The great outdoors

If, like the Campaign team, you love nothing more than a feast of burgers and fried chicken, then you are probably in the target audience for outdoor media.

According to data from the Pan Arab Research Center, four of the top ten outdoor advertisers last year were purveyors of fast food, with McDonald's spending more than any other brand in the Middle East.

Why do these companies spend so much taking their brands outdoors? It's a case of keeping the message fresh, according to Jaikumar Menon, regional managing director of Universal Media, which is McDonalds' media agency. "With fast food, there is a need for continuous tactical communication to consumers," he says. "In our view, outdoor is the most efficient way of doing this. In terms of frequency and reach, it delivers."

Outdoor advertising has blended seamlessly into the backdrop of cities and highways across the region. Seemingly endless lines of lamppost ads jostle for the consumer's attention with elevated unipoles and mega format billboards supported by shaky-looking scaffolding.

There is no doubt that outdoor advertising has become an integral part of the media mix. But its progress has reached a crossroads. It has benefited from the explosion of satellite broadcasting, which has seen TV audiences fragment, yet its lack of regulation and accountability coupled with spiraling prices means that it is still seen as a supplementary medium by some.

These concerns may be allayed by the mooted formation of an industry association to project the medium more effectively.

Loosely named the Outdoor Advertising Association UAE chapter, the body is made up of a handful of local outdoor operators. The aim is to project the medium more effectively to advertisers and to the planning authorities that give permission for billboards to be erected.

Aldrin Fernandes, CEO of Concept Group, says the group met two weeks ago and will be ready to officially launch by the end of the year.

"The most important thing is to consolidate the industry," he says. "It is very fragmented right now, and it needs a common voice to speak to advertisers and represent us to the local authorities."

There is no suggestion as yet that this association will extend to the wider Gulf or Levant, but there is general agreement that it is a step in the right direction.

Rehan Merchant, executive director of Emirates Neon Group, which includes Emirates Outdoor, says: "The Outdoor Association will have a good effect. You can imagine that if the top guys sit together and look into something for the industry then the industry will improve."

But not all outdoor practitioners are convinced.

Sami al Mufleh, CEO of Hills Advertising, which sells outdoor advertising in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, did not take part in the initial get-together.

"This body should not just be four or five people. It should include people from the whole industry," he says.

"Companies with one location and companies with hundreds of locations everybody should have a say. There should be an elected body, government representatives included, and the companies and the committee should sit together and make the laws for the outdoor industry."

Despite the intense competition between rival companies and apparent differences of opinion over the formation of an association, media owners remain bullish about the medium's immediate future.

Georges Chehwane, CEO of Group Plus, which operates networks of outdoor advertising in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and the UAE, insists: "Outdoor as a medium is in increased demand from advertisers because it is effective.

"Through outdoor, agencies can target a wider population of different categories and nationalities. The medium is also in increased demand from advertisers whose business is either youth orientated, lifestyle associated, strongly branded or if it is in a competitive category and is based on image."

Fernandes adds: "The last year has been really good. Outdoor is looking to give print a real run for its money.

"Look at the roads, they are totally crowded. You can't get from one place to another without getting stuck. That's when people see our ads."

Al Mufleh backs up his view: "I started in Dubai in 1996. Back then ad agencies' budgets for outdoor were around 5%. Now we're around 25%," he claims.

"People are spending more. It's a tangible medium. You can touch it. You can see it. Also, the lack of research and credibility in magazines and how many copies they're selling, and TV is dominated by a few channels, which has created more demand for outdoor from clients."

The Hills Advertising boss is adamant that advertising along a busy thoroughfare such as Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai will deliver results, despite the competition from many other ads along the same stretch of highway.

He says: "More than 150,000 cars pass there every day and your ad is there. You have some sense that there is some data for your ads.

"If I put one in Gulf News, maybe only half of that number will see that. Traffic jams also make outdoor more of an attractive option as well."

Whenever anyone talks about outdoor advertising, the word 'clutter' is inevitably raised. It is used by critics of the medium to describe the wallpaper effect on consumers of too many ads in one place.

But proponents of the art say that clutter simply isn't an issue. And while the sun is shining, they are making hay.

"People talk about clutter. It's not clutter," says Al Mufleh. "Why? Go to Piccadilly Circus in London. It has 20 sites. Why? Because it's a very famous place and companies want to be seen there. For me it's more about high demand and business is good. If I am TDK, LG or Nokia, I want to be there. They want the whole wall, but they can't have it. This means there is high demand and this is good for our business."

Fernandes says that clutter is not the issue it is the volume of similar looking advertising.

"If you do something a bit different then you will stand out," he says.

Media owners agree that it is all about using the twin tools of creativity and technology to stand out.

"The challenges vary from city to city," says Al Mufleh. "In Saudi, it's creativity that's the big issue. They have money but there's no creativity.

