakeholders in education in order to develop a critical understanding of important parameters and essential principles for effective marketing strategies which aim to popularise and support educational broadcast programming.
(2)    Conducting (3X) semi-structured interviews (see interview schedule attached - appendix 1a and b) in order to obtain information about current marketing strategies for educational TV with:
•    Nicola Galombic (Head - Educational TV)
•    Fakir Hassin (Head - Educational Radio)
•    Danie Swart (SABC General Marketing)
(3)    Critically reading the latest draft of the SAIDE report to the SABC, with emphasis on Chapter Two (International Broadcasters), Chapter Five (In- principle approaches) and Chapter Twelve (Support Services for Teachers and Students) in order to:
•    extract critical factors from the draft report which are considered essential for developing a marketing and non-broadcast support service
•    comment on the above sections of the report based on these research findings
(4)    integrate recommendations from (1), (2), and (3) above to compile a final report. The final report would aim to provide informed recommendations for a variety of optional marketing approaches which might complement/ support educational TV programming.

Education and Training in South Africa is entrenched in our constitution as a basic human right. Any new intervention to address education and training in our country must ensure that issues such as equality, access and redress enter the discourse. In addition, education and training must be relevant and quality programs must be designed according to the unique needs of our learners across all the provinces of South Africa.

Education and training initiatives which enhance the educational opportunities for all South Africans, could ensure that equality in our fledgling democracy becomes a reality. Distance education could be an important mechanism to harness in the struggle for better education and to stimulate a culture of lifelong learning in our land. Arm in arm with better education and training, job creation and economic growth are priorities. The development of our country rests on these issues.

The current "Learn & Live" campaign, a partnership between the Education Ministry and the SABC, aims to promote a culture of learning and teaching at various levels of education and training in S.A. and to enhance educational provisioning at a variety of levels. To support this initiative, a research project was commissioned by the SABC, and has been managed by SAIDE, to establish how best to run an educational radio and TV broadcasting service. This section of the research aims to establish parameters for the shaping of effective promotional and marketing strategies for the "Learn & Live" campaign. The aim here is to assist in making the educational broadcasting for both radio and TV, more visible, understood and effective as an educational tool. Educational broadcasting via the SABC has the opportunity to rise to the following challenges:
•    to encourage reflection, reasoning, critical thinking and action
•    to introduce more learner centred teaching approaches (not teacher centred and worksheet bound)
•    to move away from more passive to more active learning
•    to upgrade teachers skills and upgrade their professional identity
•    to provide ongoing additional learner centred teaching resources
•    to help transform our educational system

•     Educational radio and TV were both thought to be important as potential educational
•    media and worth doing well
•    Marketing should be holistic and mixed media approaches used across newspapers, TV, radio, etc.
•    Marketing should be campaign based where possible, with all marketing channels on board and partnerships
drawn in
•    Radio and TV should work more closely together
•    Road shows and conferences etc. have been successful, particularly with prizes, competitions and other incentives built in
•    The inclusion of an educational adviser and community representatives is supported
•    for planning and development of programmes. Where possible draw in producers early.
•    Wider consultation, monitoring and research is encouraged
•    Better print companion support should be provided in future
•    A resource base of tapes (radio and video cassette) and print support with special binders should be built up
•    Better points of distribution should be established - with easier access for potential viewers and at a minimum cost
•    Improved distribution for mail shots should be established
•    The 11 official languages, as well as budget and capacity are important constraints
•    Differences from province to province are marked and this is a constraint - different cultures, views, expectations, capacity and resources (or lack of) is the reality
•    Interactive programs are encouraged - e.g. phone-ins, panels etc.
•    Both radio and TV encourage a good relationship with the press
•    Both are powerful media for communication purposes
•    Future strategies could include working with an 0800 information line continuously, the Internet, websites and possibly CD ROM, etc.

Difference
•    Obviously, radio is an auditory medium and TV is primarily visual (as well as being auditory) and so possibly different strengths and weaknesses are intrinsic to the medium
•    *TV currently has a marketing department and a research and development department currently operational which supports their work. Radio is setting this up.
•    TV is inclined to feel more glamorous. Radio is inclined to feel overshadowed
•    Radio serves all 11 language groups on a weekly basis across the 10 stations very effectively. TV is crossing cultural barriers effectively, using more multi-lingual approaches and multi-cultural themes.
•    Educational Radio has a noticeably strong negative heritage to overcome, which has lingered on from its predecessor, radio education, which was driven by the political ideologies dominant in the apartheid regime. Hence the name change to "Educational Radio".
•    Their approaches to educational programming is different. Educational Radio is more edutainment orientated and emphasizes life skills acquisition. It does not target school based curriculum support or focus on specific target groups. Educational TV does both curriculum based support and wider audience life skills, as well as adult education and educare. Some of its programmes do target specific interest groups and ages.

Strategy
1.1 Be very clear as to what the objectives of the marketing campaign are
1.2 Be consultative, including the producers and film makers etc. These creative people have a handle on their medium and what works for a particular audience. They should be included from stage one of the planning and paid a consultative fee until the budgets and program format has been decided. They have a very important contribution to make in making quality shows.
1.3 Be really in touch with your target market
1.4 Market yourselves well! Try to get a marketing machine going.
1.5 Try to be very interactive where children and youth are involved. Also good with adults. The best part of the William Smith Education programmes is the live interactive discussions.
1.6 The classic forms of marketing are less applicable for these media (i.e. TV and Radio) - one needs to create the desirability of a particular program amongst the target audience. Be creative and keep a fun element - not necessarily comedy, which is perceived very differently by various audiences. The "Live & Learn" logo is a bit "Twee". The marketing is a bit too Eurocentric as a whole.
1.7 The program content should be of a consistently high standard to attract the target audiences and should provide a good content spread to remain interesting and to appeal to a variety of interest areas for individual viewers. This should be addressed in the marketing as well.
1.8 Programs are not teachers, they are a platform for learning.
1.9 Keep the senior executive levels of the SABC aware of the market needs and market preferences
1.10 The two currently most effective ways to attract your market is to bring on the American "Glitz" or to capture the gutsy, gritty, typical South African flavour with street terminology being "in" and presenters being "in your face" e.g. the Brenda Fassie style, but be careful of role models used who may espouse wrong values. Do we really want to entrench for the youth of today and the parents of tomorrow the values espoused on the current prime-time "soapy" programs e.g. wife swapping, manipulation, lying, only the anorexically thin and well dressed are admirable? What kind of a society do we want? Are drugs "hip" or to be avoided?
1.11 A formal policy should be made as to how to handle role models. Some care needs to be taken as to who they are. Well known people can be asked to give a little back to the community. This could be to mutual benefit. Irresponsible role models e.g. those on drugs should be avoided.

Effective Use Of Tv And Radio Marketing Resources And Time
2.1 Favourite characters should be established and used more effectively. Also well known personalities that are admired could be approached as part of promotional activities e.g. Felicia Mabuza Suttle, other Talk Show hosts, etc.
2.2 National co-ordination of ‘use of role models’ should be encouraged - not an ad hoc,
"freebie" approach.
2.3 A music video channel which is always popular could include educational messages e.g. about aids, the importance of an education, drugs etc. but in a more edutainment way. Other inclusive or partnership strategies may come to mind.
2.4 TV and Radio should capitalize on what’s "Hip" e.g. the "Kwaito" music scene (they received a triple platinum), "Abashanti", TK Zee, Cheesehop, NDU, Cucumber Zoo. Some of these can be accessed through Neil Tovey. Shows should be funky, pacey, interesting, unusual. The department should make it "Hip" to learn. Get Rah’d Rah’d up about it!
2.5 The time slots are very important. For example, Take 5 was less successful at an earlier time slot (3 pm) than it is now at a later time slot (i.e. 5 - 6 pm) and many more good responses are being received to this program as a result. It almost markets itself now.
2.6 Short insert marketing messages should be pinned to programme announcements on each channel or with programme advertising. For example, "Simunye, we are one! And as one nation we all want to learn and develop!" or "Simunye, we are one! So lets get together and promote the culture of learning and teaching!" or "Don’t do drugs!" "Don’t do ecstasy because you are number one!" or "Don’t drink and drive, stay alive with One" etc. etc.
2.7 Use popular programs to foster good values and the culture of learning etc. Be creative and honest.
2.8 There are huge marketing opportunities out there e.g. in cooperation with private sector companies such as "Coca Cola" etc. The SABC should not hold the marketing to themselves. Cross marketing initiatives should be used to market e.g. the COLT campaign more effectively.
2.9 Small teams should be set up to travel on Road shows. This could consist of two people (a driver and a presenter). It need not be very expensive, with careful allocation of resources. In one morning, 1,000 kids could watch 3 sessions of videos. The strategy is:

Presenters should receive adult education/ training before they set out to learn how to facilitate these groups and some skills should be gained to deal with any difficult instances which may arise.
Effective cascade training strategies could be used to train teams of presenters around the country. The Road shows could be seen to be visiting schools all around the country "A-la-Becketts Trek". A champion is needed to drive this and good presenters are needed to create a buzz.
Direct communication with schools is very effective and can create a positive interaction. Revisits are also important. This strategy could be part of a long term initiative until a certain level of kids graduate. The presenter will build an audience in this way and this could be monitored or tracked.
This could become a specialisation and would highlight what the real problems and values are, on an ongoing basis. It could go a long way to enhancing the COLT initiative, instead of bland marketing techniques.

2.10 Young achiever programmes should be promoted with serious topical discussions, but ending on a high. I love myself! I am proud of myself! Lifestyle role models should be used.
2.11 Role models of effective educators in schools could also be promoted. Outstanding educators in different subjects should be identified and these could be featured in a series as in the William Smith approach.

Planning
3.1 Radio is under utilized. It could provide a synergy with TV to reach the rural and semi-urban poor. Holistic campaigns should be planned to address certain important educational messages out there. The jostling for power should be avoided.
3.2 A meeting/ conference should be called with marketing specialists, promoters, PR persons and TV and Radio personnel to discuss and plan effective campaigns of meaning. A good agency such as Hunt Lascaris could be asked to design a comprehensive campaign on "What makes learning fun!"
3.3 Advance warning is an important aspect and must be planned carefully - daily, weekly and broad monthly schedules should be put out constantly in the press to keep the public apprised. Programs should not only give their names in the daily schedules, but should be accompanied by a 6 word punch line e.g. "a hot drama" or "a programme for the modern youth" i.e. payoff lines to attract audiences. Use of fun "icons" to identify educational programs for specific content areas and for specific ages would be useful. Not only selected programs should be motivated for in "Pick of the Week".
3.4 Access to video material is important. There should be libraries in every province or local video stores should be approached to hire out the educational videos. Rates should not be too high. Educational video programs would be sought after all the time by parents, teachers and learners, were they easily accessible - particularly those with an edutainment element.
3.5 A budget for stills photography should be included and not have to come from production budgets which often necessitates taking on an additional marketing person. An Electronic Press Kit (EPK) should be available. Kids responses should be caught on the EPK.
3.6 Research should be done in the townships and in semi-urban and rural communities to establish relevant needs and to make programs culture-right
3.7 Research should be done in the schools constantly e.g. by phoning them and obtaining feedback. This should include a wide range schools from those in squatter camps (where kids probably access TV from friends or in Shops etc.) to Model C Schools and so on.

Education Related Issues
4.1 In many educational programmes, a didactic approach is taken i.e. Teacher Tells. This is not interactive and does not challenge the learners of today.
4.2. The marketing of educational programmes needs to be more detailed and specific e.g. In Dumani today we deal with:
(a)
(b)
(c)..... i.e. programme details explained.

