South Africa, March 6 -- Social and programmatic platforms such as Google, Meta, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn are popular with advertisers for good reasons.

They offer proven, cost-effective reach, engaging creative formats, strong track records in conversion performance, and powerful tools for targeting, attribution and optimisation.

But their popularity increasingly comes with the downside that it can be difficult for a brand to stand out from the other advertisers' jostling for the audience's attention.

Costs per click and per acquisition (CPC and CPA) are rising fast and advertisers are paying more to reach an audience that is increasingly distracted by and saturated with brand messaging.

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