"In Dubai there are too many companies in the market, everybody has become a boss who wants to rule. It's saturated with companies. Qatar, there's a monopoly for the government. In Jordan they don't know what they want to do."

The subject of creativity in outdoor advertising used to be a redundant one. The two-dimensional canvas of a mupi was relegated to the tail end of the creative brief, only considered after TV and print were sorted, and often used for nothing more than a reformatted version of the print ad.

"If you're a creative and you know that you're going to be limited, you don't know if it's going to be approved, your ambitions will go down," says Al Mufleh.

Times are changing, however. Copywriters are no longer limited by the borders of the poster site. Witness the increasing number of ads that feature cut-outs or three-dimensional images.

Agencies have identified the need to communicate with consumers at the key touchpoints of their daily activities, so shopping malls, washrooms and public transport have all come into the outdoor mix.

And new technology enables ads to be projected on to building sides, or even suspended in mid-air.

Merchant says agencies need to embrace these new opportunities rather than sticking to the same old concepts.

"Creativity is there, but it is more agencies as well as clients that need to challenge themselves in terms of creativity," he says.

Chehwane says clients are already demanding more creative use of outdoor from their agencies.

"As time goes on, agencies are gaining the know-how regarding the specific, small details that can make a big difference to the overall results of a campaign," he says.

There is mixed feedback to new electronic versions of outdoor advertising. Universal Media's Menon says that, for now, the standard formats remain most popular, but he adds: "The outdoor medium is exciting for everybody and we are just waiting to see which new ways we can do things."

Concept's Fernandes says he tried using projection, but was unconvinced.

"It is only good at night, and you need to get a lot of approval to do it," he says.

And Al Mufleh warns: "Creative agencies in Dubai are very creative and they want to do a lot of things.

"But there are limitations to deal with, for example, from the traffic department on the sizes or if there is a moving object. This sometimes creates non-innovation."

Chehwane says technology will take outdoor advertising in two different directions. "Outdoor mediums are not just built, they evolve," he says.

"I think that the next innovations will be divided into two main categories, those that are high-tech, and those that are three-dimensional and more shape-oriented.

"Digital outdoor networks will become one of the most effective ad mediums and one that uses energy-efficient technology. Controlled from a central hub, the billboards will be networked to carry multiple ads from different advertisers that can be updated instantly and remotely."

On the emergence of new shapes, he says: "Who said that an outdoor medium should be a flat surface?

"Three-dimensional objects will become one of the most eye catching mediums. Made out of foam or similar material, any shape can be implemented and deployed how you want it."

The future of outdoor advertising and whether it can command a bigger share of the advertising cake will depend on the success of new formats such as these. But there are also more immediate concerns for the new association to get to grips with.

A major sticking point is accountability. It is near impossible for advertisers to find out if the price they paid for a site was a worthwhile investment. And critics also highlight the increasing number of 'briefcase' operators, who obtain the rights for one site and sell it to the highest bidder.

Fernandes says he doesn't have a problem with briefcase operators, so long as they meet quality standards. "There is nothing wrong with what they are doing. The Middle East has given an opportunity to entrepreneurs to do this."

Accountability, however, is an issue that will not go away.

Universal Media's Menon admits that he is concerned about the escalating price of booking outdoor campaigns. His agency attempts to negate the impact of price hikes by negotiating annual contracts for sites, which drives better price efficiency.

But he adds: "We don't have measurable systems. If someone puts up a sign and says it costs 10,000 dirhams, it is difficult for us to know if that is value for money. We have to look at the location and make a judgment."

Traffic counting and consumer surveys are expensive to conduct. An outdoor advertising rate card, or pricing guidelines, could be the answer.

Emirates Outdoor's Merchant says: "At the moment it is down to gut feelings but we do need some kind of measurement and I think that is something that the outdoor association will address. I think we will see movement on measurement maybe within the next 12 months."

He adds: "Moscow is a very good example of how Dubai should go in the future. It nicely maintains ads of all different formats in different settings and it doesn't look like clutter. The way Dubai shouldn't go is to become the Cairo of the Middle East because Cairo outdoor is abysmal. There is a sign every five metres on a highway."

If this vision can be mirrored across the region, outdoor could yet develop into a genuine challenger to the big guns of TV and print.

Al Mufleh has an optimistic outlook for outdoor, but wants to see local authorities around the region being more lenient in granting licences.

"There's big money to be invested into this medium, because real estate is really growing up fast," he says.

"Compared to other cities in the region I think that Dubai is the most open city in terms of coming up with and executing ideas. If you look at Saudi, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, they are still in a very, very primitive stage of innovation.

"Price is one thing. Do anything innovative and the price goes double. So people go for normal billboards. Second, these cities are very limited in terms of what they will allow."

The power of outdoor can make or break a campaign, and it has emerged from being a supplementary channel to the lead platform in some campaigns. The fast food vendors will continue to use outdoor to keep their burger-based communication fresh. But for the rest of the market, there are still some beefs to be addressed.

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