An overview should also be provided: What is it about? What are the sub-programmes? When and where can the audience find them? What interesting material does this provide? etc. How can teachers extend these into classroom based or homework based activities?
4.3 Use private courier companies to deliver the marketing packages. Ensure that what is sent out is used.
4.4 Educators and Principals are demotivated at present. They have unruly kids and no tools to teach, in an education system that is in crisis. Educational broadcast programs could do much to offset this. Many schools continue to have a very authoritarian and paternalistic styles, with a chauvinistic ethos. Good educational programming can help considerably to offset this problem by setting a tone for governance, management and teaching in schools. Use of effective role models would be impactful.

Specific Marketing Ideas
- have educator and teacher diaries (A4 size or pocket/handbag sized) printed with TV and radio programs featured in strips at the top of each page or with full page adverts interspersed throughout, advertising educational programs across the year.
- organise marketing strategies which involve the collection of cards, stickers or scratch campaigns. Kids love these (e.g. perhaps in partnership with a cereal company).
- magnetic monthly planners to place on fridges and cupboards, and others for noticeboards should be used. These stay in visual contact for longer and attract attention on a daily basis. Loose pamphlets tend to be thrown away.
- informational wall charts and posters with detailed timetables organised into columns and clearly sectioned off by use of colour, will tend to be displayed and used, as the information is well organised and user friendly. It also fits the teacher’s "timetable ethos".

Warning note: the current building blocks with letters SABC on them, used as part of the new promotional strategy has a yellow letter for the "C". This tends to fade into the background a bit, while the SAB stand forward and the first impression is of the South African Breweries rather than the SABC. Perhaps a dark orange could be used for the "C" and the yellow used in the background only.

- Kids could form fan clubs
- Help numbers as 0800 telephone answering services should be set up e.g. for rape, abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, divorce etc, on an ongoing basis. These are things that kids have to deal with in their daily lives. This could be a partnership with "Lifeline" who handle crisis situations well etc.
- A dedicated Education column should be tried in popular newspapers - e.g. What’s Hot, What’s In What’s New - Education - keeping informed! Also a teacher’s corner could be arranged for teachers to write in and for SABC to communicate any news about educational programming or inset training as it arises, or just to share experiences.
- Specialised Art, History, Geography, Science programs should be obtained from abroad and group discussions filmed and put on TV and radio for learners to react to. These programs would have a generic appeal across a variety of ages and are generally cross cultural. We live in a global world and our education should accommodate this. Local programmes on wildlife are excellent and should not be aired in very late night slots. These are also often marketed abroad in line with that globalizing theory in countries where there is no wildlife.
- Posters are always loved by kids of all ages. Age appropriate ones could be sold in cost recovery exercises. The message on posters should be clear and bold without too much fine print. Possibly also use role models/ local heros e.g. "Lucas Radebe supports the culture of learning and teaching to get ahead with your life".
- Publications with wide circulations should be targeted e.g. TV Talk, Edgars Club, Sales House, local newspapers etc.
(M Net magazine should be carefully looked at, as it is felt that this is more user friendly and often provides useful pullouts etc).

Suggested Partnerships
In the light of suggestions made by those interviewed the establishment of partnerships could be seriously considered.

- Post Office
- Supermarket Chains who use TV monitors
- Manufacturers of breakfast cereals
- Associations and Unions e.g. Kagiso, Association of Principals
- Community or Specialised Press (large circulation figures)
- Caxton
- The Teacher
- Engineering News
- Educator's Link
- NAPTOSA, SADTU
South African National Council of Churches newsletters
- In house magazines (Sales House and Edgars are but two of many others)
- Childrens' publications
- Edufax (see attached - annexure 3)

Chapter 12: Promoting The School Service
Possible strategies for promotion and marketing for SABC Educational programming has been thoroughly examined in this chapter. Of the points commented on by Boyd & Walker, this research would endorse the following, based on the above research carried out:

Our research has indicated that the SABC video and audio cassettes would be ordered more frequently, were it not for the high price and difficulties in ordering the item. At present programmes are sold as a full series package and not as individual items. The price per series is quite high.

Lastly this research underscores the importance of "the design of the message that will be promoted". The SABC has themselves experienced two promotional "logos". One has been found to be more impactful in a short run of use than the earlier logo, used over a longer time period.

In the short term, promotional marketing for SABC educational programming should continue with successful strategies experienced in the past such as "Road shows", which creates a buzz of excitement in the province being visited. In addition, internal advertising (via TV Talk) should be ongoing and creative. Constant promotions across radio and TV in a coordinated fashion would reach a wide range of audience. Better use could be made of the existing press releases and print promos such as posters, wall charts, pamphlets and catalogues - which could all act as support material for the education broadcast work. Partnerships with a range of widely read magazines could be targeted to carry good articles or pullouts of companion support material for viewers.

In the longer term use of the Internet, websites, E mail and so on should be planned for.

Furthermore, a distribution list of schools nationwide, is essential. This is a priority and should be current and up to date.

The potential effectiveness and afford ability of using radio and TV to reach large numbers of learners should not be underestimated and could underpin a struggling school system.

It is noted that including advertising in educational broadcast airtime has educational implications and may be controversial. The revenue received however, assists in cost recovery for broadcasters. Also, it has been mooted that "viewers have rights" as well and this includes "the right to choose" which is driven home by advertisers. Advertising seems to be part of our life and this is the case in all countries. The types of adverts accompanying educational programs should nevertheless be monitored.

This research would support the recommendation that the "way" teachers are targeted and informed by the promotional strategy, should be carefully considered. Many teachers and principles may well feel that "kids watch too much darn TV as it is". Therefore educational TV would be discouraged as well. Parents might also need special tactics to bring them on board, so that they understand and encourage the use of educational radio and TV. Preconceptions may have to be overcome.

Furthermore, another danger exists with teachers in the use of educational TV. Lesser trained teachers may well be threatened by the high level of educational programs in that he/ she may feel that the TV is going to make him/ her redundant. They might feel that they could lose their job to a TV channel.

Teachers would appreciate a number of ways of remaining informed about what is coming up in the educational programming slots. This would apply to parents as well. The daily and weekly programming schedule that goes out in the press is user friendly, but could be more so. Each educational program could be accompanied by an "icon" that makes them easily identifiable. In addition, a one-liner should explain carefully what the program is about and what the content covers. The weekly planner TV guide in some of the newspaper magazines could have a special section on upcoming educational programs, giving a fuller recommendation and explaining to educators how best to use this material.

Schedules sent to teachers should be simple and organised into a timetable, which would align with their way of organising the day. Also good print support material would be welcomed. This could take the form of pullouts in TV Talk or placed in self contained folders and delivered to schools by courier. A file or binder to collect these print resources in would be useful.

Chapter Two: International Lessons On Educational Broadcasting
Educational Broadcasting in first world countries has had many years of experience and can look back to see what the lessons learnt might be. This could help to alert and inform planning and decision making in educational broadcasting in S.A. However, in comparison to first world countries, South Africa is in a different space and time. Our educational needs are different and our infrastructural capacity to launch an educational system using radio and TV broadcasting is not advanced. Furthermore, curricula are in the process of being restructured to reflect our multicultural needs. First world education systems are predominantly eurocentric and therefore cannot be merely transplanted into South African classrooms. Experiences gained from abroad may therefore have limited value.

The research has highlighted that first world countries have large resources to draw on and years of programming are gathered into well managed libraries of broadcasting material that is readily available. The resource material gathered in South Africa emanates from the "Apartheid Regime" and is driven by the political ideologies dominant in the past. They therefore have no value in our fledgling democracy.

In addition, first world countries can be seen to be operating their programming support material on a cost recovery basis, where a small fee is charged for video or print material, but this is done on such a large scale and schools are well financed, therefore costs are covered and some profit is even possible. In South Africa, this does not apply.

Ideas gained from abroad on programme content, how to present them, and how to lay out print support manuals may be helpful. The print support would nevertheless have to be produced again with a South African "flavour" to be relevant.

We should aim to not to repeat the early years of optimism abroad, quickly followed by disillusionment and sceptism. South African education cannot afford this. Planning must be done that is feasible, well grounded in the South African context and is relevant to the needs that exist from province to province.

•    it is common in schools to use programs at times other than those scheduled, therefore access to video cassettes are important
•    print support in the form of clear learner notes or special worksheets would be appreciated, also additional information for teachers to use
•    broadcasting schedules should contain a description of program content and explain its usefulness as a tool (with the use of fun icons for easy detection - suggested)
•    direct curriculum support is not necessary - rather general knowledge programmes and good programmes featuring history, geography, science, travel, art programs etc. should be used which could widen the experience of the learners.
•    educational programs should be sectioned into short bites (15 mins) joined by advertising and leader sections which is easier on the concentration, especially of younger children (foundation phase) and also is easier to integrate into a lesson off a video cassette.

It should be noted that the use of radio is more common in S.A. than TV. This reaches a wider audience at this point in time than TV. But this could change. Potential learners are accessing TV’s via shops, shebeens and via neighbours. At this stage, the author would feel that the use of CD ROMs and the Internet or Websites is inappropriate, other than at very well resourced schools. Nevertheless, this could remain in mind for long term planning.

It is interesting to note that copyright issues do not arise with SABC educational programming, and the public is encouraged to copy tapes and use them for later use. Video tapes are also made available, but these are expensive and not easy to access.

We would endorse that broadcasting time slots that are proven to be successful for educational programming should continue from year to year, as the public will then automatically take these into account when planning timetables for schools (or for home based learning which is increasing rapidly in S.A.).

In S.A. security and maintenance of equipment is a priority. Radios that have been donated to schools or awarded as prizes have all disappeared within a matter of months. S.A. cannot afford wastage of our scarce resources. We also cannot afford to waste time in getting an effective, affordable education system going, with easy access for all our people.

It would be a good idea to set up an advisory board to oversee educational TV for use in the classroom, with various educational experts and production experts included. Good working groups should develop the print support for teachers and learners. Oversimplified platitudes to teachers are useless. Theirs is a skilled profession.

The development of print support is a lengthy process where deciding on and finalising content, layout, editing and printing are all time intensive processes. This should be taken into account when planning production deadlines. One clear advantage of broadcast TV for educational purposes is that programming can keep up to date in a challenging way, on all new education developments, and can adjust the programming accordingly with a fair amount of ease.

As mentioned in our detailed report, monitoring and evaluation are an essential part of ongoing feedback for effective further planning and management.

Servicing "niche audiences" seems a good way to go at present in South Africa as there are so many diverse needs to address. This has been proven to be less advantageous in first world countries where a broader band of potential viewers are targeted. Unlike most countries abroad, in S.A. children, adults and youth across a variety of ages need to learn. The educational wasteland in S.A. is due to the heritage of apartheid, the lack of effective teacher

training and the huge lack of resources (including basic things such as paper and textbooks, not to mention electricity). Specific, relevant and interesting educational programming needs to be planned. This could help to uplift education levels amongst our people as a whole.

Marketing programs as "for the people" will be a natural hit in S.A. Nation building is another important watch word!

The international experience has shown that the word "learning" is avoided in programmes with an educational slant as it turns away audiences. In S.A. this has also been experienced in the instance of "Buang" which tells us about the new LRA in the workplace. By leaving out the word "learning" the viewership has been greater, and adults have seen it as an informative program of value.

