Editor’s note: Njeri Wangarĩ is marketing manager at marketing research firm GeoPoll, Nairobi, Kenya. This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared here under the title, “The rise of digital advertisement consumption among youth in sub-Saharan Africa.”

Youth in sub-Saharan Africa encounter more digital advertisements on a daily basis than any other form of advertisement. According to a recent GeoPoll Straw poll, the number of Internet users and their daily usage continues to surge as audiences shift away from TV, radio and print media.*

According to our survey in February on mobile usage and media consumption, there is an increasing dependency on technology and a mobile first approach by youth consumers in Africa. This trend is being driven by African Millennials with Africa having the highest youth population in the world. African Millennials are increasingly using social media sites as tools for communication and as their first source for news and information.

Although extensive research on media and consumer trends in Africa shows a growing transition of consumers and audiences away from traditional media towards online media, television remains a highly significant contributor to consumer spending.

In a white paper presented at last year’s PAMRO conference for media and media researchers in Africa, Waithera Kabiru the Digital Marketing Manager, Coca Cola Southern and East Africa posed the following questions to marketers: Why is media investment not in line with the activity that is going on online? If African consumers are spending much more time online vs. print or even TV, why is there still an underinvestment in online channels?

In June 2017, GeoPoll sought to better understand how youth consumers are interacting with the advertising they encounter from the multiple sources of media consumed daily. We interviewed 3,710 youth ages 15-to-35-years-old in Kenya, Uganda...