Teacher tell/ pedagogical approaches should be avoided, particularly with such a versatile and creative medium as TV. More interactive and experiential approaches should be used to draw viewers attention.

Exploring interesting topics is seen as most useful and was endorsed several times by respondents in this research. Examples were alluded to earlier in this report, such as good history programs, items on the natural world, actuality science programs and experiments, good productions of Shakespeare, Poetry readings, current affairs programs, Geography programs, programs on art and architecture and on cultural diversity, global issues, news, and general knowledge in general was seen as important. Also real life experiences or case studies e.g. on a drug addict, were suggested. This makes for impactful learning.

This research has borne out that most schools seem to have VHS video players but few have on-line access to TV programs. Therefore, few would access on-line, real time programs. The foundation phase years may be an exception if programming is advertised well ahead of time.

The suggestion was that, for foundation phase, themes should run across a whole term (e.g. on nature) and then the teacher could add to and extend this theme in her/ his own way. It should be noted that home-based and small independent schools are becoming popular and would be part of potential target audiences.

Chapter Five: In Principle Approaches
The aim is obviously to plan the best possible educational radio and TV programming service via the SABC. Setting a policy framework or an "in-principle approach" would be an important step to prepare for an effective educational broadcasting system.

This research has shown that in-school broadcasts flighted at regular time slots e.g. between 10h00 am and 12h00 am in half-hourly sections (with some overlap time in-between sections for changeover of classes) would be timetabled and used in school hours. Each half hour program should be split into two 15 minute sections with a punchy connection between to keep young viewers interest up. Another option suggested was two half hourly programs each

day in the last session before each recess e.g. 9h30 to 10h00 and 11h30 to 12h00. During this time children are getting restive and their concentration for classroom based exercises is waning.

Planning for educational broadcasting should be made public on a regular basis and feedback from educational stakeholders requested. This would help to keep the programming on target and at its most useful.

Training for teachers and parents in the use of technological equipment is important for effective use of the educational broadcasting to succeed. Training for the use of these scheduled broadcasts is also important for their effective use as educational tools.

Resources allocation and ease of access are also key. Some of the important areas to support via educational programming are:
•    curriculum support and companion support
•    professional development of teachers
•    governance/ management/ administration of schools

This research study would endorse a mix of during school hours of educational broadcasting, and outside of school hours. The overall educational campaign should aim to both support school education at school level and promote life skills and general knowledge. Instilling a culture of teaching and learning is worth pursuing and should be promoted wherever and whenever possible. This would open up the ultimate vision of lifelong education for all which is so important in the changing world of today.

New experiences via the television medium are easily possible e.g. armchair travelling - for a child who has never been to the beach, for example. Short spunky inserts should be considered in a variety of partner programs and together with program announcements throughout the day. The practical limitations of broadcasting time available and budget constraints need to be borne in mind.

Lastly, this research would endorse that the "educational broadcast" service must be complementary to, and supportive of, the goals, values and principles of the education department both at provincial and national levels.

It would seem that an effective and relevant educational broadcasting strategy would be endorsed and used by learners, teachers, parents, and the broader public. The recommendations of the SAIDE research should be considered, which would bring the strategy into line with what stakeholders perceive as important.

(Q1) What are the current strategies for marketing and promotion of educational broadcast programming with a focus on considerations such as:

We should be clear as to what we mean by promotion, marketing and support. Promotional marketing helps to make people aware and provides the "push" factor. Support material is the complementary material which is available on request once the viewer elects to watch a particular program, due to the "push" factor raising his/her awareness. This companion material could enhance the impact of the educational message in various ways.

"Reach" is the biggest problem at the present time, as the current marketing messages do not seem to impact sufficiently by reaching a wide enough audience. Input is needed to help shape a promotional strategy that works for educational TV. A marketing agency is now on board, to guide the above and below the line marketing and to strengthen getting audiences for programs. Up to now, marketing strategies have been designed from "the seat of the pants". It is hoped that the SAIDE research will guide the shaping of more worthwhile promotional strategies for the future and will provide some terms of reference for such strategies.

The above the line marketing refers to advertising in the main stream media and the below the line is everything else - which can take various shapes and forms. Production companies are recruited on a project to project basis for below the line marketing. Decisions need to be taken as to who, what and how a promotions strategy should be targeted according to budget restrictions.

SABC programming is scheduled at different times and at different levels. Curriculum support during school times and curriculum support outside of school times is being planned. Also continuing educational programs for educators and for the lifelong learning purposes of the general public are planned for. The COLTS (Culture of Learning and Teaching Strategy) initiative is also being supported, as is improving skills needed in school governance. Some programs service more than one audience, for example, a new program, "Yisu Yisu", will target the general public, although the focus is on high school problems. A different approach is necessary where a "niche" audience e.g. teachers, are targeted, or a program for youth, such as "Take 5" is developed.

There are three layers of audiences: the general public (who access prime time TV), the youth and the educators (at various levels). Marketing and promotional strategies for programs for the general public are good. Mainstream newspapers give good critical coverage and the daily classified listings of TV programming (and other pages which give more information on programs) are user friendly and well laid out. TV Talk gives continual updates and coverage about TV programming. Prime time exposure is being planned for "Yisu Yisu" which is part of the programming planned for the second half of the year.

Sometimes editorial space is accessed to promote educational TV. To achieve this, the educational TV department continually tries to get journalists involved and interested in what is happening. Newspapers such the Sowetan, the Star and The Teacher write consistently about their programs. What is written about varies according to the programs themselves. Take 5/ youth programs seem to get most coverage, second is ECD (Early Childhood Development) and third, adult programming. What gets covered in the press seems to be a kind of an ad hoc process and relies on a journalists’ interest. Editorial can be subjective and is therefore a risk and can be damaging. A positive press works positively for a program.

A major problem seems to be to reach the "Youth". Generally, they do not seem to read the newspapers. Teachers do read the Sowetan, which is committed and supportive where educational TV broadcasting is concerned - particularly in the weekly special supplements - and their journalists seem to take an interest. It is easier to get "good press" with the launch of a new series. Their job is to keep on generating news and therefore they are more open to new programs. How important publicity is for the general viewers is not clear, but it seems to be very important for corporate marketing. What contribution publicity adds to the AR’s for the educational programs is also not known.

What we do know is that marketing (via the press and the print media) is important for broad awareness raising. It shapes the public discourse, which is a huge help. This creates a contextual framework which in turn makes other things possible.

1.2 Extent to which marketing involves liaison with educational stakeholders?

Everything that is done by the educational TV department is informed by consultation of one sort or another. This consultation process is not relied on and often approval is not sought, but it is useful to inform the planning and development of educational programming. Other constraints such as budget and staffing have to also be considered in the planning of educational TV broadcasts. Some programs could be initiated by teachers or some could be developed on request. They are very open to consultation.

1.3 Extent to which non-broadcast support is provided to teachers and students to assist them to benefit educationally from the whole service and/ or platform broadcasts. And if so, what form does this take?

During 1997 (from February) the department had only 3 months to get a service on air. The aim was to start a good educational service that was challenging and relevant. Print support was not part of the planning in the past. Some print support came out of the marketing department but this was generally where the producer or production team had taken the initiative on this.

A major challenge now is to look at what recommendations come out of the SAIDE report and to decide what the print support packages should consist of. It is being mooted that a unit for support material should be created, separate from the marketing department. Their brief would be to develop support material and to initiate face to face promotions. In addition, the research and evaluation in that department should be ongoing, with viewers and users, and this should inform the marketing department. Working in teams would be the most useful way to proceed.

It should be noted that the programming briefs are developed partially through working groups involving educational stakeholders and educational consultants. To date, no stakeholder support groups have been held, but this may be interesting to explore. A conference is being planned for February, which should shape how and what the educational TV service should do. At present there is an education adviser in each department. They do pre-testing on programs and a post evaluation. In addition, all the research projects inform whether programs reach people or not. A sampling process is used for this research.

Stakeholder participation is open to interpretation. Defining a "stakeholder" is difficult. How much of their contribution rests on their individual expertise and how much comes from them as a representative of a constituency is not clear. When using a consultant as part of a planning team, the same holds true. There may be 10 opinions emanating from a small group of advisors, and how much of the discussions are reported back to constituencies is dubious. Nevertheless, invariably, there is often a high degree of consensus when planning together with stakeholder groupings in meetings, but we have to acknowledge that this may not be based on discussions held in communities.

It would be useful to define who are the key stakeholders in the educational sphere and to develop strategies to get issues onto their agendas. In terms of the utilization of the educational programming, the SABC does not have the capacity to ensure that this happens. Often the links are not made via the SADTU’s or the DET. It has not been made a priority as yet. A partnership at national level is easily possible. The problem thenarises in making the provinces informed and active users. We need to develop our own effective strategies which can work within the realities and constraints of the S.A. context. There must be a better way to communicate. We haven’t tried hard enough. We need a targeted communication strategy to key education stakeholders, possibly something that is incentive based. A genuine concern exists in terms of relevance, so that the utilization is improved and found to be worthwhile. We need to get the demand happening. We need to get schools on board.

1.4 What is the current policy in terms of accessing copies of educational videos on tape for use in classrooms? How is this packaged and how is the distribution managed?

Historically this was done by Safritel. They have a library of dated material, filmed in an old approach, many of which are subject dense, but out of date. A rough outdated catalogue exists of material which would most likely be of little use today. Currently a series of programs are packaged together and sold as a series and not as single videos. The costs vary but it is quite expensive. This is therefore not affordable by any under-resourced or disadvantaged school.

There is no up to date catalogue of what is available from the SABC and no marketing is done of video cassettes other than on air at the time of broadcasting a particular program. To order a program on video cassette, a member of the public calls a telephone number and places an order. A handful of staff members man this service. They answer the calls, make the duplicate copies that are ordered, package this, invoice for it and send it out to the customer. It is an ad hoc service and has not been monitored to see how many schools use this service, or in fact who does. Clearly, today, a new strategy is needed which will open up access at affordable prices and is managed in an efficient and user friendly way. The master tapes are the responsibility of the executive producer of the program and these are delivered to the SABC.

The education TV department is ready to explore a new process of handling video cassette sales. Particularly those videos that are in line with the new curriculum and which espouse to a democratic ethos. What form could a new catalogue take, what should be included in such a catalogue, and what would educators want to know? Examples have been looked at of catalogues from other parts of the world.

An example of an educational video series which could be ordered today would be based on the example of "Take 5". This is an educational broadcast which is carried by a magazine vehicle.

advertisements	)
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5 min magazine content	)	52 minute format for a "Take 5" program
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15 min curriculum support *	)
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5 min magazine content	)
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15 min curriculum support *	)
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5 min magazine content	)
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advertisements	)

The curriculum support snippets (* above) are edited out by the executive producer to form part of the video tape to be used by teachers as support material. These are then put together in packages for ordering purposes. As yet they are not sequentially organised into an ordered series of program support material to run parallel with the curriculum. Additional non-broadcast support material is also not being produced, eg. notes for the educators or worksheets for the learners, but this is "in planning".

If a packaged series of programs on e.g. governance of schools was needed, the producer would have to plan it in such a way that this could be delivered as a holistic educational package. Users would need guidance as to how to make this a learning tool. Therefore additional adult education/ educator comment would be needed. The educational TV department would have to consider the best way of turning the videos into effective classroom resources.

It is difficult to involve producers of the educational TV programs from the groundwork stage as the program develops, as the program details and its budget have not yet been finalised. Producers are invited from the pre-testing stage onwards and are invited to the SABC consultative conferences. Some producers could be asked to produce the whole educational package, once there is clarity as to exactly what is required.

1.5 Extent to which marketing involves promotion of platform specific broadcasts or promotion of the educational services as a whole?

A lot of corporate generic marketing has been done to promote the "Live & Learn" campaign. The purpose has been to get the attention of audiences in general. Then targeted strategies to reach specific users was initiated. These were not platform specific, nor generic on the whole. Some examples are where "Take 5" targeted the youth and "Educator Express" the educators. Three things need to work together and support one another - research, marketing and support packages. Project teams are being used more and more within the SABC and increasingly the department of educational TV is also achieving more coordination. This will in turn apply to promoting and marketing of educational TV as a service.

1.6 Extent to which the Education Radio unit, Education TV unit, General Marketing unit support one another or possible broadcasting champions or partnerships.

Education Radio and Education TV are separate departments. They report to different Executive Departments. The only level they interact at is at senior level. In the Safritel days radio was part of TV. There are 10 radio stations which broadcast to 11 languages regionally. Real problems are experienced in planning terms. The two departments do not plan together and so cannot work cooperatively on campaigns of importance at any particular time. Education TV has its own marketing department and a support department. Radio does not.

At this stage, we do not know which is the best marketing strategy and which is the weakest, particularly in the South African context. Advertising on radio and TV may not be the best way at all. A strategic framework for marketing has not yet been developed and no clear performance indicators have been identified. How this could be measured is also to be determined.

(Q2)c What issues in the current S.A. context do you have to continually take into account i.e. contextual realities in S.A.?

*The education system has no obvious and effective distribution mechanism. It could develop one.

* Unlike most education broadcasters in developed countries, the SABC cannot assume that it can distribute non-broadcast material on a cost recovery basis, e.g. print and videos. The BBC operates on a cost recovery and profit basis. They have huge publishing businesses. Channel 4 "Learning" is self sustaining. Schools themselves in developed societies have money. There are limits to what we can do in S.A. as we have nominal amounts of money.

* Mechanisms are needed to make equipment available to schools. This equipment must be made secure and mechanisms to maintain it prepared for. The schools need to involve the governing bodies, the parent bodies, the teachers and the learners in a team effort. A further partnership could be forged between the Corporate Sector, Government, other social partners (e.g. churches) and TV itself.

* In addition, incentives for Unions should be built in so that they become our social partner as well. Unions wish to be seen as being useful to their communities. They could have an important role to play.

(Q3) What is your vision of a future holistic marketing/ promotional strategy that would be feasible - i.e. how best to support and promote educational TV in future? (considering learners, educators, parents, wider public in urban, rural, semi-urban, etc. communities)

1998 is the year of marketing and support as a sense of priority (within the budget constraints). A holistic approach is needed using the following:

The department needs to set real targets. They have achieved a major increase in the level of awareness of education TV and have had realistic targets. The take up in schools needs to be improved. Work must be done on the motivation of the teachers so that they want to teach, have more enthusiasm for the content, and provide guidelines as to what they would need. For example, in the program "Educator Express", there is a very focussed message and it provides a challenging link between that program and other programs. There are complaints about the time slot. The first broadcast is on a Sunday morning and it is repeated on a Saturday morning. Perhaps educators could be offered incentives such as holidays to win, meals out for the family or books to be won. Perhaps a partner such as Kagiso publishers could be drawn in.

- best use of newspapers
- best use of TV Talk/ other magazines as a marketing tool?
- other print media - support material such as worksheets, manuals, catalogues, schedules, teacher support, etc.
- cassette compilation (radio & video)/ CD Rom
- internet/ website
- e mail
- telephone e.g. 0800 number/ enquiries/ advice/ help line
- facsimile
- other promotional activities/ role models? champions? partnerships? etc.
- other liaison/ workshops/ road shows/ conferences
- use of unions, networks, associations, forums
- points of distribution of educational TV resources
- commissioned research
- monitoring & evaluation

(A range of examples of marketing material were provided by the marketing department and by SAIDE staff, for the purposes of this research. Danie Swart has been in his position as head of educational TV marketing since June 1997 and before that was manager of co-productions. He negotiated with production companies from abroad to do co-productions in S.A. He has planned multi-media marketing campaigns for his projects in the past. Moosa Salamaan is fairly new in this department. The two run the whole of the marketing department for SABC education)

(Q1) What are the current strategies for marketing and promotion of educational broadcast programming with a focus on considerations such as:

Publicity is used to the full extent via the media, newspapers, magazines and the use of radio in the marketing and promotion of educational TV. Both above the line and below the line marketing is utilized. With above the line marketing, straightforward advertising such as newsclips in the press and other targeted media such as radio or TV are used. With below the line advertising, pamphlets, roadshows, campaigns such as the Easter campaign (where commuters going on holiday were targeted) etc. are planned and carried out. Merchandising (such as T shirts, caps, pens and backpacks etc.) are also explored for promotional purposes and used mainly on roadshows.

* Some special campaigns have been arranged (e.g. June 16th campaign and visiting the Grahamstown festival - below the line marketing) to get to specific target groups and audiences on the ground. Posters, pamphlets, merchandising, etc are used (below the line) and advertising via newspapers or radio (above the line) were used etc.

* With the easter campaign, the commuters were targeted. They identified commuter routes, taxi ranks etc, as well as at petrol stations and pamphlets were handed out. Distributors were used to get the pamphlets out to the regions and to distribution points.

* When the programme "Buang" went out during prime time, a big publicity campaign went out simultaneously running promos on air, together with a big radio campaign and publicity went out through all the newspapers nationwide - so it was a multi-media approach.

* If there was an away shoot e.g. on location in Durban for a particular program, all the newspapers were targetted in that area as well as the use of the radio, to approach the marketing from different angles. In this way, the media accessed newsworthy stories.

* With the youth programs, roadshow campaigns were used. They would go out on the roads and a lot of merchandising would be used e.g. T shirts, caps, rulers, pencil cases or backpacks to advertise the youth programs. These were handed out as prizes for some competitions held. The merchandising is not on commercial terms at this stage. They are busy exploring this by developing merchandising material in Japan. In association with TV 2 various TV characters that are well known and loved are being developed for merchandising. SABC 2 has visited shops in order to promote the merchandising as well. They are steering this idea together.

The marketing department for educational TV targets all the media and an attempt is made to saturate the promoting and marketing of educational TV programs as much as possible, using a variety of publicity vehicles. The nature of the program determines what marketing strategy to use, for example, for Agriforum, a different approach would be used. It is felt that this department would be hard pressed to get more media exposure than they already do. They seem to get more exposure than the whole of the rest of the SABC.

More recently this department has made use of a professional marketing company to help design a new marketing image and to assist in processing the work. The idea is to improve the impact of the message put across. They also make use of a company called "Newsclip" to continually extract newsclippings for them regarding educational material (on a weekly basis).

Other promotional items are put out in magazines such as in TV Talk (they sit on the editorial board), Intercom (an international magazine) and so on. TV talk is used to promote themselves internally as well, which is also important. Print support has also been done e.g. via the Sowetan print supplements, where the educational content is provided as a support strategy. The Mail and Guardian are also very supportive (for example weekly articles about "Buang" have been done and other print support included in their special supplements from time to time).

Partnerships, such as with the commercial world, are being looked into and encouraged (e.g. with Coca Cola). In this interview, a question was raised as to the possible use of knock & drop local newpapers (e.g. Rosebank Gazette) or the "Homeless Talk" or other magazines which have a very wide circulation of their own, such as the "Edgars Club" magazine and the "Sales House" magazine. This might provide further options at a fairly low expense which reach a broad spectrum of potential viewers.

1.2 Extent to which marketing involves liaison with educational stakeholders?

The planning, support and research unit work closely with stakeholders. They usually brainstorms ideas in a marketing brainstorm meeting and then normally work on the outcomes of that.Usually, the producers and educational advisers etc. are invited to this type of brainstorm meeting. The educational advisors have generally consulted with stakeholders on the ground by holding workshops before that meeting. The planning and support unit also gets feedback based on their own research. Often producers of programs consult with stakeholders on the ground (e.g. educator express) when structuring their program content. In instances where the Department of Health, for example, puts up money for a program, they will also be part of the advisory team.

1.3 Extent to which marketing involves promotion of platform specific broadcasts and promotion of the educational services as a whole?

As a whole, the "Learn and Live Campaign" of the SABC has been promoted broadly with its logo appearing after each educational program broadcast. Now a new corporate marketing campaign is being designed to let people know out there what SABC education is doing for them. A professional marketing company has become involved and has moved away from the "Learn & Live" idea. Using the building blocks concept they have designed a whole new concept to promote the educational services of the SABC. The concept idea of "Education for you" will be associated with it. Currently the logo for the "Learn & Live" campaign continues to be used, but there is no link to the corporate promotional material. This logo may be phased out once the new corporate logo takes a better hold. Feedback indicates that the building block concept is making a good impact. The same marketing company is designing a new overall SABC corporate campaign with all the different legs e.g. sports news, educational TV etc. and a little firefly - e.g. "light up your life" - has been designed. This may also be adopted later on.

Platform specific broadcasts are sometimes given specific marketing pushes. For example, Take 5 has 2 curriculum programs every day from Monday to Thursday. Therefore 8 programs appear in one week. This is publicised and promoted via TV for the next 9 weeks in one package. "Dumani" is an example of a program on another channel, which is produced for the Foundation Phase, and as such would be marketed separately.

1.4 Extent to which non-broadcast support is provided to teachers and students to assist them to benefit educationally from the whole service and/ or platform broadcasts. And if so, what form does this take)?

Non-broadcast strategies so far have involved producing informational pamphlets and other posters. When the marketing department goes out on a roadshow or to a Youth Day or another campaign etc, they try to provide informational pamphlets with some content on the program being promoted.In addition, placing some ads in newspapers and magazines are used to promote programs. Teacher tips are also sent out to give useful ideas to teachers. In addition workshops are held for educators, to promote use of the educational programs, and so on.

Approximately three times per year a mailing to schools is sent out to inform them of the content of the SABC TV educational programs. A complete marketing package (see annexure 2) is sent out including an informational poster, which shows what educational programs will appear each day for the next three months. The content is also explained for each program e.g. History on Monday. This is also used as an opportunity to target the teachers where they explain more about "Educator Express" (an educator development program on air) and provideadditional "Tips for Teachers" (i.e. how to use the programs as an education resource in classrooms). Also the ECD programs being offered are explained for pre-school activities (e.g. grade 0).

Reply cards have been inserted in mailings up to now (see annexure 2), to obtain feedback from schools. Approximately 25% of responses have been received. Many of these show interest and excitement in what the SABC is doing. In the new mailings, reply postcards will also be included as an ongoing monitoring mechanism. Schools could be motivated to respond with little competitions. Ideas and opinions will be sought and those that respond could win a TV for their school. The aim is for teachers and schools to realise the potential of the learning resource that is available to them. Many schools have requested print support to accompany educational programs.

Most schools do not have TV’s, but some do have VCR machines to play video tapes. In this case parents could make video tapes for use in the schools. Some people in communities go to a friend to watch programs. The educational TV department is looking at bringing big sponsors on board (e.g. Panasonic) to enable schools to access equipment. In addition, a partnership with the Post Office could be initiated to obtain free postage to schools for educational packages.

As already explained, print support has been done via the Sowetan and the Mail and Guardian in special pull out supplements. Furthermore, an attempt is made to reach teachers via the SADTU news and other specific publications e.g."School Talk", "The Educator" and other magazines which target schools and teachers and so on.

At this stage the educational TV department has a data base of 27,000 school addresses as a mailing list. This data base was made available through the HSRC - which was the only data base of schools in the country. For the next mailing, they might make use of an organisation called "School Media" who do school demonstrations at schools and they have a drop off system to ensure that the marketing packages are delivered and reach the right person in the school.

It has been noted that many times the information package sent to the school reaches the head of the school and remains in that office. The marketing department of educational TV are aware that at this stage, the majority of school teachers are totally unaware of what is available from the SABC. This would be in line with responses received in this research from teachers and educational stakeholders, who are singularly uninformed about the SABC educational programming, despite massive amounts having been spent on brochures, pamphlets, posters and mailings to schools. One organisation called Tricorp which runs demonstrations in schools have reported to the marketing department of educational TV that they have seen the SABC material on walls of schools - mainly in the staff rooms and some in classrooms.

Another organisation, "School media", has a mailing list of schools comprising 33,000 schools. These schools are organised into primary, secondary and pre-school listings. Therefore more specific and focussed mailings are possible. This will betried out during the fourth term of this year. A more focussed grassroots communication could then be facilitated.According to research done, it has been shown that above the line communication, using mainly the press for marketing, reaches only approximately 10% of the population.

Another strategy is needed to make more impact and raise the awareness level. For a start, mailings should be addressed to the librarian or media person and not the head. Better processing of the information might then happen. Information should be displayed for staff and students alike on notice boards on a continuous basis.

The Department of Education and READ have also been asked for their mailing lists of schools across the country, as a comparison. READ apparently has a mailing list of 23,500 school addresses. At present there is a new initiatve being planned called "Miracles" - a partnership with SABC Education, READ, "Sowetan", Iscor and the COLT (culture of learning and teaching - DET) initiative. This has been going for a year and a half now and a competition is held where communities are invited to nominate people who have been doing something for the upliftment of their community. These nominees are awarded prizes for their contributions. Incentives such as these are proving very popular.

Some outreach training has been done in ECD by Rita. Some courses in Train-the-Trainer were carried out with groups of teachers/ childminders/ trainers in ECD, in the use of the SABC educational material - e.g. Open Sesame - for end user activities. These were run at libraries or at schools. These trainers could then go back into communities and use the material more effectively for grassroots education. This was only done in Gauteng in phase one and unfortunately on a small scale. Other regions have been asking for this training. Possibly a cascade training mechanism could be designed by Rita. This inset training could also be helpful in popularising the programs and make their use as a learning tool more effective.

Another idea is to use the well trained teachers at well equipped schools who could attend the "Rita" in-service program and then go out and do further extension training for other teachers as an outreach project. This might form part of their links with sister/ twin/ adopted schools in peri-urban and rural areas. These twin schools do also bring in children for sport purposes to their sister schools so they could in fact bring them in for other purposes, such as educational TV.

The SABC educational TV does sell the idea that they are not replacing the teacher. The TV medium should not be seen as a threat (as it often is) but rather as a teaching tool. Some teachers fear losing their jobs to the TV as an instructional medium. They should realise that TV could never cover the entire curriculum (e.g. Geography) with the limited air time available, but they can show interesting things to stimulate interest in a particular subject. There is only so much air time available. Explanations of useful new developments could be provided e.g. in the use of these learning tools in an outcomes based approach.

The educational TV department has their own video sales department which sells the TV videos of the educational programs at a cost price. This is advertised on air. Any school can order this from them. No revenue is generated. The Dept of Education do put a budget aside for schools to buy video programs. At the end of a year schools often place orders for them. Recently the orders have dropped which has been in line with the recent budget cuts experienced by schools. They do promote these video facilities e.g.when there is a teachers conferences at St. Stithians, the marketing department will attend and display their video tape options there. They do not work with Broadcast enterprises who market videos for the whole of the rest of the SABC. "Radio Active" handles the tape recordings for radio programs.

The Department of Education also has an extensive video library and the educational TV department has a partnership with them. Schools and other institutions can draw on this library. A copy of all the SABC programs is sent to the library and all schools can borrow or hire these videos. Programs can be copied from these tapes or copied off air. No copyright restrictions exist and so free access exists to these as learning resources.

1.5 Extent to which Education Radio unit, Education TV unit, General Marketing unit support one another. And the extent to which the Education units’ services are supported by other partnerships, or possible broadcasting champions?

An ideal situation would exist if, together with the series on air, the radio and press would run similar parallel programs or simulcast certain aspects of the series. This would put a comprehensive campaign out to the public and would raise more awareness so as to have the best impact. Connections with current affairs programs, news and dramas, etc have not been tried.The marketing department does develop partnerships with the press, and this often involves a trade exchange. For example, for "Buang" the Weekly Mail and Guardian were prepared to come on board and they publicised the series in print. This newspaper does reach a fairly wide section of the population. The Sowetan was approached, but they did not have the money at that time to be involved.

Sometimes TV pays for their own radio campaigns in order to promote a particular series, as well as arranging the print support in newspapers. What would be ideal would be another marketing person on the radio side and they could then work together. In the past the TV department did the radio themselves. At present there is no regular meeting with radio. They seem remote from TV. Once radio has their own marketing department they could be given support from SABC TV education to discuss what works and what doesn’t. "We have the two most powerful communication mediums and they do not work together".

For some campaigns in the past, radio and TV have worked well together, for example the anti-drugs campaign went out on all the radio stations in all the different languages together with a television programme. If a programme of interest, e.g. on the new LRA, is put together, they spend a considerable budget on it. To go out on radio simultaneously would be much more impactful.

In the past, a good ad was designed for the drug campaign and this went out, dubbed into all the languages, for the different radio stations. The languages still present a problem. They do agree that constitutionally, all language groups have a right to receive information or hear and see programs in their mothertongue. It is a comfort zone. It is found that some languages wont be read bycertain cultures ‘in principle’, even if they can in fact read that language (e.g. Zulu & Xhosa). The programme "Buang" is a Sotho name, and therefore some cultures won’t go for it. Alternatively, English is taken seriously as it is seen as the language of opportunity and employment. For the easter campaign, the pamphlets were designed taking the language spread into account, according to the province or region being targeted or distributed to.They were printed in English and another language as well on each pamphlet. The cost factor to service all languages continues to be an issue.

* Mailing to schools was an eye opener. The mailings may not have reached all the schools, but those that did receive the information and did respond were very amazed and excited to see what educational TV was offering. It is definitely a workable solution. They should develop this further and make it more effective and try to reach more schools. Responses were received on the reply paid postcards.

* Furthermore, a summary of the "Buang" series was given in the Sowetan. This was a stand alone pamphlet in which some details were given, e.g. it explained that episode 1 covered dispute procedures and this was what Debbie and Jake said, etc. It was a kind of users guide for the "Buang" program and it received a huge response. TV paid for this at a special price. The SABC does try to do trade exchanges with newspapers first. If all else fails, they pay for it but negotiate a good price. Several requests were received to buy the videos from this series as a result.

*They have had good feedback on most things.
* The "Learn & Live " concept is still being used on educational programs on air as a logo. When they go into print, it will be important to show that it is the SABC doing this. When the changeover of logos occurs, however, this may have to be carefully handled.
* The information in the mailing packages did not reach enough teachers in schools and also did not reach students. With the current crisis in education, 1,000 other players are targetting schools, claiming to have the answer to the problems and promising to help them get results.Schools are a target for many other commercial marketing vehicles. The SABC educational TV needs to build a credible relationship with schools by delivering quality product on an ongoing basis.
* A problem has been that the marketing approaches almost have to work province by province, as each province has their own special needs - in particular Kwazulu/ Natal.
* One problem was experienced in the Mmabatho campaign, as theSABC masrketing department relied on the Dept of Communication to circulate pamphlets advertising the upcoming campaign. On the second day of the outreach campaign they received the message that the pamphlets did not go out and this is what had led to a minimal turnout. A lesson was learned in that relying on another structure to do the advertising often does not work. In Durban they did their own distribution and the turnout was very large.

(Q3) What is your vision of a future holistic marketing/ promotional strategy that would be feasible to support and promote educational TV in future? (considering learners, educators, parents, wider public in urban, rural, semi-urban, etc. communities)

* Instead of only sending marketing information to schools, they would like to assist them to develop and build up a print resource by bringing out print support on a better quality paper, in sections or units. This would be for use in schools and could be collected in binders or files which could also be provided. This would provide an additional useful companion support mechanism for teachers to use as a teaching tool.

* The marketing department of educational TV would like to continue to target parents via print, informing them of the variety of programs on offer e.g. adult education, parenting, public programs, etc. For example articles in magazines and newspapers could be used.

* In the future we would like to see a multi media approach using all the available disciplines, TV, radio, newspapers, as well as the Internet, etc. People should be able to make full use of what is available and walk into a one stop shop where they can access any and all of the SABC TV educational programs on request, or find out where to get advice or other material that they may require. We are currently not using even half of the resource properly for the benefit of our people.

* Small video shops or libraries or satellite centres could be set up so that parents or teachers could go there and watch educational/ other material or borrow/ purchase videos. In this way, access to resources would be made easier for use at home or at school, at times most suitable for viewers. When educational TV programs are marketed on air, often it is not the best time to market these and they are not sure what the impact is. Also the times of flightings of programs themselves are often not optimal as they have to rely on the channels to give them available time slots. Only the very popular programs are given prime time slots. Educational programs are slotted into less sought after time slots. At a satellite centre, ideally resources and information would be more easily available on an ongoing basis.

* The interviewees would like to see a change of mentality in the whole of the media. Newspapers should see themselves as part of a team, working together with the educational TV and radio. They should help get the information out to the learners, parents and teachers - not to be hungry only for a newsworthy story. Most newspapers have dedicated journalists for education.

* The SABC educational TV marketing department would like to see dedicated spots in newspapers which give feedback regularly on what is coming out, in order to teach the nation something useful and of value i.e. in a nationbuilding spirit.

* Often education is seen as boring! "Buang" was not seen as an educational series and without knowing it, people learnt something. This went out during prime time and addressed a topical subject of interest, namely the new LRA, but this is not always possible. It is clear that something of an edutainment nature that is relevant and useful is the way to go about achieving a prime time slot, but it is quite expensive.

The educational TV programming is getting there. They are producing better quality programs that will have appeal. "Khululeka" is a prime time programme. The "Big Idea" is going out at 5h30 pm on a Sunday which is not bad. "Yisu Yisu" will go out on prime time on a Wednesday. "Health Files" will go out at prime time in April. Therefore the department is aiming to deliver challenging programs that are also good entertaining programs. "Agriforum" and "Ziyamela" are very interesting as well and one can learn something from them. They go out from 6 to 7 am on a Saturday. This program targets farmers who will be up and drinking coffee at that time. "Educator Express" is a brilliant program which won the Japan prize. It targets a niche market of educators/ teachers and doesn’t appeal to a wide audience. Therefore it will never get a prime time slot.

Possible other mechanisms to use:
- best use of newspapers
- best use of magazines, e.g.TV Talk, as a marketing tool?
- other print media - support material, catalogues etc.
(this has been covered earlier)
- cassette compilation (radio & video)/ CD Rom?
- internet/ website
- e mail
- telephone e.g. 0800 number
- facsimile
- other promotional activities/ role models? champions? partnerships? etc.
- other liaison/ workshops/ road shows/ conferences
- use of unions, networks, associations, forums
- commissioned research
- monitoring & evaluation?

Response:
There is no national newspaper in S.A. which reaches all of our people. This creates problems. Research has shown that the Sowetan is the best vehicle we can use which reaches parts of kwazulu/Natal, parts of the Free State and Gauteng. It is hard to do better than that. You can approach the Argus in the Cape, the Daily News in Durban and so on. You could also approach "Pace and "Newsweek". The marketing department has placed some articles in Rapport and Sunday Times for certain programs, but this have a limited niche market. But it is not possible for the SABC to do trade exchanges with all of these. Also it must be recognised that needs differ from region to region. It is important to decide what we want to achieve, for whom, etc. before a strategy is decided on. Also, the same article will not do for all the newspapers, as they serve different niche markets. All in all they do know that newspapers do reach 10% of the market that the SABC is wanting to reach.

Other strategies must then be designed to complement this. The marketing department for educational radio has also tried advertising on taxis and busses and on billboards as an alternative approach (e.g. via commuternet) particularly in school areas. Community radios have a brilliant relationship with the TV education department and are always ready to help and support e.g. for the Youth Day in Gauteng (East and West Rand), Y FM and Punt Radio came on board. Brilliant campaigns are possible, but it always comes down to labour and budget. A campaign is being designed for "Orkney" and a multi media marketing strategy is expected. But a budget of R2m only is available to market "Orkney" nationally in S.A. One mailing only to schools costs R500,000 alone, so the budget has to be planned carefully according to the marketing strategy needed.

Partnerships are very important to this department. They would request that e.g. Telkom gets involved and wopuld provide a free 0800 number as part of their Social Responsibility programme. The SABC educational TV department places high emphasis on working with communities and a representative should be identified to work consultatively with the SABC team. Representatives could be selected at a variety of levels for different purposes. The community network is a critical part of the planning. This network could also help to gain access to information about educational programs and resources that are available on behalf of potential viewers/ learners.

Telephone is also used in a different way as a support mechanism with live phone-ins for certain programmes and for competitions (e.g. in "Take 5"). Sometimes toll free lines have been provided by Telkom from project to project for viewers to access information. For the "I’m addicted to life" program which was an anti drug campaign, a tollfree line was available for six months with advice and information being offered while the program was on air. This was definitely useful. These programs are moving away from formal education but wonderful informative programs have been done on e.g. Aids Awareness, Cancer and for the Blind.

One of the more successful marketing ploys have been the roadshows, where a presenter of a programme is put on a bus and then travels to schools all over the country. They have visited the Free State, the North West, Mpumalanga, Mmabatho and Durban. They set out a schedule and approached schools to give them their pupils for an hour. A show was put on for the pupils and competitions were held, and so on. This was extremely successful. Personalities to champion certain programs were found to be very successful, e.g. Miriam Makheba was used in "Study Smart" . A role model catches the interest of viewers and acts as a hook to pull people in.

An idea that came forward in this interview was to approach big advertisers to use some of their ‘adspend’ for educational TV purposes (e.g. Breweries). A policy has not yet been formulated on this (howthe department takes money from people i.e. on what basis), but it may be a useful idea to pursue. The new marketing company that is now on board could steer them through these waters. Some companies have been supportive in the past such as Iscor, for supporting the International Year of Science. This was done via their social responsibility program. The marketing company for educational TV is looking for sponsorship for all their programs.

In terms of monitoring and evaluation, the research department does research on a continuous basis. For example, research was done to establish the effectiveness of the Easter Campaign. At times the department asks them to research a particular area. Also lessons learned are examined e.g. on the "Learn & Live" campaign, the "Building Blocks" campaign and "Buang" etc. A very big publicity campaign was executed for "Buang", including via the radio. Research looked into where people were made aware of the program in the press or where they heard of it. But the research was not conclusive.

Senior level should rekindle a relationship with radio and find a way to work together. They have brainstormed better ways to work together recently. In the past there was a very good relationship, particularly with community radio stations such as Punt radio and Y FM. A fruitful cooperation should be possible.

IT/ Internet/ Websites/ CD Rom are areas which are moving forward and will become more effective means of communication. The use of the internet and a website should be brought into the idea of multi media campaigns for the future. One stop shops could be set up linked to SABC TV programmes which tell people where to go, how to get programmes, how to get help, and so on. CD rom may become more widely used in the future but at present many of these modern techniques are not widely available.

‘Best’ (i.e. most efficiently informative of stakeholders) ways to advertise & promote the whole school service on SABC 1,2, 3 and national & regional radio stations to teachers, students, parents, etc. (Note: This is premised on the requisite that the SABC educational TV aims to turn out the highest quality educational material possible as a teaching tool to be used both in schools and in the home).

A combination of the following:
- school mailings to be improved and go out regularly (schools should know when they are expected)
- well planned and researched companion material to accompany programs to be used as a resource for learning in schools with manuals, worksheets and workbooks etc.
- promote programs across TV 1,2 and 3 where possible
- best us of public newspapers - user friendly daily schedules
- pull out sections in magazines - information user friendly and well organised
- pay for some specialised advertising in nationwide newspapers where appropriate
- an effective radio promotional component where possible
- use of telephone phone-in lines for access to information and videos etc
- improved points of distribution of print, tapes, video support, and less expensive.
- involve partnerships with the private sector, use some of their ‘adspend’
- involve the Department of Education through their provincial networks
- punchy articles in TV talk ( which has a circulation of 6 million viewers) and pullout updates and schedules of educational programming with easily recognisable icons e.g. a book or a blakcboard, etc. - also perhaps in local knock & drop newspapers e.g. "Rosebank Gazette", "Sandton Chronicle", "Homeless Talk", etc and others in other regions.
- partnerships should be arranged where possible.
- best use of live slots available on the TV channels (not easy to access prime time)
- roadshows and use of ‘champions’
- use of incentives and prizes

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(Q1) What are the current strategies for marketing and promotion of educational radio programming with a focus on considerations such as:

In terms of marketing and allied strategies, radio has just appointed a marketing co-ordinator for all the divisions e.g. all the radio stations, educational radio, sports etc.

It should be noted that in working with radio, people are working with 11 stations. Every educational radio program that is produced is broadcast in all 11 languages (unlike TV) across the various stations. To date there has been much pressure to cope with the actual production of the programs themselves and not much spare time was available for planning marketing or promotional activities. Educational radio addresses a range of sectors, such as:

The current department started with their work in February 1997 and their first priority was to push to get the programming on air. Now the pressure is less and there might be time to plan marketing/ promotional exercises in more detail. A major limitation is that there are few resources and limited money to expend for this. It is generally acknowledged that radio is the Cinderella medium when compared with TV. Yet it is so powerful.

SABC radio is funded by the Department of Communications and not by the Education Ministry. Out of a budget of R40m, R12m is allocated to educational radio. Out of that, only R0.5m is made available for marketing. Therefore, priority had to be in terms of programming content.

There has been no intensive effort to draw in the press to promote educational radio. The Sowetan has the closest relationship with the educational radio department, but unfortunately this newspaper does not cover the entire country. The Sowetan has been used for purely marketing purposes to date, but not for support material. Their job is to inform the public about current news. Generally education is seen as boring news. Therefore, to be newsworthy, the programming needs to be linked to something current.

Educational radio consists of snatches of life skills. No formal education is done. Even the curriculum support programs over radio are "add on", or "life skills". They are designed to promote further learning and are seen as supplementary and supportive. In order to be effectively curriculum related, a co-ordinated curriculum would be needed at the start. A further problem, however, would be - say, for example, educational radio decided to run a history program in the morning? What level would be addressed (standard what)? Who would have a history lesson at that time? How would we know how to fit it to a school timetable? What print support would be required? Who would take responsibility for the translation effectively into all 11 languages? The new educational channel for radio and TV that was planned seems now to be shelved, as it was found not to be viable. The major reason, I believe, was controversy over the "language" issue.

1.2 Extent to which non-broadcast support is provided to teachers and students to assist them to benefit educationally from the whole service and/ or specific broadcasts and if so, what form does this take?

There is at present no print support material to accompany educational radio programs. As mentioned, there are limited financial resources. To co-ordinate something like this and deal with the issue of 11 official languages would be a problem and to print any support material only in English would also be very problematic. The department could try to cut corners and to compromise in some way and to try and push for support material in all the languages.

In terms of marketing the educational radio programs, a poster with the printed list of programs was distributed to 30,000 schools, together with the educational TV material. This was seen as a kind of promotional and support non-broadcast mechanism. All schools were included, including the Model C schools and the private schools. The list of schools was obtained from the DET and the HSRC. Positive feedback was received about the planned schedule of programs, but various problems were highlighted. For example, few schools possessed a radio at the school. Some were even without electricity. Schools with wrong addresses may have returned their packages, but this would have been returned to Danie Swart, as were any reply postcards. These have not been content analysed.

The schedule of educational radio programs printed on the marketing poster that went out to schools did not include the radio frequencies for each station. The reason for this is that the frequencies tend to differ from province to province.

A major problem with developing marketing and support material for radio is the difficulty associated with adequately addressing all of our 11 official languages, as mentioned. To supply all 11 with print support will be a logistical nightmare. There is no black press in mother tongue to speak of. Exceptions are Elanga in Kwazulu/ Natal and Invo in Port Elizabeth - a small Xhosa newspaper. Educational radio has had elementary talks with these. A further problem comes with the fact that there is a radio station in every province, but there is no existing print vehicle in every region, in every language. The stations themselves are their own best marketing vehicles and they market their shows extensively and effectively.

1.3 Extent to which the Education Radio unit, Education TV unit, and General Marketing unit support one another or are supported by; other partnerships, possible broadcasting champions, etc?

Educational TV is clearly branded and segmented and services well defined target markets. Educational radio has tried to work in this way - i.e. to serve a segmented group - but this did not work. Initially, Educational radio did attempt to work with educational TV. At a strategic level, working together with Nicola Galombic was fine. With marketing they do talk together and co-operate, but at operational level problems arise, as increased differences seem to develop. The needs of radio and TV are very different. Radio often tends to be overshadowed by TV as TV has more glamour and more visibility of stars etc. There are very strong feelings about this. However, listener- ship has never been a problem for the radio medium. Naturally, music programs have a higher listenership, but that is to be expected. Use of news or current affairs or drama programs to support educational radio has not been explored.

1.4 Extent to which marketing involves liaison with educational stakeholders?

The "Live and Learn" campaign was started as a partnership between the SABC (TV and radio) and the Department of Education, in an attempt to try and work co-operatively and productively together for educational purposes.

Through the partnership with the DET, 100 wind-up radios were placed in schools to test their use in receiving educational programming. When a return visit was carried out some time later, most radios had disappeared. Some were stolen, some locked away, others taken by teachers or headmasters/ mistresses. (Wind-up radios were the mastermind of Trevor Bayliss who is now a multi-millionaire who exports these all over the world). They have also been proposed for rehabilitation for prison inmates. Perhaps a partnership possibility exists here?

Educational radio does liaise with the association of schools principals in each province. Some are very co-operative and some are defunct. Where co-operation has been possible, this has proven very useful. Participation in actual programs is then easier. However, some principals refuse their staff permission to participate in programs.

Research into in which instances the impact of radio might be more effective or appropriate than TV has not been carried out. Smaller research initiatives have been carried out, however, e.g. in the Adult Education area, and the findings are then extended across all the other sectors of educational radio where relevant. Now, there is a special project which is conducting research across all the radio stations and across each layer of focus (e.g. Educare, Adult Basic Education, etc). The outcome should assist in future planning. The research outcomes are expected back in two months.

Comparisons with other countries have generally not been useful. Our context is very different in South Africa. Educational radio has looked at programs from Canada and from the BBC. Concepts and ideas could be lifted out, but educational radio has had to develop relevant local programs. The content of the foreign programs was also invariably unsuitable.

1.5 Extent to which marketing involves promotion of specific broadcasts or promotion of the educational service as a whole?

All of the educational broadcasts by radio take place in the afternoons or evenings, not in the mornings, during school time. These educational programs are seen more as a top up exercise and to develop useful life skills, rather than curriculum bound exercises. They could also apply across a range of listeners, not only for one age group. Each education program is advertised by the various stations on a continual basis to promote them in all the different languages. Therefore awareness is raised across all the educational radio programming that is offered in a holistic way. Use of things such as the internet/ websites/ a telephone 0800 number and so on might be considered in the future. The distribution of pamphlets and posters in schools has been covered.

1.6 Are recorded cassettes available of educational radio programs? Where/ How?

Educational radio does have cassettes of their educational radio programming. This is requested very infrequently. The cassettes are mentioned in the programs themselves, i.e. marketed via live broadcasts. They are sold at a cost of R20 and radio sales handles this function. There is as yet no catalogue of the cassettes available. The bulk of the programs go out live and are not pre-recorded.

(In this meeting, it was suggested that further partnerships could be explored e.g. partnerships for marketing ventures to continually advertise educational radio programs and their content - e.g. with local knock and drop newspapers which go out to many households, inserts in ‘Homeless Talk’, displays at checkout points of supermarkets, and so on - in order to reach a wider potential listenership. Sponsors could be sought to print and distribute any planned marketing exercise. Apparently to print 30,000 posters cost about R130,000 - nearly all of the marketing budget for radio).

(Q2)a What issues in the current S.A. context do you have to continually take into account i.e. contextual realities in S.A.?

Apart from the 11 official languages that we have and the budget constraints that we are working with, we need to recognise that our audience needs in South Africa are very different to those from abroad. Also, there are distinct different regional needs. Therefore educational radio believes in decentralisation. They always try to involve the local audience and the local station staff in deciding on programs. Hardly any literacy is offered at all on radio. More of life skills development is done - they encourage that. We must recognise that we are dealing with an auditory medium and a lot of stories are used very effectively and this can be educational. Unfortunately the quality of radio drama has diminished in this country.

The radio sound archives that do exist are not useful in the new South Africa. More developed countries have extensive archival resources to draw from, built up over years. In South Africa, these archives were used to store programs that were seen as "important for history" , e.g. the various ministers’ speeches. There is a ton of educational material kept by Safritel which is all unusable as it represents the old school radio system with attitudes of Bantu Education, driven by the political ideologies at that time, which are not relevant/ usable in the new South Africa. When educational radio was set up it encountered a great culture of negativity at first and it took the first six months to convince people that it was something different to the "school radio" of the past. The message was put across that the new educational radio was in the edutainment business and was not a "school". This was the reason for changing the name from Radio Education to "Educational Radio"

The campaign to distribute the radio sets that was mentioned went down very well. 50 organisations were identified to benefit from this campaign in 5 different sectors. It was felt that they could benefit from all the programs on radio and not only the educational programs. Schools and organisations were asked to write and apply for a free radio set and to give reasons why they wanted the radio. Answers were very varied and very amusing. The following range of schools and organisations benefitted:
* 50 schools * 50 early learning centres
* 50 welfare centres * 50 community health centres
* 50 old age homes

A small ceremonial function was held and was very appreciated, particularly for the opportunity provided where colleagues (e.g. in early learning centres) could get together at a gathering and network and share ideas. Some organisations had to drive 200 km to collect a radio worth R80. They did not seem to object, however. In fact the turnout was very good. The indirect spinoff of networking or conferencing was seen as very important and was welcomed. It was also an uplifting and morivational event for those involved. This event also motivated the business sector to get involved and to sponsor radios. Generally they are more interested in sport or a choir, than in educational groups. In addition, the awareness of the provincial education ministry was stimulated and they got involved. Some provincial ministries were unaware of the partnership between SABC TV/ radio and the Education Ministry! There could be many more spinoffs to such future events! Radio personalities could be invited, local bands could entertain and it could perhaps take place in a stadium, to accommodate more people, if it were marketed properly. An idea being explored is to give wind-up radios or other radios away as incentives in educational radio programs. The listeners have to answer a different question every day from Monday to Thursday in a special Friday competition. If they listen all week and can answer all four questions, they will win a radio. This is a kind of incentivised strategy tends to develop a forced listening strategy. All the radio stations have a part to play. They have all been approached to adopt a different approach to educational radio programs in future and that is to integrate and promote the educational radio programs.

To single out the educational radio programs and separate them from ongoing known programs hosted by known personalities proved disasterous. Listeners would often switch off when the program switched to the educational section and then switch on again later. A very popular announcer, Nkosi, would say that he is handing over to an educational program, but he would be back later. Suddenly there would be a dramatic drop in the listener ship! Without knowing it, he was saying: "Switch off for a while, but I will be back later and you can join me again then!" Hence a new approach of inclusivity of educational programs into the more known and liked existing program platforms is intended for the future and will be handled by the known personalities.

(Q3) What is your vision of a future holistic marketing/ promotional strategy that would best support and promote educational radio in future? (considering learners, educators, parents, wider public in urban, rural, semi-urban, etc. communities)

The vision is that over the next three years, educational programs will be fully integrated into station schedules. Announcers, producers and presenters have been convinced to go along with this and the recognised presenters voice would present the educational program as well, to avoid the dropout. This tends to confirm the idea of the use of a "champion" to promote educational programming - in the case of radio, a known "voice". The various staff members have become aware that this might be a good process and they are becoming involved more and more. A joint panel of decision makers is now being used including people from educational radio, educational experts and the producers.The disadvantage might sometimes be that they are not all very good presenters. Therefore the ABE, for example, may not be well handled. Also they themselves are not subject specialists.

Educational radio uses a subject specialist for each layer of education needs being addressed as an adviser. These subject specialists should continue to contribute to the content development of all the programs. In addition the Education Department has a working group in each sector and the educational radio subject specialist works with that group. He/ she takes what is decided in the working group and refines it to be used within radio programming.

Broad briefs are produced at head office which are sent to the different stations in written form. These are then reworked into the different languages. The producers at each station have to stick with the written brief given to them by head office. Care has to be taken in the use of the different languages. A service was once commissioned in Zulu and the spoken Zulu was subsequently rejected by local listeners especially in Kwazulu/ Natal as the accent sounded foreign and was not one used by locals. These are expensive lessons that have been learnt. Many stations resist using English at all, except for current affairs programs. The financial viability of stations for smaller language groups is a problem, as is the availability of the necessary capacity to do the work but this should be pursued. The larger language groups that do not have a problem are: English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Sesotho and sometimes Setswana.

Interactive education programs on radio e.g. the covering of the SADTU strike, are very popular and very educational. These should be used more. Representative groups should be included on these programs such as parents, students, union members, community members, listeners and so on, as well as phone in programs. Another important element is to get the station managers themselves to buy in. Those that resist educational programs may be hard to get involved and hard to convince. Those managers who might have been an ex rector from an educational institution, for example, would be very enthusiastic and supportive. This may vary from station to station.

Yes this is done. Stations have monitoring mechanisms. Each producer (for two or three stations) does random monitoring. Then feedback is given e.g. on presentation style, content and so on.

Possible mechanisms to consider for the future are:
- best use of TV Talk as a marketing tool - this is paid for by SABC TV and will not promote SABC radio - internal rivalry?
- best use of newspapers for promotion and support - including local/ knock & drop etc.
- other print media - support material, catalogues etc.
- best use of cassette compilation - how to manage this resource
- best use of facsimile support mechanisms and telephone help lines

- internet/ website - this may be widening the urban/ rural divide?
- e mail - for the privileged?
- telephone e.g. 0800 number - has been seen to be useful in other organisations
- other promotional activities/ role models? champions? partnerships? etc.
- other liaison/ workshops/ road shows/ conferences
- better use of unions, networks, associations, forums
- ongoing commissioned research

Note:
* This research has been extrapolated in the light of the contextual realities of South African life today. Analytical descriptions will be used and anecdotal evidence provided where relevant.
* This short research intervention should not be construed as a comprehensive future marketing strategy for educational TV but could inform this planning in several ways.

SECTION 2: ITEMS OF COMMONALITY AND DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE ABOVE THREE INTERVIEWS:

* Educational radio and TV were both thought to be important and worth doing well
* Marketing should be holistic and mixed media approaches used across newspapers, TV, radio, etc.
* Marketing should be campaign based where possible, with all marketing channels on board and partnerships drawn in
* Radio and TV should work more cloosely together
Roadshows and conferences etc. have been successful, particularly with prizes, competitions and other incentives built in
* The inclusion of an educational adviser and community representatives is supported
* Wider consultation, monitoring and research is encouraged
* Better print companion support should be provided in future
* A resouce base of tapes (radio cassette and video) and print support in special binders should be built up
* Better points of distribution should be established - with easier access for potential viewers and at a minimum cost
* Improved distribution for mailshots should be established
* The 11 official languages, as well as budget and capacity are important constraints
* Differences from province to province are marked and this is a constraint - different cultures, views, expectations, capacity and resources (or lack of)
* Interactive programs are encouraged - e.g. phone-ins, panels etc.
* Both encourage a good relationship with the press
* Both are powerful media for communication purposes
* Future strategies could include working with an 0800 information line continuously, the Internet, websites and possibly CD Roms, etc.

* Obviously, radio is an auditory medium and TV is primarily visual (as well as being auditory) and so different strengths and weaknesses are intrinsic to the medium
*TV currently has a marketing department and a research and development department currently operational which supports their work. Radio is setting this up.
* TV is inclined to feel more glamorous. Radio is inclined to feel overshadowed
* Radio serves all 11 language groups on a weekly basis across the 10 stations very effectively. TV is crossing cultural barriers effectively, using more multi-lingual approaches and multi-cultural themes.
* Educational Radio has a noticeably strong negative heritage to overcome, which lingered on from its predecessor, radio education, which was driven by the political ideologies dominant in the apartheid regime. Hence the name change to "Educational Radio".
* Their approaches to educational programming is different. Educational Radio is more edutainment orientated and emphasizes life skills acquisition. It does not target school based curriculum support or focus on specific target groups. Educational TV does both curriculum based support and wider audience life skills, adult education and educare. Some of its programmes do target specific interest groups and ages.

USEFUL SUGGESTIONS FROM MARKETING SPECIALISTS WERE AS FOLLOWS:
(1) STRATEGY:
1.1 Be very clear as to what the objectives of the marketing campaign are

1.2 Be consultative, including the producers and film makers etc. These creative people have a handle on their medium and what works for a particular audience. They should be included from stage one of the planning and paid a consultative fee until the budgets and program format has been decided. They have a very important contribution to make in making quality shows.

1.5 Try to be very interactive where children and youth are involved. Also good with adults. The best part of the William Smith Education programmes is the live interactive discussions.

1.6 The classic forms of marketing are less applicable for these media (i.e. TV and Radio) - one needs to create the desirability of a particular program amongst the target audience. Be creative and keep a fun element - not necessarily comedy, which is perceived very differently by various audiences. The "Live & Learn" logo is a bit "Twee". The marketing is a bit too Eurocentric as a whole.

1.7 The program content should be of a consistently high standard to attract the target audiences and should provide a good content spread to remain interesting and to appeal to a variety of interest areas for individual viewers. This should be addressed in the marketing as well.

1.9 Keep the senior executive levels of the SABC aware of the market needs and market preferences

1.10 The two currently most effective ways to attract your market is to bring on the American "Glitz" or to capture the gutzy, gritty, typical South African flavour with street terminology being "in" and presenters being "in your face" e.g. the Brenda Fassie style, but be careful of role models used who may espouse wrong values. Do we really want to entrench for the youth of today and the parents of tomorrow the values espoused on the current prime-time "soapy" programs e.g. wife swapping, manipulation, lying, only the anorexically thin and well dressed are admirable? What kind of a society do we want?

1.11 A formal policy should be made as to how to handle role models. Some care needs to be taken as to who they are. Well known people can be asked to give a little back to the community. This could be to mutual benefit. Irresponsible role models e.g. those on drugs should be avoided.

2.1 Favourite characters should be established and used more effectively. Also well known personalities that are admired could be approached as part of promotional activities e.g. Felicia Mabuza Suttle, Talk Show hosts, etc.

2.2 National co-ordination of use of role models should be encouraged - not an ad hoc, "freebie" approach.

2.3 A music video channel which is always popular could include educational messages e.g. about aids, the importance of an education, drugs etc. but in a more edutainment way. Other inclusive or partnership strategies may come to mind.

2.4 TV and Radio should capitalize on what’s "Hip" e.g. the "Kwaito" music scene (they received a triple platinum), "Abashanti", TK Zee, Cheesehop, NDU, Cucumber Zoo. Some of these can be accessed through Neil Tovey. Shows should be funky, pacey, interesting, unusual. The department should make it "Hip" to learn. Get Rah’d Rah’d about it!

2.5 The time slots are very important. For example, Take 5 was less successful at an earlier time slot (i.e. 3 pm) than it is now at a later time slot (i.e. 5 - 6 pm) and many more good responses are being received to this program as a result. It almost markets itself now.

2.6 Short insert marketing messages should be pinned to programme awareness raising. For example, "Simunye, we are one! And as one nation we all want to learn and develop!" or "Simunye, we are one! So lets get together and promote the culture of learning and teaching!" or "Don’t do drugs!" "Dont do ecstasy because you are number one!" or "Don’t drink and drive, stay alive with One" etc. etc.

2.7 Use popular programs to foster good values and the culture of learning etc. Be creative and honest.

2.8 There are huge marketing opportunities out there e.g. in cooperation with private sector companies such as "Coca Cola" etc. The SABC should not hold the marketing to themselves. Cross marketing initiatives should be used to market e.g. the COLT campaign more effectively.

2.9 Small teams should be set up to travel on roadshows. This could consist of two people (a driver and a presenter). It need not be very expensive, with carerful allocation of resources. In one morning, 1,000 kids could watch 3 sessions of videos. The strategy is:

(a) Introduce themselves as presenters. Ask a few questions to find out what the kids know about the topic under discussion ( e.g. alcohol, abuse, drugs).
(b) Show the video.
(c) After each session, a short discussion should take place, facilitated by the presenter, to discuss the pertinent message of the video. Documentaries of happy, positive role models should be included at the end of educational videos, used in the roadshows, to end on a high!

Presenters should receive adult education/ training before they set out to learn how to facilitate these groups and some skills should be gained to deal with any difficult instances which may arise.

Effective cascade training strategies could be used to train teams of presenters around the country. The roadshows could be seen to be visiting schools all around the country "A-la-Becketts Trek". A champion is needed to drive this and good presenters are needed to create a buzz.

Direct communication with schools is very effective and can create a positive interaction. Revisits are also important. This strategy could be part of a long term initiative until a certain level of kids graduate. The presenter will build an audience in this way and this could be monitored or tracked.

This could become a specialisation and would highlight what the real problems and values are, on an ongoing basis. It could go a long way to enhancing the COLT initiative, instead of bland marketing techniques.

2.10 Young achiever programmes should be promoted with serious topical discussions, but ending on a high. I love myself! I am proud of myself! Lifestyle role models should be used.

2.11 Role models of effective educators in schools could also be promoted. Outstanding educators in different subjects should be identified and these could be featured in a series as in the William Smith approach.

(3) PLANNING:
3.1 Radio is underutilized. This could provide a synergy with TV to reach the rural and semi-urban poor. Holistic campaigns should be planned to address certain important educational messages out there. The jostling for power should be avoided.

3.2 A meeting/ conference should be called with marketing specialists, promoters, PR persons and TV and Radio personnel to discuss and plan effective campaigns of meaning. A good agency such as Hunt Lascaris could be asked to design a comprehensive campaign on "What makes learning fun!"

3.3 Advance warning is an important aspect and must be planned carefully - daily, weekly and broad monthly schedules should be put out constantly in the press to keep the public apprised. Programs should not only give their names in the daily schedules, but should be accompanied by a 6 word punchline e.g. "a hot drama" or "a programme for the modern youth" i.e. payoff lines to attract audiences. Use of icons to identify educational programs for specific content areas and for specific ages would be useful. Not only selected programs should be motivated for in "Pick of the Week".

3.4 Access to video material is important. There should be libraries in every province or local video stores should be approached to hire out the educational videos. Rates should not be too high. Video programs will be sought after all the time by parents, teachers and learners.

3.5 A budget for stills photography should be included and not have to come from production budgets which often necessitates taking on an additional marketing person. An Electronic Press Kit (EPK) should be available. Kids responses should be caught on the EPK.

3.6 Research should be done in the townships and in semi-urban and rural communities to establish relevant needs and to make programs culture-right

3.7 Research should be done in the schools constantly e.g. by phoning them and obtaining feedback. This should include a wide range schools from those in squatter camps (where kids probably access TV from friends or in Shops etc.) to Model C Schools and so on.

(4) EDUCATION RELATED ISSUES:
4.1 In many educational programmes, a didactic approach is taken i.e. Teacher Tells. This is not interactive and does not challenge the learners of today.

42. The marketing of educational programmes needs to be more detailed and specific e.g. In Dumani today we deal with:
(a)
(b)
(c)..... i.e. programme details explained.
An overview should also be provided: What is it about? What are the sub-programmes? When and where can the audience find them? What interesting material does this provide? etc. How can teachers extend these into classroom absed or homework based activities?

4.3 Use private courier companies to deliver the marketing packages. Ensure that what is sent out is used.

4.4Educators and Principals are demotivated. They have unruly kids and no tools to teach, in an education system that is in crisis. Educational programs could do much to offset this. Many schools continue to have a very authoritarian and paternalistic styles, with a chauvanistic ethos. Good educational programming can help considerably to offset this problem by setting a tone for governance, management and teaching in schools.

- have educator and teacher diaries (A4 size or pocket/handbag sized) printed with TV and radio programs featured in strips at the top of each page or with full page adverts interspersed throughout, advertising educational programs across the year.

- organise marketing strategies which involve the collection of cards, stickers or scratch campaigns. Kids love these (e.g. perhaps in partnership with a cereal company).

- magnetic monthly planners to place on fridges and cuboards, and others for noticeboards should be used. These stay in visual contact for longer and attract attention on a daily basis. Loose pamphlets tend to be thrown away.

- informational wallcharts and posters with detailed timetables organised into columns and clearly sectioned off by use of colour, will tend to be displayed and used, as the information is well organised and user friendly. It also fits the teacher’s "timetable ethos". Warning note: the current building blocks with letters SABC on them, used as part of the new promotional strategy has a yellow letter for the "C". This tends to fade into the background a bit, while the SAB stand forward and the first impression is of the South African Breweriesn rather than the SABC. Perhaps a dark orange could be used and the yellow used in the background only.

- Help numbers as 0800 telephone answering services should be set up e.g. for rape, abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, divorce etc, on an ongoing basis. These are things that kids have to deal with in their daily lives. This could be a partnership with "Lifeline" who handle crisis situations well etc.

- A dedicated Education column should be tried for in a popular newspaper - e.g. What’s Hot, What’s In What’s New - Education - keeping informed! Also a teacher’s corner could be arranged for teachers to write in and for SABC to communicate any news about educational programming or inset training as it arises.

- Specialised Art, History, Geography, Science programs should be obtained from abroad, group discussions filmed and put onTV and radio for learners to react to these. These programs would have a generic appeal across a variety of ages and are generally cross cultural. We live in a global world and our education should accomodate this. Local programmes on wildlife are excellent and should not be aired in very late night slots. These are also often marketed abroad in line with that globalising theory in countries where there is no wildlife.

- Posters are always loved by kids of all ages. Age appropriate ones could be sold in cost recovery exercises. The message on posters should be clear and bold without too much fine print. Possibly also use role models/ local heros e.g. "Lucas Radebe supports the culture of learning and teaching to get ahead with your life".

- Publications with wide circulations should be targeted e.g. TV Talk, Edgars Club, Sales House, local newspapers etc.

(M Net magazine should be carefully looked at, as it is felt that this is more user friendly and often provides pullouts etc).

This research took the form of semi-structured interviews to ascertain current marketing strategies for SABC educational TV and Radio in order to suggest possible future strategies for marketing, promotion, and support.

In order to develop an understanding of the parameters and principles for effective marketing strategies, interviews were carried out with relevant stakeholders which included a number of schools and other educational representative bodies.

SELECTION OF SAMPLE
Schools were selected randomly, taking into account the unique South African context, in terms of:

Barnato Park	Davey Secondary School
Fairways Primary School	Independent Schools Council
Johannesburg Preparatory School	Orange Grove Primary School
Promat College	Redhill Preparatory School
St Katharines	St Stithians Collegiate
Tersia King Learning Academy

Every effort is being made to keep schools informed of current and future programmes through direct mail, pamphlets, "teacher tips" brochures, posters, catalogues, specific campaigns (Easter Campaign, June 16 Campaign, Grahamstown Festival) and media advertising.

1 Which of the above are you aware of?
2 How effective are they - How have you responded?

4 Are you aware of these?                                         Yes/No
5 Are any of them referred to in the classroom? Yes/No
If Yes 0.1 What are the names of the programmes and the time of broadcast?
5.1 Are these times suitable?                                 Yes/No

6 What other themes, subjects, issues should be covered, and at what time should these programmes be broadcast?

6 Do you consider this form of programme to be of use to you? Yes/No
7 If not why not?
8 Would these programmes be useful in rural or disadvantaged areas?

IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY AGREED THAT THE PROVISION OF ELECTRICITY WAS ESSENTIAL. -The percentage of schools without electricity remains alarmingly high.

11 Do you think continuous monitoring and evaluation should be done? Yes/No
12 What form should this monitoring take and who should assume the task?

14 How could should this be organised and promoted to appeal to teachers, learners AND parents?

15 Could you suggest ways for the other levels to be supported?
16 What about wider audiences?

The issue of language remains thorny. Constitutionally all 11 should be included.
17 What are your thoughts on this?

18 Which of the following are used in your library/media centre etc? (Circle * for those in use).

21 Are you aware of catalogues or other resource bases to access these materials? Yes/No
22 Do you use them? Yes/No

24 What of the following support material would you use now and in the future?

Targeted communication with stakeholders as well as feedback from them is critical. An analysis of feedback received, e.g. reply paid cards, might be useful in terms of location and other demographics.

Partnerships
In the light of suggestions made by those interviewed the establishment of partnerships could be seriously considered.

*SAIDE, (September,1998) A School-Based Educational Broadcasting Service for South Africa,* SAIDE: Johannesburg**
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